1 Maccabees 9:1-10

Common English Bible

Bacchides returns to Judea

9 When Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his army had been defeated in battle, he sent Bacchides and Alcimus into the land of Judah a second time. The right wing of the army was with them. ² They went by the road that leads to Gilgal^[a] and prepared for battle against Mesaloth in Arbela. They captured it and killed many people. ³ In the first month^[b] of the year 152,^[c] they camped against Jerusalem. ⁴ Then they marched off and went to Berea with twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry.

⁵ Now Judas was camped at Elasa with three thousand handpicked soldiers. ⁶ When they saw the huge number of enemy forces, they became afraid. Many of them slipped away from the camp, until no more than eight hundred of them remained.

⁷ When Judas saw that members of his army had slipped away and the battle was coming close, he was dejected because he had no time to assemble more troops. ⁸ He felt weak, but he said to those who stayed, “Let’s get up and move against our enemies. We may be able to fight them.”

⁹ They tried to change his mind: “We don’t have the strength. Let’s save ourselves now and come back later with our people to fight them. We are too few.”

¹⁰ But Judas replied, “Don’t even consider running from them. If our time has come, then let’s die bravely for our people. Let’s leave no reason to question our honor.”