1 Maccabees 4

1And Gorgias took five thousand men and one thousand chosen horsemen, and the camp set out by night,

2so as to fall upon the camp of the Jews and strike them suddenly; and the men of the citadel were his guides.

3And Judas heard, and he and the mighty men set out to strike the king’s force that was at Emmaus,

4while the forces were still scattered from the camp.

5And Gorgias came to the camp of Judas by night, and found no one; and he was looking for them in the mountains, because he said, “These men are fleeing from us.”

6And at daybreak Judas appeared in the plain with three thousand men; but they did not have armor and a sword as they wished.

7And they saw a strong camp of the nations, armored, and cavalry surrounding it, and these were trained for war.

8And Judas said to the men with him, “Do not fear their multitude, and do not be terrified by their attack.”

9Remember how our fathers were saved in the Red Sea when Pharaoh pursued them with force.

10And now let us cry out to heaven; if he is willing toward us, he will remember the covenant of our fathers and crush this camp before us today.

11And all the nations will know that there is one who redeems and saves Israel.

12And the foreigners lifted up their eyes and saw them encamped opposite them,

13And they went out from the camp for battle, and those with Judas sounded the trumpets.

14And they joined battle, and the nations were crushed, and they fled into the plain.

15But all the rear guard fell by the sword, and they pursued them as far as Gazara and as far as the plains of Judea and Azotus and Jamnia, and about three thousand of them fell.

16And Judas and the force turned back from pursuing after them,

17And he said to the people, “Do not desire the spoils, for the battle is before us,”

18And Gorgias and the force are in the hill country near us. But now stand against our enemies and fight them, and after this take the spoils with boldness.

19While Judas was still saying these things in a low voice, a certain part appeared, coming out from the mountain.

20And he saw that they had been routed, and that they were setting the camp on fire; for the smoke that was visible made what had happened clear.

21But when they saw these things, they were greatly terrified; and when they also saw Judas's camp in the plain, ready for battle,

22They all fled into the land of the foreigners.

23And Judas returned to the plunder of the camp, and took much gold and silver, and blue cloth and purple cloth and sea goods, and great wealth.

24And when they turned back, they sang hymns and gave praise to heaven: “For he is good; his mercy endures forever.”

25And there was great deliverance for Israel on that day.

26But as many of the foreigners as escaped, after they arrived, reported to Lysias all that had happened.

27But when he heard all this, he was confounded and lost heart, because what had happened to Israel was not what he wanted, and what the king had commanded him had not come about.

28And in the following year he assembled sixty thousand chosen men and five thousand cavalry, so as to make war against them.

29And they came into Idumea and encamped at Beth-zur, and Judas met them with ten thousand men.

30And when he saw that the camp was strong, he prayed and said, “Blessed are you, O Savior of Israel, who crushed the assault of the mighty one by the hand of your servant David, and gave the camp of the foreigners into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul and of the one who carried his armor.”

31Hand over this camp into the hands of your people Israel, and let them be put to shame because of their army and their cavalry.

32Give them cowardice, and melt the boldness of their strength, and let them be shaken by their own crushing.

33Strike them down with the sword of those who love you, and let all who know your name praise you with hymns.

34And they engaged one another in battle, and about five thousand men from the camp of Lysias fell, and they fell before them.

35But when Lysias saw the rout that had happened to his own force, and the boldness that had arisen in Judas’s men, and how they were ready either to live or to die nobly, he departed for Antioch, and recruited foreign troops, intending, after becoming stronger in number, to come again into Judea.

36Then Judas and his brothers said, “Look, our enemies have been crushed. Let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it.”

37And the whole camp assembled, and they went up to Mount Zion.

38And they saw our sanctuary laid waste, and the altar defiled, and the gates burned down, and in the courts plants growing as in a thicket or as on one of the mountains, and the chambers torn down.

39And they tore their garments, and made great lamentation, and put ashes on their heads.

40And they fell facedown on the ground, and they sounded the signal trumpets, and they cried out to heaven.

41Then Judas ordered men to fight those in the citadel until he had cleansed the sanctuary.

42And he chose blameless priests, devoted to the law.

43And they cleansed the sanctuary, and carried the stones of defilement to an unclean place.

44And they deliberated concerning the defiled altar of burnt offering, what they should do with it.

45And it seemed to them a good plan to tear it down, lest it become a reproach to them because the nations had defiled it; so they tore down the altar.

46And they set the stones aside on the temple hill in a suitable place, until a prophet should come to give an answer concerning them.

47And they took whole stones according to the law, and built a new altar as before.

48And they rebuilt the sanctuary and the interior of the house, and they consecrated the courts.

49And they made new holy vessels, and they brought the lampstand and the altar of burnt offerings and of incense and the table into the temple.

50And they burned incense on the altar, and they lit the lamps that were on the lampstand, and they shone in the temple.

51And they placed loaves on the table, and they spread out the curtains; and they completed all the works that they had done.

52And they rose early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month—that is, the month Chislev—in the one hundred and forty-eighth year.

53And they offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar of burnt offering that they had made.

54At the time, on the very day when the nations had defiled it, on that very day it was rededicated with songs and lyres and harps and cymbals.

55And all the people fell on their faces, and they worshiped and blessed toward heaven the one who had prospered them.

56And they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and they offered whole burnt offerings with gladness, and they sacrificed a sacrifice of deliverance and praise.

57And they adorned the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields, and they renewed the gates and the side chambers, and they fitted them with doors.

58And there was very great rejoicing among the people, and the reproach of the nations was turned away.

59And Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel decreed that the days of the dedication of the altar should be observed at their appointed times, year by year, for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month Chislev, with gladness and joy.

60And at that time they built up Mount Zion with high walls all around and strong towers, lest the nations come and trample it, as they had done before.

61And they stationed a force there to guard it, and they fortified it to guard Bethsura, so that the people might have a stronghold facing Idumea.