1
King Antiochus was going through the upper provinces when he heard that Elymais in Persia was a city famed for its wealth in silver and gold.
2
Its temple was very rich, containing golden shields, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, the son of Philip, the Macedonian king who first reigned over the Greeks.
3
So he came and tried to take the city and plunder it, but he could not, because his plan became known to the men of the city
4
and they withstood him in battle. So he fled and in great grief departed from there to return to Babylon.
5
Then some one came to him in Persia and reported that the armies which had gone into the land of Judah had been routed;
6
that Lysias had gone first with a strong force, but had turned and fled before the Jews; that the Jews had grown strong from the arms, supplies, and abundant spoils which they had taken from the armies they had cut down;
7
that they had torn down the abomination which he had erected upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded the sanctuary with high walls as before, and also Beth-zur, his city.