Simon's Sons Defeat Cendebeus
1 Maccabees 16, verse 1. Then John traveled from Gazara and told his father Simon the damage Cendebeus was inflicting. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 2. So Simon called his two oldest sons, Judas and John, and said to them, “My brothers and I and my father's house have fought Israel's battles from our youth until this very day. Things have gone well for us, so as to rescue Israel many times over. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 3. Now I have become old, and you by His mercy are men of maturity. Take over my position and my brother's role and go fight for our country, and may the help sent from heaven be yours.” 1 Maccabees 16, verse 4. Thus John chose twenty thousand fighting men and cavalry from the country. Together they marched toward Cendebeus and encamped overnight in Modein. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 5. They arose early, marching to the plain. Behold, a huge army was marching out to meet them, infantry and cavalry, and there was a stream between them. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 6. John and his army faced off against them, and when he saw that his troops were afraid to ford the stream, he crossed first. His soldiers saw him and crossed behind him. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 7. He then divided up the men, putting the cavalry in the middle of the infantry, for the enemy's cavalry was very large. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 8. When they sounded the trumpet, Cendebeus and his army were routed, and numbers of them fell wounded. The rest of them fled into the fortress. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 9. Then Judas, the brother of John, was wounded, but John pursued them until Cendebeus reached Kedron, where he had done construction. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 10. When they ran into the towers in the fields of Azotus, John set them afire, and roughly two thousand of their men perished. Then he returned to Judea in peace.
John Succeeds Simon
1 Maccabees 16, verse 11. Now Ptolemy, the son of Abubus, had been made governor to rule over the plain of Jericho. He had large hoards of silver and gold, 1 Maccabees 16, verse 12. for he was the son-in-law of the high priest. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 13. He was optimistic and full of determination to seize control of the country. So he developed an evil strategy to seize Simon and his sons by trickery. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 14. Now Simon was paying a visit to the cities throughout the country, concentrating on their needs. So he went down to Jericho along with his sons Mattathias and Judas in the one hundred and seventy-seventh year, in the eleventh month, the month of Shebat. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 15. The son of Abubus received them with deceit in the little fortress called Dok, which he had erected, and he gave them a grand feast and hid the men there. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 16. So when Simon and his sons became drunk, Ptolemy and his soldiers emerged and grabbed their weapons. When they encountered Simon in the banquet hall, they murdered him along with his two sons and certain of his servants. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 17. Indeed, Ptolemy committed great treachery, returning evil for good. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 18. Ptolemy then drafted a report to the king about these things and asked that he might send him soldiers to help, and to secure their country and cities. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 19. He also dispatched soldiers to Gazara to seize John, and sent letters to military tribunes to come to him, so he might give them silver, gold, and gifts. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 20. Then he sent others to capture Jerusalem and the temple hill. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 21. But somebody ran ahead and told John in Gazara that his father and his brothers had been killed and that “he has sent men to kill you as well.” 1 Maccabees 16, verse 22. When John heard this, he was deeply shocked. He captured the soldiers who came to crush him and killed them; for he discovered they were there to kill him. 1 Maccabees 16, verse 23. The rest of John's words and his war history and brave acts, which he did so courageously, plus the heightening of the walls which he built, and his other accomplishments, 1 Maccabees 16, verse 24. behold, they are written in the book of his high priesthood, from when he was first made high priest following his father.