1
About this time Antiochus retreated in confusion out of the region of Persia.
2
When he had come into Persepolis, he attempted to loot the temple and take over the city. However, he was decisively beaten when the populace took up arms. Antiochus fled from the inhabitants and had to make a shameful retreat.
3
News reached him at Ecbatana of what happened to Nicanor and to Timothy's forces.
4
Swelling with rage, he planned to make the Jews pay for his own calamity when he was recently forced to flee. So he ordered his chariot driver to keep driving without stopping in order to complete the journey, but the judgment of heaven was already on him. He had said in his arrogance, "When I get to Jerusalem, I will turn it into a mass grave for the Jews."
5
But the all-seeing Lord God of Israel struck him with a deadly and invisible blow. As soon as he had uttered this statement, he developed a pain in his stomach and a cruel torment in his internal organs from which he could find no relief.