1 In the hundred and forty-ninth year Yahuḏah was informed Antioḵos Eupator was approaching Yahuḏah with a great force
2 with Lusias his guardian and governor with him, each having a Yawanite force of a hundred and ten thousand footmen and five thousand three hundred horsemen and twenty-two elephants and three hundred chariots armed with scythes.
3 Menelaos also joined himself with them and encouraged Antioḵos with great deception; not for the safeguard of the country, but because he thought he may have been made governor.
4 But the Sovereign of sovereigns moved Antioḵos against the wicked wretch, and Lusias informed the sovereign that this man was the reason for all the evil, so that the sovereign commanded to bring him to Beroia, and to put him to death by the method of the place.
5 Now there was a tower of fifty ammah high in that place full of ashes, and it had a round turret on which every side hung down into the ashes.
6 And whoever was condemned of temple robbery or had committed any other grievous crime, there all men were thrown to their death.
7 And quite righteously such a death to die came upon that wicked man, not having so much as burial in the earth.
8 Because he had committed many sins pertaining to the altar, whose fire and ashes were qodesh, so he received his death in ashes.
9 Now the sovereign came with a wicked and haughty plan to do far worse to the Yahuḏim than had been done in his father’s time.
10 When Yahuḏah learned of this, he commanded the multitude to call on 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 night and day that He would help them now if ever at any other time, being at the point of being removed their Law, from their country and from the qodesh Hĕyḵal;
11 and that He would not allow the people that had only just now been a little refreshed, to be in subjection to the blasphemous nations.
12 So when they had all done this together and pleaded for the kindness of Elohim with weeping and fasting and lying flat upon the ground for three days, Yahuḏah, having encouraged them, commanded they should make themselves ready.
13 And Yahuḏah, determined privately with the elders, that before the sovereign’s army could enter Yahuḏah, and take the city, to go out and determine the matter in battle with the help of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
14 So when he had committed all to the Creator of the world and encouraged his soldiers to fight bravely, even to death, for the Laws, the Hĕyḵal, the city, the country and the citizenship, he encamped by Modi’im.
15 And having given the watchword to those that were with him, “Victory is of Elohim,” he went into the sovereign’s camp by night with the bravest and chosen young men and slew about four thousand men in the camp, and the leading elephant with all that were upon it.
16 And by the end they had filled the camp with fear and disorder and withdrew with good success.
17 This was done at daybreak because the protection of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 helped him.
18 Now when the sovereign had a taste of the courage of the Yahuḏim, he attempted to take the towers using strategy,
19 and marched toward Bĕyth Tsur, which was a stronghold of the Yahuḏim; but he failed, was put to flight and lost his men,
20 for Yahuḏah had dispatched to those that were in it that which was necessary.
21 But Rhodokos, who was in the Yahuḏim’s army, disclosed secrets to the enemies; therefore he was sought out, and when they had taken him, they put him in prison.
22 The sovereign made a treaty with those in Bĕyth Tsur a second time, gave his pledge, took theirs, departed, fought with Yahuḏah, was overcome;
23 heard that Philippos, who was left over the affairs in Antioḵeia was hard pressed, being confounded made a treaty with the Yahuḏim, submitted himself and swore to all equal conditions, agreed with them and brought an offering, honoured the Hĕyḵal and dealt kindly with the place.
24 And accepting good from Maqqaḇah, made him principal governor from Ptolemais to the Gerarians,
25 and went to Ptolemais. The people there were grieved because of the covenants, and they raged for they wanted to annul their covenants.
26 Lusias went up to the judgment seat, said as much as he could in defence of the cause, persuaded, pacified, appeased them and returned to Antioḵeia. So it was regarding the sovereign’s coming and going.