38. For whatever we have established remains in force for you. The strongholds that you have built, let them be yours.
39. Likewise, any oversight or fault, even to this day, we forgive it, along with the crown that you owed. And if anything else was taxed in Jerusalem, now let it not be taxed.
40. And if any of you is fit to be enrolled among our own, let them be enrolled. And let there be peace between us."
41. In the one hundred and seventieth year, the yoke of the Gentiles was taken away from Israel.
42. And the people of Israel began to write in the tablets and the public records, in the first year under Simon: high priest, great commander, and leader of the Jews.
43. In those days, Simon took up a position at Gaza, and he encamped around it, and he made machines of war, and he applied them to the city, and he struck one tower and captured it.