HOW JUDAS OVERTHREW THE FORCES OF APOLLONIUS AND SERON AND KILLED THE GENERALS OF THEIR ARMIES THEMSELVES; AND HOW WHEN, A LITTLE WHILE AFTERWARDS LYSIAS AND GORGIAS WERE BEATEN HE WENT UP TO JERUSALEM AND PURIFIED THE TEMPLE. FJAJ 12.58
1. WHEN Apollonius, the general of the Samaritan forces, heard this,
he took his army, and made haste to go against Judas, who met him, and
joined battle with him, and beat him, and slew many of his men, and among
them Apollonius himself, their general, whose sword being that which he
happened then to wear, he seized upon, and kept for himself; but he wounded
more than he slew, and took a great deal of prey from the enemy's camp,
and went his way
But when Seron, who was general of the army of Celesyria,
heard that many had joined themselves to Judas, and that he had about him
an army sufficient for fighting, and for making war, he determined to make
an expedition against him, as thinking it became him to endeavor to punish
those that transgressed the king's injunctions
He then got together an
army, as large as he was able, and joined to it the runagate and wicked
Jews, and came against Judas
He came as far as Bethhoron, a village of
Judea, and there pitched his camp; upon which Judas met him; and when he
intended to give him battle, he saw that his soldiers were backward to
fight, because their number was small, and because they wanted food, for
they were fasting, he encouraged them, and said to them, that victory and
conquest of enemies are not derived from the multitude in armies, but in
the exercise of piety towards God; and that they had the plainest instances
in their forefathers, who, by their righteousness, exerting themselves
on behalf of their own laws, and their own children, had frequently conquered
many ten thousands, - for innocence is the strongest army
By this speech
he induced his men to contenm the multitude of the enemy, and to fall upon
Seron
And upon joining battle with him, he beat the Syrians; and when
their general fell among the rest, they all ran away with speed, as thinking
that to be their best way of escaping
So he pursued them unto the plain,
and slew about eight hundred of the enemy; but the rest escaped to the
region which lay near to the sea. FJAJ 12.59
2. When king Antiochus heard of these things, he was very angry at what
had happened; so he got together all his own army, with many mercenaries,
whom he had hired from the islands, and took them with him, and prepared
to break into Judea about the beginning of the spring
But when, upon his
mustering his soldiers, he perceived that his treasures were deficient,
and there was a want of money in them, for all the taxes were not paid,
by reason of the seditions there had been among the nations he having been
so magnanimous and so liberal, that what he had was not sufficient for
him, he therefore resolved first to go into Persia, and collect the taxes
of that country
Hereupon he left one whose name was Lysias, who was in
great repute with him governor of the kingdom, as far as the bounds of
Egypt, and of the Lower Asia, and reaching from the river Euphrates, and
committed to him a certain part of his forces, and of his elephants, and
charged him to bring up his son Antiochus with all possible care, until
he came back; and that he should conquer Judea, and take its inhabitants
for slaves, and utterly destroy Jerusalem, and abolish the whole nation.
And when king Antiochus had given these things in charge to Lysias, he
went into Persia; and in the hundred and forty-seventh year he passed over
Euphrates, and went to the superior provinces. FJAJ 12.60
3. Upon this Lysias chose Ptolemy, the son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor,
and Gorgias, very potent men among the king's friends, and delivered to
them forty thousand foot soldiers, and seven thousand horsemen, and sent
them against Judea, who came as far as the city Emmaus, and pitched their
camp in the plain country
There came also to them auxiliaries out of Syria,
and the country round about; as also many of the runagate Jews
And besides
these came some merchants to buy those that should be carried captives,
(having bonds with them to bind those that should be made prisoners,) with
that silver and gold which they were to pay for their price
And when Judas
saw their camp, and how numerous their enemies were, he persuaded his own
soldiers to be of good courage, and exhorted them to place their hopes
of victory in God, and to make supplication to him, according to the custom
of their country, clothed in sackcloth; and to show what was their usual
habit of supplication in the greatest dangers, and thereby to prevail with
God to grant you the victory over your enemies
So he set them in their
ancient order of battle used by their forefathers, under their captains
of thousands, and other officers, and dismissed such as were newly married,
as well as those that had newly gained possessions, that they might not
fight in a cowardly manner, out of an inordinate love of life, in order
to enjoy those blessings
When he had thus disposed his soldiers, he encouraged
them to fight by the following speech, which he made to them: "O my
fellow soldiers, no other time remains more opportune than the present
for courage and contempt of dangers; for if you now fight manfully, you
may recover your liberty, which, as it is a thing of itself agreeable to
all men, so it proves to be to us much more desirable, by its affording
us the liberty of worshipping God
Since therefore you are in such circumstances
at present, you must either recover that liberty, and so regain a happy
and blessed way of living, which is that according to our laws, and the
customs of our country, or to submit to the most opprobrious sufferings;
nor will any seed of your nation remain if you be beat in this battle.
Fight therefore manfully; and suppose that you must die, though you do
not fight; but believe, that besides such glorious rewards as those of
the liberty of your country, of your laws, of your religion, you shall
then obtain everlasting glory
Prepare yourselves, therefore, and put yourselves
into such an agreeable posture, that you may be ready to fight with the
enemy as soon as it is day tomorrow morning." FJAJ 12.61
4. And this was the speech which Judas made to encourage them
But when
the enemy sent Gorgias, with five thousand foot and one thousand horse,
that he might fall upon Judas by night, and had for that purpose certain
of the runagate Jews as guides, the son of Mattathias perceived it, and
resolved to fall upon those enemies that were in their camp, now their
forces were divided
When they had therefore supped in good time, and had
left many fires in their camp, he marched all night to those enemies that
were at Emmaus
So that when Gorgias found no enemy in their camp, but
suspected that they were retired, and had hidden themselves among the mountains,
he resolved to go and seek them wheresoever they were
But about break
of day Judas appeared to those enemies that were at Emmaus, with only three
thousand men, and those ill armed, by reason of their poverty; and when
he saw the enemy very well and skillfully fortified in their camp, he encouraged
the Jews, and told them that they ought to fight, though it were with their
naked bodies, for that God had sometimes of old given such men strength,
and that against such as were more in number, and were armed also, out
of regard to their great courage
So he commanded the trumpeters to sound
for the battle; and by thus falling upon the enemies when they did not
expect it, and thereby astonishing and disturbing their minds, he slew
many of those that resisted him, and went on pursuing the rest as far as
Gadara, and the plains of Idumea, and Ashdod, and Jamnia; and of these
there fell about three thousand
Yet did Judas exhort his soldiers not
to be too desirous of the spoils, for that still they must have a contest
and battle with Gorgias, and the forces that were with him; but that when
they had once overcome them, then they might securely plunder the camp,
because they were the only enemies remaining, and they expected no others.
And just as he was speaking to his soldiers, Gorgias's men looked down
into that army which they left in their camp, and saw that it was overthrown,
and the camp burnt; for the smoke that arose from it showed them, even
when they were a great way off, what had happened
When therefore those
that were with Gorgias understood that things were in this posture, and
perceived that those that were with Judas were ready to fight them, they
also were affrighted, and put to flight; but then Judas, as though he had
already beaten Gorgias's soldiers without fighting, returned and seized
on the spoils
He took a great quantity of gold, and silver, and purple,
and blue, and then returned home with joy, and singing hymns to God for
their good success; for this victory greatly contributed to the recovery
of their liberty. FJAJ 12.62
5. Hereupon Lysias was confounded at the defeat of the army which he
had sent, and the next year he got together sixty thousand chosen men.
He also took five thousand horsemen, and fell upon Judea; and he went up
to the hill country of Bethsur, a village of Judea, and pitched his camp
there, where Judas met him with ten thousand men; and when he saw the great
number of his enemies, he prayed to God that he would assist him, and joined
battle with the first of the enemy that appeared, and beat them, and slew
about five thousand of them, and thereby became terrible to the rest of
them
Nay, indeed, Lysias observing the great spirit of the Jews, how they
were prepared to die rather than lose their liberty, and being afraid of
their desperate way of fighting, as if it were real strength, he took the
rest of the army back with him, and returned to Antioch, where he listed
foreigners into the service, and prepared to fall upon Judea with a greater
army. FJAJ 12.63
6. When therefore the generals of Antiochus's armies had been beaten
so often, Judas assembled the people together, and told them, that after
these many victories which God had given them, they ought to go up to Jerusalem,
and purify the temple, and offer the appointed sacrifices
But as soon
as he, with the whole multitude, was come to Jerusalem, and found the temple
deserted, and its gates burnt down, and plants growing in the temple of
their own accord, on account of its desertion, he and those that were with
him began to lament, and were quite confounded at the sight of the temple;
so he chose out some of his soldiers, and gave them order to fight against
those guards that were in the citadel, until he should have purified the
temple
When therefore he had carefully purged it, and had brought in new
vessels, the candlestick, the table [of shew-bread], and the altar [of
incense], which were made of gold, he hung up the veils at the gates, and
added doors to them
He also took down the altar [of burnt-offering], and
built a new one of stones that he gathered together, and not of such as
were hewn with iron tools
So on the five and twentieth day of the month
Casleu, which the Macedonians call Apeliens, they lighted the lamps that
were on the candlestick, and offered incense upon the altar [of incense],
and laid the loaves upon the table [of shew-bread], and offered burnt-offerings
upon the new altar [of burnt-offering]
Now it so fell out, that these
things were done on the very same day on which their Divine worship had
fallen off, and was reduced to a profane and common use, after three years'
time; for so it was, that the temple was made desolate by Antiochus, and
so continued for three years
This desolation happened to the temple in
the hundred forty and fifth year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month
Apeliens, and on the hundred fifty and third olympiad: but it was dedicated
anew, on the same day, the twenty-fifth of the month Apeliens, on the hundred
and forty-eighth year, and on the hundred and fifty-fourth olympiad
And
this desolation came to pass according to the prophecy of Daniel, which
was given four hundred and eight years before; for he declared that the
Macedonians would dissolve that worship [for some time]. FJAJ 12.64
7. Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices
of the temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon;
but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid sacrifices; and he honored
God, and delighted them by hymns and psalms
Nay, they were so very glad
at the revival of their customs, when, after a long time of intermission,
they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their worship, that they
made it a law for their posterity, that they should keep a festival, on
account of the restoration of their temple worship, for eight days
And
from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and call it Lights.
I suppose the reason was, because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared
to us; and that thence was the name given to that festival
Judas also
rebuilt the walls round about the city, and reared towers of great height
against the incursions of enemies, and set guards therein
He also fortified
the city Bethsura, that it might serve as a citadel against any distresses
that might come from our enemies. FJAJ 12.65