1 Maccabees 3:27-37

Common English Bible

Policy of Antiochus

²⁷ When King Antiochus heard about these matters, he became very angry. So he gathered together all the forces of his empire, a mighty army. ²⁸ He opened up his treasury and gave his soldiers a year’s pay in advance, and he ordered them to be ready for anything. ²⁹ Then he realized that the money in his treasury was all used up. The revenues from the country were small because of the turmoil and disaster that he had brought about in the land by abolishing the laws that had existed from early days. ³⁰ He became afraid that he might not have enough funds to provide for his expenses as well as for the gifts that he granted more abundantly than previous kings. ³¹ He was very troubled by this. Then he decided to go to Persia and collect revenues there and raise a large sum of money.

³² The king appointed Lysias, a distinguished man from a royal family, to be in charge of his affairs from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian border. ³³ He also wanted Lysias to take care of his young son Antiochus until he returned. ³⁴ So he gave Lysias authority over half of his armed forces and war elephants. He gave him orders regarding what he wanted him to do, including the matter of the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem. ³⁵ He wanted Lysias to send an army against them to wipe out and destroy Israel’s strength and the few remaining in Jerusalem. He ordered that their memory should be completely erased from the place. ³⁶ Lysias was to settle strangers in all their territory and divide up their lands by lot. ³⁷ Then the king took the other half of his forces and left his capital Antioch in the year 147.^[a] He crossed the Euphrates River and went through the upper provinces.