FIRST MACCABEES
CHAPTER 4
Now Gorgias took five thousand infantry and a thousand picked cavalry, and this detachment set out at night in order to fall upon the camp of the Yehudym in a surprise attack. Some from the citadel were his guides. Yehudah heard of it and himself set out with his soldiers to attack the king’s army at Emmaus while these forces were still scattered away from the camp. During the night Gorgias came into the camp of Yehudah, and found no one there; so he sought them in the mountains, saying, “They are fleeing from us.”
But at daybreak Yehudah appeared in the plain with three thousand men; furthermore they lacked the helmets and swords they wanted. They saw the army of the gentiles, strong, breastplated, and flanked with cavalry, and made up of experienced soldiers. Yehudah said to the men with him: “Do not fear their numbers or dread their attack. Remember how our ancestors were saved in the Yam Suf, when Pharaoh pursued them with an army. So now let us cry to Heaven in the hope that he will favor us, remember the covenant with our ancestors, and destroy this army before us today. All the gentiles shall know that there is One who redeems and delivers Yisrael.”
When the foreigners looked up and saw them marching toward them, they came out of their camp for battle. The men with Yehudah blew the trumpet, and joined the battle. They crushed the gentiles, who fled toward the plain. Their whole rear guard fell by the sword, and they were pursued as far as Gazara and the plains of Idumaea, to Azotus and Yamnia. About three thousand of their men fell.
When Yehudah and the army returned from the pursuit, he said to the people: “Do not be greedy for plunder; for there is a fight ahead of us, and Gorgias and his army are near us on the mountain. But now stand firm against our enemies and fight them. Afterward you can freely take the plunder.”
As Yehudah was finishing this speech, a detachment appeared, looking down from the mountain. They saw that their army had been put to flight and their camp was burning. The smoke they saw revealed what had happened. When they realized this, they completely lost heart; and when they also saw the army of Yehudah in the plain ready to attack, they all fled to the land of the foreigners.
Then Yehudah went back to plunder the camp, and they took much gold and silver, cloth dyed blue and purple, and great treasure. As they returned, they were singing hymns and giving esteem to Heaven, “who is excellent, whose mercy endures forever.” Thus Yisrael experienced a great deliverance that day.
But those of the foreigners who had escaped went and told Lysias all that had occurred. When he heard it he was disturbed and discouraged, because things had not turned out in Yisrael as he intended and as the king had ordered.
So the following year he gathered together sixty thousand picked men and five thousand cavalry, to fight them. They came into Idumea and camped at Beth-zur, and Yehudah met them with ten thousand men.
Seeing that the army was strong, he prayed thus: “Blessed are you, Savior of Yisrael, who crushed the attack of the mighty one by the hand of your servant David and delivered the foreign camp into the hand of Yonathan, the son of Shaul, and his armor-bearer. Give this army into the hands of your people Yisrael; make them ashamed of their troops and their cavalry. Strike them with cowardice, weaken the boldness of their strength, and let them tremble at their own destruction. Strike them down by the sword of those who love you, that all who know your name may sing your praise.”
Then they engaged in battle, and about five thousand of Lysias’ army fell in hand-to-hand fighting. When Lysias saw the tide of the battle turning, and the increased boldness of Yehudah, whose men were ready either to live or to die nobly, he withdrew to Antioch and began to recruit mercenaries so as to return to Yehudah with greater numbers.
Then Yehudah and his brothers said, “Now that our enemies have been crushed, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and rededicate it.” So the whole army assembled, and went up to Mount Tzion. They found the sanctuary desolate, the altar desecrated, the gates burnt, weeds growing in the courts as in a thicket or on some mountain, and the kohanym’s chambers demolished. Then they tore their garments and made great lamentation; they sprinkled their heads with ashes and prostrated themselves. And when the signal was given with trumpets, they cried out to Heaven.
Yehudah appointed men to attack those in the citadel, while he purified the sanctuary. He chose blameless kohanym, devoted to the law; these purified the sanctuary and carried away the stones of the defilement to an unclean place. They deliberated what ought to be done with the altar for burnt offerings that had been desecrated. They decided it best to tear it down, lest it be a lasting shame to them that the gentiles had defiled it; so they tore down the altar. They stored the stones in a suitable place on the Temple mount, until the coming of a prophet who could determine what to do with them. Then they took uncut stones, according to the law, and built a new altar like the former one. They also repaired the sanctuary and the interior of the Temple and consecrated the courts. They made new sacred vessels and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the Temple. Then they burned incense on the altar and lighted the lamps on the lampstand, and these illuminated the Temple. They also put loaves on the table and hung up the curtains. Thus they finished all the work they had undertaken.
They rose early on the morning of the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight, and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar for burnt offerings that they had made. On the anniversary of the day on which the gentiles had desecrated it, on that very day it was rededicated with songs, harps, lyres, and cymbals. All the people prostrated themselves and adored and praised Heaven, who had given them success.
For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar and joyfully offered burnt offerings and sacrifices of deliverance and praise. They ornamented the facade of the Temple with gold crowns and shields; they repaired the gates and the kohanym’s chambers and furnished them with doors. There was great joy among the people now that the disgrace brought by the gentiles was removed. Then Yehudah and his brothers and the entire assembly of Yisrael decreed that every year for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month Kislev, the days of the dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness on the anniversary.
At that time they built high walls and strong towers around Mount Tzion, to prevent the gentiles from coming and trampling it as they had done before. Yehudah also placed a garrison there to protect it, and likewise fortified Beth-zur, that the people might have a stronghold facing Idumea.
FIRST MACCABEES
CHAPTER 3
Then his son Yehudah, who was called Maccabeus, took his place. All his brothers and all who had joined his father supported him, and they gladly carried on Yisrael’s war. He spread abroad the esteem of his people, and put on his breastplate like a giant. He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword. In his deeds he was like a lion, like a young lion roaring for prey. He pursued the lawless, hunting them out, and those who troubled his people he destroyed by fire. The lawless were cowed by fear of him, and all evildoers were dismayed. By his hand deliverance was happily achieved, and he afflicted many kings. He gave joy to Ya'akov by his deeds, and his memory is blessed forever. He went about the cities of Yehudah destroying the renegades there. He turned away wrath from Yisrael, was renowned to the ends of the earth; and gathered together those who were perishing. Then Apollonius gathered together the gentiles, along with a large army from Shomeron, to fight against Yisrael. When Yehudah learned of it, he went out to meet him and struck and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the rest fled. They took their spoils, and Yehudah took the sword of Apollonius and fought with it the rest of his life.
But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Yehudah had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war. So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Yehudah and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.” And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Yisraeli.
When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon, Yehudah went out to meet him with a few men. But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Yehudah: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.” But Yehudah said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few; for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven. With great presumption and lawlessness they come against us to destroy us and our wives and children and to despoil us; but we are fighting for our lives and our laws. He will crush them before us; so do not fear them.” When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly upon Seron and his army, who were crushed before him. He pursued Seron down the descent of Beth-horon into the plain. About eight hundred of their men fell, and the rest fled to the land of the Pelishtym. Then Yehudah and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the gentiles about them. His fame reached the king, and the gentiles talked about the battles of Yehudah.
When King Antiochus heard these reports, he was filled with rage; so he ordered that all the forces of his kingdom be gathered, a very strong army. He opened his treasury, gave his soldiers a year’s pay, and commanded them to be prepared for anything. But then he saw that this exhausted the money in his treasury; moreover the tribute from the province was small because of the dissension and distress he had brought upon the land by abolishing the laws which had been in effect from of old. He feared that, as had happened once or twice, he would not have enough for his expenses and for the gifts that he was accustomed to give with a lavish hand—more so than all previous kings. Greatly perplexed, he decided to go to Persia and levy tribute on those provinces, and so raise a large sum of money.
He left Lysias, a noble of royal descent, in charge of the king’s affairs from the Ephrath River to the frontier of Mitzrayim, and commissioned him to take care of his son Antiochus until his return. He entrusted to him half of his forces, and the elephants, and gave him instructions concerning everything he wanted done. As for the inhabitants of Yehudah and Yerushalayim, Lysias was to send an army against them to crush and destroy the power of Yisrael and the remnant of Yerushalayim and efface their memory from the place. He was to settle foreigners in all their territory and distribute their land by lot. The king took the remaining half of the army and set out from Antioch, his capital, in the year one hundred and forty-seven; he crossed the Ephrath River and went through the provinces beyond.
Lysias chose Ptolemy, son of Dorymenes, and Nikanor and Gorgias, powerful men among the King’s friends, and with them he sent forty thousand foot soldiers and seven thousand cavalry to invade and ravage the land of Yehudah according to the king’s orders. Setting out with their whole force, they came and pitched their camp near Emmaus in the plain. When the merchants of the region heard of their prowess, they came to the camp, bringing a huge sum of silver and gold, along with fetters, to buy the Yisraeli as slaves. A force from Edom and from Pelishtia joined with them.
Yehudah and his brothers saw that evils had multiplied and that armies were encamped within their territory. They learned of the orders which the king had given to destroy and utterly wipe out the people. So they said to one another, “Let us raise our people from their ruin and fight for them and for our sanctuary!”
The assembly gathered together to prepare for battle and to pray and ask for mercy and compassion. Yerushalayim was uninhabited, like a wilderness; not one of her children came in or went out. The sanctuary was trampled on, and foreigners were in the citadel; it was a habitation for gentiles. Joy had disappeared from Ya'akov, and the flute and the harp were silent.
Thus they assembled and went to Mizpah near Yerushalayim, because formerly at Mizpah there was a place of prayer for Yisrael. That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their garments. They unrolled the scroll of the law, to learn about the things for which the gentiles consulted the images of their idols. They brought with them the Kohanym's garments, the first fruits, and the tithes; and they brought forward the nazirym who had completed the time of their vows. And they cried aloud to Heaven: “What shall we do with these, and where shall we take them? For your sanctuary has been trampled on and profaned, and your kohanym are in mourning and humbled. Now the gentiles are gathered together against us to destroy us. You know what they plot against us. How shall we be able to resist them unless you help us?” Then they blew the trumpets and cried out loudly.
After this Yehudah appointed officers for the people, over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties, and over tens. He proclaimed that those who were building houses, or were just married, or were planting vineyards, and those who were afraid, could each return home, according to the law. Then the army moved off, and they camped to the south of Emmaus. Yehudah said: “Arm yourselves and be brave; in the morning be ready to fight these gentiles who have assembled against us to destroy us and our sanctuary. It is better for us to die in battle than to witness the evils befalling our nation and our sanctuary. Whatever is willed in heaven will be done.”
Please read our Sabbath bulletin for this coming service on 11/30/2024: https://firstfruits.cc/blog/20....24/11/28/happy-thank
Sabbath Keepers Fellowship Weekly Torah Study
Join us on Zoom for prayer, fellowship and discussion of the weekly Torah portion, the Haftarah, the Writings of the Disciples, and the Min Hazaqen Torah Commentary.
Our small, friendly group welcomes beginners and those who are learned in the scriptures, and we always take time for questions and answers.
We begin at 7pm Central Time on the 5th day of each week. Here is the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4731209848
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