4
But the King of kings stirred up the mind of Antiochus against the sinner, and upon Lysias suggesting that he was the cause of all the evils, he commanded (as the custom is with them) that he should be apprehended and put to death in the same place.
5
Now there was in that place a tower fifty cubits high, having a heap of ashes on every side: this had a prospect steep down.
6
From thence he commanded the sacrilegious wretch to be thrown down into the ashes, all men thrusting him forward unto death.
7
And by such a law it happened that Menelaus the transgressor of the law was put to death: not having so much as burial in the earth.
8
And indeed very justly, for insomuch as he had committed many sins against the altar of God, the fire and ashes of which were holy: he was condemned to die in ashes.
9
But the king, with his mind full of rage, came on to shew himself worse to the Jews than his father was.
10
Which, when Judas understood, he commanded the people to call upon the Lord day and night, that as he had always done, so now also he would help them:
11
Because they were afraid to be deprived of the law, and of their country, and of the holy temple: and that he would not suffer the people, that had of late taken breath for a little while, to be again in subjection to blasphemous nations.
12
So when they had all done this together, and had craved mercy of the Lord with weeping and fasting, lying prostrate on the ground for three days continually, Judas exhorted them to make themselves ready.
13
But he with the ancients determined, before the king should bring his army into Judea, and make himself master of the city, to go out, and to commit the event of the thing to the judgment of the Lord.
14
So committing all to God, the creator of the world, and having exhorted his people to fight manfully, and to stand up even to death for the laws, the temple, the city, their country, and citizens: he placed his army about Modin.