1 Maccabees 4 — Greek text and reception

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Gorgias took five thousand men and a thousand picked cavalry, and the army set out by night

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to fall upon the camp of the Jews and strike them suddenly. Men from the citadel served as his guides.

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Judas heard of it, and he and the mighty men set out to strike the king's force at Emmaus,

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while the forces were still scattered away from the camp.

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Gorgias came to Judas's camp by night and found no one. He searched for them in the mountains, saying, “They are fleeing from us.”

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At daybreak Judas appeared on the plain with three thousand men, though they did not have the protective equipment and swords they wanted.

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They saw a strong army of nations, armored, with cavalry surrounding it; these men were trained for war.

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Judas said to the men with him, “Do not fear their multitude or lose courage before their assault.

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Remember how our fathers were saved at the Red Sea when Pharaoh pursued them with an army.

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Now let us cry to Heaven: perhaps He will favor us, remember the covenant of the fathers, and crush this army before us today.

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Then all the nations will know that there is One who redeems and saves Israel.”

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The foreigners raised their eyes and saw them coming from the opposite side.

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They went out of the camp for battle, and Judas's men sounded the trumpet.

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They engaged, and the nations were crushed and fled into the plain.

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All who were at the rear fell by the sword. They pursued them as far as Gazera and the plains of Idumea, Azotus, and Jamnia; about three thousand of their men fell.

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Judas and his force returned from pursuing them,

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and he said to the people, “Do not covet the spoils, because a battle lies before us.

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Gorgias and his force are in the mountain near us. Stand now against our enemies and fight them; afterward take the spoils freely.”

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While Judas was finishing these words, a detachment appeared, looking out from the mountain.

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They saw that their men had been routed and that the camp was being burned, for the visible smoke made plain what had happened.

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Seeing these things, they became exceedingly afraid. When they also saw Judas's army on the plain ready for battle,

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they all fled into the land of foreigners.

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Judas returned to plunder the camp, and they took much gold and silver, blue cloth, sea-purple cloth, and great wealth.

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On their return they sang hymns and blessed Heaven: “For He is good, for His mercy is forever.”

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A great deliverance came to Israel that day.

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Those foreigners who escaped came and reported to Lysias everything that had happened.

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When he heard it, he was confused and disheartened, because what he had wished had not happened to Israel, and what the king had commanded him had not come about.

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In the following year he assembled sixty thousand picked men and five thousand cavalry to make war on them.

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They came into Idumea and encamped at Beth-zur. Judas met them with ten thousand men.

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He saw the strong army and prayed, saying, “Blessed are You, Savior of Israel, who crushed the mighty man's assault by the hand of Your servant David and handed over the foreigners' army into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul and his armor-bearer.

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So shut this army into the hand of Your people Israel, and let them be ashamed of their force and their cavalry.

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Give them cowardice; melt the boldness of their strength, and let them be shaken by their collapse.

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Bring them down by the sword of those who love You, and let all who know Your name praise You with hymns.”

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They joined battle with one another. About five thousand men from Lysias's army fell; they fell before them.

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Lysias saw the rout of his own formation, the courage that had arisen in Judas's men, and how they were ready either to live or to die nobly. He withdrew to Antioch and recruited mercenaries in greater numbers to come again into Judea.

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Judas and his brothers said, “Look! Our enemies have been crushed. Let us go up to cleanse the holy places and dedicate them.”

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The whole army gathered, and they went up to Mount Zion.

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They saw the sanctuary desolate, the altar profaned, the gates burned down, plants growing in the courts as in a thicket or on one of the mountains, and the chambers demolished.

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They tore their garments, lamented with a great lament, and put ashes on themselves.

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They fell face down upon the ground, sounded the signal trumpets, and cried to Heaven.

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Then Judas ordered men to fight those in the citadel until he had cleansed the holy places.

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He chose blameless priests devoted to the law.

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They cleansed the holy places and carried the stones of defilement to an unclean place.

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They deliberated what to do with the altar of whole burnt offering, which had been profaned.

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The good counsel came to them to pull it down, so that it would not become a reproach to them because the nations had defiled it. They pulled down the altar

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and placed the stones on the mountain of the house in a suitable place until a prophet should come to give an answer about them.

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They took whole stones according to the law and built a new altar like the former one.

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They rebuilt the holy places and the interior of the house, and consecrated the courts.

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They made new holy vessels and brought the lampstand, the incense altar, and the table into the temple.

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They burned incense upon the altar and lit the lamps on the lampstand, and they shone in the temple.

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They placed loaves on the table and spread out the curtains. They completed all the works they had undertaken.

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They rose early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-eighth year.

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They offered sacrifice according to the law upon the new altar of whole burnt offerings that they had made.

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At the season and on the day on which the nations had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs, harps, lyres, and cymbals.

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All the people fell face down, worshiped, and blessed toward heaven the One who had prospered them.

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They celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, offered whole burnt offerings with gladness, and sacrificed a sacrifice of well-being and praise.

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They adorned the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields, renewed the gateways and chambers, and fitted them with doors.

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There was exceedingly great gladness among the people, and the reproach of the nations was turned away.

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Judas, his brothers, and the whole assembly of Israel established that the days of the altar's dedication should be celebrated at their proper season, year by year, for eight days beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month of Chislev, with gladness and joy.

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At that time they built high walls and strong towers around Mount Zion so that the nations could not come and trample them as they had done before.

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He stationed a force there to guard it, and fortified it to guard Beth-zur, so that the people would have a stronghold facing Idumea.