21. A day was set on which the leaders would meet by themselves. From each side a chariot came forward, and thrones were set in place.
22. Judas had posted armed men in readiness at strategic points for fear that the enemy might suddenly commit some treachery. But the conference was held in the proper way.
23. Nicanor stayed on in Jerusalem, where he did nothing out of place. He disbanded the throngs of people who gathered around him;
24. and he always kept Judas in his company, for he felt affection for the man.
25. He urged him to marry and have children; so Judas married and settled into an ordinary life.
26. When Alcimus saw their mutual goodwill, he took the treaty that had been made, went to Demetrius, and said that Nicanor was plotting against the government, for he had appointed Judas, that conspirator against the kingdom, as his successor.
27. Stirred up by the villain’s slander, the king became enraged. He wrote to Nicanor, stating that he was displeased with the treaty, and ordering him to send Maccabeus at once as a prisoner to Antioch.
28. When this message reached Nicanor he was dismayed and troubled at the thought of annulling his agreement with a man who had done no wrong.
29. However, there was no way of opposing the king, so he watched for an opportunity to carry out this order by a stratagem.
30. But Maccabeus, noticing that Nicanor was more harsh in his dealings with him, and acting with unaccustomed rudeness when they met, concluded that this harshness was not a good sign. So he gathered together not a few of his men, and went into hiding from Nicanor.
31. When Nicanor realized that he had been cleverly outwitted by the man, he went to the great and holy temple, at a time when the priests were offering the customary sacrifices, and ordered them to surrender Judas.
32. As they declared under oath that they did not know where the man they sought was,
33. he stretched out his right arm toward the temple and swore this oath: “If you do not hand Judas over to me as prisoner, I will level this shrine of God to the ground; I will tear down the altar, and erect here a splendid temple to Dionysus.”
34. With these words he went away. The priests stretched out their hands toward heaven, calling upon the unfailing defender of our nation in these words:
35. “Lord of all, though you are in need of nothing, you were pleased to have a temple for your dwelling place among us.
36. Therefore, Holy One, Lord of all holiness, preserve forever undefiled this house, which has been so recently purified.”
37. A certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor as a patriot. A man highly regarded, he was called a father of the Jews because of his goodwill toward them.
38. In the days before the revolt, he had been convicted of being a Jew, and had risked body and soul in his ardent zeal for Judaism.
39. Nicanor, to show his disdain for the Jews, sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him.
40. He thought that by arresting that man he would deal the Jews a hard blow.