28
So the year following Lysias gathered together threescore thousand chosen men, and five thousand horsemen, that he might subdue them.
29
And they came into Judea, and pitched their tents in Bethoron, and Judas met them with ten thousand men.
30
And they saw that the army was strong, and he prayed, and said: Blessed art thou, O Saviour of Israel, who didst break the violence of the mighty by the hand of thy servant David, and didst deliver up the camp of the strangers into the hands of Jonathan the son of Saul and of his armourbearer.
31
Shut up this army in the hands of thy people Israel, and let them be confounded in their host and their horsemen.
32
Strike them with fear, and cause the boldness of their strength to languish, and let them quake at their own destruction.
33
Cast them down with the sword of them that love thee: and let all that know thy name, praise thee with hymns.
34
And they joined battle: and there fell of the army of Lysias five thousand men.
35
And when Lysias saw that his men were put to flight, and how bold the Jews were, and that they were ready either to live, or to die manfully, he went to Antioch, and chose soldiers, that they might come again into Judea with greater numbers.
36
Then Judas, and his brethren said: Behold our enemies are discomfited: let us go up now to cleanse the holy places and to repair them.
37
And all the army assembled together, and they went up into mount Sion.
38
And they saw the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt, and shrubs growing up in the courts as in a forest, or on the mountains, and the chambers joining to the temple thrown down.