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.
40
So they went forth with all their power, and came and pitched camp by Emmaus in the plain country.
41
And the merchants of the country, hearing the fame of them, took very much silver and gold, with servants, and came into the camp to buy the children of Israel for slaves. A power also of Syria and of the land of the Philistines joined themselves unto them.
42
Now when Judas and his brethren saw that miseries were multiplied, and that the forces were encamped in their borders (for they knew how the king had given commandment to destroy the people and utterly abolish them),