The Victory at Emmaus
1Gorgias took with him five thousand foot and a thousand picked horsemen, and the force moved out by night, 2meaning to throw themselves on the Jewish camp and strike without warning. Men from the citadel served as their guides. 3But Judas heard of it, and he moved out, he and his fighting men, to strike the king’s force at Emmaus 4while the troops were still scattered away from the camp. 5Gorgias came to Judas’s camp in the night and found no one. So he searched for them in the hills, for he said, “These men are running from us.” 6At daybreak Judas showed himself on the plain — three thousand men with him, and these without armor or the swords they wanted. 7They saw the camp of the nations, strong and armored, with cavalry ringing it, and these were men trained for war. 8Judas said to the men with him, “Do not fear their numbers, and do not lose heart at their charge. 9Remember how our ancestors were saved at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh came after them with his army. 10Now let us cry out to Heaven, to see whether he will favor us and remember the covenant with our ancestors and crush this army in front of us today. 11Then all the nations shall know there is one who ransoms and delivers Israel.” 12The foreigners looked up and saw them advancing head-on. 13They came out of the camp for battle, and Judas’s men blew the trumpets. 14They engaged, and the nations were crushed and fled to the plain. 15All the rearmost fell by the sword. The pursuit carried as far as Gezer, and on into the Idumean plains and Azotus and Jabneh, and about three thousand of their men fell. 16Judas and his force turned back from the pursuit, 17and he told the people, “Do not set your hearts on the spoils, for a battle still faces us. 18Gorgias and his force are on the mountain near us. Stand now against our enemies and fight them, and afterward take the spoils without fear.” 19While Judas was still finishing this, a detachment appeared, peering out from the mountain. 20They saw that their own side had been routed and that the camp was burning — for the smoke in sight showed what had happened. 21When they took this in they lost all courage; and when they also saw the camp of Judas on the plain, drawn up for battle, 22they all fled into Philistine territory. 23Judas turned back for the spoil of the camp, and they carried off much gold and silver, blue and sea purple, and great wealth. 24On their way back they sang hymns and blessed Heaven: “For it is good, for his mercy lasts forever.” 25There was a great deliverance for Israel that day.
Lysias at Beth-zur
26Those of the foreigners who got away came and reported to Lysias everything that had happened. 27When he heard it he was thrown into confusion and lost heart, because what he had wanted had not happened to Israel and what the king had ordered him had not turned out. 28In the following year he assembled sixty thousand picked men and five thousand cavalry to make war on them. 29They came into Idumea and camped at Beth-zur, and Judas came to meet them with ten thousand men. 30Seeing how strong that camp was, he prayed: “Blessed are you, Savior of Israel! You shattered the charge of the mighty man through your servant David, and you handed the Philistine camp over to Jonathan son of Saul and to the man who bore his weapons. 31So shut this army up in the hand of Israel your people, and put them to shame over their infantry and their cavalry. 32Give them cowardice; melt away the boldness of their strength; let them reel at their own ruin. 33Lay them low by the sword of men who love you, and may everyone who knows your name praise you in hymns.” 34They engaged each other, and about five thousand men of Lysias’s camp fell, falling right in front of them. 35When Lysias saw the rout of his own formation, and the boldness that had come over the men of Judas, and how ready they were to live or to die nobly, he set off for Antioch and recruited mercenaries, to come into Judea again in still greater force.
The Cleansing of the Sanctuary
36Then Judas and his brothers said, “Look, our enemies have been crushed. Let us go up and cleanse the holy place and dedicate it again.” 37The whole army assembled and went up to Mount Zion. 38They saw the sanctuary desolate, the altar profaned, the doors burned down, plants sprung up in the courtyards as though in a thicket or on one of the mountains, with the priests’ chambers torn down. 39They tore their garments, beat their breasts in great lamentation, and heaped ashes on themselves. 40They fell face down on the ground, blew the signal trumpets, and cried out to Heaven. 41Then Judas ordered men to make war on those in the citadel, until he should have cleansed the holy place. 42He chose priests without blemish, men devoted to the law, 43and these cleansed the holy place and took the stones of defilement away to an unclean place. 44They took counsel about the altar of burnt offering, which had been profaned — what they should do with it. 45A good plan came to them: to tear it down, so that it would never stand as a reproach against them, since Gentiles had defiled it. And they tore the altar down, 46and they stored the stones on the temple mount, in a suitable place, until a prophet should come and give an answer about them. 47They took unhewn stones, as the law requires, and built a new altar on the pattern of the former one. 48They rebuilt the holy place and what was inside the house, and the courts they consecrated. 49They made new sacred vessels, and they carried into the temple the lampstand, the incense altar, and the table. 50They burned incense on the altar and lit the lamps on the lampstand, and light shone inside the temple. 51They set the loaves on the table and hung the curtains, and they completed all the work they had undertaken.
The Dedication of the Altar
52They rose early on the morning of the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month — that is, the month of Chislev — in the one hundred and forty-eighth year, 53and they offered sacrifice, as the law requires, on the new altar of burnt offering that they had made. 54At the very season and on the very day when the Gentiles had profaned it, on that day it was rededicated, with songs and lyres and harps and cymbals. 55All the people fell on their faces and worshiped, and they blessed Heaven, who had brought them through. 56For eight days they held the altar’s dedication, offering burnt offerings with gladness and presenting a sacrifice of deliverance and praise. 57They dressed the temple’s facade with golden wreaths and small shields; they made the gateways new, and the chambers, and hung doors on them. 58Joy ran very high throughout the people, and the Gentiles’ reproach was turned back. 59Judas and his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel laid it down that from then on the days of the altar’s dedication were to be observed at their season, year by year, for eight days, beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month of Chislev, with gladness and joy. 60At that time they built up Mount Zion, ringing it with high walls and sturdy towers, so that the Gentiles would not come and trample the holy place as they had before. 61He stationed a force there to guard it, and he fortified Beth-zur to guard it, so that the people would have a stronghold facing Idumea.
