1 Maccabees 14:34-36

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

³⁴ He also fortified Joppa, which is by the sea, and Gazara, which is on the borders of Azotus, where the enemy formerly lived. He settled Jews there, and provided in those towns^[a] whatever was necessary for their restoration.

³⁵ “The people saw Simon’s faithfulness^[b] and the glory that he had resolved to win for his nation, and they made him their leader and high priest, because he had done all these things and because of the justice and loyalty that he had maintained toward his nation. He sought in every way to exalt his people. ³⁶ In his days things prospered in his hands, so that the Gentiles were put out of the^[c] country, as were also those in the city of David in Jerusalem, who had built themselves a citadel from which they used to sally forth and defile the environs of the sanctuary, doing great damage to its purity.