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But others sold all their remaining possessions so that the Lord would consider them worthy to be saved from the godless Nicanor, who had sold them as slaves even before the battle had taken place.
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They prayed that if God was not willing to do this for their sake alone, he might be willing to rescue them because of the covenants he had made with their ancestors, and because he, the great and wonderful God, had called them to be his people.
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Judas brought together all 6,000 of his men and encouraged them not to be frightened or to flee in panic at the sight of the large number of Gentile troops who were marching against them without cause. Instead they should fight bravely,
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never forgetting the crimes the Gentiles had committed against the Temple and how they had made Jerusalem suffer terribly and had done away with Jewish traditions.
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"They rely on their weapons and their daring," Judas said, "but we trust in Almighty God, who is able to destroy not only these troops, but, if necessary, the entire world, with a mere nod of his head."
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Then Judas went on to remind them of the ways God had helped their ancestors: during the time of Sennacherib 185,000 of the enemy had been destroyed;
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and once in Babylonia 8,000 Jews came to the aid of 4,000 Macedonians, defeating 120,000 Galatians and taking a great deal of loot, all because of God's help.
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Judas' words encouraged his men and made them willing to die for their religion and their country. He then divided his army into four divisions
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of about 1,500 men each, with himself and his brothers Simon, Joseph, and Jonathan each in charge of a division.
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After ordering Eleazar to read aloud from the holy book, he gave his men the battle cry: "God will help us," and personally led the attack against Nicanor.
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Almighty God fought on their side, and they killed more than 9,000 of the enemy. They wounded many others and put the entire enemy army to flight.