The Revolt of Judas Maccabeus
2 Maccabees 8, verse 1. But Judas, also called Maccabeus, and those with him secretly infiltrated the villages and summoned their kinsmen. They called together those who had continued in the Jewish religion and took them as companions. So they gathered about six thousand men. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 2. They invoked the Lord to look upon the people, who were trampled underfoot by all, to have compassion on the temple, which had been profaned by ungodly men, 2 Maccabees 8, verse 3. to have mercy on the city, which was being destroyed and was about to be leveled to the ground, and to hearken to the blood that cried out to Him. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 4. They also invoked Him to remember the lawless destruction of the sinless babies and the blasphemies committed against His name, and to show His hatred of evil. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 5. As soon as Maccabeus had his army in order, he was not to be withstood by the Gentiles, for the wrath of the Lord had turned to mercy. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 6. He came without notice to towns and villages and set them on fire. At opportune times he regained places and put to flight not a few of the enemy. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 7. He found the night the best time for such hostilities. So talk of his manliness spread everywhere.
Nicanor Attacks Judea
2 Maccabees 8, verse 8. When Philip realized that Judas was making progress little by little and that he was advancing with more frequent efficiency, he wrote to Ptolemy, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, for aid to the king's government. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 9. And Ptolemy quickly appointed Nicanor the son of Patroclus, the foremost of his friends. He sent him in command of no fewer than twenty thousand Gentiles of all nations to get rid of all the people of Judea. He sent Gorgias with him, a general and a man experienced in the affairs of war. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 10. Nicanor determined to make up for the king the taxes due to the Romans—two thousand talents—from the capture of the Jews. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 11. He immediately sent word to the cities by the sea, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to hand over ninety slaves for a talent, not expecting that the judgment of the Almighty was about to fall upon him. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 12. Now word came to Judas concerning Nicanor's impending attack; and when he told those with him about the arrival of the army, 2 Maccabees 8, verse 13. those who were cowardly and distrustful of God's justice ran off and removed themselves from that place. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 14. Others sold all their remaining property, and at the same time entreated the Lord to rescue those sold by the ungodly Nicanor before he even met them. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 15. They entreated Him, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the covenants made with their fathers, and because they were called by His holy and magnificent name. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 16. But Maccabeus gathered those around him, six thousand in number, and exhorted them neither to be panic-stricken by the enemy nor to fear the great multitude of Gentiles who were unjustly coming against them, but to contend bravely. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 17. He also exhorted them to keep before their eyes the lawless outrage committed against the holy place by the Gentiles, and the torture of the mocked city, and still more the dissolution of their ancestral way of life. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 18. “For they trust in arms and bold acts,” he said, “but we trust in Almighty God, who with only one nod is able to overthrow both those who come against us and the entire world.” 2 Maccabees 8, verse 19. He also spoke to them of the times help came to their forefathers, how the one hundred and eighty-five thousand perished under Sennacherib, 2 Maccabees 8, verse 20. and how in the time when the battle took place in Babylonia against the Galatians, eight thousand in all entered the fray, along with four thousand Macedonians. But when the Macedonians were perplexed, the eight thousand destroyed the one hundred and twenty thousand because of the help that came to them from heaven. Then they took many spoils.
Judas’ Victories
2 Maccabees 8, verse 21. With these words he gave them good courage and prepared them to die on behalf of their laws and their homeland. Then he divided his forces into four parts. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 22. He appointed his brothers, Simon and Joseph and Jonathan, each to command a division, putting fifteen hundred soldiers under each. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 23. In addition, he appointed Eleazar to read aloud from the holy book and gave the watchword, “The help of God.” Then he led the first division himself and joined battle with Nicanor. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 24. When the Almighty became their ally, they slew more than nine thousand of the enemy, and wounded and crippled most of Nicanor's army, and forced them all to flee. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 25. They seized the money of those who came to buy them as slaves. After they pursued them for some distance, they were compelled to return because of the hour; 2 Maccabees 8, verse 26. for they did not continue their pursuit because it was the day before the Sabbath. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 27. So when they had collected their arms and stripped the spoils from their enemy, they kept the Sabbath, greatly blessing and giving thanks to the Lord, who had brought them safely through the day and appointed it for them as a beginning of mercy. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 28. Then after the Sabbath they gave a portion of the spoils to those who were tortured and to the widows and orphans, and distributed the rest among themselves and their children. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 29. When they had done this, they made a common supplication and besought the merciful Lord to be reconciled at last with His servants. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 30. Moreover, of the forces on the side of Timothy and Bacchides, who contended against them, they killed more than twenty thousand of them and became the masters of exceedingly high fortresses. They divided a great many spoils, giving shares equal to their own to those who had been tortured and to the orphans and widows, and also to the aged. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 31. After they collected the enemy's weapons, they organized them all carefully in convenient places, and carried the rest of the spoils to Jerusalem. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 32. They killed the commander of Timothy's forces, a most unholy man and one who had greatly troubled the Jews. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 33. While they were celebrating the victory in the city of their fathers, they burned those who had set fire to the temple gates: Callisthenes and some others, who had fled into one small house; so they received a recompense worthy of their impiety. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 34. The thrice-sinful Nicanor had brought the thousand merchants for the purchase of the Jews, 2 Maccabees 8, verse 35. but he was humbled with the help of the Lord by the opponents he regarded as of the least account. Thus, after he succeeded primarily in the destruction of his own army, he took off his glorious military apparel and made his way inland alone like a fugitive until he reached Antioch. 2 Maccabees 8, verse 36. There, he who had undertaken to establish taxes for the Romans by the capture of the people of Jerusalem proclaimed that the Jews had a Defender, and therefore were invulnerable, because they followed the laws appointed beforehand by Him.