XCII. (1) When Apolonius, the captain of the Mace- donian host, heard these things, he said, ' Who is it that dared to rebel against our lord the king?' And he gathered unto him a large and strong multitude of Macedonian warriors, and marched forwards to fight against Israel. Judah went out to meet him, and a very fierce battle ensued between the Macedonians and the assembly of the Hassidim. During the battle Judah saw Apolonius standing in the midst of the Macedonian company, and ran towards him in the fury of his anger into the valley, and, smiting right and left and in front of him, he cut down the mighty men of Greece just as the reaper cuts down the sheaves and the corn of his harvest. Then, approaching Apolonius, he smote him with the edge of the sword and felled him to the ground. Then, putting the Greeks and Macedonians to flight, they fled in haste, and Judah and the assembly of the Hassidim pursued them and smote them with a very great slaughter, and, having taken their spoil, Judah seized Apolonius's sword and fought with it all his life. (2) When Seron (I'li^p), the captain of the host of Syria, heard this he said, * I will go and fight against Judah, and thus make a name for myself.' Then, summoning all his people, he went to Beth-Horon. Judah, becoming aware of this, said to his men, ' There is no time for delay; let us go out to them, although our brethren the Hassidim have gone away from us; for if we wait until they return, our enemies will say we are afraid of them.' Therefore Judah marched all
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the night long; at daybreak, when the people suddenly beheld in the distance a strong and mighty army, they said to Judah, ' How can we who are so few go to war against this great multitude?' But Judah replied, ' Cry unto heaven, and ye shall be saved, for the battle is in the hands of the Lord to deliver the many into the hands of the few; it is in His power to save either with a multitude or with a few.' (3) Judah then went sideways near the enemy's camp, and suddenly leaping upon them, he struck terror into them, and thereby Seron with all his men were put in confusion. Judah pursued him, and, overtaking him, smote him. On that day as many as 800 corpses of the Syrians were found piled up in heaps on the field. Those that remained fled into the land of the Philistines, and the fear of Judah fell upon all the nations.
(4) Now, as soon as Antiochus heard these things, he was very much vexed, and gathering together all his people and all the nations under his rule, mustered a strong and mighty army, and divided it into two portions. With one half he went to (Persia), for the Persians had revolted from the Macedonian rule when they saw that the people of Judah had rebelled. The other half he handed over to Lysias (ni<^D^'?), of his own kin, and of royal Macedonian descent, saying to him, ' Thou knowest all that Judah, the son of Mattathiah, has done to my two chiefs, Apolonius and Seron, and to all their host. Therefore, go now and smite all the inhabitants of Judah, and my son Eopator (-I'lDS'i^^i-J) will go with thee. I myself will go to Persia and uproot the nation that rebelled against me.'
(5) Accordingly, Antiochus the king went to Persia, and left Lysias in command to wage war against Judah and look after his son. Lysias chose for himself Tolmios (D^^^rD^in), who is Ptolemy, Nicanor, and Gorgias, men of valour, send- ing with them 40,000 young warriors on foot and 7,000 horsemen, and the entire armies of both Syria and Philistia joined them in marching against Judah to destroy it. When Judah and all the elders of Israel heard this they proclaimed a fast, and clothed themselves in sackcloth, and
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placing dust upon their heads, cried unto the Lord. (6) After the fast Judah numbered his people, and appointed over them captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, and captains of tens. Then marching into the field, he issued an order in the camp, saying, * Whoever has planted a vineyard or built a house, and whoever is betrothed or faint-hearted, let him return home;' and many of them returned. There thus remained 7,000 valiant men, chosen warriors, of whom one would not have run away before a hundred enemies.
(7) Judah then marched on to meet Nicanor, who had brought many merchants with him, for he intended to sell to them the young men and the young women whom he would capture and carry into captivity from Judah. He went into the valley to meet Judah. Judah, coming out of the assembly of the Hassidim who were with him, called upon the Lord, saying, ' 0 exalted God, who hast ruled from the creation until this time, who causeth battles to cease, and in whose hands is power and might to exalt or to humble, subdue and humble this nation before the lowly of Thy people, for Thou wilt subdue nations under us and peoples under our feet.' After his prayer, the priests blew their holy trumpets, and all the people raised a shout. Then did Judah leap into battle, and smote the camp of Nicanor with heavy slaughter, so that they fled before him. Pursuing them with his army, he continued to slay them in their flight. The number of the slain was 9,000. They then returned and took their spoil, and the gold w^hich the merchants had brought with them to purchase the Israelitish youths. This they distributed among the poor, and then rested in that place, for the battle was fought on the sixth day.
XCIIL (1) Departing thence, Judah went to Bakires (D^on) and Timothios, and a severe battle ensued be- tween them, in which he himself killed on that day twenty Macedonian warriors. Bakires and Timothios took to flight, and Judah pursued them, but did not overtake them, for they went to Ashtaroth Karnaim. But he
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captured Phillipio, the man who had done so much evil in Judah. When Judah approached him he turned from the way he was going into a house in the vicinity. Judah then ordered his men to overthrow the house upon him, and to burn him to death in that place. He thus avenged the death of Eleazar and the blood of those pious men which Phillipio had shed. They then returned to strip the slain and they sent the spoil to Jerusalem. (2) Nicanor fled thence and escaped, for he had stripped himself of his purple coat, and dressed himself in a poor man's coat, so that he could not be recognised. In this way he came to Macedon and related to Lysias all that had happened.
(3) At that time King Antiochus returned from Persia, ashamed in that the Persians had made him flee the country of Ecbatana, and when he was informed of all Judah had done to his chiefs, and how he had smitten them, he was filled with wrath and fury. He reviled and blasphemed, and said, ' I will go to Jerusalem, and make it a burial-ground, and will fill it with the carcasses of the slain.' He then summoned together all his people, his charioteers and horsemen, a large and mighty multitude. (4) But the Lord had a jealous care for His people, for His city, and His temple, and remembering all the evil Antiochus did to His people. He required the blood of those pious men from Antiochus, and therefore plagued him with boils and with an internal disease. Yet he was not humbled through this, but said, ' Press on, ye charioteers; press on, ye horsemen; press on, ye soldiers. I will go to Jerusalem, and will carry out my intention, for who can stand before me? Is not the sea and the dry land mine, to change their being according to my will? Can I not transform the earth into sea and the sea into earth?' When he had finished speaking thus he mounted his chariot, and went with his huge army in the direction of Jerusalem. With him were many elephants, and his camp was enormous.
(5) Now, while on the journey, his chariot happened to pass in front of one of the elephants, and it trumpeted.
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At this the horses took fright, and slipping down, over- turned the chariot, and threw Antiochus out of it. As a result of the fall, his bones were broken, for he was a stout and very heavy man. The Lord, however, heaped up plagues upon him, and his flesh stank. The stench of his body was like that of a dead man cast upon the field in the height of the summer. As soon as his servants lifted him upon their shoulders, they had to cast him back again to the ground and run away, for they could not possibly approach him or carry him on account of the dreadful stench of the flesh of that reviler, and blasphemer, and enemy of God. (6) Now, when his army became weary, and he also became sick unto death of the stench arising froD2 his body, he knew then that the hand of the Lord had touched him, and being humbled and made lowly, he exclaimed, ' The Lord is righteous, who humbleth the proud and humiliates the wicked like me, for I have done all this wickedness to His people and to His pious men. It is for this that all these evils have overtaken me.' He then made a vow, saying, ' If the Lord will heal me from this disease, I will go to Jerusalem and fill it with silver and gold; I will spread carpets of purple in all the streets, and will give all my treasury to the temple of the great God. I will circumcise my foreskin, and will go about the whole land exclaiming in a loud voice, ' There is no God in the whole world like the God of Israel.'
(7) But the Lord did not hearken to his prayer, nor did He give ear to him, for all the way Antiochus the Cruel was travelling his flesh fell off from his bones, until finally his very bowels fell out upon the ground. Thus his life came to an end. He died in shame and disgrace and in a strange land. Eopator, his son, succeeded him.