Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| When these agreements had been made, Lysias departed to the king, and the Jews returned to their farming.
2| But the local commanders — Timothy and Apollonius son of Gennaeus, and also Hieronymus and Demophon, and besides these Nicanor the governor of Cyprus — would not let them live in peace and quiet.
3| The people of Joppa committed an act of such impiety: they invited the Jews living among them to embark, with their wives and children, on boats they themselves had provided, as though no hostility existed toward them,
4| and when this had been agreed by public vote of the city, and the Jews had accepted it, wishing to live in peace and suspecting nothing, they took them out and drowned them, no fewer than two hundred souls.
5| When Judas learned of this cruelty done to his countrymen, he gave orders to the men under his command,
6| and invoking God who judges rightly, he moved against those who had murdered his kinsmen; he set fire to the harbor by night and burned the boats, and put to the sword those who had taken refuge there.
7| Since the town was shut against him, he withdrew, intending to come back again and root out the whole population of Joppa.
8| Learning also that the people of Jamnia meant to deal in the same way with the Jews living among them,
9| he fell upon the people of Jamnia by night and set fire to the harbor together with the fleet, so that the glow of the flames was seen as far as Jerusalem, two hundred and forty stadia away.
10| From there, when they had marched nine stadia on their way against Timothy, Arabs fell upon him, no fewer than five thousand foot and five hundred horse.
11| A fierce battle followed, and when Judas's men prevailed with God's help, the defeated nomads begged Judas to give them his right hand in pledge, promising to give him cattle and to help him in every other way.
12| Judas, judging that they truly could be useful in many things, agreed to make peace with them; and having received the pledge of their right hands, they departed to their tents.
13| He also attacked a certain city called Caspin, a fortified place, walled about and inhabited by a mixed population of every nation.
14| Those within, trusting in the strength of their walls and their store of provisions, behaved with great insolence toward Judas's men, hurling insults and adding blasphemies and words that were not to be spoken.
15| But Judas's men, calling upon the great Sovereign of the world, who without battering-rams or engines of war had cast down Jericho in the days of Joshua, hurled themselves at the wall like wild beasts,
16| and taking the city by the will of God, they made countless slaughter, so much so that the neighboring lake, two stadia wide, appeared full and overflowing with the blood that poured into it.
17| From there, when they had gone a distance of seven hundred and fifty stadia, they arrived at the stronghold, among the Jews called the Tubians.
18| They did not find Timothy in that region, for he had by then left the place without accomplishing anything, though he had left behind a garrison in one spot, and a very strong one.
19| Dositheus and Sosipater, officers under Maccabeus, went out and destroyed those whom Timothy had left behind in the stronghold, more than ten thousand men.
20| Maccabeus organized his army into companies and set them over the divisions, and marched against Timothy, who had with him a hundred and twenty thousand foot and two thousand seven hundred horse.
21| When Timothy learned of Judas's approach, he sent ahead the women, the children, and the rest of the baggage to the place called Carnion, for the site was hard to besiege and hard to approach, being narrow on every side.
22| But when Judas's company appeared first, and terror fell upon the enemy through the manifestation of him who sees all things, they broke and fled in every direction, so that many were struck down by their own comrades and run through by the points of their own swords.
23| Judas pressed the pursuit all the harder, cutting down the wicked, and destroyed as many as thirty thousand men.
24| Timothy himself was captured by Dositheus and Sosipater, and with much cunning begged to be let go alive, since he was holding the parents of many, and the brothers of others, who would otherwise be disregarded and killed.
25| When he had given firm assurance with many pledges to restore these unharmed, they released him, for the sake of saving their brothers.
26| Then Judas marched out against Carnion and the temple of Atargatis, and slaughtered twenty-five thousand people.
27| After this rout and destruction, he marched also against Ephron, a fortified city where a mixed multitude dwelt; sturdy young men stood before the walls and fought back vigorously, and there were great stores of engines and missiles within.
28| But calling upon the Sovereign who with his might shatters the strength of the enemy, they took the city into their hands, and struck down twenty-five thousand of those within.
29| Setting out from there, they pressed on to Scythopolis, six hundred stadia from Jerusalem.
30| But when the Jews settled there bore witness to the goodwill the people of Scythopolis had shown them, and how kindly they had treated them in times of misfortune,
31| they gave thanks and urged them further to remain well-disposed toward their people in the future, and they came to Jerusalem, since the feast of Weeks was close at hand.
32| After the festival called Pentecost, they marched against Gorgias, the governor of Idumea.
33| He came out with three thousand foot and four hundred horse,
34| and when battle was joined, it happened that a few of the Jews fell.
35| A certain Dositheus, one of Bacenor's men, a horseman and a man of strength, seized Gorgias and, catching hold of his cloak, was dragging him off by force, wishing to take the accursed man alive, when one of the Thracian horsemen bore down on him and cut off his shoulder, so that Gorgias escaped to Marisa.
36| When Esdris's men had been fighting for a long time and were worn out, Judas called upon the Lord to appear as their ally and to go before them in the battle,
37| and raising the battle cry in the tongue of their fathers, together with hymns, he fell upon Gorgias's men unexpectedly and put them to rout.
38| Judas then took his army and came to the city of Adullam; and as the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves there according to custom and kept the Sabbath.
39| On the following day, since the need had now arisen, Judas's men came to bring back the bodies of those who had fallen, to restore them to their kinsmen in the tombs of their fathers.
40| They found under the tunics of each of the dead sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear; and it became clear to everyone that this was the reason these men had fallen.
41| So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge, who brings hidden things to light,
42| and turned to prayer, asking that the sin committed be wholly blotted out. And that noble man Judas urged the people to remain free of sin, having seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.
43| He then took up a collection, man by man, amounting to two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sin offering made, acting in this very finely and nobly, with the resurrection in mind.
44| For if he had not expected that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.
45| But if he was looking to the splendid reward laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. That is why he made atonement for the dead, that they might be released from their sin.