2 Maccabees 4:7-8:36

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jason’s Reforms

⁷ When Seleucus died and Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption,^{(A) 8} promising the king through a petition three hundred sixty talents of silver and from another source of revenue eighty talents.^{(B) 9} In addition to this he promised to pay one hundred fifty more if permission were given to establish by his authority a gymnasium and a body of youth for it and to enroll the people of Jerusalem as the Antiochenes in Jerusalem.^{(C) 10} When the king assented and Jason^[a] came to office, he at once shifted his compatriots over to the Greek way of life.^(D)

¹¹ He set aside the existing royal concessions to the Jews, secured through John the father of Eupolemus, who went on the mission to establish friendship and alliance with the Romans, and he destroyed the lawful ways of living and introduced new customs contrary to the law.^{(E) 12} He took delight in establishing a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.^{(F) 13} There was such an extreme of Hellenization and increase in the adoption of foreign ways because of the surpassing wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and no true^[b] high priest,^{(G) 14} that the priests were no longer intent upon their service at the altar. Despising the sanctuary and neglecting the sacrifices, they hurried to take part in the unlawful proceedings in the wrestling arena after the signal for the discus throwing,^{(H) 15} disdaining the honors prized by their ancestors and putting the highest value upon Greek forms of prestige. ¹⁶ For this reason heavy disaster overtook them, and those whose ways of living they admired and wished to imitate completely became their enemies and punished them.^{(I) 17} It is no light thing to show irreverence to the divine laws, a fact that later events will make clear.^(J)

Jason Introduces Greek Customs

¹⁸ When the quadrennial games were being held at Tyre and the king was present,^{(K) 19} the vile Jason sent envoys, chosen as being Antiochenes from Jerusalem, to carry three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules. Those who carried the money, however, thought best not to use it for sacrifice, because that was inappropriate, but to expend it for another purpose.^{(L) 20} So this money was intended by the sender for the sacrifice to Hercules, but by the decision of its carriers it was applied to the construction of triremes.

²¹ When Apollonius son of Menestheus was sent to Egypt for the coronation^[c] of Philometor as king, Antiochus learned that Philometor^[d] had become hostile to his government, and he took measures for his own security. Therefore upon arriving at Joppa he proceeded to Jerusalem.^{(M) 22} He was welcomed magnificently by Jason and the city and ushered in with a blaze of torches and with shouts. Then he marched his army into Phoenicia.

Menelaus Becomes High Priest

²³ After a period of three years, Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the previously mentioned Simon, to carry the money to the king and to complete the records of essential business.^{(N) 24} But he, when presented to the king, extolled him with an air of authority and secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.^{(O) 25} After receiving the king’s orders, he returned, possessing no qualification for the high priesthood but having the hot temper of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage wild beast. ²⁶ So Jason, who after supplanting his own brother was supplanted by another man, was driven as a fugitive into the land of Ammon.^{(P) 27} Although Menelaus continued to hold the office, he did not pay regularly any of the money promised to the king.^{(Q) 28} When Sostratus the captain of the citadel kept requesting payment—for the collection of the revenue was his responsibility—the two of them were summoned by the king on account of this issue. ²⁹ Menelaus left his own brother Lysimachus as deputy in the high priesthood, while Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cyprian troops.^(R)

The Murder of Onias

³⁰ While such was the state of affairs, it happened that the people of Tarsus and of Mallus revolted because their cities had been given as a present to Antiochis, the king’s concubine.^{(S) 31} So the king went hurriedly to settle the trouble, leaving Andronicus, a man of high rank, to act as his deputy. ³² But Menelaus, thinking he had obtained a suitable opportunity, stole some of the gold vessels of the temple and gave them to Andronicus; other vessels, as it happened, he had sold to Tyre and the neighboring cities.^{(T) 33} When Onias became fully aware of these acts, he publicly exposed them, having first withdrawn to a place of sanctuary at Daphne near Antioch. ³⁴ Therefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus aside, urged him to kill Onias. Andronicus^[e] came to Onias and, resorting to treachery, offered him sworn pledges and gave him his right hand; he persuaded him, in spite of his suspicions, to come out from the place of sanctuary; then, with no regard for justice, he immediately put him out of the way.

Andronicus Is Punished

³⁵ For this reason not only Jews but many also of other nations were grieved and displeased at the unjust murder of the man. ³⁶ When the king returned from the region of Cilicia, the Jews in the city^[f] appealed to him with regard to the unreasonable murder of Onias, and the Greeks shared their hatred of the crime.^{(U) 37} Therefore Antiochus was grieved at heart and filled with pity and wept because of the moderation and good conduct of the deceased.^{(V) 38} Inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped the purple robe from Andronicus, tore off his clothes, and led him around the whole city to that very place where he had committed the outrage against Onias, and there he dispatched the bloodthirsty fellow. The Lord thus repaid him with the punishment he deserved.^(W)

Unpopularity of Lysimachus and Menelaus

³⁹ When many acts of sacrilege had been committed in the city by Lysimachus with the connivance of Menelaus, and when report of them had spread abroad, the populace gathered against Lysimachus, because many of the gold vessels had already been stolen.^{(X) 40} Since the crowds were becoming aroused and filled with anger, Lysimachus armed about three thousand men and launched an unjust attack, under the leadership of a certain Auranus, a man advanced in years and no less advanced in folly.^{(Y) 41} But when the Jews^[g] became aware that Lysimachus was attacking them, some picked up stones, some blocks of wood, and others took handfuls of the ashes that were lying around and threw them in wild confusion at Lysimachus and his men.^{(Z) 42} As a result, they wounded many of them and killed some and put all the rest to flight; the temple robber himself they killed close by the treasury.

⁴³ Charges were brought against Menelaus about this incident. ⁴⁴ When the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the senate presented the case before him.^{(AA) 45} But Menelaus, already as good as beaten, promised a substantial bribe to Ptolemy son of Dorymenes to win over the king.^{(AB) 46} Therefore Ptolemy, taking the king aside into a colonnade as if for refreshment, induced the king to change his mind. ⁴⁷ Menelaus, the cause of all the trouble, he acquitted of the charges against him, while he sentenced to death those unfortunate men who would have been freed uncondemned if they had pleaded even before Scythians.^{(AC) 48} And so those who had spoken for the city and the villages^[h] and the holy vessels quickly suffered the unjust penalty.^{(AD) 49} Therefore even the Tyrians, showing their hatred of the crime, provided magnificently for their funeral. ⁵⁰ But Menelaus, because of the greed of those in power, remained in office, growing in wickedness, having become the chief plotter against his compatriots.^(AE)

Jason Tries to Regain Control

5 About this time Antiochus made his second invasion of Egypt.^{(AF) 2} And it happened that, for almost forty days, there appeared over all the city golden-clad cavalry charging through the air, in companies fully armed with lances and drawn swords^(AG)— ³ troops of cavalry drawn up, attacks and counterattacks made on this side and on that, brandishing of shields, massing of spears, hurling of missiles, the flash of golden trappings, and armor of all kinds.^{(AH) 4} Therefore everyone prayed that the apparition might prove to have been a good omen.^(AI)

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.^{(AJ) 6} But Jason kept relentlessly slaughtering his compatriots, not realizing that success at the cost of one’s kindred is the greatest misfortune but imagining that he was setting up trophies of victory over enemies and not over compatriots.^{(AK) 7} He did not, however, gain control of the government; in the end, he got only disgrace from his conspiracy and fled again into the country of the Ammonites.^{(AL) 8} Finally, he met a miserable end. Accused^[i] before Aretas the ruler of the Arabs, fleeing from city to city, pursued by everyone, hated as a rebel against the laws, and abhorred as the executioner of his country and his compatriots, he was cast ashore in Egypt.^{(AM) 9} There he who had driven many from their own country into exile died in exile, having embarked to go to the Spartans^[j] in hope of finding protection because of their kinship.^{(AN) 10} He who had cast out many to lie unburied had no one to mourn for him; he had no funeral of any sort and no place in the tomb of his ancestors.^(AO)

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.^{(AP) 12} He commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly everyone they met and to kill those who went into their houses.^{(AQ) 13} Then there was massacre of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaughter of young girls and infants.^{(AR) 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.

Pillage of the Temple

¹⁵ Not content with this, Antiochus^[k] dared to enter the most holy temple in all the world, guided by Menelaus, who had become a traitor both to the laws and to his country.^{(AS) 16} He took the holy vessels with his polluted hands and swept away with profane hands the votive offerings that other kings had made to enhance the glory and honor of the place.^{(AT) 17} Antiochus was elated in spirit and did not perceive that the Lord was angered for a little while because of the sins of those who lived in the city and that this was the reason he was disregarding the holy place.^{(AU) 18} But if it had not happened that they were involved in many sins, this man would have been flogged and turned back from his rash act as soon as he came forward, just as Heliodorus had been, whom King Seleucus sent to inspect the treasury.^{(AV) 19} But the Lord did not choose the nation for the sake of the holy place but the place for the sake of the nation.^{(AW) 20} Therefore the place itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation and afterward participated in its benefits, and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory when the great Lord became reconciled.^(AX)

²¹ So Antiochus carried off eighteen hundred talents from the temple and hurried away to Antioch, thinking in his arrogance that he could sail on the land and walk on the sea, because his mind was elated.^{(AY) 22} He left governors to oppress the people: at Jerusalem, Philip, by birth a Phrygian and in character more barbarous than the man who appointed him;^{(AZ) 23} and at Gerizim, Andronicus; and besides these Menelaus, who lorded it over his compatriots worse than the others did. In his malice toward the Jewish citizens,^{[l](BA) 24} Antiochus^[m] sent Apollonius, the captain of the Mysians, with an army of twenty-two thousand and commanded him to kill all the grown men and to sell the women and boys as slaves.^{(BB) 25} When this man arrived in Jerusalem, he pretended to be peaceably disposed and waited until the holy Sabbath day; then, finding the Jews not at work, he ordered his troops to parade under arms. ²⁶ He put to the sword all those who came out to see them, then rushed into the city with his armed warriors and killed great numbers of people.

²⁷ But Judas Maccabeus, with about nine others, got away to the wilderness and kept himself and his companions alive in the mountains as wild animals do; they continued to live on what grew wild, so that they might not share in the defilement.^(BC)

The Suppression of Judaism

6 Not long after this, the king sent an Athenian^[n] senator^[o] to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their ancestors and no longer to live by the laws of God,^{(BD) 2} also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and to call it the temple of Olympian Zeus and to call the one in Gerizim Zeus-the-Friend-of-Strangers, as the people who live in that place are known.^(BE)

³ Harsh and utterly grievous was the onslaught of evil. ⁴ For the temple was filled with debauchery and reveling by the nations, who dallied with prostitutes and had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts and besides brought in things for sacrifice that were unfit.^{(BF) 5} The altar was covered with abominable offerings that were forbidden by the laws.^{(BG) 6} People could neither keep the Sabbath nor observe the festivals of their ancestors nor so much as confess themselves to be Jews.^(BH)

⁷ On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jews^[p] 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.^{(BI) 8} At the suggestion of the people of Ptolemais,^[q] 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^{(BJ) 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.^{(BK) 10} For example, two women were brought in for having circumcised their children. They publicly paraded them around the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then hurled them down headlong from the wall.^{(BL) 11} Others who had assembled in the caves nearby in order to observe the seventh day secretly were betrayed to Philip and were all burned together, because their piety kept them from defending themselves, in view of their regard for that most holy day.^(BM)

Providential Significance of the Persecution

¹² Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people.^{(BN) 13} In fact, it is a sign of great kindness not to let the impious alone for long but to punish them immediately. ¹⁴ For in the case of the other nations the Lord waits patiently to punish them until they have reached the full measure of their sins, but he does not deal in this way with us,^{(BO) 15} in order that he may not take vengeance on us afterward when our sins have reached their height. ¹⁶ Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us. Although he disciplines us with calamities, he does not forsake his own people.^{(BP) 17} Let what we have said serve as a reminder; we must go on briefly with the story.^(BQ)

The Martyrdom of Eleazar

¹⁸ Eleazar, one of the scribes in high position, a man now advanced in age and of noble presence, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pig’s flesh.^{(BR) 19} But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the rack of his own accord,^{(BS) 20} spitting it out as all ought to go who have the courage to refuse things that it is not right to taste, even for the natural love of life.

²¹ Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside because of their long acquaintance with him and privately urged him to bring meat of his own providing, proper for him to use, and to pretend that he was eating the flesh of the sacrificial meal that had been commanded by the king,^{(BT) 22} so that by doing this he might be saved from death and be treated kindly on account of his old friendship with them.^{(BU) 23} But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hairs that he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.^(BV)

²⁴ “Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life,” he said, “for many of the young might suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year had gone over to a foreign way of life,^{(BW) 25} and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age. ²⁶ Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty.^{(BX) 27} Therefore, by bravely giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age ²⁸ and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.”

When he had said this, he was dragged^[r] at once to the rack.^{(BY) 29} Those who a little before had acted toward him with goodwill now changed to ill will, because the words he had uttered were in their opinion sheer madness.^{[s](BZ) 30} When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: “It is clear to the Lord in his holy knowledge that, though I might have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him.”^(CA)

³¹ So in this way he died, leaving in his death an example of nobility and a memorial of courage, not only to the young but to the great body of his nation.^(CB)

The Martyrdom of Seven Brothers

7 It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and straps, to partake of unlawful pig’s flesh.^{(CC) 2} One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, “What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.”^(CD)

³ The king fell into a rage and gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated.^{(CE) 4} These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. ⁵ When he was utterly helpless, the king^[t] ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers^[u] and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, ⁶ “The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song that bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, ‘And he will have compassion on his servants.’ ”^(CF)

⁷ After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair and asked him, “Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?”^{(CG) 8} He replied in the language of his ancestors and said to them, “No.” Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done.^{(CH) 9} And when he was at his last breath, he said, “You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to a renewal of everlasting life, because we have died for his laws.”^(CI)

¹⁰ After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands ¹¹ and said nobly, “I got these from heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again.” ¹² As a result, the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man’s spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

¹³ After he, too, had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. ¹⁴ When he was near death, he said, “One cannot but choose to die at the hands of mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!”^(CJ)

¹⁵ Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him. ¹⁶ But he looked at the king^[v] and said, “Because you have authority among mortals, though you also are mortal, you do what you please. But do not think that God has forsaken our people. ¹⁷ Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!”^(CK)

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.^{[w](CL) 19} But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!”^(CM)

²⁰ The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Although she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. ²¹ She encouraged each of them in the language of their ancestors. Filled with a noble spirit, she reinforced her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage and said to them,^{(CN) 22} “I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath nor I who set in order the elements within each of you.^{(CO) 23} Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, in his mercy gives life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.”^(CP)

²⁴ Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus^[x] not only appealed to him in words but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his ancestors and that he would take him for his Friend and entrust him with public affairs.^{(CQ) 25} Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself. ²⁶ After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son. ²⁷ But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native language as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: “My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb and nursed you for three years and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life and have taken care of you.^{(CR) 28} I beg you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed.^[y] And in the same way the human race came into being.^{(CS) 29} Do not fear this butcher but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I may get you back again along with your brothers.”^(CT)

³⁰ While she was still speaking, the young man said, “What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king’s command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our ancestors through Moses. ³¹ But you, who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God.^{(CU) 32} For we are suffering because of our own sins.^{(CV) 33} And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants.^{(CW) 34} But you, unholy wretch, you most defiled of all mortals, do not be elated in vain and puffed up by uncertain hopes when you raise your hand against the children of heaven.^{(CX) 35} You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God. ³⁶ For our brothers, after enduring a brief suffering for everlasting life, have fallen under God’s covenant, but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance.^{(CY) 37} I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our ancestors, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by trials and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God,^{(CZ) 38} and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation.”^(DA)

³⁹ The king fell into a rage and handled him worse than the others, being exasperated at his scorn.^{(DB) 40} So he died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord.

⁴¹ Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.^(DC)

⁴² Let this be enough, then, about the eating of sacrifices and the extreme tortures.

The Revolt of Judas Maccabeus

8 Meanwhile Judas, who was also called Maccabeus, and his companions secretly entered the villages and summoned their kindred and enlisted those who had continued in the Jewish faith, and so they gathered about six thousand.^{(DD) 2} They implored the Lord to look upon the people who were oppressed by all and to have pity on the temple that had been profaned by the godless,^{(DE) 3} to have mercy on the city that was being destroyed and about to be leveled to the ground, to hearken to the blood that cried out to him,^{(DF) 4} to remember also the lawless destruction of the innocent babies and the blasphemies committed against his name, and to show his hatred of evil.

⁵ As soon as Maccabeus got his army organized, the nations could not withstand him, for the wrath of the Lord had turned to mercy. ⁶ Coming without warning, he would set fire to towns and villages. He captured strategic positions and put to flight not a few of the enemy.^{(DG) 7} He found the nights most advantageous for such attacks. And talk of his valor spread everywhere.^(DH)

⁸ When Philip saw that the man was gaining ground little by little and that he was pushing ahead with more frequent successes, he wrote to Ptolemy, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, to come to the aid of the king’s government.^{(DI) 9} Then Ptolemy^[z] promptly appointed Nicanor son of Patroclus, one of the king’s First^[aa] Friends, and sent him, in command of no fewer than twenty thousand men of various nations, to wipe out the entire people of Judea. He associated with him Gorgias, a general and a man of experience in military service.^{(DJ) 10} Nicanor determined to make up for the king the tribute due to the Romans, two thousand talents, by selling the captured Jews into slavery.^{(DK) 11} So he immediately sent to the towns on the seacoast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to hand over ninety slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgment from the Almighty that was about to overtake him.^(DL)

Preparation for Battle

¹² Word came to Judas concerning Nicanor’s invasion, and when he told his companions of the arrival of the army,^{(DM) 13} those who were cowardly and distrustful of God’s justice ran off and got away.^{(DN) 14} Others sold all their remaining property and at the same time implored the Lord to rescue those who had been sold by the ungodly Nicanor before he ever met them, ¹⁵ if not for their own sake, then for the sake of the covenants made with their ancestors and because he had called them by his holy and glorious name.^{(DO) 16} But Maccabeus gathered his forces together, to the number six thousand, and exhorted them not to be frightened by the enemy and not to fear the great multitude of nations who were wickedly coming against them but to fight nobly,^{(DP) 17} keeping before their eyes the lawless outrage that the nations^[ab] had committed against the holy place and the torture of the derided city, as well as the overthrow of their ancestral way of life.^{(DQ) 18} “For they trust to arms and acts of daring,” he said, “but we trust in the Almighty God, who is able with a single nod to strike down those who are coming against us, and even, if necessary, the whole world.”^(DR)

¹⁹ Moreover, he told them of the occasions when help came to their ancestors, how, in the time of Sennacherib, when one hundred eighty-five thousand perished,^{(DS) 20} and the time of the battle against the Galatians that took place in Babylonia, when eight thousand Jews^[ac] fought along with four thousand Macedonians; yet when the Macedonians were hard pressed, the eight thousand, by the help that came to them from heaven, destroyed one hundred twenty thousand Galatians^[ad] and took a great amount of plunder.

Judas Defeats Nicanor

²¹ With these words he filled them with courage and made them ready to die for their laws and their country; then he divided his army into four parts.^{(DT) 22} He appointed his brothers also, Simon and Joseph and Jonathan, each to command a division, putting fifteen hundred men under each.^{(DU) 23} Besides, he appointed Eleazar to read aloud^[ae] from the holy book and gave the watchword, “The help of God”; then, leading the first division himself, he joined battle with Nicanor.^(DV)

²⁴ With the Almighty as their ally, they killed more than nine thousand of the enemy and wounded and disabled most of Nicanor’s army and forced them all to flee. ²⁵ They captured the money of those who had come to buy them as slaves. After pursuing them for some distance, they were obliged to return because the hour was late.^{(DW) 26} It was the day before the Sabbath, and for that reason they did not continue their pursuit. ²⁷ When they had collected the arms of the enemy and stripped them of their spoils, they kept the Sabbath, giving great praise and thanks to the Lord, who had preserved them for that day and allotted it to them as the beginning of mercy.^{(DX) 28} After the Sabbath they gave some of the spoils to those who had been tortured and to the widows and orphans and distributed the rest among themselves and their children.^{(DY) 29} When they had done this, they made common supplication and implored the merciful Lord to be wholly reconciled with his servants.^(DZ)

Judas Defeats Timothy and Bacchides

³⁰ In encounters with the forces of Timothy and Bacchides they killed more than twenty thousand of them and got possession of some exceedingly high strongholds, and they divided a very large amount of plunder, giving to those who had been tortured and to the orphans and widows and also to the aged, shares equal to their own.^{(EA) 31} They collected the arms of the enemy^[af] and carefully stored all of them in strategic places; the rest of the spoils they carried to Jerusalem.^{(EB) 32} They killed the commander of Timothy’s forces, a most wicked man, and one who had greatly troubled the Jews. ³³ While they were celebrating the victory in the city of their ancestors, they burned those who had set fire to the sacred gates, Callisthenes and some others, who had fled into one little house, so these received the proper reward for their impiety.^[ag](EC)

³⁴ The thrice-accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jews,^{(ED) 35} having been humbled with the help of the Lord by opponents whom he regarded as of the least account, took off his splendid uniform and made his way alone like a runaway slave across the country until he reached Antioch, having succeeded chiefly in the destruction of his own army! ³⁶ So he who had undertaken to secure tribute for the Romans by the capture of the people of Jerusalem proclaimed that the Jews had a Defender and that therefore the Jews were invulnerable because they followed the laws ordained by him.^(EE)