2 Maccabees 10:16-18

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹⁶ But Maccabe′us and his men, after making solemn supplication and beseeching God to fight on their side, rushed to the strongholds of the Idume′ans. ¹⁷ Attacking them vigorously, they gained possession of the places, and beat off all who fought upon the wall, and slew those whom they encountered, killing no fewer than twenty thousand.

¹⁸ When no less than nine thousand took refuge in two very strong towers well equipped to withstand a siege,