The contents whereof were these: King Antiochus to Simon the high priest and prince of his nation, and to the people of the Jews, greeting:
Forasmuch as certain pestilent men have usurped the kingdom of our fathers, and my purpose is to challenge it again, that I may restore it to the old estate,
and to that end have gathered a multitude of foreign soldiers together, and prepared ships of war; My meaning also being to go through the country, that I may be avenged of them that have destroyed it, and made many cities in the kingdom desolate: