¹⁸ After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, “Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account because of our sins against our own God.^[a](A)

³² For we are suffering because of our own sins.^(A)

³⁹ On the next day, as had now become necessary, Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen and to bring them back to lie with their kindred in the tombs of their ancestors. ⁴⁰ Then under the tunic of each one of the dead they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. And it became clear to all that this was the reason these men had fallen.^{(A) 41} So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge, who reveals the things that are hidden,^{(B) 42} and they turned to supplication, praying that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out. The noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened as the result of the sin of those who had fallen.

²¹ The divine justice was angered by these acts and caused Antiochus himself to make war on them.^(A)

²¹ the tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified—they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation.^{(A) 22} And through the blood of those pious ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated.