5
Now when Maccabeus had his company about him, he could not be withstood by the heathen; for the wrath of the Lord was turned into mercy.
6
Therefore he came at them unawares, and burned up towns and cities and got into his hands the most commodious places, and overcame and put to flight no small number of his enemies.
7
But especially took he advantage of the night for such secret attempts, insomuch that the report of his manliness was spread everywhere.
8
So when Philip saw that this man increased little by little, and that things prospered with him still more and more, he wrote unto Ptolemy, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, to yield more aid to the king's affairs.
9
Then forthwith, choosing Nicanor the son of Patroclus, one of his special friends, he sent him with no fewer than twenty thousand of all nations under him to root out the whole generation of the Jews; and with him he joined also Gorgias, a captain who in matters of war had great experience.