Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Wars with Neighboring Nations
(2 Maccabees 10.14–33; 12.10–45)
1 When the neighboring nations
heard that the Jews had built
the altar and restored the Temple as
it had been before, they were so furious
2 that they made up their minds
to destroy all the Jews who were living
among them. So they began to
murder and kill our people.
3 The Idumeans were blockading
the Israelites, so Judas went to war
against them at Akrabattene,
crushed them, and looted them.
4 He
also dealt with the people of Baean,
who were a constant threat to the
people of Israel, because they would
lie in ambush waiting to trap Israelite
travelers.
5 He shut the Baeanites
up in their forts, took a solemn oath
that he would destroy them, and
burned their forts with everyone in
them.
6 Then he marched against the
land of Ammon, where he met a
large and powerful army under the
command of a man named Timothy.
7 Judas won many battles against
them and finally defeated them.
8 He
captured Jazer and its surrounding
villages and then returned to Judea.
9 The Gentiles in Gilead assembled
to attack and destroy the Israelites
living in their territory. But the
Israelites fled to the fortress of Dathema
10
11 and sent the following letter
to Judas and his brothers: “The
Gentiles around us are joining forces
under Timothy. We have fled to this
fortress for protection, and now they
are getting ready to capture it and
destroy us.
12 Many of us have already
been killed. Come rescue us!
13 All the Jewish men in the region of
Tob note have been killed, their wives
and their children have been taken
captive, and their possessions have
been carried off. A force of about
1,000 men has been destroyed
there.”
-- --
14 This letter was still being read
when other messengers, who had
torn their clothes in sorrow, arrived
with a report from Galilee.
15 They
said, “An army from Ptolemais,
Tyre, Sidon, and all of Galilee has
come together to destroy us.”
16 When Judas and the people
heard all this, a great assembly was
held to decide what should be done
to help these countrymen, who were
in such difficulty under enemy attack.
17 Judas said to his brother Simon,
“Choose some men and go rescue
our fellow Jews in Galilee; our
brother Jonathan and I will go to
Gilead.”
18 Judas left the rest of his
army to defend Judea and put the
two leaders, Azariah and Joseph son
of Zechariah, in charge of the people.
19 He told them: “I am leaving
you in command here, but don't go
out and fight the Gentiles until we
get back.”
20 Then 3,000 men joined
Simon for the march into Galilee,
and 8,000 remained with Judas for
the march into Gilead.
21 Simon went into Galilee and
fought many battles with the Gentiles.
He defeated them
22 and pursued
them all the way to the city of
Ptolemais, killing about 3,000 of
them, and taking the loot.
23 Then he
took the Jews who were in Galilee
and Arbatta, with their wives, their
children, and all they owned, and
brought them back to Judea with
him. There was great rejoicing.
24 During this time, Judas Maccabeus
and his brother Jonathan had
crossed the Jordan River and had
marched for three days through the
desert.
25 They met some friendly
Nabateans who told them all that
had happened to the Jews in Gilead.
26 They reported that many Jews
were imprisoned in the fortified
cities of Bozrah, Bosor, Alema,
Chaspho, Maked, and Karnaim,
27 while others were imprisoned in
the smaller towns of Gilead. They
also reported that the enemy was
drawn up to make an attack the next
day on the Jewish fortresses, hoping
to destroy all the Jews in a single
day.
28 So Judas and his army suddenly
turned and attacked Bozrah by the
desert road, captured the town, and
killed every man in it. They looted
the town and set it on fire.
29 They
left there and marched all night to
the fortress at Dathema.
30 At dawn
Judas and his men saw a vast army
attacking the fortress; they were
bringing up ladders, siege platforms,
and battering rams in an effort to
capture it.
31 When Judas heard the
noise, the shouts, and the sound of
trumpets coming from the city, he
realized that the battle had begun,
32 so he said to his men, “Fight today
for our fellow Jews!”
33 He ordered his men to march in
three columns and attack the enemy
from the rear. As they moved forward,
they blew trumpets and
shouted prayers.
34 When the army
under Timothy's command saw that
it was Judas Maccabeus, the soldiers
turned and fled. Judas crushed them
and killed about 8,000 men that day.
-- --
35 Then Judas turned aside to attack
the town of Alema; note he captured
it and killed all the men in it.
He looted the town and set fire to it.
36 From there he went on and captured
Chaspho, Maked, Bosor, and
the other towns of Gilead.
37 After this, Timothy gathered another
army and camped opposite
Raphon, on the other side of a river.
38 Judas sent some men to spy on the
camp, and they reported back to him
that all the Gentiles in the region
had joined Timothy and had formed
a large army.
39 Timothy had also
hired Arab mercenaries to help him,
and these were camped on the other
side of the river ready to attack Judas.
So Judas went out to meet them
in battle.
40 As Judas and his army came
closer to the water, Timothy said to
his officers, “If he keeps on coming
and crosses the river, we won't be
able to turn back his attack, and he
will defeat us.
41 But if he is afraid
and stops on the other side of the
river, we will cross over to attack
and defeat him.”
42 When Judas
reached the bank of the river, he
gave orders to his officers to let no
one stop but to push everyone forward
into battle.
43 Judas was the
first to cross the river against the
enemy, and all his men followed
him. The Gentiles broke ranks before
them, threw away their arms,
and fled to the pagan temple at Karnaim.
44 But Judas and his men took
the city and burned down the temple
with all who were in it. With Karnaim
overthrown, the Gentiles could
no longer offer any resistance to Judas.
45 Then Judas gathered together all
the Jews in Gilead to take them back
to Judea with him. It was a large
group of all kinds of people, together
with their wives and children and all
that they owned.
46 They went as far
as Ephron, a large, well-fortified
town. It was impossible to go around
it on either side, and the road passed
directly through the town.
47 But the
people there would not let them pass
and blocked the town gates with
stones.
48 Then Judas sent a friendly
message to them: “Let us pass
through your territory to return
home. No one will harm you; we will
just pass through.” But they still refused
to open the gates.
49 So Judas told everyone in the
group, except the fighting men, to
camp where they were.
50 The fighting
men were ordered to take up
their positions and attack the town.
They fought all day and all night, until
they had taken it.
51 Judas had all
the men of Ephron put to death,
plundered the town, and leveled it.
Then he and his army marched
through the town over the dead bodies.
52 They crossed the Jordan into
the wide plain opposite Beth Shan.
53 Throughout the whole march Judas
kept gathering up the stragglers
and encouraging the people until
they reached the land of Judea.
54 With thanksgiving and rejoicing,
they went up to Mount Zion and sacrificed
burnt offerings because they
had returned safely without the loss
of a single man.
55 While Judas and Jonathan were
in Gilead and their brother Simon
was attacking Ptolemais in Galilee,
56 Joseph and Azariah, the commanders
of the army in Judea, heard
about their brave deeds and victories.
57 They said to one another,
“Let's go to war with the Gentiles
around us and win some fame for
ourselves.”
58 So they and their men
attacked Jamnia.
59 Gorgias and his
men went out of the town to meet
them in battle.
60 They defeated
Joseph and Azariah and pursued
them as far as the borders of Judea.
At least 2,000 Israelite men were
killed that day.
61 This great defeat
came about because the Jewish
commanders wanted to be heroes
and refused to obey Judas and his
brothers.
62 Besides, they did not belong
to the family of the Maccabees,
whom God had chosen to bring freedom
to the people of Israel.
63 But Judas Maccabeus and his
brothers won great respect among
all the Israelites and all the Gentiles.
When people heard of their fame,
-- --
64 large crowds gathered to praise
them.
65 Then Judas and his brothers
went to war against the Edomites to
the south. He attacked Hebron and
its surrounding towns, destroyed its
fortifications, and burned down the
towers around it.
66 Then he
marched into the land of the Philistines
and passed through Marisa. note
67 That day a number of priests were
killed in battle because they wanted
to be heroes and foolishly went out
to fight.
68 Judas turned aside to Ashdod
in Philistia. He pulled down the
altars, burned the images of their
gods, plundered their towns, and
then returned to Judea.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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