1 Maccabees 1:54-4:55

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

⁵⁴ On the fifteenth day of the month Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five,^[a] the king erected the desolating abomination upon the altar of burnt offerings, and in the surrounding cities of Judah they built pagan altars.^{(A) 55} They also burned incense at the doors of houses and in the streets. ⁵⁶ Any scrolls of the law^[b] that they found they tore up and burned. ⁵⁷ Whoever was found with a scroll of the covenant, and whoever observed the law, was condemned to death by royal decree. ⁵⁸ So they used their power against Israel, against those who were caught, each month, in the cities. ⁵⁹ On the twenty-fifth day of each month they sacrificed on the pagan altar that was over the altar of burnt offerings. ⁶⁰ In keeping with the decree, they put to death women who had their children circumcised, ⁶¹ and they hung their babies from their necks; their families also and those who had circumcised them were killed.

⁶² But many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean; ⁶³ they preferred to die rather than to be defiled with food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. ⁶⁴ And very great wrath came upon Israel.

Chapter 2

Mattathias and His Sons. ¹ In those days Mattathias, son of John, son of Simeon, a priest of the family of Joarib,^(B) left Jerusalem and settled in Modein.^{[c] 2} He had five sons: John, who was called Gaddi; ³ Simon, who was called Thassi; ⁴ Judas, who was called Maccabeus; ⁵ Eleazar, who was called Avaran; and Jonathan, who was called Apphus. ⁶ When he saw the sacrileges that were being committed in Judah and in Jerusalem, ⁷ he said:

¹⁴ Then Mattathias and his sons tore their garments, put on sackcloth, and mourned bitterly.

Pagan Worship Refused and Resisted. ¹⁵ The officers of the king in charge of enforcing the apostasy came to the city of Modein to make them sacrifice. ¹⁶ Many of Israel joined them, but Mattathias and his sons drew together. ¹⁷ Then the officers of the king addressed Mattathias: “You are a leader, an honorable and great man in this city, supported by sons and kindred. ¹⁸ Come now, be the first to obey the king’s command, as all the Gentiles and Judeans and those who are left in Jerusalem have done. Then you and your sons shall be numbered among the King’s Friends,^[d] and you and your sons shall be honored with silver and gold and many gifts.”

¹⁹ But Mattathias answered in a loud voice: “Although all the Gentiles in the king’s realm obey him, so that they forsake the religion of their ancestors and consent to the king’s orders, ²⁰ yet I and my sons and my kindred will keep to the covenant of our ancestors. ²¹ Heaven forbid that we should forsake the law and the commandments. ²² We will not obey the words of the king by departing from our religion in the slightest degree.”

²³ As he finished saying these words, a certain Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar in Modein according to the king’s order. ²⁴ When Mattathias saw him, he was filled with zeal; his heart was moved and his just fury was aroused; he sprang forward and killed him upon the altar. ²⁵ At the same time, he also killed the messenger of the king who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar. ²⁶ Thus he showed his zeal for the law, just as Phinehas did with Zimri, son of Salu.^(D)

²⁷ Then Mattathias cried out in the city, “Let everyone who is zealous for the law and who stands by the covenant follow me!” ²⁸ Then he and his sons fled to the mountains, leaving behind in the city all their possessions.^(E)

²⁹ At that time many who sought righteousness and justice went out into the wilderness^[e] to settle there, ³⁰ they and their children, their wives and their animals, because misfortunes pressed so hard on them. ³¹ It was reported to the officers and soldiers of the king who were in the City of David, in Jerusalem, that those who had flouted the king’s order had gone out to secret refuges in the wilderness. ^32 (F)Many hurried out after them, and having caught up with them, camped opposite and prepared to attack them on the sabbath. ³³ The pursuers said to them, “Enough of this! Come out and obey the king’s command, and you will live.” ³⁴ But they replied, “We will not come out, nor will we obey the king’s command to profane the sabbath.” ³⁵ Then the enemy attacked them at once. ³⁶ But they did not retaliate; they neither threw stones, nor blocked up their secret refuges. ³⁷ They said, “Let us all die in innocence; heaven and earth are our witnesses that you destroy us unjustly.” ³⁸ So the officers and soldiers attacked them on the sabbath, and they died with their wives, their children and their animals, to the number of a thousand persons.

³⁹ When Mattathias and his friends heard of it, they mourned deeply for them. ⁴⁰ They said to one another, “If we all do as our kindred have done, and do not fight against the Gentiles for our lives and our laws, they will soon destroy us from the earth.” ⁴¹ So on that day they came to this decision: “Let us fight against anyone who attacks us on the sabbath, so that we may not all die as our kindred died in their secret refuges.”

⁴² Then they were joined by a group of Hasideans,^[f] mighty warriors of Israel, all of them devoted to the law. ⁴³ And all those who were fleeing from the persecutions joined them and supported them. ⁴⁴ They gathered an army and struck down sinners in their wrath and the lawless in their anger, and the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety. ⁴⁵ Mattathias and his friends went about and tore down the pagan altars; ⁴⁶ they also forcibly circumcised any uncircumcised boys whom they found in the territory of Israel. ⁴⁷ They put to flight the arrogant, and the work prospered in their hands. ⁴⁸ They saved the law from the hands of the Gentiles and of the kings and did not let the sinner triumph.

Farewell of Mattathias. ⁴⁹ When the time came for Mattathias to die, he said to his sons: “Arrogance and scorn have now grown strong; it is a time of disaster and violent wrath. ⁵⁰ Therefore, my children, be zealous for the law and give your lives for the covenant of our ancestors.

⁶⁵ “Here is your brother Simeon who I know is a wise counselor; listen to him always, and he will be a father to you. ⁶⁶ And Judas Maccabeus, a mighty warrior from his youth, shall be the leader of your army and wage the war against the nations. ⁶⁷ Gather about you all who observe the law, and avenge your people. ⁶⁸ Pay back the Gentiles what they deserve, and observe the precepts of the law.”

⁶⁹ Then he blessed them, and he was gathered to his ancestors. ⁷⁰ He died in the year one hundred and forty-six,^[g] and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors in Modein, and all Israel mourned him greatly.

II. Leadership of Judas Maccabeus

Chapter 3

Judas and His Early Victories. ¹ Then his son Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took his place. ² All his brothers and all who had joined his father supported him, and they gladly carried on Israel’s war.

¹⁰ Then Apollonius^[h] gathered together the Gentiles, along with a large army from Samaria, to fight against Israel. ¹¹ When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him and struck and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the rest fled. ¹² They took their spoils, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius and fought with it the rest of his life.

¹³ But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war. ¹⁴ So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.” ¹⁵ And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.

¹⁶ When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,^[i] Judas went out to meet him with a few men. ¹⁷ But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.” ¹⁸ But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few; ¹⁹ for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.^{(Q) 20} With great presumption and lawlessness they come against us to destroy us and our wives and children and to despoil us; ²¹ but we are fighting for our lives and our laws. ²² He^[j] will crush them before us; so do not fear them.” ²³ When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly upon Seron and his army, who were crushed before him. ²⁴ He pursued Seron down the descent of Beth-horon into the plain. About eight hundred^[k] of their men fell, and the rest fled to the land of the Philistines. ²⁵ Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them. ²⁶ His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked about the battles of Judas.

The King’s Strategy. ²⁷ When King Antiochus heard these reports, he was filled with rage; so he ordered that all the forces of his kingdom be gathered, a very strong army. ²⁸ He opened his treasury, gave his soldiers a year’s pay, and commanded them to be prepared for anything. ²⁹ But then he saw that this exhausted the money in his treasury; moreover the tribute from the province was small because of the dissension and distress he had brought upon the land by abolishing the laws which had been in effect from of old. ³⁰ He feared that, as had happened once or twice, he would not have enough for his expenses and for the gifts that he was accustomed to give with a lavish hand—more so than all previous kings. ³¹ Greatly perplexed, he decided to go to Persia and levy tribute on those provinces, and so raise a large sum of money.

³² He left Lysias, a noble of royal descent, in charge of the king’s affairs from the Euphrates River to the frontier of Egypt, ³³ and commissioned him to take care of his son Antiochus until his return. ³⁴ He entrusted to him half of his forces, and the elephants, and gave him instructions concerning everything he wanted done. As for the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem, ³⁵ Lysias was to send an army against them to crush and destroy the power of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem and efface their memory from the place. ³⁶ He was to settle foreigners in all their territory and distribute their land by lot. ^37 [l]The king took the remaining half of the army and set out from Antioch, his capital, in the year one hundred and forty-seven; he crossed the Euphrates River and went through the provinces beyond.

Preparations for Battle. ^38 (R)Lysias chose Ptolemy, son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor^[m] and Gorgias, powerful men among the King’s Friends, ³⁹ and with them he sent forty thousand foot soldiers and seven thousand cavalry to invade and ravage the land of Judah according to the king’s orders. ⁴⁰ Setting out with their whole force, they came and pitched their camp near Emmaus^[n] in the plain. ⁴¹ When the merchants of the region heard of their prowess, they came to the camp, bringing a huge sum of silver and gold, along with fetters, to buy the Israelites as slaves. A force from Edom and from Philistia joined with them.

⁴² Judas and his brothers saw that evils had multiplied and that armies were encamped within their territory. They learned of the orders which the king had given to destroy and utterly wipe out the people. ⁴³ So they said to one another, “Let us raise our people from their ruin and fight for them and for our sanctuary!”

⁴⁴ The assembly gathered together to prepare for battle and to pray and ask for mercy and compassion.

^46 [o]Thus they assembled and went to Mizpah near Jerusalem, because formerly at Mizpah there was a place of prayer for Israel.^{(S) 47} That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their garments. ⁴⁸ They unrolled the scroll of the law, to learn about the things for which the Gentiles consulted the images of their idols.^{[p] 49} They brought with them the priestly garments, the first fruits, and the tithes; and they brought forward the nazirites^[q](T) who had completed the time of their vows. ⁵⁰ And they cried aloud to Heaven: “What shall we do with these, and where shall we take them? ⁵¹ For your sanctuary has been trampled on and profaned, and your priests are in mourning and humbled. ⁵² Now the Gentiles are gathered together against us to destroy us. You know what they plot against us. ⁵³ How shall we be able to resist them unless you help us?” ⁵⁴ Then they blew the trumpets and cried out loudly.

⁵⁵ After this Judas appointed officers for the people, over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties, and over tens. ⁵⁶ He proclaimed that those who were building houses, or were just married, or were planting vineyards, and those who were afraid, could each return home, according to the law.^{(U) 57} Then the army moved off, and they camped to the south of Emmaus. ⁵⁸ Judas said: “Arm yourselves and be brave; in the morning be ready to fight these Gentiles who have assembled against us to destroy us and our sanctuary. ⁵⁹ It is better for us to die in battle than to witness the evils befalling our nation and our sanctuary. ⁶⁰ Whatever is willed in heaven will be done.”

Chapter 4

Victory over Gorgias. ¹ Now Gorgias took five thousand infantry and a thousand picked cavalry, and this detachment set out at night ² in order to fall upon the camp of the Jews in a surprise attack. Some from the citadel were his guides. ³ Judas heard of it and himself set out with his soldiers to attack the king’s army at Emmaus ⁴ while these forces were still scattered away from the camp. ⁵ During the night Gorgias came into the camp of Judas, and found no one there; so he sought them in the mountains, saying, “They are fleeing from us.”

⁶ But at daybreak Judas appeared in the plain with three thousand men; furthermore they lacked the helmets and swords they wanted. ⁷ They saw the army of the Gentiles,^[r] strong, breastplated, and flanked with cavalry, and made up of experienced soldiers. ^8 (V)Judas said to the men with him: “Do not fear their numbers or dread their attack. ⁹ Remember how our ancestors were saved in the Red Sea, when Pharaoh pursued them with an army.^{(W) 10} So now let us cry to Heaven in the hope that he will favor us, remember the covenant with our ancestors, and destroy this army before us today. ¹¹ All the Gentiles shall know that there is One who redeems and delivers Israel.”

¹² When the foreigners looked up and saw them marching toward them, ¹³ they came out of their camp for battle. The men with Judas blew the trumpet, and ¹⁴ joined the battle. They crushed the Gentiles, who fled toward the plain. ¹⁵ Their whole rear guard fell by the sword, and they were pursued as far as Gazara^[s] and the plains of Idumaea, to Azotus and Jamnia. About three thousand of their men fell.

¹⁶ When Judas and the army returned from the pursuit, ¹⁷ he said to the people: “Do not be greedy for plunder; for there is a fight ahead of us, ¹⁸ and Gorgias and his army are near us on the mountain. But now stand firm against our enemies and fight them. Afterward you can freely take the plunder.”

¹⁹ As Judas was finishing this speech, a detachment^[t] appeared, looking down from the mountain. ²⁰ They saw that their army had been put to flight and their camp was burning. The smoke they saw revealed what had happened. ²¹ When they realized this, they completely lost heart; and when they also saw the army of Judas in the plain ready to attack, ²² they all fled to the land of the foreigners.^[u]

²³ Then Judas went back to plunder the camp, and they took much gold and silver, cloth dyed blue and marine purple, and great treasure. ²⁴ As they returned, they were singing hymns and glorifying Heaven, “who is good, whose mercy endures forever.”^{(X) 25} Thus Israel experienced a great deliverance that day.

Victory over Lysias. ^26 (Y)But those of the foreigners who had escaped went and told Lysias all that had occurred. ²⁷ When he heard it he was disturbed and discouraged, because things had not turned out in Israel as he intended and as the king had ordered.

²⁸ So the following year he gathered together sixty thousand picked men and five thousand cavalry, to fight them. ²⁹ They came into Idumea and camped at Beth-zur,^[v] and Judas met them with ten thousand men. ³⁰ Seeing that the army was strong, he prayed thus:

“Blessed are you, Savior of Israel, who crushed the attack of the mighty one by the hand of your servant David and delivered the foreign camp into the hand of Jonathan, the son of Saul, and his armor-bearer.^{(Z) 31} Give this army into the hands of your people Israel; make them ashamed of their troops and their cavalry. ³² Strike them with cowardice, weaken the boldness of their strength, and let them tremble at their own destruction. ³³ Strike them down by the sword of those who love you, that all who know your name may sing your praise.”

³⁴ Then they engaged in battle, and about five thousand of Lysias’ army fell in hand-to-hand fighting. ^35 [w]When Lysias saw the tide of the battle turning, and the increased boldness of Judas, whose men were ready either to live or to die nobly, he withdrew to Antioch and began to recruit mercenaries so as to return to Judea with greater numbers.^(AA)

Purification and Rededication of the Temple. ^36 (AB)Then Judas and his brothers said, “Now that our enemies have been crushed, let us go up to purify the sanctuary^[x] and rededicate it.” ³⁷ So the whole army assembled, and went up to Mount Zion. ³⁸ They found the sanctuary desolate, the altar desecrated, the gates burnt, weeds growing in the courts as in a thicket or on some mountain, and the priests’ chambers demolished.^{(AC) 39} Then they tore their garments and made great lamentation; they sprinkled their heads with ashes ⁴⁰ and prostrated themselves. And when the signal was given with trumpets, they cried out to Heaven.

⁴¹ Judas appointed men to attack those in the citadel, while he purified the sanctuary. ⁴² He chose blameless priests, devoted to the law; ⁴³ these purified the sanctuary and carried away the stones of the defilement to an unclean place. ⁴⁴ They deliberated what ought to be done with the altar for burnt offerings that had been desecrated.^{(AD) 45} They decided it best to tear it down, lest it be a lasting shame to them that the Gentiles had defiled it; so they tore down the altar. ⁴⁶ They stored the stones in a suitable place on the temple mount, until the coming of a prophet who could determine what to do with them.^{(AE) 47} Then they took uncut stones, according to the law, and built a new altar like the former one.^{(AF) 48} They also repaired the sanctuary and the interior of the temple and consecrated the courts. ⁴⁹ They made new sacred vessels and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the temple.^{(AG) 50} Then they burned incense on the altar and lighted the lamps on the lampstand, and these illuminated the temple. ⁵¹ They also put loaves on the table and hung up the curtains. Thus they finished all the work they had undertaken.

⁵² They rose early on the morning of the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight,^{[y] 53} and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar for burnt offerings that they had made.^{(AH) 54} On the anniversary of the day on which the Gentiles had desecrated it, on that very day it was rededicated with songs, harps, lyres, and cymbals. ⁵⁵ All the people prostrated themselves and adored and praised Heaven, who had given them success.