The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Maccabees 12
1 So when this agreement had been
made, Lysias departed to the king, and the
Jews went about their farming.
2 But some of the governors of districts,
Timotheus and Apollonius the son
of Gennaeus, and also Hieronymus and
Demophon, and beside them Nicanor the
governor of Cyprus, would not allow them
to enjoy tranquillity and live in peace.
3 Men of Joppa perpetrated this great
impiety: they invited the Jews who lived
among them to go with their wives and
children into the boats which they had
provided, as though they had no ill will
toward them.
4 When† the Jews,‡ relying on the public
vote of the city, accepted the invitation,
as men desiring to live in peace and suspecting
nothing, they took them out to sea
and drowned not less than two hundred of them.
5 When Judas heard of the cruelty done
to his fellow-countrymen, giving
command to the men that were with him
6 and calling upon God the righteous
Judge, he came against the murderers of
his kindred, and set the harbor on fire at
night, burned the boats, and put to the
sword those who had fled there.
7 But when the town gates were closed,
he withdrew, intending to come again to
root out the whole community of the men
of Joppa.
8 But learning that the men of Jamnia
intended to do the same thing to the Jews
who lived among them,
9 he attacked the Jamnites at night, and
set fire to the harbor together with the
fleet, so that the glare of the light was seen
at Jerusalem, two hundred forty furlongs§ distant.
10 Now when they had drawn off nine
furlongs† from there, as they marched
against Timotheus, an army of Arabians
attacked him, no fewer than five thousand
infantry and five hundred cavalry.
11 And when a hard battle had been
fought, and Judas and his company, by the
help of God, had good success, the nomads
being overcome implored Judas to grant
them friendship, promising to give him
livestock, and to help ‡his people in all
other ways.
12 So Judas, thinking that they would indeed
be profitable in many things, agreed
to live in peace with them; and receiving
pledges of friendship they departed to
their tents.
13 He also attacked a certain city, strong
and fenced with earthworks and walls,
and inhabited by a mixed multitude of
various nations. It was named Caspin.
14 Those who were within, trusting in the
strength of the walls and their store of
provisions, behaved themselves rudely
toward Judas and those who were with him,
railing, and furthermore blaspheming and
speaking impious words.
15 But Judas and his company, calling
uponthe great Sovereignofthe world, who
without rams and cunning engines of war
hurled downJericho inthe times ofJoshua,
rushed wildly against the wall.
16 Having taken the city by the will of
God, they made unspeakable slaughter, so
much that the adjoining lake, which was
two furlongs§ broad, appeared to be filled
with the deluge of blood.
17 When they had gone seven hundred
fifty furlongs† from there, they made their
way to Charax, to the Jews that are called
‡Tubieni.
18 They didn’t find Timotheus in that district,
for he had by then departed from the
district without accomplishing anything,
but had left behind a very strong garrison
in one place.
19 But Dositheus and Sosipater, who
were captains under Maccabaeus, went
out and destroyed those who had been left
by Timotheus in the stronghold, more than
ten thousand men.
20 Maccabaeus, arranging his own army
in divisions, set §these two over the bands,
and marched in haste against Timotheus,
who had with him one hundred twenty
thousand infantry and two thousand five
hundred cavalry.
21 When Timotheus heard of the approach of
Judas, he at once sent away the
women and the children with the baggage
into the fortress called †Carnion; for the
place was hard to besiege and difficult of
access by reason of the narrowness of the
approaches on all sides.
22 When the band of Judas, who led the
first division, appeared in sight, and when
terror and fear came upon the enemy,
because the manifestation of him who sees
all things came upon them, they fled in
every direction, carried this way and that,
so that they were often injured by their
own men, and pierced with the points of
their own swords.
23 Judas continued the pursuit more vigorously,
putting the wicked wretches to
the sword, and he destroyed as many as
thirty thousand men.
24 Timotheus himself, falling in with the
company of Dositheus and Sosipater, implored
them with much crafty guile to let
him go with his life, because he had in his
power the parents ofmany ofthemand the
kindred of some. ‡ “Otherwise, he said,
little regard will § be shown to these.”
25 So when he had with many words
confirmed the agreement to restore them
without harm, they let him go that they
might save their kindred.
26 Then Judas, marching against
†Carnion and the temple of Atergatis,
killed twenty-five thousand people.
27 After he had put these to flight and destroyed
them, he marched against Ephron also, a strong
city, ‡wherein were multitudes of people of all nations. Stalwart
young men placed §on the walls made a vigorous
defense. There were great stores
of war engines and darts there.
28 But calling upon the Sovereign who
with might shatters the †strength of ‡the
enemy, they took the city into their hands,
and killed as many as twenty-five thousand
of those who were in it.
29 Setting out from there, they marched
in haste against Scythopolis, which is six
hundred furlongs§ away from Jerusalem.
30 But when the Jews who were settled
there testified of the good will that the
Scythopolitans had shown toward them,
and of their kind treatment of them in the
times of their misfortune,
31 they gave thanks, and further exhorted
them to remain well disposed toward
the race for the future. Then they
went up to Jerusalem, the feast of weeks
being close at hand.
32 But after the feast called Pentecost,
they marched in haste against Gorgias the
governor of Idumaea.
33 He came out with three thousand infantry
and four hundred cavalry.
34 When they had set themselves in array,
it came to pass that a few of the Jews
fell.
35 A certain Dositheus, one † of Bacenor’s
company, who was on horseback and was
a strong man, pressed hard on Gorgias,
and taking hold of his cloke dragged him
along by main force. While he planned
to take the accursed man alive, one of the
Thracian cavalry bore down on him and
disabled his shoulder, and so Gorgias escaped to ‡Marisa.
36 When those who were with Esdris had
been fighting long and were weary, Judas
called upon the Lord to show himself,
fighting on their side and leading in the
battle.
37 Then in the language of his ancestors
he raised the battle cry joined with hymns.
Then he rushed against Gorgias’ troops
when they were not expecting it, and put
them to flight.
38 Judas gathered his army and came to
the city of §Adullam. As the seventh day
was coming on, they purified themselves
according to the custom, and kept the Sabbath there.
39 On the following day, †when it had
become necessary, Judas and his company
came to take up the bodies of those who
had fallen, ‡and in company with their
kinsmen to bring them back to the
sepulchres of their ancestors.
40 But under the garments of each one of
the dead they found §consecrated tokens
of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids
the Jews to have anything to do with.
It became clear to all that it was for this
cause that they had fallen.
41 All therefore, blessing the ways of
the Lord, the righteous Judge, who makes
manifest the things that are hidden,
42 turned themselves to supplication,
praying that the sin committed might be
wholly blotted out. The noble Judas
exhorted the multitude to keep themselves
from sin, for they had seen with their own
eyes what happened because of the sin of
those who had fallen.
43 When he had made a collection man
by man to the sum of two thousand drachmas
of silver, he sent to Jerusalem to offer
a sacrifice for sin, doing very well and
honorably in this, in that he took thought
for the resurrection.
44 For if he wasn’t expecting that those
who had fallen would rise again, it would
be superfluous and idle to pray for the
dead.
45 But if he was looking forward to an
honorable memorial of gratitude laid up
for those who †die ‡in godliness, then the
thought was holy and godly. Therefore he
made the atoning sacrifice for those who
had died, that they might be released from
their sin.