16
Thus Antiochus the king died there in the one hundred and forty-ninth year.
17
And when Lysias learned that the king was dead, he set up Antiochus the king's son to reign. Lysias had brought him up as a boy, and he named him Eupator.
18
Now the men in the citadel kept hemming Israel in around the sanctuary. They were trying in every way to harm them and strengthen the Gentiles.
19
So Judas decided to destroy them, and assembled all the people to besiege them.
20
They gathered together and besieged the citadel in the one hundred and fiftieth year; and he built siege towers and other engines of war.
21
But some of the garrison escaped from the siege and some of the ungodly Israelites joined them.
22
They went to the king and said, "How long will you fail to do justice and to avenge our brethren?
23
We were happy to serve your father, to live by what he said and to follow his commands.
24
For this reason the sons of our people besieged the citadel and became hostile to us; moreover, they have put to death as many of us as they have caught, and they have seized our inheritances.
25
And not against us alone have they stretched out their hands, but also against all the lands on their borders.
26
And behold, today they have encamped against the citadel in Jerusalem to take it; they have fortified both the sanctuary and Beth-zur;