29
Then many who were seeking righteousness and justice went down to the wilderness to dwell there,
30
they, their sons, their wives, and their cattle, because evils pressed heavily upon them.
31
And it was reported to the king's officers, and to the troops in Jerusalem the city of David, that men who had rejected the king's command had gone down to the hiding places in the wilderness.
32
Many pursued them, and overtook them; they encamped opposite them and prepared for battle against them on the sabbath day.
33
And they said to them, "Enough of this! Come out and do what the king commands, and you will live."
34
But they said, "We will not come out, nor will we do what the king commands and so profane the sabbath day."
35
Then the enemy hastened to attack them.
36
But they did not answer them or hurl a stone at them or block up their hiding places,
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.