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About that time King Antiochus, traveling through the high countries, heard it said that Elymais in the country of Persia was a city greatly renowned for riches, silver, and gold,
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and that there was in it a very rich temple, wherein were shields of gold and breastplates and arms, which Alexander, son of Philip, the Macedonian king who reigned first among the Grecians, had left there.
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Therefore he came and sought to take the city and to despoil it; but he was not able, because those of the city, having had warning thereof,
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rose up against him in battle. So he fled and departed thence with great heaviness, and returned to Babylon.
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Moreover, there came one who brought him tidings in Persia that the armies which went against the land of Judea were put to flight,
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and that Lysias, who went forth first with a great power, was driven away by the Jews, and that they were made strong by the arms and power and store of spoils which they had gotten from the armies whom they had destroyed;
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also that they had pulled down the abomination which he had set up upon the altar in Jerusalem, and that they had compassed about the sanctuary with high walls, as before, and his city Beth-zur.
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Now when the king heard these words, he was astonished and sorely moved; whereupon he lay down upon his bed and fell sick from grief, because it had not befallen him as he looked for.
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And there he continued many days, for his grief was ever more and more, and he took account that he should die.
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Therefore he called for all his friends and said unto them, "The sleep has gone from mine eyes, and my heart faileth for much care.
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And I thought to myself, `Into what tribulation have I come, and how great a flood of misery is it wherein now I am! For I was bountiful and beloved in my power.'