37
for they said, "Let us all die in our innocence; heaven and earth testify for us that you are killing us unjustly."
38
So they attacked them on the sabbath, and they died, with their wives and children and cattle, to the number of a thousand persons.
39
When Mattathias and his friends learned of it, they mourned for them deeply.
40
And each said to his neighbor: "If we all do as our brethren have done and refuse to fight with the Gentiles for our lives and for our ordinances, they will quickly destroy us from the earth."
41
So they made this decision that day: "Let us fight against every man who comes to attack us on the sabbath day; let us not all die as our brethren died in their hiding places."
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the 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.