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.