2 Maccabees 8:7-9

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁷ He found the nights most advantageous for such attacks. And talk of his valor spread everywhere.^(A)

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.^{(B) 9} Then Ptolemy^[a] promptly appointed Nicanor son of Patroclus, one of the king’s First^[b] 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.^(C)