1 Maccabees 16

1And John came up from Gazara and reported to Simon his father what Cendebeus was doing.

2And Simon called his two older sons, Judas and John, and said to them, “I and my brothers and my father’s house have fought the wars of Israel from youth until this day, and it has prospered in our hands to deliver Israel many times.”

3But now I have grown old, and you also, by mercy, are mature in years. Become my replacements, and my brother’s, and go out and fight on behalf of our nation, and may the help from heaven be with you.

4And he selected from the country twenty thousand fighting men and horsemen, and they marched against Kendebaios, and camped in Modein.

5And when they rose early in the morning, they went into the plain; and behold, a large force came to meet them, infantry and cavalry, and a wadi was between them.

6And he himself and his people encamped opposite them; and when he saw the people afraid to cross the wadi, he crossed first, and the men saw him and crossed after him.

7And he divided the people and the horsemen among the foot soldiers; but the cavalry of the enemy was very numerous.

8And they sounded the trumpets, and Cendebeus and his camp were thrown into confusion, and many of them fell wounded; but those who were left fled into the stronghold.

9Then Judas, the brother of John, was wounded; but John pursued them until he came to Kedron, which he had built.

10And they fled into the towers in the fields of Azotus, and he burned it with fire; and about a thousand men fell from among them, and he returned to Judea in peace.

11And Ptolemy son of Abubus had been appointed governor over the plain of Jericho, and he had much silver and gold;

12For he was the son-in-law of the high priest.

13And his heart was lifted up, and he intended to seize control of the country, and he was plotting deceitfully against Simon and against his sons, to remove them.

14Simon was making a circuit of the cities in the country and taking care of their administration, and he went down to Jericho, he and Mattathias and Judas his sons, in the one hundred seventy-seventh year, in the eleventh month—that is, the month Shebat.

15And the son of Abubus welcomed them into the stronghold called Dok with deceit, which he had built, and he gave them a great banquet; and he had men hidden there.

16And when Simon and his sons became drunk, Ptolemy and those with him rose up and took their weapons, and entered the banquet against Simon, and killed him and his sons, and some of his young servants.

17And he committed a great act of treachery, and repaid evil for good.

18And Ptolemy wrote these things and sent word to the king that he should send him forces as help, and hand over their country and the cities.

19And he sent others to Gazara to take John, and to the commanders of thousands he sent letters to come to him, so that he might give them silver and gold and gifts.

20And he sent others to seize Jerusalem and the temple mount.

21And he ran on ahead and reported to John in Gazara that his father and his brothers had perished, and that he had sent men to kill you also.

22And when he heard, he was greatly alarmed, and he seized the men who had come to destroy him and killed them, for he knew that they were seeking to destroy him.

23And the rest of the accounts concerning John, and his wars, and his mighty deeds that he did, and the building of the walls that he built, and his acts—

24Behold, these things are written in the book of the days of his high priesthood, from the time when he became high priest after his father.