Judah Maccabee did not wait to be attacked. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses Gaster in 1899, when the Macedonian general Apolonius marched against Israel with a massive army, Judah charged straight at him. In the fury of battle, Judah spotted Apolonius in the center of the Macedonian formation, ran toward him through a valley of soldiers, cut his way through with strikes to the right and left, and killed the general with his own hands. He took Apolonius's sword and used it for the rest of his wars.
General Seron came next with an even larger force, taunting: "I will make a great name by conquering Judah." The Hassidim were terrified—they were few and had not eaten. Judah rallied them: "Victory does not depend upon numbers. It is easy for many to be defeated by the few." They attacked and routed Seron's army entirely.
Then came Gorgiash with 40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry, accompanied by merchants carrying gold to purchase captured Jewish youths as slaves. Judah gathered his people at Mizpah, the ancient place of prayer, and they fasted. After praying, Judah divided his force into four companies led by himself and his brothers Simeon, Jonathan, and Johanan. They crushed Gorgiash's army, killing 9,000 and seizing the merchants' gold, which they distributed among the poor.
The Macedonian general Nicanor attacked with 40,000 men. Judah prayed, invoking how God had sent an angel to destroy 185,000 of Sennacherib's army in a single night. The priests blew their trumpets, the people shouted, and Judah leaped into battle. Nine thousand Macedonians fell. Meanwhile, Antiochus himself—marching home from a failed campaign in Persia—was struck by God with a terrible plague. His flesh rotted from his bones, his bowels spilled onto the ground, and he begged God for mercy, promising to convert and proclaim Israel's God. But God did not listen. Antiochus died in shame, in a strange land, his body falling apart on the road home.
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
272 [XCII. 3
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
xciil. 1] 273
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
274 [XCIII. 2
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.
xciv. 1] 275
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.
