37
They said, "We will all die with a clear conscience. Let heaven and earth bear witness that you are slaughtering us unjustly."
38
So the enemy attacked them on the Sabbath and killed the men, their wives, their children, and their livestock. A thousand people died.
39
When Mattathias and his friends heard the news about this, they were greatly saddened
40
and said to one another, "If all of us do as these other Jews have done and refuse to fight the Gentiles to defend our lives and our religion, we will soon be wiped off the face of the earth."
41
On that day they decided that if anyone attacked them on the Sabbath, they would defend themselves, so that they would not all die as other Jews had died in the caves.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.