1 Maccabees 3:37

37 So the king took the half of the forces that remained, and departed from Antioch, his royal city, the hundred forty and seventh year; and having passed over the River Euphrates, he went through the high countries.

1 Maccabees 3:37 In-Context

35 to wit, that he should send an army against them to destroy and root out the strength of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem, and to take away their memory from that place;

36 and that he should place strangers in all their quarters, and divide their land by lot.

37 So the king took the half of the forces that remained, and departed from Antioch, his royal city, the hundred forty and seventh year; and having passed over the River Euphrates, he went through the high countries.

38 Then Lysias chose Ptolemy the son of Dorymenes, Nicanor, and Gorgias, mighty men of the king's friends;

39 and with them he sent forty thousand footmen and seven thousand horsemen to go into the land of Judah and to destroy it, as the king commanded.