Judas Rescues the Jews of Gilead

When these things were over, the nations round about the Jews were very much displeased at the revival of their power. They rose up together and killed many of them, getting the better of them by ambushes and secret plots. Judas made continual expeditions against these people, trying to stop their raids and to put an end to the harm they were doing the Jews. So he fell on the Idumeans, the descendants of Esau, at Akrabattene, killed a great many of them and took their spoils. He also shut up the sons of Baean, who lay in wait for the Jews; he sat down around them and besieged them, burned their towers and destroyed the men in them. From there he hurried off against the Ammonites, who had a large and numerous army commanded by Timothy. When he had subdued them too, he took the city of Jazer, carried off their wives and children as captives, burned the city, and then returned to Judea. But when the neighboring nations learned that he had gone back, they gathered in great numbers in the land of Gilead and came against the Jews on their borders. These fled to the fortress of Dathema and sent word to Judas that Timothy was trying hard to take the place where they had taken refuge. While these letters were being read, other messengers came from Galilee to tell him that the people of Ptolemais, Tyre and Sidon and the other nations of Galilee had gathered together. [a]

So Judas, after considering what ought to be done to meet both needs at once, ordered his brother Simon to take about three thousand picked men and go to the help of the Jews in Galilee, while he himself and another of his brothers, Jonathan, hurried into the land of Gilead with eight thousand soldiers. He left Joseph son of Zechariah and Azariah in command of the rest of the forces, and charged them to guard Judea carefully and to fight no battle with anyone until he returned. So Simon went into Galilee, engaged the enemy and put them to flight. He pursued them to the very gates of Ptolemais and killed about three thousand of them, and he took the spoils of the slain, and brought back home with him the Jews they had taken captive, together with their baggage. [b]

As for Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan, they crossed the Jordan River, and when they had gone three days’ journey beyond it they met the Nabateans, who came to meet them peaceably. These told them how matters stood with the Jews in the land of Gilead: how many of them were in distress, shut up in fortresses and in the cities of Gilead. They urged Judas to hurry against the foreigners and to try to rescue his countrymen from them. Judas listened to this advice and turned back into the wilderness. He fell first on the inhabitants of Bozrah, took the city, struck down and killed all the males and all who were able to fight, and burned the city. Even when night came on he did not stop, but marched through it to the fortress where the Jews were shut up, with Timothy and his army lying around the place, and he came up to it in the morning. He found the enemy already attacking the walls, some bringing ladders to climb up on them and others bringing siege engines. So he ordered the trumpeter to sound, urged his soldiers to face danger eagerly for the sake of their brothers and kinsmen, divided his army into three bodies, and fell on the enemy from behind. When Timothy’s men realized that it was Maccabeus, of whose courage and success in war they had already had experience, they took to flight; and Judas followed them with his army and killed about eight thousand of them. Then he turned aside to a city of the foreigners called Alema, took it, killed all the males and burned the city itself. Moving on from there, he overthrew Chasphomake and Bosor and many other cities of Gilead. [c]

Not long after this, Timothy prepared a great army. He took others as allies, and persuaded some of the Arabs with the promise of pay to join his campaign, and he came with his army to the far side of the stream, opposite the city of Raphon. He urged his soldiers, if it came to a battle with the Jews, to fight bravely and to keep them from crossing the stream; for he told them beforehand that if the Jews crossed it, they would be beaten. When Judas heard that Timothy was preparing to fight, he took his whole army and hurried against his enemy. He crossed the stream and fell on them. Those who came to meet him he killed, and the rest he struck with such terror that he forced them to throw away their arms and run. Some of them escaped, but others fled to the sacred precinct called Carnaim, hoping to save themselves there. But Judas took the city and killed them, and burned the precinct, and so destroyed his enemies in various ways. [f]

When he had done this, he gathered the Jews of Gilead together, with their children and wives and the belongings they had, and prepared to bring them back into Judea. But when he came to a city named Ephron, which lay on the road — there was no other way he could go, and he was not willing to turn back — he sent to the people inside and asked them to open their gates and let them go on their way through the city; for they had blocked the gates with stones and cut off the passage through it. When the people of Ephron would not agree, he urged on those who were with him, surrounded the city and besieged it. He lay around it day and night, took the city, killed every male in it and burned it all down, and so won a way through. The number of the slain was so great that they walked over the dead bodies. So they crossed the Jordan and came to the great plain, facing which lies the city called Beth-shan, which the Greeks call Scythopolis. Hurrying on from there they came into Judea, singing psalms and hymns as they went and keeping up the merrymaking usual in triumphs after a victory. They also offered thank offerings, both for their success and for the safety of their army; for not one of the Jews had been killed in these battles. [g]

But as for Joseph son of Zechariah and Azariah, whom Judas had left as generals at the time when Simon was in Galilee fighting the people of Ptolemais and Judas himself and his brother Jonathan were in Gilead — they too wanted to win the glory of brave generals in war. So they took the army under their command and went to Jamnia. There Gorgias, the general in Jamnia, met them, and when battle was joined they lost two thousand of their army, and fled, and were pursued to the very borders of Judea. This misfortune came on them because they disobeyed the orders Judas had given them not to fight with anyone before he returned. For besides the rest of Judas’s skill as a general, one may well admire him for this too, the defeat that befell the forces under Joseph and Azariah: he had understood that it would happen if they departed in any way from the orders he had given them. But Judas and his brothers did not stop fighting the Idumeans; they pressed them on every side. They took the city of Hebron, pulled down all its fortifications and set its towers on fire, and they laid waste the foreigners’ country and the city of Marisa. They also came to Ashdod, took it and plundered it, and returned to Judea carrying a great deal of spoil and plunder. [i]