1 Maccabees 9 - Meaning, Themes & Application

Demetrius heard that Nicanor had fallen with his forces in battle, and he sent Bacchides and Alcimus again into the land of Judah a second time, and the right wing of his army with them.

They went by the way that leads to Gilgal, and encamped against Mesaloth, which is in Arbela, and took possession of it, and killed many people.

The first month of the one hundred fifty-second year, they encamped against Jerusalem.

Then they marched away and went to Berea with twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry.

Judas was encamped at Elasa with three thousand chosen men.

They saw the multitude of the forces, that they were many, and they were terrified. Many slipped away out of the army. There were not left of them more than eight hundred men.

Judas saw that his army slipped away and that the battle pressed upon him, and he was very troubled in spirit, because he had no time to gather them together, and he became faint.

He said to those who were left, “Let’s arise and go up against our adversaries, if perhaps we may be able to fight with them.”

They tried to dissuade him, saying, “There is no way we are able; but let’s rather save our lives now. Let’s return again with our kindred, and fight against them; but we are too few.”

Judas said, “Let it not be so that I should do this thing, to flee from them. If our time has come, let’s die in a manly way for our kindred’s sake, and not leave a cause of reproach against our honor.”

The army marched out from the camp, and stood to encounter them. The cavalry was divided into two companies, and the slingers and the archers went before the army, and all the mighty men that fought in the front of the battle.

Bacchides was in the right wing. The phalanx advanced on the two parts, and they blew with their trumpets.

The men by Judas’ side sounded with their trumpets, and the earth shook with the shout of the armies, and the battle was joined, and continued from morning until evening.

Judas saw that Bacchides and the strength of his army were on the right side, and all that were brave in heart went with him,

and the right wing was defeated by them, and he pursued after them to the mount Azotus.

Those who were on the left wing saw that the right wing was defeated, and they turned and followed in the footsteps of Judas and of those who were with him.

The battle became desperate, and many on both sides fell wounded to death.

Judas fell, and the rest fled.

Jonathan and Simon took Judas their brother, and buried him in the tomb of his ancestors at Modin.

They wept for him. All Israel made great lamentation for him, and mourned many days, and said,

“How the mighty has fallen, the savior of Israel!”

The rest of the acts of Judas, and his wars, and the valiant deeds which he did, and his greatness, are not written; for they were exceedingly many.

It came to pass after the death of Judas, that the lawless emerged within all the borders of Israel. All those who did iniquity rose up.

In those days there was an exceedingly great famine, and the country went over to their side.

Bacchides chose the ungodly men and made them rulers of the country.

They inquired and searched for the friends of Judas, and brought them to Bacchides, and he took vengeance on them and used them spitefully.

There was great suffering in Israel, such as was not since the time prophets stopped appearing to them.

All the friends of Judas were gathered together, and they said to Jonathan,

“Since your brother Judas has died, we have no man like him to go out against our enemies and Bacchides, and among those of our nation who hate us.

Now therefore we have chosen you this day to be our prince and leader in his place, that you may fight our battles.”

So Jonathan took the governance upon him at that time, and rose up in the place of his brother Judas.

When Bacchides found out, he tried to kill him.

Jonathan, and Simon his brother, and all who were with him, knew it; and they fled into the wilderness of Tekoah, and encamped by the water of the pool of Asphar.

Bacchides found this out on the Sabbath day, and came—he and all his army—over the Jordan.

Jonathan sent his brother, a leader of the multitude, and implored his friends the Nabathaeans, that they might store their baggage, which was much, with them.

The children of Jambri came out of Medaba, and seized John and all that he had, and went their way with it.

But after these things, they brought word to Jonathan and Simon his brother that the children of Jambri were celebrating a great wedding, and were bringing the bride, a daughter of one of the great nobles of Canaan, from Nadabath with a large escort.

They remembered John their brother, and went up, and hid themselves under the cover of the mountain.

They lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a great procession with much baggage. The bridegroom came out with his friends and his kindred to meet them with timbrels, musicians, and many weapons.

They rose up against them from their ambush and killed them, and many fell wounded to death. The remnant fled into the mountain, and the Jews took all their spoils.

So the wedding was turned into mourning, and the voice of their musicians into lamentation.

They avenged fully the blood of their brother, and turned back to the marshes of the Jordan.

Bacchides heard it, and he came on the Sabbath day to the banks of the Jordan with a great army.

Jonathan said to his company, “Let’s stand up now and fight for our lives, for things are different today than they were yesterday and the day before.

For, behold, the battle is before us and behind us. Moreover the water of the Jordan is on this side and on that side, and marsh and thicket. There is no place to escape.

Now therefore cry to heaven, that you may be delivered out of the hand of your enemies.”

So the battle was joined, and Jonathan stretched out his hand to strike Bacchides, and he turned away back from him.

Jonathan and those who were with him leapt into the Jordan, and swam over to the other side. The enemy didn’t pass over the Jordan against them.

About a thousand men of Bacchides’ company fell that day;

and he returned to Jerusalem. They built strong cities in Judea, the stronghold that was in Jericho, and Emmaus, Bethhoron, Bethel, Timnath, Pharathon, and Tephon, with high walls and gates and bars.