11 Now when news came to the king about that which was done, he thought that Yehudah (Judea) was in revolt. So, setting out from Mitsrayim in a rage, he took the city by force of weapons, 12 and commanded his soldiers to cut down without mercy those who came in their way, and to kill those who went into their houses. 13 Then there was killing of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaying of virgins and infants. 14 In a total of three days, eighty thousand were destroyed, of which forty thousand were slain in close combat, and no fewer were sold into slavery than slain.

15 Not content with this, he presumed to enter into the most holy temple of all the earth, having Menelaos for his guide (who’d proved himself a traitor both to the laws and to his country), 16 even taking the sacred vessels with his polluted hands, and dragging down with his profane hands the offerings that’d been dedicated by other kings to enhance the glory and honour of the place. 17 Antiokos was lifted up in mind, not seeing that because of the sins of those who lived in the city the Sovereign master had been provoked to anger a little while, and therefore his eye was turned away from the place. 18 But had it not been so that they were already bound by many sins, this man, even as Heliodoros who was sent by King Seleukos (Seleucus) to view the treasury, would, as soon as he came forward, have been scourged and turned back from his daring deed. 19 However the master didn’t choose the nation for the place’s sake, but the place for the nation’s sake. 20 Therefore also the place itself, having shared in the calamities that happened to the nation, did afterward share in its benefits; and the place which was forsaken in the Almighty’s anger was, at the reconciliation of the great Sovereign, restored again with all glory.

21 As for Antiokos (Antiochus), when he’d carried away out of the temple one thousand and eight hundred talents, he hurried away to Antiokeia, thinking in his arrogance that he could sail on land and walk on the sea, because his heart was lifted up. 22 Moreover he left governors to afflict the race: at Yerushalem (Jerusalem), Filippos (Philip), by race a Phrygian, and in character more barbarous than him who set him there; 23 and at Gerizim, Andronikos; and besides these, Menelaos, who worse than all the rest, exalted himself against his fellow-citizens. Having a malicious mind[fn] towards the Yehudim[fn] whom he’d made his citizens, 24 he sent that[fn] lord of pollutions Apolonios with an army of twenty-two thousand, commanding him to kill all those who were of full age, and to sell the women and the boys as slaves. 25 He came to Yerushalem, and pretending to be a man of peace, waited till the holy day of the Sabbath, and finding the Yehudim at rest from work, he commanded his men to parade fully armed. 26 He put to the sword all those who came out to the spectacle. Running into the city with the armed men, he killed great multitudes. 27 But Yehudah (Judas), who’s also called Makabi (Maccabaeus), with about nine others, withdrew himself, and with his company kept himself alive in the mountains like wild animals do. They continued feeding on what grew wild, that they might not be partakers of the defilement.