1 In the one hundred forty-ninth year, news was brought to Judas and his company that Antiochus Eupator was coming with multitudes against Judea, (WEB) 2 and with him Lysias his guardian and chancellor, each having a Greek force of one hundred ten thousand infantry, five thousand three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots armed with scythes. (WEB) 3 And Menelaus also joined himself with them, and with great hypocrisy encouraged Antiochus, not for the saving of his country, but because he thought that he would be set over the government. (WEB) 4 But the King of kings stirred up the anger of Antiochus against the wicked wretch. When Lysias informed him that this man was the cause of all the evils, the king commanded to bring him to Beroea, and to put him to death in the way customary in that place. (WEB) 5 Now there is in that place a tower that is fifty cubits high, full of ashes, and it had all around it a circular rim sloping steeply on every side into the ashes. (WEB) 6 Here one who is guilty of sacrilege or notorious for other crimes is pushed down to destruction. (WEB) 7 By such a fate it happened that the breaker of the law, Menelaus, died, without obtaining so much as a grave in the earth, and that justly; (WEB) 8 for inasmuch as he had perpetrated many sins against the altar, whose fire and whose ashes were holy, he received his death in ashes. (WEB) 9 Now the king, infuriated in spirit, was coming with intent to inflict on the Jews the very worst of the sufferings that had been done in his father’s time. (WEB) 10 But when Judas heard of these things, he commanded the multitude to call upon the Lord day and night, if ever at any other time, so now to help those who were at the point of being deprived of the law, their country, and the holy temple, (WEB) 11 and not to allow the people who had just begun to be revived to fall into the hands of those profane heathen. (WEB) 12 So when they had all done the same thing together, begging the merciful Lord with weeping and fastings and prostration for three days without ceasing, Judas exhorted them and commanded they should join him. (WEB) 13 Having consulted privately with the elders, he resolved that before the king’s army entered into Judea and made themselves masters of the city, they should go out and decide the matter by the help of God. (WEB) 14 And committing the decision to the Lord of the world, and exhorting those who were with him to contend nobly even to death for laws, temple, city, country, and way of life, he pitched his camp by Modin. (WEB) 15 He gave out to his men the watchword, “VICTORY IS GOD’S”, with a chosen force of the bravest young men he attacked the king’s pavilion by night, and… (WEB) 16 … (WEB)
2 Maccabees 13:1–26
Semantically similar passages
2 Maccabees 12:4–6
4 When the Jews, relying on the public vote of the city, accepted the invitation, as men desiring to live in peace and suspecting nothing, they took them out to sea and drowned not less than two hundred of them. (WEB) 5 When Judas heard of the cruelty done to his fellow… (WEB)
1 Maccabees 6:18–20
18 Those who were in the citadel kept hemming Israel in around the sanctuary, and always sought to harm them and to strengthen the Gentiles. (WEB) 19 Judas planned to destroy them, and called all the people together to besiege them. (WEB) 20 They were gathered together, and besiege… (WEB)
1 Maccabees 4:1–3
1 Gorgias took five thousand infantry, a thousand chosen cavalry, and the army moved out at night, (WEB) 2 that it might fall upon the army of the Jews and strike them suddenly. The men of the citadel were his guides. (WEB) 3 Judas heard of this, and he and the valiant men moved… (WEB)
2 Maccabees 8:11–13
11 Immediately he sent to the cities upon the sea coast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves, promising to deliver seventy slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgment that was to overtake him from the Almighty. (WEB) 12 News came to Judas concerning Nicanor’s invasion.… (WEB)
1 Maccabees 2:5–7
5 Eleazar, who was called Avaran; and Jonathan, who was called Apphus. (WEB) 6 He saw the blasphemies that were committed in Judah and in Jerusalem, (WEB) 7 and he said, “Woe is me! Why was I born to see the destruction of my people and the destruction of the holy city, and to d… (WEB)
2 Maccabees 14:30–32
30 But Maccabaeus, when he perceived that Nicanor was behaving more harshly in his dealings with him, and that he had become ruler in his customary bearing, understanding that this harshness came not of good, gathered together not a few of his men, and concealed… (WEB)
2 Maccabees 5:24–26
24 he sent that lord of pollutions Apollonius with an army of twenty-two thousand, commanding him to kill all those who were of full age, and to sell the women and the boys as slaves. (WEB) 25 He came to Jerusalem, and pretending to be a man of peace, waited till the holy… (WEB)
1 Maccabees 4:15–17
15 But all those in the rear fell by the sword. They pursued them to Gazara, and to the plains of Idumaea, Azotus, and Jamnia. About three thousand of those men fell. (WEB) 16 Then Judas and his army returned from pursuing them; (WEB) 17 and he said to the people, “Don’t be greedy… (WEB)
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