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as He promised in the law, will shortly have mercy upon us and gather us together out of every land under heaven into the holy place; for He hath delivered us out of great troubles, and hath purified the place."
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Now concerning Judas Maccabeus and his brethren, and the purification of the great temple, and the dedication of the altar,
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and the wars against Antiochus Epiphanes and Eupator his son,
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and the manifest signs that came from heaven unto those who behaved themselves manfully to their honor for Judaism, so that, being but a few, they overcame the whole country, and chased barbarous multitudes,
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and recovered again the temple renowned all the world over, and freed the city, and upheld the laws which were going down, the Lord being gracious unto them with all favor
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all these things, I say, being declared by Jason of Cyrene in five books, we will attempt to abridge in one volume.
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For considering the infinite number and the difficulty which those find who desire to look into the narrations of the story because of the variety of the matter,
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we have taken care that those who will read might have delight, and that those who are desirous to commit to memory might have ease, and that all into whose hands it comes might have profit.
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Therefore for us who have taken upon us this painful labor of abridging, it was not easy but a matter of sweat and sleeplessness,
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even as it is no ease unto him that prepareth a banquet and seeketh the benefit of others. Yet for the pleasuring of many we will undertake gladly these great pains,
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leaving to the author the exact handling of every particular, and laboring to follow the rules of an abridgment.