19
It is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven.
20
They come against us in great insolence and lawlessness to destroy us and our wives and our children, and to despoil us;
21
but we fight for our lives and our laws.
22
He himself will crush them before us; as for you, do not be afraid of them."
23
When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly against Seron and his army, and they were crushed before him.
24
They pursued them down the descent of Beth-horon to the plain; eight hundred of them fell, and the rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
25
Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and terror fell on the Gentiles all around them.
26
His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked of the battles of Judas.
27
When King Antiochus heard these reports, he was greatly angered; and he sent and gathered all the forces of his kingdom, a very strong army.
28
He opened his coffers and gave a year's pay to his forces, and ordered them to be ready for any need.
29
Then he saw that the money in the treasury was exhausted, and that the revenues from the country were small because of the dissension and disaster that he had caused in the land by abolishing the laws that had existed from the earliest days.