9. It is also related how Solomon in his wisdom offered a sacrifice for the dedication and the completion of the temple.
10. Just as Moses prayed to the Lord and fire descended from the sky and consumed the sacrifices, so also Solomon prayed and fire came down and consumed the burnt offerings.
11. Moses had said, “Because it had not been eaten, the purification offering was consumed.”
12. Solomon also celebrated the feast in the same way for eight days.
13. These same things are also told in the records and in Nehemiah’s memoirs, as well as how he founded a library and collected the books about the kings and the prophets, the books of David, and the royal letters about votive offerings.
14. In like manner Judas also collected for us all the books that had been scattered because of the war, and we now have them in our possession.
15. If you need them, send messengers to get them for you.
16. As we are about to celebrate the purification, we are writing: you should celebrate the feast days.
17. It is God who has saved all his people and has restored to all of them their inheritance, the kingdom, the priesthood, and the sacred rites,
18. as he promised through the law. For we hope in God, that he will soon have mercy on us and gather us together from everywhere under the heavens to his holy place, for he has rescued us from great perils and has purified the place.
19. This is the story of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, of the purification of the great temple, the dedication of the altar,
20. the campaigns against Antiochus Epiphanes and his son Eupator,
21. and of the heavenly manifestations accorded to the heroes who fought bravely for the Jewish people. Few as they were, they plundered the whole land, put to flight the barbarian hordes,