Judas Dedicates the Jerusalem Temple

1The Lord led Judas Maccabeus and our troops into battle, and they recaptured the temple and the city of Jerusalem. 2Then they destroyed the places where the foreigners had worshiped, including the altars they had built in the public market.

3Judas and his followers made the temple an acceptable place of worship once again. They built a new altar for sacrifices and started a fire on it by rubbing flint rocks together. After this, they offered sacrifices for the first time in two years. They burned incense, then lit the lamps and brought out the sacred loaves of bread.

4When all of this was done, the troops lay face down on the ground and prayed, "Our Lord, please don't let us suffer such terrible troubles again. If we should ever turn from you, don't correct us so harshly. And please, never again hand us over to these foreign savages, who insult you."

5The dedication of the temple took place on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev --the same day of the same month that the foreigners had made the temple unfit for worship. 6 We celebrated a joyful festival for eight days, and it was just like the Festival of Shelters. In fact, while our people celebrated, they kept remembering the recent Festival of Shelters, when they were forced to roam the hills and live in caves like wild animals. 7But now they walked around carrying sticks decorated with twisted ivy and holding up branches, including some from palm trees. They sang hymns and thanked the Lord for making our holy temple clean again. 8Afterwards, everyone decided to make this a yearly festival for our whole nation.

Antiochus Eupator Becomes King

9Antiochus Epiphanes was dead, and 10 Antiochus Eupator, the son of that godless man, became king. I will now give a brief summary of the horrible wars and other things that happened during his rule.

11After Antiochus Eupator became king, he put Lysias in charge of his kingdom. Antiochus also made him the governor of Southwest Syria Province in place of 12Ptolemy Macron.

Ptolemy knew how much we Jews had suffered, and he did all he could to treat us fairly and to live in peace with us. 13Because of this, some friends of King Eupator brought charges against Ptolemy. They told the king:

When King Philometor of Egypt made Ptolemy the ruler of Cyprus Island, Ptolemy ran away from that place and sided with King Antiochus Epiphanes. Now everyone says Ptolemy is a traitor.

Ptolemy felt that no one respected him as governor any more, so he committed suicide by swallowing some poison.

Judas Attacks the Idumeans

14When Gorgias became governor of Idumea, he hired an army of professional soldiers and attacked our people whenever he could. 15Even the Idumeans themselves attacked us, hoping to turn the whole country into a battleground. They controlled strong fortresses and welcomed all the troublemakers who had been run out of Jerusalem.

16Because of these attacks, Judas and his troops begged God for help. Then they quickly set out for the Idumean fortresses. 17They made violent attacks on them and forced the enemy soldiers to retreat from their positions on the walls. Then after they had captured these places, they killed everyone they could. At least 20,000 of their enemies died.

18About 9,000 enemy troops took cover in two strong towers that had everything they needed to fight off attackers. 19So Judas ordered his brothers Simon and Joseph, along with an officer named Zacchaeus and his troops, to surround these towers. And since they had enough soldiers to capture the towers, Judas left for other parts of the country that needed his help even more.

20But a few of Simon's troops became greedy. They took a bribe of 12,000 silver coins from some enemy forces in the towers, then let them sneak away. 21When Judas found out what had happened, he called together his officers and brought charges against these soldiers. He said, "They have sold out their friends, and now the enemy troops who escaped will return and attack us."

22Judas had the guilty soldiers put to death. Then he and his troops immediately captured the two towers 23and killed more than 20,000 enemy soldiers. Judas was successful in every battle he fought.

Judas Attacks Timothy

24Someone named Timothy got together a powerful force of foreign soldiers, as well as a large number of cavalry from Asia. He then set out to invade Judea, even though he had already been defeated once before by the Jewish troops.

25As Timothy's army came nearer, Judas and our troops prayed sincerely. They smeared dirt on their heads and put on clothes made of sackcloth. 26 Then they lay face down on the steps leading to the altar and prayed, "Please be kind to us and wipe out our enemies, just as our sacred Scriptures promise."

27After Judas and his troops had finished praying, they picked up their weapons and set out from Jerusalem on a long march. They camped not far from the enemy army, 28and at dawn the next day the battle began. Our troops were brave and they trusted the Lord, which was a sure path to victory. But Timothy's soldiers fought only because they were angry.

29In the heat of battle, the enemy saw five handsome riders on horses with gold bridles suddenly appear from heaven and take command of our troops. 30They formed a circle around Judas and protected him with their shields and weapons, while sending a flood of arrows and lightning bolts at Timothy's army.

Blinded and confused, the enemy troops scattered in every direction and were cut down. 31Twenty thousand five hundred of their soldiers and 600 of their cavalry died that day. 32Timothy himself escaped to the fortress at Gazara, where his brother Chaereas commanded a large force.

33Judas and his troops eagerly attacked Gazara for four days. 34But the enemy soldiers inside the fortress kept cursing God and shouting horrible insults, because they felt safe behind the strong walls of their fortress.

35Finally these insults made 20 of our brave young soldiers furious. So at dawn of the fifth day, they fought their way over the fortress wall, killing everyone they met. 36At the same time, others fought their way over another section of the wall and attacked. They set fire to the whole fortress, including its towers, and burned alive those troops who had cursed God. Then some of our soldiers beat down the gates, allowing the rest of our army to capture the town.

37Timothy was found hiding in a cistern, and so our troops killed him, together with his brother Chaereas and a soldier named Apollophanes. 38After the battle, Judas and our army sang hymns of praise to the Lord, because he is very kind to Israel and gives us victory.