Death of Judas Maccabeus
1 ① When Demetrius was informed of the death of Nicanor and the defeat of his army, he sent Bacchides and Alcimus back to Judea with the best troops of his army. 2They took the road to Galilee and besieged the city of Mesaloth in the Arbela region. They captured it and killed many. 3In the first month of the year one hundred and fifty-two, they encamped before Jerusalem. 4From there twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry set out for Berea. 5Judas had his camp in Elasa with three thousand picked men. 6When they saw the huge number of enemies, they were terrified. Many slipped out of the camp, and only eight hundred men were left. 7Judas saw the dispersal of his army and this crushed his spirit. The battle was imminent but he had no time to group them together. 8Yet in spite of being dismayed, he did his best to encourage those who remained with him: “Let us fight our enemies. We may yet be able to defeat them.”
9They tried to dissuade him, “We cannot do anything now but save ourselves. We can come back later with our brothers and fight. But now we are too few.” 10But Judas answered them, “God forbid that I should run away from them. If our time has come, then let us die as valiant men for our brothers, without tarnishing our glory.”
11The army of Bacchides marched out of their camp while the Jews remained in their place to engage them in battle. The cavalry was divided into two wings. In the first line, the veterans in war advanced, and the archers and slingers followed. 12Bacchides was on the right wing. At the sound of the trumpets, they advanced on both sides. The Jews also sounded the trumpets. 13And the earth trembled with the noise of the armies, and a battle began which lasted the whole day.
14Judas saw that Bacchides and the main strength of his army was on the right. The most courageous of the Israelites went with him, 15and they defeated the right wing of the enemy, pursuing them up to the hills. 16But when those on the left wing saw the right wing being defeated, they attacked Judas and his men from the rear. 17They fought bitterly and many fell on both sides. 18Judas also fell, and the rest fled.
19Jonathan and Simon took their brother and buried him in the tomb of their fathers at Modein. 20All the people of Israel mourned and wept for him for many days, repeating this lamentation: 21“How the hero has fallen, he who saved Israel.”
22The other deeds of Judas, his battles, exploits and heroism were not written for they were many.
Jonathan succeeds Judas
23 ② After the death of Judas, the renegades reappeared throughout the territory of Israel and the evildoers took courage. 24At the same time, there was a severe famine, and the country went over to their side. 25Bacchides chose renegade men and made them masters of the land. 26These men traced and searched out all the friends and supporters of Judas and brought them before Bacchides who punished and humiliated them in a thousand ways. 27It was a terrible trial for Israel such as had never been experienced since the disappearance of the prophets.
28So the friends of Judas came together and said to Jonathan, 29“Since your brother Judas died, we haven’t found anyone like him to head the resistance against the enemy, against Bacchides and all the enemies of our nation. 30So we now choose you to take his place, to be our head and lead us in our wars.” So from that day on, 31Jonathan accepted the leadership and succeeded his brother Judas.
32When Bacchides heard of this, he planned to kill Jonathan. 33But Jonathan was informed of the plot and fled to the desert of Tekoa, together with his brother Simon and his followers. They encamped by the lake Asphar. 34Bacchides found this out on the sabbath day, and with all his army he crossed the Jordan.
35Jonathan had sent his brother John, representative of the people, to ask their friends the Nabatean to store for them their large amount of baggage. 36But the tribe of Yambri and the people of Medeba captured John and took all he had with him, then departed with the booty. 37After this had happened, Jonathan and his brother Simon were told that the Yambrites were celebrating a solemn wedding and were escorting the bride, a daughter of one of the magnates, from Nadabath with great pomp.
38Both remembered the murder of their brother John, so they went up and hid under cover of the mountain. 39At a certain moment they heard a confusion of sounds; then they saw a great deal of baggage. The bride groom, his friends and brothers came straight to them with tambourines, musical instruments and many weapons. 40Then the Jews rushed down on them from their ambush and killed them. There were many casualties and others fled to the mountain. Finally the Jews seized all the plunder. 41So the wedding turned to mourning and the music to lamentation. 42Having avenged the death of their brother, the Israelites went back to the marshes of the Jordan.
Let us return to Bacchides. 43He arrived with a strong army on the sabbath day at the banks of the Jordan. 44So Jonathan said to his men, “Courage! Let us fight for our lives, for today things are going to be serious. 45Dangers surround us – we have the waters of the Jordan on this side, the marshes and the thickets on the other side – there is no place to turn. 46So cry out to Heaven for deliverance from our enemies.”
47And the battle began. Jonathan stretched out his arm to strike Bacchides, but he eluded him and withdrew. 48So Jonathan and his men leapt into the Jordan, swimming to the other side; but their enemies did not follow them. 49On that day, about a thousand of Bacchides’ men fell.
50Bacchides returned to Jerusalem. Then he began to build fortified cities in Judea – the strongholds of Jericho, Emmaus, Beth-horon, Bethel, Timnath, Pharathon and Tephon – with high walls and barred gates, 51and a garrison stationed in each of them to harass the Israelites. 52He also fortified the cities of Beth-zur, Gazara and the Citadel, and placed troops in each of them with supplies of provisions. 53He took the sons of the leaders of the land as hostages and imprisoned them in the Citadel of Jerusalem.
54In the year one hundred and fifty-three (159 B.C.), in the second month, Alcimus ordered the demolition of the wall of the inner court of the temple. This meant no less than destroying the work of the prophets. 55Alcimus did in fact begin the demolition but soon after suffered a stroke, so the work was suspended. Alcimus was no longer able to speak, not even to rule over his household. 56After a while, he died in great agony. 57Because of his death, Bacchides returned to the king and the land had peace for two years.
The siege of Bethbasi
58Then all the renegades agreed on a plan: “Jonathan and his people now live in peace without any fear at all. Let us bring Bacchides back; he can arrest them all in one night.” 59They went to Bacchides, and when they had convinced him, 60he set out with a large contingent. He secretly sent letters to his supporters in Judea instructing them to seize Jonathan and his men. But their plot was found out and their plan foiled. 61Instead the supporters of Jonathan arrested fifty Jewish leaders of this conspiracy and had them executed.
62Jonathan and Simon then withdrew with their men to Bethbasi in the desert; they rebuilt the ruins and fortified it. 63When Bacchides heard this, he assembled all his men and notified his adherents in Judea. 64He went to attack Bethbasi, besieged it for many days and built engines of war. 65Then Jonathan left his brother Simon in the city and went out into the countryside with a handful of men. 66He defeated Odomera and his brothers and the people of Phasiron in their camp. 67Then they turned back and began to attack the troops who had laid siege to the city. Meanwhile, Simon and his men went out of the city and burned the engines. 68They attacked Bacchides who was defeated and dismayed by the failure of his expedition. 69He was greatly enraged against the renegades who had advised him to return to the Jewish country; he executed many of them, and decided to return to his own land. 70When Jonathan learned this, he sent messengers to him to make a treaty of peace and to exchange prisoners.
71Bacchides accepted his terms. For Bacchides’ part, he fulfilled his promises and swore that henceforth and until the day of his death, he would never harm him in any way. 72He turned over to Jonathan the prisoners taken earlier in Judea. Then he returned to his own country and never came back again to the territory of Judea. 73So there was peace in Israel, and Jonathan resided in Michmash where he began to govern the land, and the renegades disappeared from Israel.
- Then comes the moving story of Judas' death. He dies in the glory of his faith and heroism, like the many who were hoping for the restoration of Israel and died in this hope.
We can see God's grace for him in this pre-mature death. The path that he had begun because of his faith, ends in compromises by his descendants and in the corruption which often accompanies political power. - Jonathan, chosen to succeed his brother Judas, must flee to the desert with his people. He sends his brother John with the baggage to bring it to a safe place beyond the Jordan. There, they are the victims of an ambush. Then, Jonathan goes to the other side of the Jordan to avenge them. When he comes back, he finds that Bacchides and his army followed behind him and now block their access to the river. They break through enemy lines, however, and swim across.
