Chapter 149

¹ After these things Antiochus came out a second time, stirring up war against him, and he defeated Ptolemy.

² And indeed, when these things had happened, Antiochus rose up again against the sons of Israel and sent out a certain Nicanor with a great force, that he might wage war against the Jews, at the time when Judas, after the death of his father Mattathias, was ruling the people.

³ Nicanor therefore, having come to Jerusalem, was defeated by the Maccabee, and these things were reported to king Antiochus; and when he heard it he sent for all his forces, and gave them provisions for a year, and ordered them to be ready for service.

⁴ And indeed, falling short in provisions, he resolved to journey into Persia, that he might collect the tributes.

⁵ Being about to depart, therefore, he summoned a certain one of his own friends by the name of Lysias, and entrusted to him his own son Antiochus, and gave him charge concerning all that he wished, and ordered him to send out a force into Judaea and to wipe out the nation.

⁶ Lysias therefore set out, together with the boy Antiochus, and marched with a great force to make war upon Jerusalem.

⁷ And coming, he was defeated by the Maccabee, and these things were reported in Persia to Antiochus: that all the forces sent into Judaea had been cut to pieces, and that Lysias had marched with a force against them and had been overthrown before their face; and that they had grown strong in arms and in every kind of equipment from all the camps which they had cut down, and had fortified Mount Zion and walled it about with high and great walls.

⁸ And when he heard it, he fell sick from grief, because things had not come to pass as he had wished, nor had the outcome been according to what he intended.

⁹ And indeed, being about to die, he summoned Philip his own friend, and gave him the diadem, that he might restore it to his boy Antiochus.

¹⁰ He, having arrived and entered into Antioch, secured the kingdom for himself; for the greatest part of the forces were with him.

¹¹ These things therefore were reported to Lysias and to the boy Antiochus—for Lysias happened to be encircling Jerusalem with a palisade to besiege it—namely, that Philip was at hand bearing the diadem, and that he had taken control of the city.

¹² And when he heard this he was troubled, and said: “Let us give pledges to these men and make peace with them. For the place is strong and presses upon us, as do the affairs of the kingdom.”

¹³ And giving pledges he departed, and that which was spoken in the Scripture was fulfilled: “And rumors and alarms shall trouble him from the east and from the west.”