2 Maccabees 12

KING JAMES BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 When these covenants were made, Lysias went unto the king, and the Jews were about their husbandry.	1 These agreements once concluded, Lysias returned to the king and the Jews went back to theirfarming.
2 But of the governours of several places, Timotheus, and Apollonius the son of Genneus, also Hieronymus, and Demophon, and beside them Nicanor the governor of Cyprus, would not suffer them to be quiet and live in peace.	2 Among the local generals, Timotheus and Apol onius son of Gennaeus, as also Hieronymus andDemophon, and Nicanor the Cypriarch as wel , would not allow the Jews to live in peace and quiet.
3 The men of Joppa also did such an ungodly deed: they prayed the Jews that dwelt among them to go with their wives and children into the boats which they had prepared, as though they had meant them no hurt.	3 The people of Joppa committed a particularly wicked crime: they invited the Jews living among themto go aboard some boats they had lying ready, taking their wives and children. There was no hint of any intentionto harm them;
4 Who accepted of it according to the common decree of the city, as being desirous to live in peace, and suspecting nothing: but when they were gone forth into the deep, they drowned no less than two hundred of them.	4 there had been a public vote by the citizens, and the Jews accepted, as wel they might, beingpeaceable people with no reason to suspect anything. But once out in the open sea they were al sent to thebottom, a company of at least two hundred.
5 When Judas heard of this cruelty done unto his countrymen, he commanded those that were with him to make them ready.	5 When Judas heard of the cruel fate of his countrymen, he issued his orders to his men
6 And calling upon God the righteous Judge, he came against those murderers of his brethren, and burnt the haven by night, and set the boats on fire, and those that fled thither he slew.	6 and after invoking God, the just judge, he attacked his brothers' murderers. Under cover of dark heset fire to the port, burned the boats and put to the sword everyone who had taken refuge there.
7 And when the town was shut up, he went backward, as if he would return to root out all them of the city of Joppa.	7 As the town gates were closed, he withdrew, intending to come back and wipe out the wholecommunity of Joppa.
8 But when he heard that the Jamnites were minded to do in like manner unto the Jews that dwelt among them,	8 But hearing that the people of Jamnia were planning to treat their resident Jews in the same way,
9 He came upon the Jamnites also by night, and set fire on the haven and the navy, so that the light of the fire was seen at Jerusalem two hundred and forty furlongs off.	9 he made a night attack on the Jamnites and fired the port with its fleet; the glow of the flames wasseen as far off as Jerusalem, thirty miles away.
10 Now when they were gone from thence nine furlongs in their journey toward Timotheus, no fewer than five thousand men on foot and five hundred horsemen of the Arabians set upon him.	10 When they had left the town barely a mile behind them in their advance on Timotheus, Judas wasattacked by an Arab force of at least five thousand foot soldiers, with five hundred cavalry.
11 Whereupon there was a very sore battle; but Judas' side by the help of God got the victory; so that the Nomades of Arabia, being overcome, besought Judas for peace, promising both to give him cattle, and to pleasure him otherwise.	11 A fierce engagement fol owed, and with God's help Judas' men won the day; the defeated nomadsbegged Judas to offer them the right hand of friendship, and promised to surrender their herds and makethemselves general y useful to him.
12 Then Judas, thinking indeed that they would be profitable in many things, granted them peace: whereupon they shook hands, and so they departed to their tents.	12 Realising that they might indeed prove valuable in many ways, Judas consented to make peace withthem and after an exchange of pledges the Arabs withdrew to their tents.
13 He went also about to make a bridge to a certain strong city, which was fenced about with walls, and inhabited by people of divers countries; and the name of it was Caspis.	13 Judas also attacked a certain fortified town, closed by ramparts and inhabited by a medley of races;its name was Caspin.
14 But they that were within it put such trust in the strength of the walls and provision of victuals, that they behaved themselves rudely toward them that were with Judas, railing and blaspheming, and uttering such words as were not to be spoken.	14 Confident in the strength of their wal s and their stock of provisions, the besieged adopted aninsolent attitude to Judas and his men, reinforcing their insults with blasphemies and profanity.
15 Wherefore Judas with his company, calling upon the great Lord of the world, who without rams or engines of war did cast down Jericho in the time of Joshua, gave a fierce assault against the walls,	15 But Judas and his men invoked the great Sovereign of the world who without battering-ram or siege-engine had overthrown Jericho in the days of Joshua; they then made a fierce assault on the wall.
16 And took the city by the will of God, and made unspeakable slaughters, insomuch that a lake two furlongs broad near adjoining thereunto, being filled full, was seen running with blood.	16 By God's wil , having captured the town, they made such indescribable slaughter that the nearbylake, a quarter of a mile across, seemed fil ed to overflowing with blood.
17 Then departed they from thence seven hundred and fifty furlongs, and came to Characa unto the Jews that are called Tubieni.	17 Ninety-five miles further on from there, they reached the Charax, in the country of Jews known asTubians.
18 But as for Timotheus, they found him not in the places: for before he had dispatched any thing, he departed from thence, having left a very strong garrison in a certain hold.	18 They did not find Timotheus himself in that neighbourhood; he had already left the district, havingachieved nothing apart from leaving a very strong garrison at one point.
19 Howbeit Dositheus and Sosipater, who were of Maccabeus' captains, went forth, and slew those that Timotheus had left in the fortress, above ten thousand men.	19 Dositheus and Sosipater, two of the Maccabaean generals, marched out and destroyed the forceTimotheus had left behind in the fortress, amounting to more than ten thousand men.
20 And Maccabeus ranged his army by bands, and set them over the bands, and went against Timotheus, who had about him an hundred and twenty thousand men of foot, and two thousand and five hundred horsemen.	20 Maccabaeus himself divided his army into cohorts to which he assigned commanders, and thenhurried in pursuit of Timotheus, whose troops numbered one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and twothousand five hundred cavalry.
21 Now when Timotheus had knowledge of Judas' coming, he sent the women and children and the other baggage unto a fortress called Carnion: for the town was hard to besiege, and uneasy to come unto, by reason of the straitness of all the places.	21 Timotheus' first move on learning of Judas' advance was to send away the women and children andthe rest of the baggage train to the place called the Carnaim, since it was an impregnable position, difficult ofaccess owing to the narrowness of al the approaches.
22 But when Judas his first band came in sight, the enemies, being smitten with fear and terror through the appearing of him who seeth all things, fled amain, one running into this way, another that way, so as that they were often hurt of their own men, and wounded with the points of their own swords.	22 Judas' cohort came into sight first. The enemy, seized with fright and panic-stricken by themanifestation of the Al -seeing, began to flee, one running this way, one running that, often wounding oneanother in consequence and running on the points of one another's swords.
23 Judas also was very earnest in pursuing them, killing those wicked wretches, of whom he slew about thirty thousand men.	23 Judas pursued them with a wil , cutting the sinners to pieces and kil ing something like thirtythousand men.
24 Moreover Timotheus himself fell into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater, whom he besought with much craft to let him go with his life, because he had many of the Jews' parents, and the brethren of some of them, who, if they put him to death, should not be regarded.	24 Timotheus himself, having fal en into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater and their men, verycraftily pleaded with them to let him go with his life, on the grounds that he had the relatives and even thebrothers of many of them in his power, and that these could otherwise expect short shrift.
25 So when he had assured them with many words that he would restore them without hurt, according to the agreement, they let him go for the saving of their brethren.	25 When at long last he convinced them that he would honour his promise and return these people safeand sound, they let him go for the sake of saving their brothers.
26 Then Maccabeus marched forth to Carnion, and to the temple of Atargatis, and there he slew five and twenty thousand persons.	26 Reaching the Carnaim and the Atargateion, Judas slaughtered twenty-five thousand men.
27 And after he had put to flight and destroyed them, Judas removed the host toward Ephron, a strong city, wherein Lysias abode, and a great multitude of divers nations, and the strong young men kept the walls, and defended them mightily: wherein also was great provision of engines and darts.	27 Having defeated and destroyed them, he led his army against Ephron, a fortified town, whereLysanias was living. Stalwart young men drawn up outside the walls offered vigorous resistance, while insidethere were quantities of war-engines and missiles in reserve.
28 But when Judas and his company had called upon Almighty God, who with his power breaketh the strength of his enemies, they won the city, and slew twenty and five thousand of them that were within,	28 But the Jews, having invoked the Sovereign who by his power shatters enemies' defences, gainedcontrol of the town and cut down nearly twenty-five thousand of the people inside.
29 From thence they departed to Scythopolis, which lieth six hundred furlongs from Jerusalem,	29 Moving off from there, they pressed on to Scythopolis,
30 But when the Jews that dwelt there had testified that the Scythopolitans dealt lovingly with them, and entreated them kindly in the time of their adversity;	30 seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. But as the Jews who had settled there assured Judas that thepeople of Scythopolis had always treated them wel and had been particularly kind to them when times were attheir worst,
31 They gave them thanks, desiring them to be friendly still unto them: and so they came to Jerusalem, the feast of the weeks approaching.	31 he and his men thanked them and urged them to extend the same friendship to his race in the future.They reached Jerusalem shortly before the feast of Weeks.
32 And after the feast, called Pentecost, they went forth against Gorgias the governor of Idumea,	32 After Pentecost, as it is cal ed, they marched against Gorgias, the general commanding Idumaea.
33 Who came out with three thousand men of foot and four hundred horsemen.	33 He came out at the head of three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry;
34 And it happened that in their fighting together a few of the Jews were slain.	34 in the course of the ensuing battle a few Jews lost their lives.
35 At which time Dositheus, one of Bacenor's company, who was on horseback, and a strong man, was still upon Gorgias, and taking hold of his coat drew him by force; and when he would have taken that cursed man alive, a horseman of Thracia coming upon him smote off his shoulder, so that Gorgias fled unto Marisa.	35 A man called Dositheus, a horseman of the Tubian contingent, a valiant man, overpowered Gorgiasand, gripping him by the cloak, was forcibly dragging him along, intending to take the accursed man alive, butone of the Thracian cavalry, hurling himself on Dositheus, slashed his shoulder, and Gorgias escaped to Marisa.
36 Now when they that were with Gorgias had fought long, and were weary, Judas called upon the Lord, that he would shew himself to be their helper and leader of the battle.	36 Meanwhile, since Esdrias and his men had been fighting for a long time and were exhausted, Judascal ed on the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in battle.
37 And with that he began in his own language, and sung psalms with a loud voice, and rushing unawares upon Gorgias' men, he put them to flight.	37 Then, chanting the battle cry and hymns at the top of his voice in his ancestral tongue, by a surpriseattack he routed Gorgias' troops.
38 So Judas gathered his host, and came into the city of Odollam, And when the seventh day came, they purified themselves, as the custom was, and kept the sabbath in the same place.	38 Judas then ral ied his army and moved on to the town of Adul am where, as it was the seventh day ofthe week, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the Sabbath.
39 And upon the day following, as the use had been, Judas and his company came to take up the bodies of them that were slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen in their fathers' graves.	39 Next day, they came to find Judas (since the necessity was by now urgent) to have the bodies of thefal en taken up and laid to rest among their relatives in their ancestral tombs.
40 Now under the coats of every one that was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which is forbidden the Jews by the law. Then every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain.	40 But when they found on each of the dead men, under their tunics, objects dedicated to the idols ofJamnia, which the Law prohibits to Jews, it became clear to everyone that this was why these men had lost theirlives.
41 All men therefore praising the Lord, the righteous Judge, who had opened the things that were hid,	41 Al then blessed the ways of the Lord, the upright judge who brings hidden things to light,
42 Betook themselves unto prayer, and besought him that the sin committed might wholly be put out of remembrance. Besides, that noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forsomuch as they saw before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sins of those that were slain.	42 and gave themselves to prayer, begging that the sin committed might be completely forgiven. Next,the valiant Judas urged the soldiers to keep themselves free from al sin, having seen with their own eyes theeffects of the sin of those who had fal en;
43 And when he had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection:	43 after this he took a col ection from them individual y, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmas,and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered, an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by hisbelief in the resurrection.
44 For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.	44 For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to prayfor the dead,
45 And also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.	45 whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, thethought was holy and devout. Hence, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might bereleased from their sin.