36
But they did not answer them or hurl a stone at them or block up their hiding places,
37
for they said, "Let us all die in our innocence; heaven and earth testify for us that you are killing us unjustly."
38
So they attacked them on the sabbath, and they died, with their wives and children and livestock, to the number of a thousand persons.
39
When Mattathias and his friends learned of it, they mourned for them deeply.
40
And all said to their neighbors: "If we all do as our kindred have done and refuse to fight with the Gentiles for our lives and for our ordinances, they will quickly destroy us from the earth."
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.