39
And upon the day following, as the practice had been, Judas and his company came to take up the bodies of those who were slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen in their fathers' graves.
40
Now under the coats of every one who was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which is forbidden the Jews by the law. Then every man saw that this was the cause for which they were slain.
41
All men therefore, praising the Lord, the righteous Judge, who had opened the things that were hid,
42
resorted unto prayer and besought Him that the sin committed might wholly be put out of remembrance. Besides, that noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, inasmuch as they saw before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sins of those who were slain.
43
And when he had taken a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachmas of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honorably, in that he was mindful of the resurrection.
44
For if he had not hoped that those who were slain should have risen again, it would have been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.)