2 Maccabees 8:21-29

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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.^{(A) 22} He appointed his brothers also, Simon and Joseph and Jonathan, each to command a division, putting fifteen hundred men under each.^{(B) 23} Besides, he appointed Eleazar to read aloud^[a] from the holy book and gave the watchword, “The help of God”; then, leading the first division himself, he joined battle with Nicanor.^(C)

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.^{(D) 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.^{(E) 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.^{(F) 29} When they had done this, they made common supplication and implored the merciful Lord to be wholly reconciled with his servants.^(G)