23. When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly upon Seron and his army, who were crushed before him.
24. He pursued Seron down the descent of Beth-horon into the plain. About eight hundred of their men fell, and the rest fled to the land of the Philistines.
25. Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them.
26. His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked about the battles of Judas.
27. When King Antiochus heard these reports, he was filled with rage; so he ordered that all the forces of his kingdom be gathered, a very strong army.
28. He opened his treasury, gave his soldiers a year’s pay, and commanded them to be prepared for anything.
29. But then he saw that this exhausted the money in his treasury; moreover the tribute from the province was small because of the dissension and distress he had brought upon the land by abolishing the laws which had been in effect from of old.
30. He feared that, as had happened once or twice, he would not have enough for his expenses and for the gifts that he was accustomed to give with a lavish hand—more so than all previous kings.
31. Greatly perplexed, he decided to go to Persia and levy tribute on those provinces, and so raise a large sum of money.
32. He left Lysias, a noble of royal descent, in charge of the king’s affairs from the Euphrates River to the frontier of Egypt,
33. and commissioned him to take care of his son Antiochus until his return.
34. He entrusted to him half of his forces, and the elephants, and gave him instructions concerning everything he wanted done. As for the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem,
35. Lysias was to send an army against them to crush and destroy the power of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem and efface their memory from the place.
36. He was to settle foreigners in all their territory and distribute their land by lot.
37. The king took the remaining half of the army and set out from Antioch, his capital, in the year one hundred and forty-seven; he crossed the Euphrates River and went through the provinces beyond.
38. Lysias chose Ptolemy, son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor and Gorgias, powerful men among the King’s Friends,
39. and with them he sent forty thousand foot soldiers and seven thousand cavalry to invade and ravage the land of Judah according to the king’s orders.
40. Setting out with their whole force, they came and pitched their camp near Emmaus in the plain.