33. He also wanted Lysias to take care of his young son Antiochus until he returned.
34. So he gave Lysias authority over half of his armed forces and war elephants. He gave him orders regarding what he wanted him to do, including the matter of the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem.
35. He wanted Lysias to send an army against them to wipe out and destroy Israel’s strength and the few remaining in Jerusalem. He ordered that their memory should be completely erased from the place.
36. Lysias was to settle strangers in all their territory and divide up their lands by lot.
37. Then the king took the other half of his forces and left his capital Antioch in the year 147. He crossed the Euphrates River and went through the upper provinces.
38. Lysias selected Ptolemy, Dorymenes’ son, as well as Nicanor and Gorgias, two able men who were among the king’s chief political advisors.
39. He sent them with forty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry to go into Judah and destroy it, as the king had commanded.
40. So they headed out with their whole force. When they arrived, they set up camp in the plain near Emmaus.
41. When traders in the region heard about their plan, they took a great amount of silver and gold, together with shackles, and went to the camp intending to obtain some Israelites for slaves. A force from Idumea and the land of the Philistines also joined them.
42. Judas and his brothers saw that the situation was becoming increasingly difficult, as the military forces were encamped in their territory. They learned also that the king had commanded their complete destruction.
43. But they spoke to each other, "Let’s restore our people after all they’ve suffered, and fight for our people and the sanctuary."
44. So the congregation gathered to prepare for battle, and to pray and ask for mercy and compassion.
45. Jerusalem was desertedlike a wilderness.None of her children moved around.The sanctuary was trampled,and strangers held the elevated fortress.Gentiles lodged there.Joy was taken from Jacob.The flute and the harpwere no longer heard.
46. Then they assembled and went to Mizpah, across from Jerusalem, because Israelites used to have a place of prayer there.
47. They fasted for a day and put on mourning clothes, sprinkled ashes on their heads, and tore their garments.
48. In addition, they opened up the Law scroll to find answers to the kinds of questions Gentiles would ask of their idols.
49. They also brought out the priestly garments as well as early produce and tenth-part gifts. They stirred up nazirites, who had completed the duration of their solomn promises.
50. Then they cried aloud to heaven:"What should we do with these people?Where should we take them?
51. Your sanctuary is trampled and degraded.Your priests mourn in humiliation.