1 Then Yoḥanan came up from Gezer, and told Shim’on his father what Kendĕbeus had done.
2 Therefore Shim’on called his two eldest sons Yahuḏah and Yoḥanan and said to them, “My brothers and I and my father’s house have from my youth to this day always fought against the enemies of Yisra’ĕl. And matters have prospered so well in our hands, that we have delivered Yisra’ĕl many times.
3 “But now I am old, and you, by Elohim’s kindness, are of a sufficient age. You take the place of myself and my brother, and go and fight for our nation, and the help the shamayim be with you.”
4 So he chose twenty thousand men of battle out of the country with horsemen, who went out against Kendĕbeus, and rested that night at Modi’im.
5 And when as they rose in the morning, and went into the plain, see, a mighty great army of both footmen and horsemen came against them. However, there was a wadi of water between them,
6 so he and his people encamped opposite them. But when he saw that the people were afraid to go over the wadi of water, he went over first himself, and then the men seeing him, passed over after him.
7 That done, he divided his men, and positioned the horsemen in the midst of the footmen, for the enemy’s horsemen were very numerous.
8 Then they sounded with the qodesh trumpets, so Kendĕbeus and his army were put to flight, so that many of them were slain, and the remnant went to the stronghold.
9 At that time Yahuḏah, Yoḥanan’s brother was wounded; but Yoḥanan still pursued them until he came to Qiḏron which Kendĕbeus had built.
10 So they fled even to the towers in the fields of Ashdoḏ; therefore he burned it with fire, so that there were about two thousand of them slain. Afterward he returned to the land of Yahuḏah in peace.
11 And in the plain of Yeriḥo Ptolemaeus the son of Aboubus was made captain, and he had an abundance of silver and gold,
12 for he was the kohĕn ha’gadol’s son-in-law.
13 Therefore his heart being lifted up, he thought to take the land for himself, and therefore planned deceitfully against Shim’on and his sons to destroy them.
14 Now Shim’on was visiting the cities that were in the country and taking care for the good ordering of them; at which time he himself came down to Yeriḥo with his sons Mattithyahu and Yahuḏah, in the hundred and seventy-seventh year, in the eleventh month called Sheḇat,
15 where the son of Aboubus, receiving them deceitfully into a small fortress called Doḵ – which he had built – made them a great feast. However, he had men hidden there.
16 So when Shim’on and his sons had drunk plenty, Ptolemaeus and his men rose up, and took their weapons, and came upon Shim’on into the feasting place, and slew him, and his two sons, and some of his servants.
17 In doing so, he committed a great treachery, and repaid evil for good.
18 Then Ptolemaeus wrote these matters, and sent to the sovereign, that he should send him an army to aid him, and he would deliver him the land and cities.
19 He also sent others to Gezer to kill Yoḥanan. And he sent letters to the tribunes to come to him, that he might give them silver and gold and rewards.
20 And others he sent to take Yerushalayim and the mountain of the Hĕyḵal.
21 Now one had run before to Gezer and told Yoḥanan that his father and brothers were slain, and he said, “Ptolemaeus has sent to slay you also.”
22 When he heard of this, he was greatly astonished, so he took hold of those that came to destroy him, and slew them; for he knew that they sought to take him away.
23 Concerning the rest of the acts of Yoḥanan, and his battles, and worthy deeds which he did, and the building of the walls which he made, and his doings,
24 see, these are written in the chronicles of his kehunnah, from the time he was made kohĕn ha’gadol after his father.