1. During that time, a priest of the Jehoiarib family named Mattathias, who was the son of John and the grandson of Simeon, moved from Jerusalem and settled in Modein.
2. Mattathias had five sons: John (also called Gaddi),
3. Simon (also called Thassi),
4. Judas (also called Maccabaeus),
5. Eleazar (also called Avaran), and Jonathan (also called Apphus).
6. When Mattathias saw all the sins that were being committed in Judea and Jerusalem,
7. he said:“Why was I born to see these terrible things,the ruin of my people and of the holy city?Must I sit here helplesswhile the city is surrendered to enemiesand the Temple falls into the hands of foreigners?
8. The Temple is like someone without honour.
9. Its splendid furnishingshave been carried away as loot.Our children have been killed in the streets,and our young men by the sword of the enemy.
10. Every nation in the world has occupied the cityand robbed her of her possessions.
11. All her ornaments have been stripped away;she is now a slave, no longer free.
12. Look at our Temple, profaned by the Gentiles,emptied of all its splendour.
13. Why should we go on living?”