Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| In the hundred and forty-ninth year, word reached Judas and his men that Antiochus Eupator was coming against Judea with a great host,
2| and with him Lysias his guardian, who had charge of affairs, each commanding a Greek force of a hundred and ten thousand infantry, five thousand three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred scythe-bearing chariots.
3| Menelaus also joined them, and with great duplicity kept urging Antiochus on, not for the safety of his country, but supposing that he himself would be established in office.
4| But the King of kings stirred up the anger of Antiochus against this wretch, and when Lysias pointed out that Menelaus was the cause of all the troubles, the king ordered him taken to Beroea and put to death there, as is the custom in that place.
5| Now there is in that place a tower fifty cubits high, full of ashes, fitted with a wheel-like device that slopes down on every side sheer into the ash.
6| There anyone guilty of sacrilege, or notorious for other grave crimes, is thrust by all into destruction.
7| By such a death it befell the lawbreaker Menelaus to die, not even obtaining burial in the earth;
8| and quite justly. For since he had committed many sins against the sacred hearth, holy in both flame and cinder, he met his death amid ashes.
9| The king, his mind now hardened, came on, intending to show the Jews things worse than what had happened in his father's time.
10| When Judas learned of this, he ordered the people to call upon the Lord day and night, that now, as at other times, he would come to their aid,
11| for they were about to be robbed of their law, their country, and the holy temple, and he begged that the people, who had only just begun to breathe again, not be handed over to blasphemous nations.
12| After the whole assembly had carried this out, and had implored the compassionate Lord through tears, fasting, and prostration for three unbroken days, Judas exhorted them and ordered them to be ready.
13| Meeting privately with the elders, he resolved that, before the king's army invaded Judea and seized the city, they should march out and decide the matter with God's help.
14| Committing the outcome to the Lord of the world, and exhorting those with him to fight nobly even unto death on behalf of the laws, the sanctuary, the city, their country, and their way of life, he encamped his forces near Modein.
15| Giving to his men the watchword 'God's Victory,' with a picked band of the finest young men he fell by night upon the royal pavilion, killed as many as two thousand men in the camp, and struck down the lead elephant together with the man in its howdah.
16| In the end they filled the camp with terror and confusion, and withdrew in triumph.
17| This happened just as day was breaking, thanks to the protection of the Lord who came to his aid.
18| Having now had a taste of the Jews' daring, the king tried the positions by stratagem,
19| and advanced against Beth-zur, a small Jewish fortress; he was driven back, he attacked again, he was defeated, he suffered loss.
20| Judas sent in to those inside what they needed.
21| But Rhodocus, one of the Jewish ranks, disclosed their secrets to the enemy; he was sought out, caught, and imprisoned.
22| The king held another parley with the men in Beth-zur, gave his right hand, received theirs, and departed;
23| he attacked the forces of Judas, and was worsted; then he learned that Philip, who had been left in charge of affairs at Antioch, had rebelled; he was thrown into confusion, appealed to the Jews, submitted, and swore to all just terms; he came to an agreement and offered sacrifice, honored the temple and the holy place, and dealt generously with the people,
24| and welcomed the Maccabee, and left Hegemonides as governor from Ptolemais to the region of the Gerrenians,
25| and went to Ptolemais. The people of Ptolemais were displeased with the terms, for they were exceedingly indignant, and wished to annul the agreements.
26| Lysias came forward to the platform, defended the terms as well as he could, persuaded and calmed them, won them over, and returned to Antioch. Thus went the king's expedition and withdrawal.