36
Then said Judas and his brethren, "Behold, our enemies are discomfited. Let us go up to cleanse and dedicate the sanctuary."
37
Upon this, all the host assembled themselves together and went up onto Mount Zion.
38
And when they saw the sanctuary desolate and the altar profaned, and the gates burned up, and shrubs growing in the courts as in a forest or as on one of the mountains, yea, and the priests' chambers pulled down,
39
they rent their clothes, and made great lamentation, and cast ashes upon their heads,
40
and fell down flat to the ground upon their faces, and blew an alarm with the trumpets, and cried toward heaven.
41
Then Judas appointed certain men to fight against those who were in the fortress until he had cleansed the sanctuary.
42
So he chose priests of blameless conduct, such as had pleasure in the law,
43
who cleansed the sanctuary and bore the defiled stones into an unclean place.
44
And when they considered what to do with the altar of burnt offerings which was profaned,
45
they thought it best to pull it down, lest it should be a reproach to them because the heathen had defiled it. Therefore they pulled it down,
46
and laid up the stones on the mountain of the temple in a suitable place until there should come a prophet to show what should be done with them.