1Now Maccabeus and those with him, with the Lord leading them, recovered the temple and the city.
2They tore down the altars that had been built in the marketplace by the foreigners, as well as the sacred precincts.
3And after cleansing the temple, they made another altar. Striking stones and taking fire from them, they offered sacrifices after a two-year period, along with incense and lamps, and they set out the Bread of the Presence.
4After doing these things, they fell on their faces and implored the Lord that they might never again fall into such evils, but if they should ever sin, that they might be disciplined by him with gentleness and not be handed over to blasphemous and barbarous nations.
5It happened that the cleansing of the temple took place on the very same day that it had been profaned by foreigners: the twenty-fifth day of the same month, which is Chislev.
6And they celebrated with gladness for eight days in the manner of the Festival of Booths, remembering how a short time before, during the Festival of Booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals.
7Therefore, holding wands, beautiful branches, and palm fronds, they gave thanks to him who had successfully brought about the cleansing of his own place.
8And they decreed by a common edict and vote for the whole Jewish nation to celebrate these days annually.
9So, then, the account of the death of Antiochus, called Epiphanes, concludes.
10But now we will set forth the events concerning Antiochus Eupator, son of that impious man, summarizing the continuous evils of the wars.
11For when he took over the kingdom, he appointed a certain Lysias over the affairs of state, as chief commander of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia.
12For Ptolemy, called Macron, taking the lead in maintaining justice toward the Jews because of the injustice that had been done to them, tried to manage his dealings with them peacefully.
13For this reason he was accused by his friends before Eupator and was constantly being called a traitor—because he had abandoned Cyprus, which Philometor had entrusted to him, and had gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes. Unable to administer his high office with honor, he took his own life by poison.
14But Gorgias, having become governor of the region, maintained a force of mercenaries and at every opportunity waged war against the Jews.
15At the same time, the Idumeans, who held strategically important strongholds, harassed the Jews; and by welcoming fugitives from Jerusalem, they sought to prolong the war.
16But Maccabeus and his men, after making supplication and asking God to be their ally, marched against the strongholds of the Idumeans.
17Attacking them vigorously, they became masters of the positions, repelled all who fought on the wall, slaughtered those they encountered, and killed no fewer than twenty thousand.
18When no fewer than nine thousand had fled together into two very strong towers that had everything needed for a siege,
19Maccabeus left Simon and Joseph, as well as Zacchaeus and his men—a force sufficient to besiege them—and departed himself for more pressing engagements.
20But Simon’s men, in their greed, were bribed by some of those in the towers; receiving seventy thousand drachmas, they let some of them slip away.
21When this was reported to Maccabeus, he gathered the leaders of the people and accused those men of having sold their brothers for money by releasing their enemies to fight against them.
22So he executed these men as traitors and immediately captured the two towers.
23Successful in all his military endeavors, he destroyed more than twenty thousand in the two strongholds.
24But Timothy, who had previously been defeated by the Jews, gathered a vast multitude of foreign forces and assembled a considerable cavalry from Asia, and he arrived intending to take Judea by storm.
25As Timothy drew near, Maccabeus and his men turned to God in supplication, sprinkling their heads with earth and girding their loins with sackcloth.
26Falling down before the ledge of the altar, they begged him to be gracious to them, to be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their adversaries, just as the Law makes clear.
27Rising from their prayer, they took up their arms and advanced a considerable distance from the city. When they drew near to the enemy, they halted.
28Just as dawn was breaking, both sides attacked. The one side had their refuge in the Lord as a guarantee of success and victory, in addition to their valor; the other made their rage the leader of their struggle.
29As a fierce battle was raging, there appeared to the enemy from heaven five splendid men on horses with golden bridles, two of whom took the lead for the Jews.
30They placed Maccabeus in their midst and, shielding him with their own armor, kept him unharmed. But against their opponents they hurled arrows and thunderbolts, so that their enemies, confused by blindness and filled with disorder, were cut down.
31And twenty thousand five hundred men were slaughtered, and six hundred horsemen.
32But Timothy himself fled to a stronghold called Gazara, a very strong fortress, where Chaereas was commander.
33But Maccabeus and his men eagerly besieged the fortress for forty days.
34But those inside, trusting in the strength of the place, were blaspheming excessively and uttering wicked words.
35But at the dawn of the twenty-fifth day, some young men from Maccabeus’s company, inflamed with anger because of the blasphemies, attacked the wall and, with manly courage and beastly rage, began to cut down anyone in their path.
36Others, likewise climbing up amid the distraction to engage those inside, began to set fire to the towers; and lighting pyres, they burned the blasphemers alive. Still others were breaking down the gates, and after letting in the rest of the army, they captured the city.
37They also slaughtered Timothy, who was hidden in a certain cistern, along with his brother Chaereas and Apollophanes.
38After accomplishing these things, they blessed the Lord with hymns and thanksgiving, who greatly benefits Israel and gives them the victory.
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