Secondo libro dei Maccabei 12

NOVA VULGATA	NEW JERUSALEM
1 His factis pactionibus, Lysias pergebat ad regem, Iudaei autemagriculturae operam dabant.	1 These agreements once concluded, Lysias returned to the king and the Jews went back to theirfarming.
2 Sed ex his, qui duces erant in singulis locis,Timotheus et Apollonius Gennaei filius, sed et Hieronymus et Demophon, super hoset Nicanor Cypriarches, non sinebant eos in silentio agere et quiete.	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 Ioppitaevero tale quoddam flagitium perpetrarunt: cum rogavissent Iudaeos, cum quibushabitabant, ascendere scaphas, quas ipsi paraverant, cum uxoribus et filiis,quasi nullis inimicitiis in eos subiacentibus,	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 secundum autem communecivitatis decretum, et ipsis acquiescentibus, utpote qui pacem obtinere cuperentet nihil suspectum haberent, eos provectos in altum submerserunt non minusducentos.	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 Quam crudelitatem Iudas in suae gentis homines factam ut cognovit,praecepit viris, qui erant cum ipso, et, invocato iusto iudice Deo,	5 When Judas heard of the cruel fate of his countrymen, he issued his orders to his men
6 venitadversus interfectores fratrum et portum quidem noctu succendit, scaphasexussit, eos autem, qui illuc refugerant, gladio peremit.	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 Et, cum conclususesset locus, discessit quasi iterum reversurus et universam Ioppitarum civitatemeradicaturus.	7 As the town gates were closed, he withdrew, intending to come back and wipe out the wholecommunity of Joppa.
8 Sed, cum cognovisset et eos, qui erant Iamniae, velle pari modofacere habitantibus secum Iudaeis,	8 But hearing that the people of Jamnia were planning to treat their resident Jews in the same way,
9 Iamnitis quoque nocte supervenit et portumcum navibus succendit, ita ut lumen ignis appareret Hierosolymis a stadiisducentis quadraginta.	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 Inde, cum iam abiissent novem stadiis et iter facerent ad Timotheum,commiserunt cum eo Arabes non minus quam quinque milia viri et equitesquingenti.	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 Cumque pugna valida fieret et hi, qui circa Iudam erant, perauxilium Dei prospere gessissent, nomades victi petebant a Iuda dextram sibidari, promittentes se pascua daturos et in ceteris profuturos eis.	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 Iudasautem arbitratus vere in multis eos utiles promisit se pacem acturum cum eis;dextrisque acceptis, discessere ad tabernacula sua.	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 Aggressus est autem etcivitatem quandam firmam pontibus murisque circumsaeptam, quae a promiscuisgentibus habitabatur, cui nomen Caspin.	13 Judas also attacked a certain fortified town, closed by ramparts and inhabited by a medley of races;its name was Caspin.
14 Hi vero, qui intus erant, confidentesin stabilitate murorum et apparatu alimoniarum contumeliosius agebant cum eis,qui circa Iudam erant, maledictis lacessentes et blasphemantes ac loquentes,quae fas non est.	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 Qui autem cum Iuda erant, invocato magno mundi Principe,qui sine arietibus et machinis organicis temporibus Iosue praecipitavit Iericho,irruerunt ferociter muris	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 et, capta civitate per Dei voluntatem,inenarrabiles caedes fecerunt, ita ut adiacens stagnum latitudinem habensstadiorum duorum defluere repletum sanguine videretur.	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 Inde autem discesserunt stadia septingenta quinquaginta et pervenerunt inCharaca ad eos, qui dicuntur Tubiani, Iudaeos.	17 Ninety-five miles further on from there, they reached the Charax, in the country of Jews known asTubians.
18 Et Timotheum quidem in illislocis non comprehenderunt, qui, nullo negotio perfecto, tunc de locis regressuserat, relicto tamen in quodam loco firmissimo praesidio.	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 Dositheus autem etSosipater, ex ducibus, qui cum Maccabaeo erant, exeuntes peremerunt a Timotheorelictos in praesidio plures quam decem milia viros.	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 At Maccabaeus, ordinatoexercitu circum se per cohortes, constituit eos super cohortes et adversusTimotheum processit habentem secum centum viginti milia peditum equitumque duomilia quingentos.	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 Cognito autem Iudae adventu, Timotheus praemisit muliereset filios et reliquum apparatum in locum, qui Carnion dicitur; erat eniminexpugnabile et accessu difficile praesidium propter locorum angustias.	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 Cumque cohors Iudae prima apparuisset, et pavor factus esset super hostes, actimor ex praesentia illius, qui universa conspicit, super eos esset, in fugamexsiluerunt, alius alio se ferens, ita ut saepe a suis laederentur et gladiorumacuminibus configerentur.	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 Iudas autem vehementer instabat confodiens impioset prostravit ad triginta milia virorum.	23 Judas pursued them with a wil , cutting the sinners to pieces and kil ing something like thirtythousand men.
24 Ipse vero Timotheus incidens in eos,qui erant cum Dositheo et Sosipatre, cum multa adulatione postulabat, ut vivusdimitteretur, eo quod multorum quidem parentes, aliorum autem fratres haberet,et contingeret horum curam non haberi.	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 Et cum pluribus modis fidem dedissetsecundum hoc constitutum, restituturum se eos illaesos, dimiserunt eum propterfratrum salutem.	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 Egressus autem ad Carnion et Atergation interfecit viginti quinque miliacorporum.	26 Reaching the Carnaim and the Atargateion, Judas slaughtered twenty-five thousand men.
27 Post autem horum fugam et necem, movit exercitum etiam adversusEphron civitatem munitam, in qua multitudo diversarum gentium inhabitabat, etrobusti iuvenes pro muris consistentes fortiter repugnabant; in hac autemmachinarum et telorum multi erant apparatus.	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 Sed, cum Potentem invocassent,qui potestate sua vires hostium confringit, ceperunt subiectam civitatem et exeis, qui intus erant, ad viginti quinque milia prostraverunt.	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 Inde profectiad civitatem Scytharum perrexerunt, quae ab Hierosolymis sescentis stadiisaberat.	29 Moving off from there, they pressed on to Scythopolis,
30 Contestantibus autem his, qui erant illic Iudaei, benevolentiam, quamScythopolitae erga eos habebant, et mitem occursum temporibus infelicitatis,	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 gratias agentes et exhortati etiam de cetero erga genus ipsum benignos esse,venerunt Hierosolymam die sollemni Septimanarum instante.	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 Post eam vero, quae dicitur Pentecoste, abierunt contra Gorgiam praepositumIdumaeae.	32 After Pentecost, as it is cal ed, they marched against Gorgias, the general commanding Idumaea.
33 Exivit autem cum peditibus tribus milibus et equitibusquadringentis.	33 He came out at the head of three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry;
34 Quibus autem congressis, contigit paucos ruere Iudaeorum.	34 in the course of the ensuing battle a few Jews lost their lives.
35 Dositheus vero quidam de iis, qui Bacenoris erant, eques vir et fortis, Gorgiamtenuit chlamydeque apprehensum ducebat eum fortiter; et, cum vellet illum caperevivum, eques quidam de Thracibus irruit in eum umerumque amputavit, et Gorgiaseffugit in Maresa.	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 At illis, qui cum Esdrin erant, diutius pugnantibus etfatigatis, cum invocasset Iudas Dominum, ut adiutorem se ostenderet et ducembelli,	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 incipiens patria voce clamorem cum hymnis, irruens improviso in eos,qui circa Gorgiam erant, fugam eis incussit.	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 Iudas autem, collecto exercitu, venit in civitatem Odollam et, cum septimadies superveniret, secundum consuetudinem purificati in eodem loco sabbatumegerunt.	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 Et sequenti die venerunt, qui cum Iuda erant, eo tempore, quonecessarium factum erat, ut corpora prostratorum tollerent et cum parentibusreponerent in sepulcris paternis.	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 Invenerunt autem sub tunicis uniuscuiusqueinterfectorum donaria idolorum, quae apud Iamniam fuerunt, a quibus lex prohibetIudaeos. Omnibus ergo manifestum factum est ob hanc causam eos corruisse.	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 Omnes itaque, cum benedixissent, quae sunt iusti iudicis, Domini, qui occultamanifesta facit,	41 Al then blessed the ways of the Lord, the upright judge who brings hidden things to light,
42 ad obsecrationem conversi sunt, rogantes, ut id, quod factumerat, delictum oblivioni ex integro traderetur. At vero fortissimus Iudashortatus est populum conservare se sine peccato, cum sub oculis vidissent, quaefacta sunt propter peccatum eorum, qui prostrati sunt.	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 Et, facta viritimcollatione ad duo milia drachmas argenti, misit Hierosolymam offerri propeccatis sacrificium, valde bene et honeste de resurrectione cogitans.	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 Nisienim eos, qui ceciderant, resurrecturos speraret, superfluum et vanum essetorare pro mortuis.	44 For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to prayfor the dead,
45 Deinde considerans quod hi, qui cum pietate dormitionemacceperant, optimum haberent repositum gratiae donum:	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.
46 sancta et piacogitatio. Unde pro defunctis expiationem fecit, ut a peccato solverentur.