2 Maccabees 12

1 When these agreements were made, Lysias went off to the king, and the Jews turned to their farming. 2 But the local commanders — Timothy, and Apollonius son of Gennaeus, and Hieronymus and Demophon besides, and along with them Nicanor the Cypriarch — would not let them settle down and live quietly. [a]

3 The men of Joppa did a godless thing on this scale. They invited the Jews living among them to get into boats they had made ready, with their wives and children, as though there were no ill will between them at all. 4 It was done by a public vote of the city. The Jews accepted, since they wanted peace and suspected nothing; but once they had been taken out into deep water, the men of Joppa drowned them — no fewer than two hundred. [c]

5 When Judas heard of the cruelty done to his own countrymen, he gave the word to his men, 6 and calling on God, the righteous judge, he came against the murderers of his brothers. He set the harbor on fire by night, burned up the boats, and ran through those who had fled there. 7 The town itself was shut against him, so he withdrew — meaning to come back and tear out the whole community of Joppa by the roots. 8 Then he learned that the men in Jamnia meant to do the same thing to the Jews living beside them, 9 so he fell on the people of Jamnia by night as well, and set fire to the harbor with the fleet in it, so that the glare of the blaze was seen at Jerusalem, thirty miles away. [d]

10 They had pulled away about a mile from there, on the march against Timothy, when Arabs attacked him — no fewer than five thousand, with five hundred horsemen. 11 The battle was hard, but Judas’s men came off well by the help that comes from God; and the nomads, beaten, begged Judas to give them his right hand, promising to give him cattle and to be of use to him in other ways. 12 Judas reckoned that they really would be useful in many things, and agreed to keep peace with them; so they took his right hand and went off to their tents.

13 He also attacked a certain city that was strong in its bridges and fenced about with walls, lived in by people of every sort of nation; its name was Caspin. [e] 14 Those inside trusted the strength of their walls and their store of food, and behaved very coarsely toward Judas’s men, jeering at them, speaking abusively besides, and saying what must not be said. 15 So Judas and his men called on the great Sovereign of the world, who without battering rams or engines of war threw Jericho down in the days of Joshua, and they hurled themselves at the wall like wild animals. [f] 16 They took the city by the will of God and made slaughter past telling, so that the lake beside it, a quarter of a mile across, was seen filled and running with blood.

17 From there they pulled away about ninety-five miles and reached Charax, and the Jews of the land of Tob. [g] 18 They did not find Timothy in that country. He had left those parts without accomplishing anything, though he had left behind a very strong garrison in one place. 19 Dositheus and Sosipater, two of Maccabeus’s officers, marched out and destroyed the men Timothy had left in the stronghold — more than ten thousand of them. 20 Maccabeus drew up his own army in companies, set these men over the companies, and rushed against Timothy, who had with him a hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and two thousand five hundred horsemen. 21 When Timothy learned that Judas was coming, he sent the women and the children and the rest of the baggage on ahead to the place called Carnion, since it was hard to besiege and hard to reach, because every approach to it was narrow. [h]

22 But when Judas’s first company came into sight, and dread fell on the enemy, and fear came over them from the appearing of the One who watches over all things, they broke and ran, one man carried this way and another that, so that they were often hurt by their own side and run through by the points of their own swords. 23 Judas pressed the pursuit hard, running the guilty men through, and destroyed as many as thirty thousand. 24 Timothy himself fell into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater, and begged them with a great deal of cunning to let him go alive, since he held the parents of many of them and the brothers of some, and if he were killed these would be left to their fate. 25 When he had given his word many times over that he would give them back unharmed, they let him go, for the sake of their brothers’ rescue.

26 Then Maccabeus marched out against Carnion and the temple of Atargatis, and cut down twenty-five thousand people. 27 After their rout and destruction he took the field against Ephron as well, a fortified city where Lysias was living, along with crowds of every nation. Sturdy young men stood out in front of the walls and fought stoutly, and inside were great stores of engines and missiles. [i] 28 They called on the Sovereign who breaks the strength of enemies by his power, and they took the city into their hands and laid low twenty-five thousand of those inside.

29 From there they broke camp and set out for the city of the Scythians, seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. [j] 30 But the Jews living there testified to the goodwill the people of Scythopolis had shown them, and to their kind welcome in times of trouble. 31 So they thanked them, urged them to be favorable to the people in the future as well, and came to Jerusalem, since the Feast of Weeks was close at hand. [k]

32 After the feast called Pentecost they set out against Gorgias, the commander of Idumea. 33 He came out with three thousand foot soldiers and four hundred horsemen. 34 When the two sides drew up for battle, a few of the Jews fell. 35 A certain Dositheus, one of Bacenor’s men, a strong man on horseback, got hold of Gorgias, and gripping his cloak was dragging him off by main force, meaning to take the cursed man alive; but one of the Thracian horsemen bore down on him and cut off his shoulder, and Gorgias got away to Marisa. 36 Esdris’s men had been fighting a long time and were worn out, so Judas called on the Lord to show himself their ally and the leader of the battle. [l] 37 Then, striking up the war cry with songs in the language of his fathers, he threw himself on Gorgias’s men when they did not expect it, and routed them. 38 Judas gathered up the army and came to the city of Adullam. The seventh day was coming on, so they made themselves clean there, as the custom was, and kept the Sabbath in that place. [m]

39 On the next day, at the time when it had to be done, Judas and his men came to take up the bodies of the fallen and lay them with their kinsmen in their fathers’ tombs. 40 Under the tunic of every one of the dead they found objects sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews. It became clear to them all that this was why these men had fallen. [n] 41 So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge, who makes hidden things plain, 42 and they turned to prayer, asking that the sin that had been committed be wiped out completely. And the noble Judas urged the people to keep themselves free from sin, since they had seen with their own eyes what had come of the sin of those who had fallen.

43 He took up a collection, man by man, that came to about twenty-five pounds of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice for sin — doing this very well and honorably, with the rising in mind. [o] 44 For if he had not been expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. 45 And he was looking to the finest gift laid up for those who fall asleep in devoutness; so the thought was holy and godly. That is why he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be set free from the sin.