1 Maccabees 4:26-35
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Victory over Lysias. 26 (A)But those of the foreigners who had escaped went and told Lysias all that had occurred. 27 When he heard it he was disturbed and discouraged, because things had not turned out in Israel as he intended and as the king had ordered.
28 So the following year he gathered together sixty thousand picked men and five thousand cavalry, to fight them. 29 They came into Idumea and camped at Beth-zur,[a] and Judas met them with ten thousand men. 30 Seeing that the army was strong, he prayed thus:
“Blessed are you, Savior of Israel, who crushed the attack of the mighty one by the hand of your servant David and delivered the foreign camp into the hand of Jonathan, the son of Saul, and his armor-bearer.(B) 31 Give this army into the hands of your people Israel; make them ashamed of their troops and their cavalry. 32 Strike them with cowardice, weaken the boldness of their strength, and let them tremble at their own destruction. 33 Strike them down by the sword of those who love you, that all who know your name may sing your praise.”
34 Then they engaged in battle, and about five thousand of Lysias’ army fell in hand-to-hand fighting. 35 [b]When Lysias saw the tide of the battle turning, and the increased boldness of Judas, 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 Judea with greater numbers.(C)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 4:29 Beth-zur: an important frontier city (between Judea and Idumea) in the mountain area, fifteen miles south of Jerusalem.
- 4:35 According to 2 Mc 11:13–15, peace negotiations followed between Lysias and Judas.
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