28
But the next year he mustered sixty thousand picked infantry and five thousand cavalry to subdue them.
29
They came into Idumea and encamped at Beth-zur, and Judas met them with ten thousand men.
30
When he saw that their army was strong, he prayed, saying, "Blessed are you, O Savior of Israel, who crushed the attack of the mighty warrior by the hand of your servant David, and gave the camp of the Philistines into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul, and of the man who carried his armor.
31
Hem in this army by the hand of your people Israel, and let them be ashamed of their troops and their cavalry.
32
Fill them with cowardice; melt the boldness of their strength; let them tremble in their destruction.
33
Strike them down with the sword of those who love you, and let all who know your name praise you with hymns."
34
Then both sides attacked, and there fell of the army of Lysias five thousand men; they fell in action.
35
When Lysias saw the rout of his troops and observed the boldness that inspired those of Judas, and how ready they were either to live or to die nobly, he withdrew to Antioch and enlisted mercenaries in order to invade Judea again with an even larger army.
36
Then Judas and his brothers said, "See, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it."
37
So all the army assembled and went up to Mount Zion.
38
There they saw the sanctuary desolate, the altar profaned, and the gates burned. In the courts they saw bushes sprung up as in a thicket, or as on one of the mountains. They saw also the chambers of the priests in ruins.