The Death of Judas

¹When Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his army had been annihilated, he again sent Bacchides and Alcimus to the land of Judea, this time with the Syrian wing of the army.

²They moved along Gilgal Road, laid siege to Mesaloth in Arbela, captured it, and killed many people.

³In the first month of the year 152, they set up camp opposite Jerusalem.

⁴From there they marched to Berea with 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry.

⁵Judas had camped at Elasa, with 3,000 experienced soldiers.

⁶But when they saw the enormous size of the enemy army, they were terrified. So many men deserted that only 800 Jewish soldiers were left.

⁷When Judas saw that his army was dwindling away and that the battle was about to begin, he was worried because there was not enough time to bring his army together.

⁸He was discouraged, but he said to those who were still with him, Let's prepare for the attack; maybe we can still defeat them.

⁹His men tried to talk him out of it. We are not strong enough, they said. Let's retreat now and save our lives. Then we can return with reinforcements and fight the enemy. We don't have enough men now.

¹⁰Judas replied, Never let it be said that I ran from a battle. If our time has come, let's die bravely for our fellow Jews and not leave any stain on our honor.

¹¹The Syrian army came out of the camp and took up battle positions against the Jews. The cavalry was divided into two parts. The shock troops were in the front lines, but the archers and those who used slings went ahead of the main formation.

¹²Bacchides took his position on the right. The infantry advanced, protected on both sides by the cavalry, and the war trumpets were blown. The soldiers of Judas also sounded their trumpets.

¹³The ground shook from the noise when the two armies met, and they fought from morning until evening.

¹⁴When Judas saw that Bacchides and the main force of the Syrian army was on the right, all his bravest men joined him,

¹⁵and they crushed the Syrians' right wing. They pursued them as far as the foothills.

¹⁶But when the Syrians on the left wing saw that their right wing had been crushed, they turned to attack Judas and his men from the rear.

¹⁷The fighting became very fierce, and many on both sides were killed.

¹⁸Finally Judas himself was killed. Then all his men fled.

¹⁹Jonathan and Simon took their brother's body and buried it in the family tomb at Modein,

²⁰and there at the tomb they wept for him. All Israel mourned for him in great sorrow for many days. They said,

²¹It can't be! The mighty hero and savior of Israel has been killed!

²²The other deeds of Judas, his battles, his courageous deeds, and his great accomplishments, were too many to write down.

Jonathan Succeeds Judas

²³After the death of Judas, the lawless traitors began to reappear everywhere in Judea, and all the wicked people returned.

²⁴Also at that time there was a severe famine, and the whole country went over to the side of the renegades.

²⁵Bacchides deliberately appointed some renegade Jews as rulers over the country.

²⁶These men hunted down the friends of Judas and brought them all before Bacchides, and he subjected them to torture and humiliation.

²⁷It was a time of great trouble for Israel, worse than anything that had happened to them since the time prophets ceased to appear among them.

²⁸Then all the friends of Judas came together and said to Jonathan,

²⁹Since your brother Judas died, there has been no one like him to lead us against our enemies, against Bacchides and those of our own nation who oppose us.

³⁰So today we choose you to succeed him as our ruler and commander to carry on our war.

³¹Jonathan accepted the leadership that day and took the place of his brother Judas.

The Campaigns of Jonathan

³²When Bacchides learned of this, he made up his mind to kill Jonathan.

³³But when this news reached Jonathan, he fled, with his brother Simon and their men, to the wilderness of Tekoa and set up camp at the pool of Asphar. (

³⁴Bacchides learned about this on the Sabbath and crossed the Jordan with his whole army.)

³⁵Jonathan sent his brother John, who was responsible for the soldiers' families, to ask the Nabateans, with whom he was on friendly terms, for permission to store with them the large amount of baggage they had.

³⁶But the Jambrites of Medeba attacked John, took him captive, and carried off all the baggage.

³⁷Some time later Jonathan and his brother Simon learned that the Jambrites were about to celebrate an important wedding and that there would be a bridal procession from the town of Nadabath. The bride was the daughter of one of the great princes of Canaan.

³⁸Jonathan and Simon had wanted revenge for the death of their brother John, so they and their men went up on one of the mountains and hid.

³⁹They kept watch and saw a noisy crowd loaded down with baggage. The bridegroom, his friends, and his relatives were on their way to meet the bride's party. They were heavily armed and were playing musical instruments and drums.

⁴⁰The Jews attacked from their ambush and killed many of them; the rest escaped into the mountains, while the Jews carried off all their possessions.

⁴¹So the wedding was turned into a time of mourning and their joyful music into funeral songs.

⁴²Jonathan and Simon had taken full revenge for the death of their brother, and they returned to the marshes along the Jordan.

⁴³Bacchides heard about this and arrived on the Sabbath at the banks of the Jordan with a large army.

⁴⁴Jonathan said to his men, Now we must fight for our lives. We are in a worse situation than we have ever been in before.

⁴⁵The enemy is in front of us, the river is behind us, and marshes and thickets are on both sides of us; there is no way out.

⁴⁶So pray now for the Lord to save us from our enemies.

⁴⁷The battle began and Jonathan and his men were just about to kill Bacchides, when he escaped to the rear of the army.

⁴⁸So Jonathan and his men jumped into the Jordan and swam to the other side to escape, and the Syrian army did not cross the river to follow them.

⁴⁹That day Bacchides lost about 1,000 men.

⁵⁰After Bacchides returned to Jerusalem, the Syrians built fortifications with high walls and barred gates for a number of towns in Judea: Emmaus, Beth Horon, Bethel, Timnath, Pirathon, Tephon, and the fortress in Jericho.

⁵¹In all of these he placed troops to harass the Jews.

⁵²He also strengthened the fortifications of the towns of Bethzur and Gezer and of the fort in Jerusalem. He placed army units in them and stored up supplies there.

⁵³Then he took the sons of the leading men of the country as hostages and imprisoned them in the fort.

⁵⁴In the second month of the year 153, the High Priest Alcimus ordered that the wall of the inner court of the Temple be torn down. This would have destroyed what the prophets had accomplished; but just as the work began,

⁵⁵he had a stroke, and work was stopped. Paralyzed and unable to open his mouth, he could not speak or even make a will for his family.

⁵⁶He died in great torment.

⁵⁷When Bacchides learned that Alcimus was dead, he returned to King Demetrius, and the land of Judea had peace for two years.

⁵⁸Then all the renegades got together and said, Look, Jonathan and his men are living in peace and security. If we bring Bacchides here now, he can capture them all in a single night.

⁵⁹They went to discuss the matter with Bacchides,

⁶⁰and he set out with a large army. He sent secret letters to all his allies in Judea, asking them to seize Jonathan and his men. But they were not able to do so because the plot was discovered.

⁶¹Jonathan and his men captured 50 of the traitorous leaders who had been involved in the plot and put them to death.

⁶²Then Jonathan, Simon, and their forces withdrew to Bethbasi in the wilderness. They rebuilt the fallen fortifications and strengthened the town's defenses.

⁶³When Bacchides learned about all this, he got his whole army together and alerted his supporters in Judea.

⁶⁴He attacked Bethbasi from all sides and built siege platforms. After the battle had gone on for a long time,

⁶⁵Jonathan slipped out into the country with a small body of men and left his brother Simon in charge of the town.

⁶⁶Jonathan defeated Odomera and his people, and then attacked and destroyed the Phasirite camp. Once defeated, they joined Jonathan and advanced with him in his attack against Bacchides.

⁶⁷At the same time, Simon and his men rushed from the town and burned the siege platforms.

⁶⁸In the battle Bacchides was pressed so hard that all his plans came to nothing, and he was defeated.

⁶⁹He was so furious with the traitorous Jews who had urged him to come to Judea that he put many of them to death. Then Bacchides decided to return to his own country,

⁷⁰but when Jonathan learned of this, he sent ambassadors to Bacchides to arrange for peace terms and the return of Jewish prisoners.

⁷¹Bacchides agreed to do as Jonathan asked and gave him his solemn promise that he would let him live in peace the rest of his life.

⁷²Bacchides handed over the prisoners and returned to his own country. Never again did he come into Jewish territory.

⁷³War came to an end in Israel. Jonathan settled in Michmash and began to govern the people and to eliminate the renegade Jews from Israel.

In Praise of Wisdom

¹Listen to Wisdom! She proudly sings her own praises among the Israelites, her own people,

²in the assembly of the Most High, in the presence of his power.

³I am the word spoken by the Most High. I covered the earth like a mist.

⁴I made my home in highest heaven, my throne on a pillar of cloud.

⁵Alone I walked around the circle of the sky and walked through the ocean beneath the earth.

⁶I ruled over all the earth and the ocean waves, over every nation, over every people.

⁷I looked everywhere for a place to settle, some part of the world to make my home.

⁸Then my Creator, who created the universe, told me where I was to live. Make your home in Israel, he said. The descendants of Jacob will be your people.

⁹He created me in eternity, before time began, and I will exist for all eternity to come.

¹⁰I served him in the Sacred Tent and then made my home on Mount Zion.

¹¹He settled me in the Beloved City and gave me authority over Jerusalem.

¹²I put down roots among an honored people whom the Lord had chosen as his own.

¹³I grew tall, like the cedars in Lebanon, like the cypresses on Mount Hermon,

¹⁴like the palm trees of Engedi, like the roses of Jericho, like beautiful olive trees in the fields, like plane trees growing by the water.

¹⁵My breath was the spicy smell of cinnamon, of sweet perfume and finest myrrh, of stacte, onycha, and galbanum, the fragrant incense in the Sacred Tent.

¹⁶Like an oak I spread out my branches, magnificent and graceful.

¹⁷Like a grapevine I put out lovely shoots; my blossoms gave way to rich and glorious fruit.

¹⁹Come to me, all you that want me, and eat your fill of my fruit.

²⁰You will remember me as sweeter than honey, better than honey from the comb.

²¹Eat me, and you will hunger for more; drink me, and you will thirst for more.

²²Obey me, and you will never have cause for embarrassment; do as I say, and you will be safe from sin.

Wisdom and the Law

²³Wisdom is the Law, the Law which Moses commanded us to keep, the covenant of God Most High, the inheritance of the synagogues of Israel.

²⁵The Law overflows with Wisdom like the Pishon River, like the Tigris at fruit-picking time.

²⁶The Law brims over with understanding like the Euphrates, like the Jordan at harvest time.

²⁷It sparkles with teachings like the Nile, like the Gihon at grape-picking time.

²⁸The first human being ever created never knew Wisdom completely, and the last person on earth will be no more successful.

²⁹The possibilities of Wisdom are vaster than the ocean; her resources are more profound than the deepest waters beneath the earth.

³⁰As for me, I thought of myself as an irrigation canal bringing water from a river into a garden.

³¹I only intended to water my orchard and flower beds, but the canal soon became a river, and the river became a sea.

³²And so I present you with my learning; I hold it high, so that its light can be seen everywhere, like that of the rising sun.

³³Like an inspired prophet, I pour out my teachings, so that future generations can benefit from them.

³⁴Please realize that I have not done all this hard work for myself alone, but to help anyone who wants to be wise.

People Who Deserve Praise

¹There are three things in which I take special delight—things that are beautiful to the Lord and people alike: brothers who get along with each other, neighbors who are friends, and a married couple who are happy together.

²There are three kinds of people I cannot stand, whose behavior I find highly offensive: poor people who are arrogant, rich people who lie, and foolish old men who commit adultery.

³Unless you learn what you can while you are young, you will never be wise when you reach old age.

⁴Sound judgment, good advice, and gray hair go together beautifully.

⁵Wisdom, understanding, and sound counsel are appropriate to the aged and the respected.

⁶Elderly people wear the crown of long experience, and they can boast of nothing finer than their fear of the Lord.

⁷I will tell you about ten kinds of people that I feel fortunate to know, especially fortunate in the case of the tenth: someone who takes pride in his children, someone who lives to see his enemies fall,

⁸a man fortunate enough to have an understanding wife, a married couple who are well-matched, a person who never speaks sinfully, a person who doesn't have to work for someone less competent than himself,

⁹someone fortunate enough to have a real friend, a person that people are happy to listen to,

¹⁰and the really great one: someone who is wise. But the greatest one of all is the person who fears the Lord.

¹¹Such a person has no equal, because the fear of the Lord is the most important thing in the world.

Advice about Women

¹³No wound is as serious as wounded love. No troubles are as serious as the troubles that women cause.

¹⁴No sufferings are worse than the sufferings caused by people who hate you. No revenge is worse than revenge taken by an enemy.

¹⁵No poison is deadlier than the poison of a snake, and no anger is deadlier than the anger of a woman.

¹⁶I would rather live in the same house with a lion or a dragon than with a bad wife.

¹⁷When a wife is in a bad mood, her expression changes until she looks like an angry bear.

¹⁸Her husband has to go and eat with the neighbors, where he can't hold back his bitter sighs.

¹⁹Compared with the troubles caused by a woman, any other trouble looks small. May such women suffer the fate of sinners!

²⁰A quiet man living with a nagging wife is like an old man climbing up a sandy hill.

²¹Never lose your head over a woman's beauty, and don't try to win a woman because she is wealthy.

²²When a man is supported by his wife, there is sure to be anger, arrogance, and humiliation.

²³A bad wife will make her husband gloomy and depressed, and break his heart. Show me a timid man who can never make up his mind, and I will show you a wife who doesn't make her husband happy.

²⁴Sin began with a woman, and we must all die because of her.

²⁵Don't let a bad wife have her way, any more than you would allow water to leak from your cistern.

²⁶If she won't do as you tell her, divorce her.

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¹When you sit down to eat with someone important, keep in mind who he is.

²If you have a big appetite, restrain yourself.

³Don't be greedy for the fine food he serves; he may be trying to trick you.

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⁴Be wise enough not to wear yourself out trying to get rich.