1 Maccabees 6:18

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.

1 Maccabees 6:18 In-Context

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.
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.