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[1]Then stoode vp Iudas Machabeus in his fathers steade,
[2]And all his brethren helped hym, and so dyd all they that helde with his father, and fought with cherefulnesse for Israel.
[3]So Iudas gate his people great honour: He put on a brest plate as a giaunt, and arayed him selfe with his harnesse, and defended the hoast with his sword.
[4]In his actes he was like a lion, and as a lions whelpe roring at his pray.
[5]He was an enemie to the wicked, and hunted them out, and brent vp those that vexed his people:
[6]So that his enemies fled for feare of hym, and all the workers of vngodlinesse were put to trouble: such lucke and prosperitie was in his hande.
[7]This greeued diuers kinges: but Iacob was greatly reioyced thorow his actes, and he gate hym selfe a great name for euer.
[8]He went thorow the cities of Iuda, destroying the vngodly out of them, turning away the wrath from Israel,
[9]And receauing such as were oppressed: and the fame of him went vnto the vttermost part of the earth.
[10]Then Apollonius [a prince of Syria] gathered a mightie great hoast of the heathen, & out of Samaria, to fight against Israel:
[11]Whiche when Iudas perceaued, he went foorth to meete him, fought with him, slue him, & a great multitude with hym: the remnaunt fled, and he toke their substaunce.
[12]Iudas also toke Apollonius owne sworde, and fought with it all his lyfe long.
[13]Nowe when Seron a prince of the armie of Syria, heard say that Iudas had gathered vnto hym the congregation and church of the faythfull,
[14]He sayde: I will get me a name and a prayse thorowout the realme: for I wil go fight with Iudas and them that are with hym, as many as haue despised the kinges commaundement.
[15]So he made him redy, and there went with hym a great mightie hoast of the vngodly, to stand by him, and to be auenged of the children of Israel.
[16]And when they came nye vnto Bethoron, Iudas went foorth against them with a small companie.
[17]And when his people sawe such a great hoast before them, they sayde vnto Iudas: Howe are we able, beyng so few, to fight against so great a multitude and so strong, seyng we be so weery, and haue fasted all this day?
[18]But Iudas sayde, It is a small matter for many to be ouercome with fewe: yea there is no difference to the God of heauen, to deliuer by a great multitude, or by a small companie:
[19]For the victorie of the battell standeth not in the multitude of the hoast, but the strength commeth from heauen.
[20]Beholde, they come against vs with a cruell and proude multitude, to destroy vs, our wyues, and our children, and to robbe vs:
[21]But we will fight for our lyues, and for our lawes,
[22]And the Lorde hym selfe shall destroy them before our face: therefore be not ye afrayde of them.
[23]Assoone as he had spoken these wordes, he leapt sodenly vpon them: Thus was Seron smitten, & his hoast put to flight,
[24]And Iudas folowed vpon them beyonde Bethoron, vnto the playne fielde, where there were slaine eyght hundreth men of them, and the residue fledde into the lande of the Philistines.
[25]Then all the heathen on euery side were afrayde of Iudas & his brethren:
[26]So that the rumour of him came vnto the kinges eares, for all the gentiles coulde tell of the warres of Iudas.
[27]So when king Antiochus heard these tidinges, he was angry in his mynde: wherfore he sent foorth, and gathered an hoast of his whole realme, very strong armies:
[28]And opened his treasurie, and gaue his hoast a yeres wages in hande, commaunding them to be redy at all times.
[29]Neuerthelesse, when he saw that there was not money enough in his treasuries, and that thorow the discorde and persecution which he made in the lande to put downe the lawes that had ben of olde times, his customes and tributes of the lande were minished:
[30]He feared that he was not able for to beare the coastes and charges any lenger, nor to haue such giftes to geue so liberally as he dyd afore, more then the kinges that were before him.
[31]Wherfore he was heauy in his minde, and thought to go into Persides for to take tributes of the lande, and so to gather much money.
[32]So he left Lysias a noble man of the kinges blood to ouersee the kinges businesse, from the water Euphrates vnto the borders of Egypt:
[33]And to kepe well his sonne Antiochus, till he came againe.
[34]Moreouer, he gaue hym halfe of his hoast, and Elephantes, and committed vnto him euery thing, and gaue him the charge of all thinges that he woulde haue done, concerning those whiche dwelt in Iuda and Hierusalem:
[35]That he shoulde sende out an armie against them, to destroy and to roote out the power of Israel and the remnaunt of Hierusalem, to put out their memoriall from that place,
[36]To set straungers for to inhabite all their quarters, and to part their land among them.
[37]Thus the king toke the other part of the hoast, and departed from Antioche a citie of his realme, ouer the water Euphrates, in the hundreth & fourtie and seuen yere, and went thorowe the hye countreys.
[38]And Lysias those vnto hym Ptolomi the sonne of Dorymimus, Nicanor and Gorgias, mightie men, and the kinges friendes.
[39]These he sent with fourtie thousande footemen, and seuen thousande horsemen, for to go into the land of Iuda, and to destroy it, as the king commaunded.
[40]So they went foorth with all their power, and came to Emmaus into the playne fielde.
[41]When the marchauntes of the countrey hearde the rumour of them, they & their seruauntes toke very much siluer & gold for to bye the children of Israel to be their bondemen: There came vnto them also yet mo men of warre on euery syde, out of Syria, and from the Palestines.
[42]Now when Iudas and his brethren saw that trouble increased, and that the hoast drew nye vnto their borders, considering the kinges wordes whiche he commaunded vnto the people [namely] that they shoulde vtterly waste and destroy them:
[43]They sayde one to another, Let vs redresse the decay of our people, let vs fight for our folke & for our sanctuarie.
[44]Then the congregation were soone redy gathered to fight, to pray and to make supplication vnto God for mercie and grace.
[45]As for Hierusalem, it lay voyde, & was as it had ben a wildernesse: there went no man in nor out at it, and the sanctuarie was troden downe, the aliauntes kept the castle, there was the habitation of the heathen, the mirth of Iacob was taken away, the pype and the harpe was gone from among them.
[46]The Israelites gathered them together, & came to Maspha before Hierusalem: for in Maspha was the place where they prayed aforetime in Israel.
[47]So they fasted that day, and put sackeclothes vpon them, cast asshes vpon their heades, rent their clothes,
[48]And layde foorth the bookes of the lawe, wherout the heathen sought to paynt the lykenesse of their images:
[49]And brought the priestes ornamentes, the firstlinges, and the tithes: they set there also the Nazarites, which had accomplished their vowes before God:
[50]And cryed with a loude voyce toward heauen, saying: What shall we do with these? and whyther shall we cary them away?
[51]For thy sanctuarie is troden downe and defiled, the priestes are come to heauinesse and dishonour,
[52]And beholde, the heathen are come together for to destroy vs: Thou knowest what thinges they imagine against vs.
[53]Howe may we stande before them, except thou (O God) be our helpe?
[54]Then they blewe out the trumpet also with a loude voyce.
[55]Then Iudas ordeyned captaynes ouer the people, ouer thousandes, ouer hundredes, ouer fiftie, and ouer ten.
[56]But as for such as builded them houses, maried wyues, planted them vineyardes, and those that were fearfull, he commaunded them euery man to go home againe, according to the lawe.
[57]So the hoast remoued, and pitched vpon the south side of Emmaus.
[58]And Iudas sayd: Arme your selues, be strong O my children, make you redy against to morowe in the morning, that ye may fight with these people, whiche are agreed together to destroy vs and our sanctuarie.
[59]Better is it for vs to dye in battayle, then to see our people and our sanctuarie in such a miserable case.
[60]Neuerthelesse, as thy will is O God in heauen, so be it.
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