FIRST MACCABEES 15.20–16.19

against the enemies. 20 It seemed good to us to accept the tribute from them. 21 Now, if there are any lawless men who have fled from their country to you, hand them over to Simon the high priest, so that he may punish them according to their own laws. 22 And thus he wrote to King Demetrius, and to Attalus, and to Ariarathes, and to Arsaces. 23 To all the provinces, and to whatever seemed good to the Spartans, and to Delos, and to Myndos, and to Sicyonia, and to Caria, and to Samos, and to Pamphylia, and to Lycia, and to Halicarnassus, and to Rhodes, and to Phaselis, and to Side, and to Sardis, and to Portonia, and to Phoenicia, and to Cyprus, and to Cyrene. 24 And they wrote a copy of these decrees to Simon the high priest.

25 And King Antiochus came and besieged Dora. And the next day he brought machines against it and laid a hand upon it, and he kept Tryphon besieged within, and no one could go out from inside nor come in from outside. 26 And Simon sent to his aid two thousand elite men of war fully armed, and offerings of gold and silver in abundance. 27 But he despised all the words he had covenanted with him, and grew estranged from him. 28 And he sent Athenobius, one of his friends, to confer with him and to say: "You have taken possession of and hold the cities of my kingdom: the city of the Jews, and of the Gazarenes, and the citadel of Jerusalem. 29 You have devastated their borders, and caused great destruction in their land; you have taken control of many regions, and cut off many tributes of our dominion. 30 Now, give up the cities and the provinces and the regions, and their tributes. 31 Or if not, give instead five hundred talents of silver, and for the taxes of the cities which you have hindered until today, another five thousand talents. Or if not, we will come and attack, and banish you, and destroy the land." 32 And when Athenobius, the king’s friend, came to Jerusalem, and saw the glory of Simon, and the gold and silver vessels, and the apparel of the prepared multitude of soldiers, he stood before him, and fearfully delivered the king's message. 33 Simon answered him and said: "We have not entered into any foreign land, nor have we taken by force the inheritance of any strangers. We have inherited the lot of our fathers, which was for a time wrongly held by our enemies. 34 Having found an opportunity, we have demanded it back. 35 But concerning the city of the Jews, and Gazara, which you demand, because they have committed many evils in our land, we have demanded revenge. Therefore, we will give one hundred talents." And he gave no answer to his words. 36 And they returned in anger to the king, and told him of the glory of Simon, and all the preparations he saw of his vessels. And it greatly angered the king. 37 And Tryphon fled to Orthosia. 38 And the king made Cendebeus commander-in-chief of the coast, and many horse and foot soldiers with him. 39 He gave him orders to dwell face to face with Judea, and to build fortresses in preparation for the war against the armies of Israel. And the king himself went after Tryphon. 40 Cendebeus went and came into the parts of Jamnia, and began to provoke the troops, and to enter Judea, to take captive and to kill. And he built Kedron,

41 and gathered there many horsemen, so that they might enter Judea and blockade their roads, as the king had commanded.

16 And John came from Gazara and came and told his father Simon how Cendebeus was going. 2 And Simon called his two sons, Judas and John, and said to them: "I and my brothers and the house of my father have fought the war against the enemies of Israel, from our youth until this present day, and all our works have prospered in our hands, to save many of the nation of Israel. 3 But now I have grown old, and you are men of years in my stead, in my place and my brother's. Now go and fight for our nation, and may the power of help from heaven be with you." 4 And he chose from the land about twenty thousand men of war on horseback, and marched against Cendebeus. 5 And they came that day to Modin. 6 At morning, they set out to the plain. There they saw a great army, horse and foot, coming against them; and one ravine was between them both. 7 And he and his troops stood in battle array opposite them. When he looked and saw that the troops were slow to cross the ravine, he went forward himself, and the troops followed behind with a blast of trumpets. 8 And he divided the troops into two, the horsemen in the middle of the footmen; and the horsemen were very strong. 9 They blew the trumpets and raised a shout, and they attacked. Cendebeus was put to flight; and many fell wounded that day. And those who remained fled to the fortresses. 10 On that very day, Judas remained; but John pursued the fugitives until he drove them to the sides of Kedron which he had built. 11 And they departed to them through the towers to the parts of Azotus. And he did the text uses an archaic or potentially corrupted term "Hdzgig" likely implying 'he set fire to' them. In that year, about two thousand men were burned by fire. And he himself returned to the parts of Judea in peace.

12 And Ptolemy, son of Abubus, had been placed in the parts of the plain of Jericho, and he possessed much gold and silver. 13 For he was son-in-law to the high priest. 14 And he grew proud in his heart, he became high-minded in his counsels, and he wanted to rule over the parts of the province; and he devised a scheme of treachery against Simon and his sons, to wipe them from the midst. 15 And Simon was going around the parts of the province, and observing their governors. And he came to Jericho, he and Mattathias and Judas and his sons, in the one hundred and seventieth year, in the eleventh month, this month is the Sabbath referring to the month of Shebat. 16 And Ptolemy received them with honors into the city of Dok, which he built, with treachery, and made a feast for the guests. There he set men in ambush. 17 And when Simon and his sons had eaten and drunk, they became drunk. Ptolemy rose up with those in hiding, they took their weapons, and entered against Simon, and killed him there in the temple, and his sons and the servants who were with him. 18 And they committed a great lawlessness, and repaid evil in return for good. 19 And Ptolemy wrote to the king to send troops to his aid, so that he might hand over to them their cities and their tributes. 20 He sent some to the side of Gazara to kill John. And he wrote to the captains to come and take from him gold and silver and many gifts.