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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Judas Maccabeus Revolts
(1 Maccabees 3.1–26)
1 Judas Maccabeus and his
friends went secretly from village
to village until they had gathered
a force of about 6,000 Jewish
men who had remained faithful to
their religion.
2 They begged the
Lord to help his people, now trampled
under foot by all nations, to
take pity on the Temple, now defiled
by pagans,
3 and to have mercy on
Jerusalem, now destroyed and almost
leveled to the ground.
4 They
also asked the Lord to show his hatred
of evil by taking revenge on
those who were murdering his people,
mercilessly slaughtering innocent
children, and saying evil things
against the Lord.
5 When Judas had finally organized
his forces, the Gentiles were unable
to stand against him, because
the Lord's anger against Israel had
now turned to mercy.
6
7 Judas
would make sudden attacks on
towns and villages and burn them.
He captured strategic positions and
routed many enemy troops, finding
that he was most successful at night.
People everywhere spoke of his
bravery.
Ptolemy Sends Nicanor to Attack Judas
(1 Maccabees 3.38–41)
8 When Philip, governor of Jerusalem,
realized that Judas was gaining
ground little by little and that his
victories were becoming more and
more frequent, he wrote a letter to
Ptolemy, governor of Greater Syria,
requesting his help in defending the
royal interests.
9 Ptolemy immediately
appointed Nicanor son of Patroclus,
who was also in the closest
circle of the King's Friends, and sent
him with more than 20,000 troops of
various nationalities to wipe out the
entire Jewish race. Ptolemy also appointed
Gorgias, a general of wide
military experience, to go with him.
10 King Antiochus owed the Romans
150,000 pounds of silver; Nicanor
planned to pay off the debt by selling
Jewish prisoners of war as slaves.
11 So he at once sent word to the
towns along the coast, informing
them that he would be selling Jews
for less than a pound of silver each.
But he did not know of the judgment
that Almighty God had in store for
him.
Judas Learns of Nicanor's Plans
(1 Maccabees 3.42–54)
12 Judas learned that Nicanor was
advancing with his army toward Judea,
-- --
so he informed his men.
13 Some
were cowardly and did not believe in
the justice of God, and they ran
away as fast as they could.
14 But
others sold all their remaining possessions
so that the Lord would consider
them worthy to be saved from
the godless Nicanor, who had sold
them as slaves even before the battle
had taken place.
15 They prayed that
if God was not willing to do this for
their sake alone, he might be willing
to rescue them because of the covenants
he had made with their ancestors,
and because he, the great
and wonderful God, had called them
to be his people.
16 Judas brought together
all 6,000 of his men and encouraged
them not to be frightened
or to flee in panic at the sight of the
large number of Gentile troops who
were marching against them without
cause. Instead they should fight
bravely,
17 never forgetting the
crimes the Gentiles had committed
against the Temple and how they
had made Jerusalem suffer terribly
and had done away with Jewish traditions.
18 “They rely on their weapons
and their daring,” Judas said,
“but we trust in Almighty God, who
is able to destroy not only these
troops, but, if necessary, the entire
world, with a mere nod of his head.”
19 Then Judas went on to remind
them of the ways God had helped
their ancestors: during the time of
Sennacherib 185,000 of the enemy
had been destroyed;
20 and once in
Babylonia 8,000 Jews came to the
aid of 4,000 Macedonians, defeating
120,000 Galatians and taking a great
deal of loot, all because of God's
help.
Judas Defeats Nicanor
(1 Maccabees 3.55—4.27)
21 Judas' words encouraged his
men and made them willing to die
for their religion and their country.
He then divided his army into four
divisions
22 of about 1,500 men each,
with himself and his brothers Simon,
Joseph, and Jonathan each in charge
of a division.
23 After ordering Eleazar
to read aloud note from the holy
book, he gave his men the battle cry:
“God will help us,” and personally
led the attack against Nicanor. note
24 Almighty God fought on their
side, and they killed more than 9,000
of the enemy. They wounded many
others and put the entire enemy
army to flight.
25 They seized the
money from the people who had
come to buy them as slaves. Then
they pursued the enemy a long way,
until they had to return,
26 because it
was almost time for the Sabbath to
begin.
27 When they had collected
the enemy's weapons and looted the
dead, they celebrated the Sabbath,
praising the Lord and giving thanks
to him, because he had brought
them safely to that day and had given
them the first sign of his mercy.
28 When the Sabbath was over, they
gave some of the loot to the victims
of persecution and to the widows
and orphans; then they divided the
rest among their own families.
29 Afterward
they joined together in
prayer to the merciful Lord, asking
him to look favorably upon his servants.
Judas Defeats Timothy and Bacchides
30 The Jews later fought against
the forces of Timothy and Bacchides
and killed more than 20,000 of them.
They captured some very high fortresses
and took a lot of loot, which
they divided equally among themselves
and the widows, orphans, old
men, and the victims of persecution.
31 They carefully collected all the
enemy's weapons and stored them
in strategic places, but the rest of
the loot was taken to Jerusalem.
32 They executed the commanding
officer of Timothy's forces, a godless
man who had caused the Jews much
suffering.
33 While celebrating their
victory in the city of their ancestors,
they burned alive those men who
had set fire to the Temple gates. The
dead included Callisthenes, who had
hidden in a small house; and so he
-- --
received the punishment he deserved
for his evil deeds.
34 In this way, the evil Nicanor,
who had brought a thousand merchants
to buy the Jews,
35 was defeated
with the help of the Lord by
the very people he despised so
much. He threw off his splendid uniform
and fled all alone like a runaway
slave, until he reached Antioch.
He had succeeded only in destroying
his entire army.
36 This man, who
had tried to pay a debt to Rome by
selling the people of Jerusalem,
showed that the Jews could not be
defeated. God was their mighty Defender,
because they obeyed the
laws he had given them.
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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