King Antiochus Invades Judea

1In the year 149 of the Greek Kingdom, someone told Judas and our troops:

King Antiochus Eupator is on his way to invade Judea, 2and he is bringing his guardian Lysias, who runs the government for him.

They are leading a huge Greek army with 110,000 soldiers, 5,300 cavalry, and 22 elephants. Besides this, they have 300 chariots with sharp blades sticking out from the sides of their wheels.

King Antiochus Puts Menelaus to Death

3Menelaus the high priest tried to deceive King Antiochus and Lysias by encouraging them to attack us. He did not do this for the benefit of the country, but to regain his position as high priest.

4Meanwhile, Lysias told Antiochus that Menelaus was to blame for all of the country's problems. Then our God, the King of kings, turned Antiochus against Menelaus. And right away, Antiochus sentenced this troublemaker to be killed in the town of Beroea, where they had a special way of executing prisoners.

5In Beroea there was a 22 meters tower full of ashes, and the inside wall of the tower sloped down into the ash pile. 6Criminals who were guilty of dishonoring a temple or of some other horrible crime were thrown down inside the tower to die. 7So that was how the lawbreaker Menelaus died--and without even a proper burial afterwards. 8Such a death was a perfect punishment for someone who had so often disgraced the temple altar, together with its holy ashes and fire.

The Battle of Modein

9Antiochus was an arrogant and savage king, who wanted to punish the people of Judea more severely than his father had ever done. He was on his way to invade the country, 10when Judas found out what was happening. So Judas told the people to pray day and night, and they prayed, "Our Lord, we need you now more than ever before! Please don't let our Law and our nation and our holy temple be destroyed. 11You have just given your people a fresh start. Don't let those godless Gentiles rule us again."

12For three days, they lay face down on the ground, crying and refusing to eat, while begging the Lord to have pity and send help. After this, Judas encouraged everyone, then ordered his troops to prepare for battle.

13Judas met privately with the nation's leaders, and together they decided that with God's help Judas could attack and defeat Antiochus before he invaded Judea and captured Jerusalem. 14So Judas left everything in the hands of God, the Creator of the world, and urged his soldiers to be willing to die for the Law, the temple, Jerusalem, the country, and our Jewish way of life.

Judas camped with his army near the town of Modein, 15and he told them, "When you go into battle, shout, 'God gives victory!' " Then later that night, he and a chosen group of brave young troops attacked the enemy camp near the king's tent. They killed almost 2,000 foreigners, as well as the soldier who was leading the elephants.

16Our troops terrified and confused the enemy soldiers, then left victoriously 17at dawn, because the Lord had been helping Judas.

Antiochus and Judas Make an Agreement

18King Antiochus had seen how bravely our Jewish soldiers fought. So he decided on a plan to destroy the places where they had stationed their troops. 19His troops surrounded and attacked their strong fortress at Beth-Zur, but they were turned back and defeated.

20Meanwhile, Judas had been sending supplies to the soldiers in Beth-Zur. 21At the same time, a Jewish soldier named Rhodocus was passing secrets to the king, but he was finally captured and put in prison.

22Sometime later, Antiochus decided to try a second time to make peace with the people of Beth-Zur. He did so and then attacked Judas. However, he lost this battle as well.

23Antiochus had left an official named Philip to run the government for him in Antioch, but Philip rebelled. Antiochus did not know what else to do, and so he worked out an agreement with our people, giving us everything we wanted and promising to treat us fairly. He also offered a sacrifice, then he honored the temple in Jerusalem with gifts, 24and he had a friendly meeting with Judas.

Finally, Antiochus appointed Hegemonides governor of the territory between the towns of Ptolemais and Gerar. 25Then he went to Ptolemais, where the Gentiles were furious with him for making an agreement with us. In fact, they were so angry that they urged him to cancel the treaty. 26But Lysias made a speech in which he thoroughly explained the agreement. Everyone was fully convinced and pleased by what he said, and then he left for Antioch.

So the invasion by Antiochus turned into a retreat.