Chapter 147

¹ Now Mattathias and his sons heard these things and mourned over their brethren, and said to one another: “If we all do as our brothers did, our enemies will come and quickly remove us from the earth. If therefore war comes upon us on the Sabbath, let us stand and fight for our lives and for our ordinances.”

² Then indeed they ran down upon them and pursued them from their borders, and they entered into the city and circumcised the children, as many as they found uncircumcised, and they tore down the altars and all the sacred precincts, and the work prospered in their hand.

³ And Daniel says: “And they shall be helped with a little help.”

⁴ For then Mattathias arose, and Judas the Maccabee arose, and they helped them and rescued them out of the hand of the Greeks, and that which was spoken in the Scripture was fulfilled.