19. It’s not the size of the army that brings victory in battle, because strength comes from heaven.
20. They’re coming against us with a lot of pride and evil. They want to destroy us, along with our wives and children. They want to ruin us.
21. But we are fighting for our lives and for our laws.
22. The heavenly one himself will crush them before us. Don’t be afraid of them."
23. After Judas said these words, his soldiers rushed suddenly against Seron’s army, and they crushed them.
24. Judas’ soldiers pursued Seron’s army down the hill from Beth-horon to the plain below. Eight hundred of them died. The rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
25. After this, Judas and his brothers were feared. Terror fell on all the Gentiles around them.
26. Even the king heard about his reputation, and the Gentiles talked about the battles waged by Judas.
27. When King Antiochus heard about these matters, he became very angry. So he gathered together all the forces of his empire, a mighty army.
28. He opened up his treasury and gave his soldiers a year’s pay in advance, and he ordered them to be ready for anything.
29. Then he realized that the money in his treasury was all used up. The revenues from the country were small because of the turmoil and disaster that he had brought about in the land by abolishing the laws that had existed from early days.
30. He became afraid that he might not have enough funds to provide for his expenses as well as for the gifts that he granted more abundantly than previous kings.
31. He was very troubled by this. Then he decided to go to Persia and collect revenues there and raise a large sum of money.
32. The king appointed Lysias, a distinguished man from a royal family, to be in charge of his affairs from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian border.