1 Maccabees 5:45-64

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Return to Jerusalem

⁴⁵ Then Judas gathered together all the Israelites in Gilead, the small and the great, with their wives and children and goods, a very large company, to go to the land of Judah. ⁴⁶ So they came to Ephron. This was a large and very strong town on the road, and they could not go around it to the right or to the left; they had to go through it.^{(A) 47} But the people of the town shut them out and blocked up the gates with stones.

⁴⁸ Judas sent them this friendly message, “Let us pass through your land to get to our land. No one will do you harm; we will simply pass by on foot.” But they refused to open to him.^{(B) 49} Then Judas ordered proclamation to be made to the army that all should encamp where they were. ⁵⁰ So the men of the forces encamped, and he fought against the town all that day and all the night, and the town was delivered into his hands.^{(C) 51} He destroyed every male by the edge of the sword and razed and plundered the town. Then he passed through the town over the bodies of the dead.

⁵² Then they crossed the Jordan into the large plain before Beth-shan.^{(D) 53} Judas kept rallying the laggards and encouraging the people all the way until he came to the land of Judah. ⁵⁴ So they went up to Mount Zion with joy and gladness and offered burnt offerings because they had returned in safety; not one of them had fallen.

Joseph and Azariah Defeated

⁵⁵ Now while Judas and Jonathan were in Gilead and their^[a] brother Simon was in Galilee before Ptolemais,^{(E) 56} Joseph son of Zechariah and Azariah, the commanders of the forces, heard of their brave deeds and of the heroic war they had fought.^{(F) 57} So they said, “Let us also make a name for ourselves; let us go and make war on the nations around us.”^{(G) 58} So they issued orders to the men of the forces that were with them and marched against Jamnia.^{(H) 59} Gorgias and his men came out of the town to meet them in battle.^{(I) 60} Then Joseph and Azariah were routed and were pursued to the borders of Judea; as many as two thousand of the people of Israel fell that day.^{(J) 61} Thus the people suffered a great rout because, thinking to do a brave deed, they did not listen to Judas and his brothers.^{(K) 62} But they did not belong to the family of those men through whom deliverance was given to Israel.

⁶³ The man Judas and his brothers were greatly honored in all Israel and among all the nations, wherever their name was heard. ⁶⁴ People gathered to them and praised them.