41
In the year one hundred and seventy the yoke of the Gentiles was taken off from Israel.
42
And the people of Israel began to write in the instruments, and public records, The first year under Simon the high priest, the great captain and prince of the Jews.
43
In those days Simon besieged Gaza, and camped round about it, and he made engines, and set them to the city, and he struck one tower, and took it.
44
And they that were within the engine leaped into the city: and there was a great uproar in the city.
45
And they that were in the city went up with their wives and children upon the wall, with their garments rent, and they cried with a loud voice, beseeching Simon to grant them peace.
46
And they said: Deal not with us according to our evil deeds, but according to thy mercy.
47
And Simon being moved, did not destroy them: but yet he cast them out of the city, and cleansed the houses wherein there had been idols, and then he entered into it with hymns, blessing the Lord.
48
And having cast out of it all uncleanness, he placed in it men that should observe the law: and he fortified it, and made it his habitation.
49
But they that were in the castle of Jerusalem were hindered from going out and coming into the country, and from buying and selling: and they were straitened with hunger, and many of them perished through famine.
50
And they cried to Simon form peace, and he granted it to them: and he cast them out from thence, and cleansed the castle from uncleannesses.
51
And they entered into it the three and twentieth day of the second month, in the year one hundred and seventy-one, with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and harps, and cymbals, and psalteries, and hymns, and canticles, because the great enemy was destroyed out of Israel.