72. You will learn who I am and who our allies are, and you will discover that you have no chance of standing against us. Your predecessors have already been beaten twice on their own ground;
73. so how do you expect to defeat my cavalry and the kind of army I have here on the plain? Down here there is not so much as a pebble to hide behind and no way to escape.”
74. When Jonathan received this message from Apollonius, he became angry. He took 10,000 picked troops from Jerusalem; his brother Simon also brought troops, and their two forces
75. set up camp outside Joppa. The men of the city refused to let them in because there was a detachment of Apollonius' troops there, but Jonathan attacked,
76. and the men in the city became so frightened that they opened the gates, allowing Jonathan to capture Joppa.
77. When Apollonius heard what had happened, he took 3,000 cavalry and a large army of infantry and pretended to retreat south towards Azotus. However, relying upon the strength of his cavalry, he marched into the plain with his main force,