1 Maccabees 3:37-39

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

³⁷ Then the king took the remaining half of his forces and left Antioch his capital in the one hundred and forty-seventh year.^[a] He crossed the Euphrates river and went through the upper provinces.

Preparations for Battle

³⁸ Lysias chose Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor and Gorgias, able men among the Friends of the king, ³⁹ and sent with them forty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry to go into the land of Judah and destroy it, as the king had commanded.