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.
44. And those who were within the machine broke forth into the city. And a great commotion occurred in the city.