1
When Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his army had fallen in battle, he sent Bacchides and Alcimus into the land of Judah a second time, and with them the right wing of the army.
2
They went by the road that leads to Gilgal and encamped against Mesaloth in Arbela, and they took it and killed many people.
3
In the first month of the one hundred fifty-second year they encamped against Jerusalem;
4
then they marched off and went to Berea with twenty thousand foot soldiers and two thousand cavalry.
5
Now Judas was encamped in Elasa, and with him were three thousand picked men.
6
When they saw the huge number of the enemy forces, they were greatly frightened, and many slipped away from the camp, until no more than eight hundred of them were left.
7
When Judas saw that his army had slipped away and the battle was imminent, he was crushed in spirit, for he had no time to assemble them.
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.