2 Maccabees 8 — Greek text and reception

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Judas, also called Maccabeus, and those with him slipped secretly into the villages, called their kinsmen to join them, and gathered those who had remained in Judaism, assembling about six thousand.

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They called upon the Lord to look upon the people trampled by everyone, and to have pity on the temple profaned by impious men,

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to have mercy also on the city being destroyed and about to be leveled, and to listen to the blood crying out to Him,

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to remember the unlawful destruction of innocent infants and the blasphemies committed against His name, and to show His hatred of wickedness.

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Once Maccabeus had formed his company, he became irresistible to the nations, the Lord's anger having turned to mercy.

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Coming unexpectedly upon cities and villages, he burned them; seizing strategic places, he put not a few enemies to flight.

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He especially used the nights as allies in such attacks. The report of his courage resounded everywhere.

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Philip saw that the man was gradually advancing and making increasingly frequent progress in his successes. He wrote to Ptolemy, governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, to assist the king's affairs.

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Ptolemy quickly selected Nicanor son of Patroclus, one of the foremost friends, and sent him, placing under him no fewer than twenty thousand men from nations of every kind, to eradicate the whole people of Judea. He also associated with him Gorgias, a general experienced in military affairs.

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Nicanor determined to discharge the king's tribute to the Romans, amounting to two thousand talents, from the captivity of the Jews.

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He immediately sent to the coastal cities, inviting people to buy Jewish bodies and promising to give ninety bodies for a talent, not expecting the judgment that was about to follow upon him from the Almighty.

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News of Nicanor's advance reached Judas. When he informed those with him of the army's approach,

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the cowardly and those who distrusted God's judgment slipped away and left the place.

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The others sold everything they had left and together begged the Lord to rescue those whom the impious Nicanor had sold before even encountering them,

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if not for their own sake, then because of the covenants with their fathers and because His revered and magnificent name had been invoked over them.

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Maccabeus gathered those with him, six thousand in number, and urged them not to be terrified of their enemies or fear the multitude of nations unjustly coming against them, but to fight nobly,

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keeping before their eyes the unlawful outrage they had committed against the holy place, the maltreatment of the mocked city, and also the overthrow of their ancestral civic order.

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“For they trust in weapons and audacity,” he said, “but we trust in the Almighty God, who can strike down both those coming against us and the whole world with a single nod.”

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He further recounted to them the assistance given to their ancestors, including what happened under Sennacherib, how one hundred eighty-five thousand perished,

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and the battle fought in Babylonia against the Galatians: how eight thousand in all came to the engagement, with four thousand Macedonians; when the Macedonians were at a loss, the eight thousand destroyed one hundred twenty thousand through the help that came to them from heaven, and took much spoil.

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Having thus made them confident and ready to die for the laws and their homeland, he divided the army into four sections.

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He appointed his brothers Simon, Joseph and Jonathan to lead the respective divisions, placing fifteen hundred under each,

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and also Eleazar. Having read aloud the sacred book and given “God's help” as the watchword, he himself led the first company and engaged Nicanor.

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With the Almighty as their ally, they slaughtered more than nine thousand of the enemy, wounded and disabled the greater part of Nicanor's army, and forced them all to flee.

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They took the money of those who had come to buy them. After pursuing them for a considerable distance, they returned, constrained by the hour,

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for it was the day before the Sabbath. For this reason they did not prolong their pursuit.

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After collecting their enemies' weapons and stripping off their spoils, they occupied themselves with the Sabbath, abundantly blessing and giving thanks to the Lord who had preserved them to that day and appointed for them a beginning of mercy.

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After the Sabbath they gave a share of the spoils to the maltreated, the widows and the orphans, and divided the rest among themselves and their children.

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Having done this, they made a common supplication and begged the merciful Lord to become fully reconciled to His own servants.

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They also fought the forces of Timothy and Bacchides, killed more than twenty thousand of them, and gained firm possession of very high fortresses. They distributed much plunder, giving equal shares to themselves, the maltreated, the orphans and widows, and also the elderly.

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They collected the weapons and carefully deposited them all in strategic places, but brought the remaining spoils to Jerusalem.

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They killed the tribal commander of Timothy's forces, a most unholy man who had caused the Jews much suffering.

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As they celebrated victory in their homeland, they burned those who had set fire to the sacred gateways, and Callisthenes, who had fled into a little house; he received the reward worthy of his impiety.

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But the thrice-accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand merchants for the sale of the Jews,

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was humbled, with the Lord's help, by those whom he considered of the least account. He took off his splendid clothing and went alone through the interior like a runaway, reaching Antioch most fortunate despite his army's destruction.

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He who had undertaken to provide the Romans' tribute from the captivity of Jerusalem's inhabitants now proclaimed that the Jews had a Defender, and that for this reason the Jews were invulnerable, because they followed the laws laid down by Him.