1 Maccabees 4

1 Gorgias took five thousand foot soldiers and a thousand of the best cavalry, and the camp moved out by night 2 to fall on the camp of the Jews and strike them without warning; and men from the citadel were his guides. 3 But Judas heard of it, and he and his fighting men moved out to strike the king’s army at Emmaus 4 while the forces were still scattered away from the camp. 5 Gorgias came into Judas’s camp by night and found no one there, so he went searching for them in the mountains, for he said, “These men are running away from us.”

6 At daybreak Judas appeared in the plain with three thousand men — though they did not have the armor and swords they wished for. 7 They saw the camp of the nations, strong and armored, with cavalry circling it — and these were men trained for war. 8 And Judas said to the men with him, “Do not fear their numbers, and do not flinch at their charge. 9 Remember how our fathers were saved at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh was chasing them with an army. 10 Now let us cry out to Heaven, to see whether he will favor us, and remember the covenant of our fathers, and crush this army in front of us today. 11 Then all the nations will know that there is one who ransoms and saves Israel.”

12 The foreigners lifted their eyes and saw them coming toward them, [a] 13 and they came out of the camp for battle. The men with Judas sounded their trumpets 14 and closed with them, and the nations were crushed and fled into the plain, 15 but all the rear ranks fell by the sword. They pursued them as far as Gazara, and to the plains of Idumea, to Azotus and Jamnia; and about three thousand of them fell. [b]

16 Then Judas and his force turned back from chasing them, 17 and he said to the people, “Do not be greedy for the spoils, because a battle still stands in front of us. 18 Gorgias and his force are on the mountain close by us. Stand firm now against our enemies and fight them, and after that you can take the spoils boldly.”

19 Judas was still finishing these words when a detachment appeared, peering down from the mountain. 20 They saw that their own army had been routed and that the camp was being burned — for the smoke they could see told what had happened. 21 When they took this in, they were terrified; and when they saw Judas’s army in the plain too, ready for battle, 22 they all fled into the land of the Philistines.

23 Then Judas turned back to plunder the camp, and they took much gold and silver, cloth of blue and sea-purple, and great riches. 24 On the way home they sang hymns and blessings to Heaven: “For he is good; for his mercy endures forever.” 25 So Israel had a great rescue that day.

26 Those of the foreigners who had escaped came and reported to Lysias everything that had happened. 27 When he heard it, he was dismayed and disheartened, because things had not gone for Israel as he wished — they had not turned out the way the king had ordered him. 28 So in the following year he mustered sixty thousand picked foot soldiers and five thousand cavalry, to make an end of them. 29 They came into Idumea and camped at Beth-zur, and Judas met them with ten thousand men. [c]

30 When he saw how strong their camp was, he prayed: “Blessed are you, Rescuer of Israel, who broke the charge of the mighty warrior by the hand of your servant David, and gave the camp of the Philistines into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul and the man who carried his armor. 31 So shut this army up in the hand of your people Israel; let them be put to shame with their troops and their cavalry. 32 Fill them with cowardice; melt the boldness of their strength; let them shake at their own destruction. 33 Strike them down by the sword of those who love you, and let all who know your name praise you with hymns.”

34 Then the two sides closed, and about five thousand men of Lysias’s army fell — they fell right in front of them. 35 And when Lysias saw his own line broken and in flight, and saw the daring that had come over Judas’s men — how ready they were either to live or to die nobly — he withdrew to Antioch and set about hiring mercenaries, meaning to come back into Judea with a still larger army.

36 Then Judas and his brothers said, “Look, our enemies are crushed. Let us go up to cleanse the holy place and dedicate it anew.” 37 So the whole army assembled, and they went up to Mount Zion. 38 There they saw the sanctuary laid desolate, the altar treated as common, the gates burned down, weeds growing in the courts as they would in a thicket or on some mountainside, and the priests’ rooms torn down. 39 They tore their clothes and mourned with a great mourning; they put ashes on themselves 40 and fell face down on the ground, sounded the signal trumpets, and cried out to Heaven.

41 Then Judas detailed men to fight the garrison in the citadel until he had cleansed the holy place, 42 and he chose blameless priests, devoted to the law. 43 They cleansed the holy place and carried the stones of the defilement away to an unclean place. 44 They deliberated over what to do with the altar of whole burnt offering, which had been treated as common, 45 and a good plan came to them: to pull it down, so that it would never stand as a reproach to them because the nations had defiled it. So they pulled the altar down, 46 and they stored its stones on the temple mount, in a fitting place, until a prophet should come who could give an answer about them.

47 Then they took whole stones, as the law directs, and built a new altar on the pattern of the old one. 48 They rebuilt the holy place and the inside of the house, and made the courts holy. 49 They made new holy vessels, and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the temple. 50 They burned incense on the altar and lit the lamps on the lampstand, and the lamps gave light in the temple. 51 They set the loaves out on the table and hung the veils, and finished all the work they had taken up.

52 They rose early on the morning of the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month — the month called Chislev — in the 148th year, [d] 53 and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar of whole burnt offerings they had built. 54 At the very season, on the very day, that the nations had treated it as common — on that day it was dedicated anew, with songs, lyres, harps, and cymbals. 55 And all the people fell on their faces and worshiped, and blessed Heaven, who had made their way succeed. [e]

56 They celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, offering whole burnt offerings with gladness, and sacrificing a sacrifice of well-being and praise. [f] 57 They decorated the front of the temple with crowns of gold and small shields; they dedicated the gates and the priests’ rooms anew and fitted them with doors. 58 And there was very great gladness among the people, and the reproach of the nations was turned away.

59 Then Judas and his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel decreed that the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept at their season, year after year, for eight days, beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month Chislev, with gladness and joy. [g]

60 At that time they also built high walls and strong towers all around Mount Zion, so that the nations could never again come and trample it as they had done before. 61 Judas stationed a force there to guard it; and he fortified Beth-zur to guard it too, so that the people would have a fortress facing Idumea. [h]