43
When Eleazar Avaran saw that one of the elephants was larger than the others and that it was covered with royal armor, he thought that the king was riding on it.
44
Eleazar sacrificed his life to save his people and to gain eternal fame.
45
He ran boldly toward the elephant, which was in the middle of a battalion of infantry. He rushed forward killing men to the right and left, so that the enemy soldiers fell back before him on both sides.
46
He slipped in under the elephant and stabbed it to death, and it fell on him and killed him.
47
But when the Jews realized how strong the royal army was and how determined it was to fight, they retreated.
48
The king and his army advanced to fight the Jews at Jerusalem and laid siege to the whole of Judea and Jerusalem.
49
He made peace with the Jews of Bethzur, who then left the town. There had not been enough food in the town for them to withstand the siege because it was the sabbatical year, when no crops were planted.
50
The king occupied Bethzur and stationed a body of troops there to guard it.
51
Then he surrounded the Temple and besieged it for a long time. He set up siege platforms, battering rams, catapults for throwing fire and stones, and other weapons to throw spears and rocks.
52
The defenders also made war machines to oppose those of the enemy, and so the battle went on for a long time.
53
But there was no food left in the Temple storage bins because it was the sabbatical year, and the people who had fled from the Gentiles and taken refuge in Judea had eaten all the food that had been stored there.