Antiquities of the Jews — Book 12, Chapter 7

1. When Apollonius, the general of the Samaritan forces, heard this, he
took his army, and made haste to go against Judas, who met him, and
joined battle with him, and beat him, and slew many of his men, and
among them Apollonius himself, their general, whose sword being that
which he happened then to wear, he seized upon, and kept for himself;
but he wounded more than he slew, and took a great deal of prey from the
enemy's camp, and went his way. But when Seron, who was general of the
army of Celesyria, heard that many had joined themselves to Judas, and
that he had about him an army sufficient for fighting, and for making
war, he determined to make an expedition against him, as thinking it
became him to endeavor to punish those that transgressed the king's
injunctions. He then got together an army, as large as he was able, and
joined to it the runagate and wicked Jews, and came against Judas. He
came as far as Bethhoron, a village of Judea, and there pitched his
camp; upon which Judas met him; and when he intended to give him battle,
he saw that his soldiers were backward to fight, because their number
was small, and because they wanted food, for they were fasting, he
encouraged them, and said to them, that victory and conquest of enemies
are not derived from the multitude in armies, but in the exercise of
piety towards God; and that they had the plainest instances in their
forefathers, who, by their righteousness, exerting themselves on behalf
of their own laws, and their own children, had frequently conquered many
ten thousands,—for innocence is the strongest army. By this speech he
induced his men to condemn the multitude of the enemy, and to fall upon
Seron. And upon joining battle with him, he beat the Syrians; and when
their general fell among the rest, they all ran away with speed, as
thinking that to be their best way of escaping. So he pursued them unto
the plain, and slew about eight hundred of the enemy; but the rest
escaped to the region which lay near to the sea.

2. When king Antiochus heard of these things, he was very angry at what
had happened; so he got together all his own army, with many
mercenaries, whom he had hired from the islands, and took them with him,
and prepared to break into Judea about the beginning of the spring. But
when, upon his mustering his soldiers, he perceived that his treasures
were deficient, and there was a want of money in them, for all the taxes
were not paid, by reason of the seditions there had been among the
nations he having been so magnanimous and so liberal, that what he had
was not sufficient for him, he therefore resolved first to go into
Persia, and collect the taxes of that country. Hereupon he left one
whose name was Lysias, who was in great repute with him governor of the
kingdom, as far as the bounds of Egypt, and of the Lower Asia, and
reaching from the river Euphrates, and committed to him a certain part
of his forces, and of his elephants, and charged him to bring up his son
Antiochus with all possible care, until he came back; and that he should
conquer Judea, and take its inhabitants for slaves, and utterly destroy
Jerusalem, and abolish the whole nation. And when king Antiochus had
given these things in charge to Lysias, he went into Persia; and in the
hundred and forty-seventh year he passed over Euphrates, and went to the
superior provinces.

3. Upon this Lysias chose Ptolemy, the son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor,
and Gorgias, very potent men among the king's friends, and delivered to
them forty thousand foot soldiers, and seven thousand horsemen, and sent
them against Judea, who came as far as the city Emmaus, and pitched
their camp in the plain country. There came also to them auxiliaries out
of Syria, and the country round about; as also many of the runagate
Jews. And besides these came some merchants to buy those that should be
carried captives, [having bonds with them to bind those that should be
made prisoners,] with that silver and gold which they were to pay for
their price. And when Judas saw their camp, and how numerous their
enemies were, he persuaded his own soldiers to be of good courage, and
exhorted them to place their hopes of victory in God, and to make
supplication to him, according to the custom of their country, clothed
in sackcloth; and to show what was their usual habit of supplication in
the greatest dangers, and thereby to prevail with God to grant you the
victory over your enemies. So he set them in their ancient order of
battle used by their forefathers, under their captains of thousands, and
other officers, and dismissed such as were newly married, as well as
those that had newly gained possessions, that they might not fight in a
cowardly manner, out of an inordinate love of life, in order to enjoy
those blessings. When he had thus disposed his soldiers, he encouraged
them to fight by the following speech, which he made to them: "O my
fellow soldiers, no other time remains more opportune than the present
for courage and contempt of dangers; for if you now fight manfully, you
may recover your liberty, which, as it is a thing of itself agreeable to
all men, so it proves to be to us much more desirable, by its affording
us the liberty of worshipping God. Since therefore you are in such
circumstances at present, you must either recover that liberty, and so
regain a happy and blessed way of living, which is that according to our
laws, and the customs of our country, or to submit to the most
opprobrious sufferings; nor will any seed of your nation remain if you
be beat in this battle. Fight therefore manfully; and suppose that you
must die, though you do not fight; but believe, that besides such
glorious rewards as those of the liberty of your country, of your laws,
of your religion, you shall then obtain everlasting glory. Prepare
yourselves, therefore, and put yourselves into such an agreeable
posture, that you may be ready to fight with the enemy as soon as it is
day tomorrow morning."

4. And this was the speech which Judas made to encourage them. But when
the enemy sent Gorgias, with five thousand foot and one thousand horse,
that he might fall upon Judas by night, and had for that purpose certain
of the runagate Jews as guides, the son of Mattathias perceived it, and
resolved to fall upon those enemies that were in their camp, now their
forces were divided. When they had therefore supped in good time, and
had left many fires in their camp, he marched all night to those enemies
that were at Emmaus. So that when Gorgias found no enemy in their camp,
but suspected that they were retired, and had hidden themselves among
the mountains, he resolved to go and seek them wheresoever they were.
But about break of day Judas appeared to those enemies that were at
Emmaus, with only three thousand men, and those ill armed, by reason of
their poverty; and when he saw the enemy very well and skillfully
fortified in their camp, he encouraged the Jews, and told them that they
ought to fight, though it were with their naked bodies, for that God had
sometimes of old given such men strength, and that against such as were
more in number, and were armed also, out of regard to their great
courage. So he commanded the trumpeters to sound for the battle; and by
thus falling upon the enemies when they did not expect it, and thereby
astonishing and disturbing their minds, he slew many of those that
resisted him, and went on pursuing the rest as far as Gadara, and the
plains of Idumea, and Ashdod, and Jamnia; and of these there fell about
three thousand. Yet did Judas exhort his soldiers not to be too desirous
of the spoils, for that still they must have a contest and battle with
Gorgias, and the forces that were with him; but that when they had once
overcome them, then they might securely plunder the camp, because they
were the only enemies remaining, and they expected no others. And just
as he was speaking to his soldiers, Gorgias's men looked down into that
army which they left in their camp, and saw that it was overthrown, and
the camp burnt; for the smoke that arose from it showed them, even when
they were a great way off, what had happened. When therefore those that
were with Gorgias understood that things were in this posture, and
perceived that those that were with Judas were ready to fight them, they
also were affrighted, and put to flight; but then Judas, as though he
had already beaten Gorgias's soldiers without fighting, returned and
seized on the spoils. He took a great quantity of gold, and silver, and
purple, and blue, and then returned home with joy, and singing hymns to
God for their good success; for this victory greatly contributed to the
recovery of their liberty.

5. Hereupon Lysias was confounded at the defeat of the army which he had
sent, and the next year he got together sixty thousand chosen men. He
also took five thousand horsemen, and fell upon Judea; and he went up to
the hill country of Bethsur, a village of Judea, and pitched his camp
there, where Judas met him with ten thousand men; and when he saw the
great number of his enemies, he prayed to God that he would assist him,
and joined battle with the first of the enemy that appeared, and beat
them, and slew about five thousand of them, and thereby became terrible
to the rest of them. Nay, indeed, Lysias observing the great spirit of
the Jews, how they were prepared to die rather than lose their liberty,
and being afraid of their desperate way of fighting, as if it were real
strength, he took the rest of the army back with him, and returned to
Antioch, where he listed foreigners into the service, and prepared to
fall upon Judea with a greater army.

6. When therefore the generals of Antiochus's armies had been beaten so
often, Judas assembled the people together, and told them, that after
these many victories which God had given them, they ought to go up to
Jerusalem, and purify the temple, and offer the appointed sacrifices.
But as soon as he, with the whole multitude, was come to Jerusalem, and
found the temple deserted, and its gates burnt down, and plants growing
in the temple of their own accord, on account of its desertion, he and
those that were with him began to lament, and were quite confounded at
the sight of the temple; so he chose out some of his soldiers, and gave
them order to fight against those guards that were in the citadel, until
he should have purified the temple. When therefore he had carefully
purged it, and had brought in new vessels, the candlestick, the table
[of shew-bread], and the altar [of incense], which were made of gold, he
hung up the veils at the gates, and added doors to them. He also took
down the altar [of burnt-offering], and built a new one of stones that
he gathered together, and not of such as were hewn with iron tools. So
on the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu, which the Macedonians
call Apeliens, they lighted the lamps that were on the candlestick, and
offered incense upon the altar [of incense], and laid the loaves upon
the table [of shew-bread], and offered burnt-offerings upon the new
altar [of burnt-offering]. Now it so fell out, that these things were
done on the very same day on which their Divine worship had fallen off,
and was reduced to a profane and common use, after three years' time;
for so it was, that the temple was made desolate by Antiochus, and so
continued for three years. This desolation happened to the temple in the
hundred forty and fifth year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month
Apeliens, and on the hundred fifty and third olympiad: but it was
dedicated anew, on the same day, the twenty-fifth of the month Apeliens,
on the hundred and forty-eighth year, and on the hundred and fifty-
fourth olympiad. And this desolation came to pass according to the
prophecy of Daniel, which was given four hundred and eight years before;
for he declared that the Macedonians would dissolve that worship [for
some time].

7. Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the
sacrifices of the temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of
pleasures thereon; but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid
sacrifices; and he honored God, and delighted them by hymns and psalms.
Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs, when, after
a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly had regained the freedom
of their worship, that they made it a law for their posterity, that they
should keep a festival, on account of the restoration of their temple
worship, for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this
festival, and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was, because this
liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name
given to that festival. Judas also rebuilt the walls round about the
city, and reared towers of great height against the incursions of
enemies, and set guards therein. He also fortified the city Bethsura,
that it might serve as a citadel against any distresses that might come
from our enemies.