1 Maccabees 9:52-54

Good News Translation

⁵² He also strengthened the fortifications of the towns of Bethzur and Gezer and of the fort in Jerusalem. He placed army units in them and stored up supplies there. ⁵³ Then he took the sons of the leading men of the country as hostages and imprisoned them in the fort.

⁵⁴ In the second month of the year 153,^[a] the High Priest Alcimus ordered that the wall of the inner court of the Temple be torn down. This would have destroyed what the prophets had accomplished; but just as the work began,