First Book of Maccabees 7

¹ In the year one hundred and fifty Demetrius, son of Seleucus, escaped from Rome to hold court.

² As he was entering the crown lands of his ancestors his army arrested Antiochus and Lysias, intending to bring them before him.

³ But when he heard of this he said, ‘Keep them out of my sight’.

⁴ So the army killed them and Demetrius ascended the throne of his kingdom.

⁵ Then there came to him all the renegades and godless men in Israel, led by Alcimus, whose ambition it was to become high priest.

⁶ They denounced the people before the king. ‘Judas and his brothers’ they said ‘have killed all your friends, and he has driven us out of our country.

⁷ Send someone now whom you can trust; let him go and see the wholesale ruin Judas has brought on us and on the king’s dominions, and let him punish the wretches and all who assist them.’

⁸ The king chose Bacchides, one of the Friends of the King, governor of the country beyond the river,[*a] a great man in the kingdom and loyal to the king.

⁹ He sent him with the godless Alcimus, whom he established as high priest, with orders to exact retribution from the Israelites.

¹⁰ So they set out with a large force, and on reaching the land of Judah they sent messengers to Judas and his brothers with treacherous proposals of peace.

¹¹ But these did not trust them, seeing that they had come with a large force.

¹² Nevertheless a commission of scribes presented themselves before Alcimus and Bacchides, to sue for just terms.

¹³ The first among the Israelites to ask them for peace-terms were the Hasidaeans,

¹⁴ who reasoned like this, ‘This is a priest of Aaron’s line who has come with the armed forces; he will not wrong us’.

¹⁵ He did in fact discuss is peace-terms with them and gave them his oath, ‘We will not attempt to injure you or your friends’.

¹⁶ They believed him, but he arrested sixty of them and put them to death in one day, fulfilling the words of scripture:

¹⁷ They have scattered the flesh of your devout, and shed their blood all round Jerusalem, and no one to dig a grave!

¹⁸ At this, fear and dread gripped the whole people. ‘There is no truth or virtue in them;’ they said ‘they have broken their agreement and their sworn oath.’

¹⁹ Bacchides then left Jerusalem and encamped at Bethzaith,[*b] and from there sent and arrested many of the men who had deserted him, and some of the people, and killed them, throwing them into the great cistern.

²⁰ Then he put Alcimus in charge of the province, leaving an army with him to support him; Bacchides himself returned to the king.

²¹ Alcimus continued his struggle to become high priest,

²² and all who were disturbing the peace of their own people rallied to him; gaining control of the land of Judah, they worked great havoc in Israel.

²³ Seeing that all the wrongs done to the Israelites by Alcimus and his supporters exceeded what the pagans had done,

²⁴ Judas went right round the whole territory of Judaea to take vengeance on those who had deserted him and prevent their free movement about the country.

²⁵ When Alcimus saw how strong Judas and his supporters had grown, he realised that he had not the strength to resist them, and returned to the king where he laid criminal charges against them.

²⁶ The king sent Nicanor, one of his generals ranking as Illustrious and a bitter enemy of Israel, with orders to exterminate the people.

²⁷ Reaching Jerusalem with a large force, Nicanor sent envoys to Judas and his brothers with treacherous proposals of peace:

²⁸ ‘Let us have no fighting’ he said ‘between me and you; I will come with a small escort and meet you face to face in peace.’

²⁹ And he came to Judas and they greeted each other peaceably enough; however, the enemy had made preparations to abduct Judas.

³⁰ When Judas became aware of Nicanor’s treacherous purpose in coming to see him, he took fright and refused any further meeting.

³¹ Nicanor then realised that his plan had been discovered, and went out to meet Judas in battle near Capharsalama.

³² About five hundred of Nicanor’s men fell; the rest took refuge in the City of David.

³³ After these events Nicanor went up to Mount Zion. Some of the priests came out from the Holy Place with some elders, to welcome him peacefully and to show him the holocaust that was being offered for the king.

³⁴ But he mocked them and laughed in their faces, defiled them and used insolent language,

³⁵ swearing in his rage, ‘Unless Judas is handed over to me this time with his army, as soon as I am safely back, I promise you, I will burn this building down!’ Then he went off in a fury.

³⁶ At this the priests went in again, and stood in tears before the altar and the sanctuary, saying,

³⁷ ‘You chose this house to be called by your name, to be a house of prayer and petition for your people.

³⁸ Take vengeance on this man and on his army, and let them fall by the sword; remember their blasphemies and give them no respite.’

³⁹ Nicanor left Jerusalem and encamped at Beth-horon, where he was joined by an army from Syria.

⁴⁰ Meanwhile Judas camped at Adasa[*c] with three thousand men, and offered this prayer,

⁴¹ When the Assyrian king’s envoys blasphemed, your angel went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men.

⁴² ‘In the same way let us see you crush this army today, so that the rest may know that this man has spoken blasphemously against your sanctuary: judge him according to his wickedness.’

⁴³ The armies met in battle on the thirteenth of the month Adar, and Nicanor’s army was crushed, he himself being the first to fall in the battle.

⁴⁴ When his troops saw that Nicanor had fallen, they threw down their arms and fled.

⁴⁵ The Jews pursued them a day’s journey, from Adasa to the approaches of Gezer; they sounded their trumpets in warning as they followed them,

⁴⁶ and people came out from all the surrounding villages of Judaea and blocked their flight, so that they turned back on their own men, and all fell by the sword, not one being left alive.

⁴⁷ Collecting the spoils and booty, they cut off Nicanor’s head and the right hand he had stretched out in a display of insolence; these were taken and displayed within sight of Jerusalem.

⁴⁸ The people were overjoyed, and kept that day as a great holiday:

⁴⁹ indeed they decided to celebrate it annually on the thirteenth of Adar.

⁵⁰ The land of Judah was at peace for a short time.