⁵ When a false rumor arose that Antiochus was dead, Jason took no fewer than a thousand men and suddenly made an assault on the city. When the troops on the wall had been forced back and at last the city was being taken, Menelaus took refuge in the citadel.^(A)

¹¹ When news of what had happened reached the king, he took it to mean that Judea was in revolt. So, raging inwardly, he left Egypt and took the city by storm.^{(A) 12} He commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly everyone they met and to kill those who went into their houses.^(B)

¹⁴ Within the total of three days eighty thousand were destroyed, forty thousand in hand-to-hand fighting, and as many were sold into slavery as were killed.

The Suppression of Judaism

6 Not long after this, the king sent an Athenian^[a] senator^[b] to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their ancestors and no longer to live by the laws of God,^(A)

⁶ People could neither keep the Sabbath nor observe the festivals of their ancestors nor so much as confess themselves to be Jews.^(A)

⁷ On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jews^[a] were taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the sacrifices, and when a festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were compelled to wear wreaths of ivy and to walk in the procession in honor of Dionysus.^{(B) 8} At the suggestion of the people of Ptolemais,^[b] a decree was issued to the neighboring Greek cities that they should adopt the same policy toward the Jews and make them partake of the sacrifices^{(C) 9} and should kill those who did not choose to change over to Greek customs. One could see, therefore, the misery that had come upon them.^(D)

¹⁶ Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us. Although he disciplines us with calamities, he does not forsake his own people.^(A)