1 Maccabees 6:18-31

Common English Bible

Renewed attacks from Syria

¹⁸ Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the elevated fortress kept surrounding the Israelites in the sanctuary. They were trying every way they could to harm them and strengthen the Gentiles. ¹⁹ Judas decided to destroy them. He brought all the people together to besiege them. ²⁰ They assembled together, built siege towers and other war engines, and attacked the Gentiles in the year 150. ²¹ However, some of the enemy forces escaped from the blockade, joined by a number of sinful Israelites. ²² They went to the king and said: “How long will you hold back from acting justly to avenge our people? ²³ We happily served your father. We did what he said, obeying his commands. ²⁴ Because of this, some of our people have laid siege to the citadel and are hostile to us. Furthermore, they’ve killed as many of us as they could catch. Now they’ve taken our wealth. ²⁵ Judas and his forces haven’t lifted their hands against us alone. They’ve also attacked all the neighboring lands. ²⁶ Look, today they’ve camped against the elevated fortress in Jerusalem to capture it. They’ve fortified both the sanctuary and Beth-zur. ²⁷ Unless you do something soon to prevent them, they’ll do even worse things. Then you won’t be able to stop them.”

²⁸ The king was enraged when he heard this. He gathered all his chief political advisors,^[a] the commanders of his troops, and those with authority. ²⁹ Mercenary forces from other kingdoms and the Mediterranean islands also joined him. ³⁰ The total number of his forces was one hundred thousand army troops and twenty thousand cavalry, with thirty-two elephants trained for war. ³¹ They came through Idumea and camped against Beth-zur. For many days, they fought and constructed war engines. But the Jews would go out and burn the war engines with fire and continued to fight bravely.