First Book of Maccabees 4

¹ Gorgias took with him five thousand foot and a thousand picked cavalry, and the force moved off by night

² with the object of attacking the Jewish position and dealing them an unexpected blow; the men from the Citadel were there to guide him.

³ Judas got wind of it and himself moved off with his fighters to strike at the king’s forces in Emmaus,

⁴ while their fighting troops had been moved away from the encampment.

⁵ And so, when Gorgias reached the camp of Judas, he found nobody and he began to search for the Jews in the mountains, exclaiming ‘They are running away from us’.

⁶ First light found Judas in the plain with three thousand men, although these lacked the armour and swords they could have wished.

⁷ They could now see the heathen encampment with its strong fortifications and cavalry surrounding it, clearly people who understood warfare.

⁸ Judas said to his men, ‘Do not be afraid of their numbers, and do not flinch at their attack.

⁹ Remember how our ancestors were delivered at the Red Sea when Pharaoh was pursuing them in force.

¹⁰ And now let us implore heaven to be kind to us and to remember his covenant with our ancestors and to destroy this army confronting us today;

¹¹ then all the nations will know for certain that there is one who saves and delivers Israel.’

¹² The foreigners looked up and, seeing the Jews advancing against them,

¹³ came out of the camp to join battle. Judas’ men sounded the trumpet

¹⁴ and engaged them. The pagans were routed and fled towards the plain

¹⁵ and all the stragglers fell by the sword. The pursuit continued as far as Gezer and the plains of Idumaea, Azotus and Jamnia, and the enemy lost about three thousand men.

¹⁶ Breaking off the pursuit, Judas returned with his men

¹⁷ and said to the people, ‘Never mind the booty, for we have another battle ahead of us.

¹⁸ Gorgias and his forces are still in the mountains not far from us. First stand up to our enemies and fight them, and then you can collect as much booty as you like.’

¹⁹ The words were hardly out of Judas’ mouth when an enemy patrol appeared on the mountainside.

²⁰ This patrol, observing that their own troops had been routed and that the camp had been fired, for the smoke, which was clearly visible, told them what had happened,

²¹ were panic-stricken at the sight; and when they also saw the forces of Judas drawn up on the plain in battle formation,

²² they all fled into Philistine territory.

²³ Judas now turned back to plunder the camp, and they carried off a large sum in gold and silver, with violet and sea-purple stuffs, and many other valuables.

²⁴ On their return, the Jews chanted praises to heaven, ‘For he is good, and his mercy is everlasting’.

²⁵ That day had seen a remarkable deliverance in Israel.

²⁶ Those of the foreigners who had escaped came and gave Lysias an account of all that had happened.

²⁷ The news shocked and dismayed him, for affairs in Israel had not gone as he intended, and the results were very different from the instructions given him by the king.

²⁸ The next year he mobilised sixty thousand picked troops and five thousand cavalry with the intention of putting the Jews out of action.

²⁹ They advanced into Idumaea and made their base at Bethzur,[*a] where Judas met them with ten thousand men.

³⁰ When he saw their military strength he offered this prayer, ‘Blessed are you, saviour of Israel, who shattered the might of the Philistine champion by the hand of your servant David, and delivered their camp into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul, and his armour-bearer.

³¹ Crush this expedition in the same way at the hands of your people Israel; make them ashamed of their forces and their cavalry.

³² Make cowards of them, undermine their confidence in their own strength, and may they reel at their defeat.

³³ Overthrow them by the sword of those who love you, and all who acknowledge your name will sing your praises.’

³⁴ The two forces engaged, and five thousand men of Lysias’ troops fell in hand-to-hand fighting.

³⁵ Seeing the rout of his army and the courage of Judas’ troops and their readiness to live or die as soldiers should, Lysias withdrew to Antioch, where he recruited mercenaries for a further invasion of Judaea in even greater strength.

³⁶ Then Judas and his brothers said, ‘Now that our enemies have been defeated, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and dedicate it’.

³⁷ So they marshalled the whole army, and went up to Mount Zion.

³⁸ There they found the sanctuary a wilderness, the altar desecrated, the gates burnt down, and vegetation growing in the courts as it might in a wood or on some mountain, while the storerooms were in ruins.

³⁹ They tore their garments and mourned bitterly, putting dust on their heads.

⁴⁰ They prostrated themselves on the ground, and when the trumpets gave the signal they cried aloud to heaven.

⁴¹ Then Judas ordered his men to engage the garrison in the Citadel until he had purified the sanctuary.

⁴² Next, he selected priests who were blameless in observance of the Law

⁴³ to purify the sanctuary and remove the stones of the abomination to an unclean place.

⁴⁴ They discussed what should be done about the altar of holocausts which had been profaned,

⁴⁵ and very properly decided to pull it down, that it might never become a reproach to them, from its defilement by the pagans. They therefore demolished it

⁴⁶ and deposited the stones in a suitable place on the Temple hill to await the appearance of a prophet who should give a ruling about them.

⁴⁷ They took unhewn stones, as the Law prescribed, and built a new altar on the lines of the old one.

⁴⁸ They restored the Holy Place and the interior of the house, and purified the courts.

⁴⁹ They made new sacred vessels, and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the Temple.

⁵⁰ They burned incense so on the altar and lit the lamps on the lamp-stand, and these shone inside the Temple.

⁵¹ They set out the loaves on the table and hung the curtains and completed all the tasks they had undertaken.

⁵² On the twenty-fifth of the ninth month, Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight, they rose at dawn

⁵³ and offered a lawful sacrifice on the new altar of holocausts which they had made.

⁵⁴ The altar was dedicated, to the sound of zithers, harps and cymbals, at the same time of year and on the same day on which the pagans had originally profaned it.

⁵⁵ The whole people fell prostrate in adoration, praising to the skies him who had made them so successful.

⁵⁶ For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar, joyfully offering holocausts, communion sacrifices and thanksgivings.

⁵⁷ They ornamented the front of the Temple with crowns and bosses of gold, repaired the gates and the storerooms and fitted them with doors.

⁵⁸ There was no end to the rejoicing among the people, and the reproach of the pagans was lifted from them.

⁵⁹ Judas, with his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel, made it a law that the days of the dedication of the altar should be celebrated yearly at the proper season, for eight days beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month Chislev, with rejoicing and gladness.

⁶⁰ They then proceeded to build high walls with strong towers round Mount Zion, to prevent the pagans from coming and riding roughshod over it as in the past.

⁶¹ Judas stationed a garrison there to guard the mount; he also fortified Bethiur, to give the people a fortress against Idumaea.