The Purification of the Temple
1Maccabeus and those with him, with the Lord leading them, took back the temple and the city. 2They pulled down the pagan altars that the foreigners had built in the marketplace, and the sacred precincts as well. 3They purified the temple and made another altar; then, striking fire from flints, they took fire from them and offered sacrifices after an interval of two years, and they burned incense, lit the lamps, and set out the bread of the Presence. 4After doing this, they lay prostrate and begged the Lord that they might never again fall into such calamities, but that, if they should ever sin, he himself would discipline them with forbearance and not hand them over to blasphemous and barbarous nations. 5And it happened that the purification of the temple took place on the very day on which the temple had been profaned by foreigners, on the twenty-fifth of the same month — the month of Chislev. 6With gladness they celebrated for eight days in the manner of the Festival of Tabernacles, remembering how a little while before, at the Festival of Tabernacles, they had been living in the mountains and the caves the way wild animals do. 7So, carrying thyrsus wands and handsome branches and palm fronds too, they raised hymns to the one who had given success to the purifying of his own place. 8And by public ordinance and vote they decreed that these days should be celebrated every year by the entire nation of the Jews. 9Such were the circumstances of the death of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes.
Eupator, Lysias, and the Idumean War
10Now we will set out what happened under Antiochus Eupator, the son of that ungodly man, summarizing briefly the chief calamities of the wars. 11For when he succeeded to the kingdom, he appointed a certain Lysias to take charge of the government and to be chief commander of Coelesyria and Phoenicia. 12Now Ptolemy, who was called Macron, had taken the lead in treating the Jews justly because of the injustice done to them, and he tried to handle his dealings with them peaceably. 13As a result, he was denounced to Eupator by the Friends and heard himself called a traitor at every turn, because he had abandoned Cyprus, which Philometor had entrusted to him, and had gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes. Since he could not hold his high office with honor, he poisoned himself and ended his life. 14Gorgias, who became commander of the region, kept mercenary troops and seized every occasion to keep the war with the Jews alive. 15Along with him the Idumeans, too, masters of well-placed strongholds, kept the Jews under harassment; they took in those who had been driven out of Jerusalem and set about keeping the war alive. 16Maccabeus and his men made their supplication, begged God to be their ally, and rushed against the strongholds of the Idumeans. 17They attacked them vigorously and took possession of the positions; they drove back all who were fighting on the wall and cut down those who came their way, killing no fewer than twenty thousand. 18No fewer than nine thousand fled together into two exceedingly strong towers, stocked with everything needed to withstand a siege; 19so Maccabeus left Simon and Joseph, together with Zacchaeus and those with him — enough to lay siege to them — and went off himself to places where he was urgently needed. 20But Simon’s men, out of love of money, let themselves be bought by some of those in the towers; they accepted seventy thousand drachmas and let some of them slip away. 21When Maccabeus was told what had happened, he called together the leaders of the people and charged those men with having sold their brothers for money by letting their enemies go free to fight against them. 22He then executed these men for having turned traitor, and immediately took the two towers. 23Prospering in arms in everything he put his hand to, he destroyed over twenty thousand in the two strongholds.
The Defeat of Timothy
24Timothy, whom the Jews had defeated before, gathered huge forces of mercenaries, assembled not a few of the horsemen of Asia, and came on, meaning to take Judea by storm. 25As he drew near, Maccabeus and his men turned to entreat God; they sprinkled earth on their heads, tied sackcloth around their waists, 26and, falling prostrate on the step before the altar, they begged God to be gracious to them and, as the law declares, to show himself an enemy to their enemies, a foe to their foes. 27Rising from their prayer, they took up their weapons and advanced a good distance beyond the city, and on coming close to the enemy they halted. 28Just as the dawn was spreading, the two sides joined battle: the one had, besides its courage, its refuge in the Lord as a pledge of success and victory; the other made fury its commander in the struggle. 29As the battle raged, the enemy saw five magnificent men appear from heaven on horses with golden bridles, riding at the head of the Jews. 30They took Maccabeus into their midst and, sheltering him with their own armor, kept him from harm, while they hurled arrows and thunderbolts at the enemy; so, confused and blinded, the enemy were cut to pieces in utter disarray. 31Twenty thousand five hundred were slain, and six hundred horsemen. 32Timothy himself fled to a stronghold called Gezer, an exceedingly well-defended fortress, where Chaereas was in command. 33Maccabeus and his men gladly laid siege to the fortress for four days. 34Those inside, trusting in the strength of the position, blasphemed outrageously and hurled out impious words. 35As the fifth day dawned, twenty young men of Maccabeus’s company, burning with anger at the blasphemies, assaulted the wall with manly courage and a wild beast’s fury, and cut down whoever came their way. 36Others climbed up the same way, while those inside were distracted, and set the towers on fire; kindling blazes, they burned the blasphemers alive. Still others hacked the gates open, let in the rest of the troops, and seized the city. 37They slew Timothy, who had hidden himself in a cistern, together with his brother Chaereas and Apollophanes. 38When they had achieved all this, with hymns and songs of thanksgiving they blessed the Lord, for he does great good to Israel and gives them the victory.
