1   When these agreements had been concluded, Lysias went off to the king, and the Jews returned to their farming. 2   But some of the governors in the region, Timotheus and Apollonius son of Gennaeus and also Hieronymus and Demophon, and in addition Nicanor, chief of the Cypriot mercenaries, would not allow them to enjoy security and live in quiet.

3   I must now describe an atrocity committed by the inhabitants of Joppa. They invited the Jews living in the town to embark with their wives and children in boats which they provided, with no indication of any ill will towards them. 4   As it was a public decision by the whole town, and because they wished to live in peace and suspected nothing, they accepted; but when they were out at sea, the people of Joppa sank the boats, drowning no fewer than two hundred of them. 5   When Judas learnt of this brutal treatment of his

The campaign against Eupator fellow-countrymen, 6   he alerted his troops, invoked God, the just judge, and fell upon their murderers. He set the harbour of Joppa on fire by night, burnt the shipping, and put to the sword those who had taken refuge there. 7   But finding the town gates closed, he withdrew, meaning however to return and root out the entire community. 8   When he learnt that the people of Jamnia intended to do the same to the Jews who lived among them, 9   he attacked Jamnia by night and set fire to its harbour and fleet; the light of the flames was visible in Jerusalem thirty miles away.

10   When they had marched more than a mile further in their advance against Timotheus, they were set upon by not less than five thousand Arabs, with five hundred cavalry. 11   A violent combat ensued, in which by divine help Judas and his men were victorious. The defeated nomads begged Judas to make an alliance with them, and promised to supply him with cattle and to give the Jews every other kind of help. Judas realized that they could indeed be useful in many ways; 12   so he agreed to make peace with them, and, after receiving assurances from him, they went back to their tents.

13   Judas also attacked Caspin, a walled town, strongly fortified and inhabited by a motley crew of Gentiles. 14   Confident in the strength of their walls and in their store of provisions, the defenders behaved provocatively towards Judas and his men, abusing them and also uttering the most wicked blasphemies. 15   But they invoked the world's great Sovereign who in the days of Joshua threw down the walls of Jericho without battering-rams or siege-engines. They attacked the wall fiercely and, by the will of God, captured the town. 16   The carnage was indescribable; the adjacent lake, a quarter of a mile wide, appeared to be overflowing with blood.

17   Advancing about ninety-five miles from there, they reached Charax, which is inhabited by the Tubian Jews, as they are called. 18   They did not find Timotheus there; he had by that time left the district, having had no success, but in one place he had left behind an extremely strong garrison. 19   Dositheus and Sosipater, Maccabaeus's generals, set out and destroyed the garrison, which consisted of over ten thousand men. 20   Maccabaeus for his part grouped his army in several divisions, appointed commanders for them, ^note and hurried after Timotheus, whose forces numbered a hundred and twenty thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry.

The campaign against Eupator 21   When he learnt of Judas's approach, Timotheus sent off the women and children with all the baggage to a town called Carnaim, this being an inaccessible place, hard to storm because all the approaches to it were narrow. 22   But when Judas's first division appeared, terror and panic seized the enemy at the manifestation of the all-seeing One. In their flight they rushed headlong in every direction, so that frequently they were injured by their comrades and were run through by the points of their swords. 23   Judas pressed the pursuit vigorously and put thirty thousand of these criminals to the sword. 24   Timotheus himself was taken prisoner by the troops of Dositheus and Sosipater. With much cunning, he begged them to let him go in safety, pointing out that most of them had parents, and some of them brothers, who were in his hands, and might never be heard of again. 25   He pledged himself over and over again to restore these hostages safe and sound; and so they let him go in order to save their relatives.

26   Judas moved on Carnaim and the sanctuary of Atargatis, and killed twenty-five thousand people there. 27   After this victory and destruction he next marched on Ephron, a fortified town inhabited by a mixed population. ^noteStalwart young men took up their position in front of the walls and fought vigorously, while inside there was a great supply of engines of war and ammunition. 28   But the Jews invoked the Sovereign whose might shatters all the strength of the enemy. They made themselves masters of the town and killed twenty-five thousand of the defenders. 29   Leaving that place, they advanced to Scythopolis, some seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. 30   The Jews who lived there testified to the goodwill shown them by the people of Scythopolis and the kindness with which they had treated them in their bad times; 31   so Judas and his men thanked them, and charged them to be equally friendly to the Jewish race for the future. They returned to Jerusalem in time for the Feast of Weeks.

32   After celebrating Pentecost, as it is called, they advanced to attack Gorgias, 33   the general in charge of Idumaea, who met them with three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. 34   When the ranks joined battle, a small number of the Jews fell. 35   But a cavalryman of great strength called Dositheus, one of the Tubian Jews, had hold of Gorgias by his cloak and was dragging the villain off by main force, with the object of taking him alive, when a Thracian horseman bore down on him and chopped off his arm; so Gorgias escaped to Marisa.

The campaign against Eupator

36   Esdrias and his men had been fighting for a long time and were exhausted. But Judas invoked the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in battle. 37   Striking up hymns in his native language as a battle-cry, he put the forces of Gorgias to flight by a surprise attack.

38   Regrouping his forces, he led them to the town of Adullam. The seventh day was coming on, so they purified themselves, as custom dictated, and kept the sabbath there. 39   Next day they went, as had by now become necessary, to collect the bodies of the fallen in order to bury them with their relatives in the ancestral graves. 40   But on every one of the dead, they found, under the tunic, amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, objects which the law forbids to Jews. It was evident to all that here was the reason why these men had fallen. 41   Therefore they praised the work of the Lord, the just judge, who reveals what is hidden; 42   and, turning to prayer, they asked that this sin might be entirely blotted out. The noble Judas called on the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened to the fallen because of their sin. 43   He levied a contribution from each man, and sent the total of two thousand silver drachmas to Jerusalem for a sin-offering—a fit and proper act in which he took due account of the resurrection. 44   For if he had not been expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been foolish and superfluous to pray for the dead. 45   But since he had in view the wonderful reward reserved for those who die a godly death, his purpose was a holy and pious one. And this was why he offered an atoning sacrifice to free the dead from their sin.

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