21. In truth, we will fight on behalf of our souls and our laws.
22. And the Lord himself will crush them before our face. But as for you, do not fear them."
23. And as soon as he had ceased speaking, he attacked them suddenly. And Seron and his army were crushed in his sight.
24. And he pursued him from the descent of Bethhoron, even to the plains. And eight hundred of their men were cut down, but the rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
25. And the fear and dread of Judas, as well as his brothers, fell upon all the nations around them.
26. And his name reached even to the king, and all the nations told stories of the battles of Judas.
27. But when king Antiochus heard these accounts, he was angry to his very soul. And he sent and gathered together forces from his entire kingdom, a very strong army.
28. And he opened his treasury, and he gave out stipends to the army for a year. And he commanded them to make ready for all things.
29. And he saw that the money from his treasures had failed, and that the tributes of the country were small, because of the dissension and the scourging that he had caused on earth in order to take away the legitimate laws, which had been since the first days.
30. And he feared, lest he not have enough the second time as the first, for expenses and gifts, which he had given before with a liberal hand. For his excesses were more than the kings who had been before him.
31. And he was alarmed to his very soul, and he intended to go into Persia, and to take tributes from the regions, and to gather together much money.
32. And he left behind Lysias, a nobleman of royal family, to preside over the kingdom from the river Euphrates, even to the river of Egypt,
33. and to raise his son, Antiochus, until he would return.
34. And he handed over to him half of the army, and the elephants. And he commanded him concerning all that he wanted, and concerning the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem:
35. so that he would send an army against them to crush and to root out the virtue of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem, and to take away the memory of them from that place,
36. and so that he would establish dwelling places for the sons of foreigners in all their parts, and would distribute their land by lot.
37. And so, the king took the remaining part of the army, and he went forth from Antioch, the city of his kingdom, in the one hundred and forty-seventh year. And he crossed over the river Euphrates, and he traveled through the upper regions.
38. Then Lysias chose Ptolemy, the son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor and Gorgias, powerful men from among the king's friends.
39. And he sent them with forty thousand men, and seven thousand horsemen, to enter into the land of Judah, and to destroy it, according to the word of the king.
40. And so, they proceeded with all their power, and they arrived and took a position near Emmaus, in the land of the plains.
41. And the merchants of the regions heard of their name. And they took very much silver, and gold, and servants, and they came into the camp to take the sons of Israel into servitude. And armies from Syria and from the lands of foreigners were added to them.