Open English Translation 2 MAC Chapter 8

8 But Yehudah (Judas), who’s also called Makabi (Maccabaeus), and those who were with him, making their way secretly into the villages, called to them their kindred. Taking to them those who’d continued in the Yehudim’ (Jews’) religion, gathered together about six thousand. 2 They called on the master to look at the people who were oppressed by all, and to have compassion on the sanctuary that’d been profaned by the ungodly men, 3 and to have pity on the city that was suffering ruin and ready to be levelled to the ground, and to listen to the blood that cried out to him, 4 and to remember the lawless destruction of the innocent infants, and about the blasphemies that’d been committed against his name, and to show his hatred of wickedness.

5 When Makabi had trained his men for service, the heathen at once found him irresistible, for the master’s anger was turned into mercy. 6 Coming[fn] without warning, he set fire to cities and villages. And in winning back the most important positions, putting to flight no small number of the enemies, 7 he especially took advantage of the nights for such assaults. His courage was loudly talked of everywhere.

8 But when Filippos (Philip) saw the man gaining ground little by little, and increasing more and more in his success, he wrote to Ptolemaios (Ptolemy), the governor of Coele-Syria and Foinikai, that he should support the king’s cause. 9 Ptolemaios quickly appointed Nikanor the son of Patroklos, one of the king’s chief friends,[fn] and sent him, in command of no fewer than twenty thousand of all nations, to destroy the whole race of Yehudah. With him he joined Gorgias also, a captain and one who had experience in matters of war. 10 Nikanor resolved by the sale of the captive Yehudim (Jews) to make up for the king the tribute of two thousand talents which he was to pay to the Romans. 11 Immediately he sent to the cities on the sea coast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves,[fn] promising to deliver seventy slaves[fn] for a talent, not expecting the judgement that was to overtake him from the Almighty.

12 News came to Yehudah (Judas) about Nikanor’s invasion. When he communicated to those who were with him the presence of the army, 13 those who were cowardly and distrustful of God’s judgement ran[fn] away and left the country. 14 Others sold all that they’d left, and at the same time implored the master to deliver those who’d been sold as slaves by the impious Nikanor before he ever met them, 15 if not for their own sakes, then for the covenants made with their ancestors, and because he’d called them by his holy and glorious name. 16 So Makabi (Maccabaeus) gathered his men together, six thousand in number, and exhorted them not to be frightened by the enemy, nor to fear the great multitude of the heathen who came wrongfully against them, but to fight nobly, 17 setting before their eyes the outrage that’d been lawlessly perpetrated on the holy place, and the torture of the city that’d been turned to mockery, and further the overthrow of the way of life received from their ancestors. 18 “Because they,” he said, “trust their weapons and daring actions, but we trust in the almighty God, since he’s able at a nod to throw down those who are coming against us, and even the whole world.” 19 Moreover, he recounted to them the help given from time to time in the days of their ancestors, both in the days of Sanheriv (Sennacherib), when one hundred and eighty-five thousand perished, 20 and in Bavel (Babylon), in the battle that was fought against the[fn] Gauls, how they came to the battle with eight thousand in all, with four thousand people from Makedonia, and how, the people from Makedonia being hard pressed, the six[fn] thousand destroyed the hundred and twenty thousand because of the help which they had from heaven, and took a great deal of plunder.

21 And when he had with those words filled them with courage and made them ready to die for the laws and their country, he divided his army into four parts. 22 He appointed his brothers, Shim’on (Simon), Yosef (Joseph), and Yonatan (Jonathan), to be leaders of the divisions with him, giving each the command of one thousand and five hundred men. 23 Moreover Eleazar also, having read aloud the sacred book, and having given as watchword, “THE HELP OF GOD”, leading the first band himself, joined battle with Nikanor.

24 Since the Almighty fought on their side, they killed more than nine thousand of the enemy, and wounded and[fn] disabled most of Nikanor’s army, and compelled them all to flee. 25 They took the money of those who’d come there to buy them as slaves. After they’d pursued them for some distance,[fn] they returned, being constrained by the time of the day; 26 for it was the day before the Sabbath, and for that reason they made no effort to chase them far. 27 When they’d gathered the weapons of the enemy[fn] together,[fn] and had stripped off their spoils, they kept the Sabbath, greatly blessing and thanking the master who’d saved them to this day, because he’d begun to show mercy to them. 28 After the Sabbath, when they’d given some of the spoils to the maimed,[fn] and to the widows and orphans, they distributed the rest among themselves and their children. 29 When they’d accomplished those things and had made a common supplication, they implored the merciful master to be wholly reconciled with his servants.

30 Having had an encounter with the forces of Timotheos and Bakides, they killed more than twenty thousand of them, and made themselves masters of extremely high fortresses, and divided very much plunder, giving the maimed,[fn] orphans, widows, and the aged an equal share with themselves. 31 When they’d gathered the weapons of the enemy[fn] together,[fn] they stored them all up carefully in the most strategic positions, and they carried the rest of the spoils to Yerushalem (Jerusalem). 32 They killed the phylarch[fn] of Timotheos’s forces, a most unholy man, and one who’d done the Yehudim much harm. 33 As they celebrated the feast of victory in the city[fn] of their fathers, they burnt those who’d set the sacred gates[fn] on fire, including Kalisthenes, who’d fled into a[fn] little house. So they received the proper reward for their impiety.[fn]

34 The thrice-accursed Nikanor, who’d brought the thousand merchants to buy the Yehudim (Jews) as slaves, 35 being through the help of the master humbled by them who in his eyes were held to be of least account, took off his glorious clothing, and passing through the country, shunning[fn] all company like a fugitive slave, arrived at Antiokeia, having, as he thought, had the greatest possible good fortune, though his army was destroyed.[fn] 36 He who’d taken on himself to make tribute sure for the Romans by the captivity of the men of Yerushalem published abroad that the Yehudim had One who fought for them, and that because[fn] that was so, the Yehudim were invulnerable, because they followed the laws ordained by him.