Eupator Invades, and the End of Menelaus
1In the one hundred and forty-ninth year, news came to Judas and his men that Antiochus Eupator was on his way into Judea with massed troops, 2and with him came Lysias, his guardian and head of the government, each of them commanding a Greek force of one hundred and ten thousand foot soldiers, five thousand three hundred horsemen, twenty-two elephants, and scythed chariots to the number of three hundred. 3Menelaus threw in his lot with them as well and, full of pretense, kept urging Antiochus on — not to save his homeland, but because he expected to be installed in office. 4But the King of kings roused the rage of Antiochus against the villain; and when Lysias showed him to be the root of all the evils, the king ordered him taken to Berea and put to death there, after the custom of the place. 5In that place stands a tower fifty cubits tall, filled with ash, with a circular contrivance that dropped steeply away on all sides into the ash. 6Anyone guilty of robbing temples, or who has gone to the limit in some other wickedness, is shoved to his ruin there by the whole crowd. 7Such was the fate by which the lawless Menelaus came to die, without so much as a patch of earth for a grave — 8and it was altogether just. He had done many sinful deeds around the altar, whose fire and ash were pure, and in ash he received his death.
A Night Attack, and Peace with the King
9With his mind turned barbarous, the king was coming to display to the Jews the worst of all that was done under his father. 10Judas, learning of it, commanded the multitude to invoke the Lord by day and by night, that now, as much as at any time before, he would come to the help of those who stood to lose the law, their homeland, and the holy temple, 11and not to allow the people, who had only just drawn breath a little, to become subject to the blasphemous nations. 12All of them did this together; they pleaded with the merciful Lord in tears and fasting, lying face down for three days without stopping. Then Judas encouraged them and ordered them to present themselves. 13He then withdrew with the elders and resolved that, before the king’s army could break into Judea and make itself master of the city, they would march out and settle the issue with God’s help. 14Having placed the whole matter under the guardianship of the Creator of the world, he urged those with him to fight nobly, even to death, for laws, temple, city, homeland, commonwealth; and he pitched camp near Modein. 15He passed to those around him the watchword “God’s victory”; then, taking a chosen band of the finest young men, he struck by night at the royal quarters. In the camp he cut down some two thousand men, and he ran through the lead elephant together with the man in its howdah. 16Finally, having thrown the whole camp into panic and turmoil, they got clear with complete success. 17All this was over by the first glimmer of day, thanks to the shelter of the Lord that stood by him. 18Having now sampled the boldness of the Jews, the king probed their strong points by cunning methods. 19He advanced on Beth-zur, the Jews’ strong fort: he was driven back, he struck again, he was worsted. 20Judas got the necessary supplies in to the men inside. 21Rhodocus, a man from the Jewish ranks, passed the secrets to the enemy; he was tracked down, arrested, and shut away. 22The king parleyed once more with the men of Beth-zur: he offered his right hand, accepted theirs, pulled back; he struck at Judas’s men; he came off the worse. 23He learned that Philip, left behind in Antioch at the head of the government, had turned to desperate revolt. He was thrown into confusion; he appealed to the Jews, gave way, and swore to abide by all that was just; he came to terms and offered a sacrifice; he honored the temple and was generous to the place. 24He welcomed Maccabeus, and left Hegemonides behind as commander from Ptolemais as far as the Gerrenians. 25He came to Ptolemais. The citizens of Ptolemais took the treaty badly; they were incensed and wanted the stipulations annulled. 26Lysias mounted the platform and made what defense he could: he won them over, calmed them, made them friendly, and departed for Antioch. Such was the course of the king’s invasion and of his retreat.
