2 Maccabees 8
1 Judas gathers together his host. 9 Nicanor is sent against Judas. 16 Judas exhorts his soldiers to constancy. 20 Nicanor is overcome. 27 The Jews gave thanks, after they have put their enemies to flight, dividing part of the spoils unto the fatherless and unto the widows. 30 Timotheus and Bacchides are discomfited. 35 Nicanor flees unto Antiochus.
THEN Judas Maccabeus, and they that were with him, went privately into the towns, and called their kinfolk and friends together, and took unto them all such as continued in the Jews religion, and assembled six thousand men.
So they called upon the Lord, that he would have an eye unto his people, which was vexed of every man, and have pity upon the Temple that was defiled by wicked men,
And that he would have comparison upon, the city that was destroyed, and almost brought to the ground, and that he would hear the voice of the blood that cried unto him,
And that he would remember the wicked slaughter of the innocent children, and the blasphemies committed against his Name, and that he would show this hatred against the wicked.
Now when Maccabeus had gathered this multitude, he could not be withstood by the heathen: for the wrath of the Lord was turned into mercy.
Therefore he came at unawares, and burnt up the towns and cities: yet he took the most commodious places, and slew many of the enemies.
But specially he used the nights to make such assaults, insomuch that the brute of his manliness spread everywhere.
So when Philippe saw that this man increased by little and little, and that things prospered with him for the most part, he wrote unto Ptolemeus the governor of Coelosyria and Phenice, to help him in the King’s business.
Then sent he speedily Nicanor the son of Patroclus, a special friend of his, and gave him of all nations of the heathen no less than twenty thousand men, to route out the whole generation of the Jews, and joined with him Gorgias a captain, which in matters of war had great experience.
Nicanor ordained also a tribute for the Kings of two thousand talents, which the Romans should have, to be taken of the Jews that were taken prisoners.
Therefore immediately he sent to the cities on the seacoast, provoking them to buy Jews to be their servants, promising to sell fourscore and ten for one talent: but he considered not the vengeance of almighty God, that should come upon him.
When Judas then knew of Nicanors coming, he told them that were with him, of the coming of the army.
Now were there some of them fearful, which trusted not unto the righteousness of God, but fled away, and abode not in the place.
But the other sold all that they had left, and besought the Lord together, to deliver them from that wicked Nicanor, which had sold them, or even he came near them.
And though he would not do it for their sake, yet for the covenant made with their fathers, and because they called upon his holy and glorious Name.
And so Maccabeus called his men together, about six thousand, exhorting them not to be afraid of their enemies, neither to fear the great multitude of the Gentiles, which came against them unrighteously, but to fight manly,
Setting before their eyes the injury that they had unjustly done to the holy place, and the cruelty done to the city by derision, and the destruction of the orders established by their fathers.
For they, said he, trust in their weapons and boldness: but our confidence is in the almighty God, which at the becke [signal of command]* can both destroy them that come against us, and all the world.
Moreover he admonished them of the help that God showed unto their fathers, as when there perished an hundred and fourscore, and five thousand under Sennacherib,
And of the battle that they had in Babylon against the Galacians, how they came in all to the battle eight thousand, with four thousand Macedonians: and when the Macedonians were astonished, the eight thousand slew an hundred and twenty thousand through the help that was given them from heaven, whereby they had received many benefits.
Thus when he had made them bold with these words, and ready to die for the Laws and the country, he divided his army into four parts,
And made his own brethren captains over the army, to wit, Simon, and Josep and Iona than, giving each one fifteen hundred men.
And when Eleazarus had read the holy book, and given them a token of the help of God, Judas which led the foreward, joined with Nicanar,
And because the Almighty helped them, they slew about nine thousand men, and wounded and maimed the most part of Nicanor’s host, and so put all to flight,
And took the money from those that came to buy them, and pursued them far: but lacking time they returned.
For it was the day before the Sabbath, and therefore they would no longer pursue them.
So they took their weapons, and spoiled the enemies, and kept the Sabbath, giving thanks and praising the Lord wonderfully, which had delivered them that day, and poured upon them the beginning of his mercy.
And after the Sabbath, they distributed the spoils to the sick, and to the fatherless, and to the widows, and divided the residue among themselves and their children.
When this was done, and they all had made a general prayer, they besought the merciful Lord to be reconciled at the length with his servants.
Afterward with one consent they fell upon Timotheus and Bacchides, and slew about twenty thousand, and won high and strongholds, and divided great spoils, and gave an equal portion unto the sick, and to the fatherless, and to the widows, and to aged persons also.
Moreover they gathered their weapons together, and laid them up diligently in convenient places, and brought the remnant of the spoils to Jerusalem.
They slew also Philarches a most wicked person, which was with Timotheus, and had vexed the Jews many ways.
And when they kept the feast of victory in their country, they burnt Callisthenes that had set fire upon the holy gates, which was fled into a little house: so he received a reward meet for his wickedness.
And that most wicked Nicanor, which had brought a thousand merchants to buy the Jews,
He was through the help of the Lord brought down of them whom he thought as nothing, insomuch that he put off his glorious raiment, and fled over thwart the country like a fugitive servant, and came alone to Antiochia, with great dishonor through the destruction of his host.
Thus he that promised to pay tribute to the Romans, by means of the prisoners of Jerusalem, brought news, that the Jews had a defender, and for this cause none could hurt the Jews, because they followed the Laws appointed by them.
*WP4Y
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