HOW JUDAS SUBDUED THE NATIONS ROUND ABOUT; AND HOW SIMON BEAT THE PEOPLE OF TYRE AND PTOLEMAIS; AND HOW JUDAS OVERCAME TIMOTHEUS, AND FORCED HIM TO FLY AWAY, AND DID MANY OTHER THINGS AFTER JOSEPH AND AZARIAS HAD BEEN BEATEN FJAJ 12.66
1. WHEN these things were over, the nations round about the Jews were
very uneasy at the revival of their power, and rose up together, and destroyed
many of them, as gaining advantage over them by laying snares for them,
and making secret conspiracies against them
Judas made perpetual expeditions
against these men, and endeavored to restrain them from those incursions,
and to prevent the mischiefs they did to the Jews
So he fell upon the
Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, at Acrabattene, and slew a great many
of them, and took their spoils
He also shut up the sons of Bean, that
laid wait for the Jews; and he sat down about them, and besieged them,
and burnt their towers, and destroyed the men [that were in them]
After
this he went thence in haste against the Ammonites, who had a great and
a numerous army, of which Timotheus was the commander
And when he had
subdued them, he seized on the city Jazer, and took their wives and their
children captives, and burnt the city, and then returned into Judea
But
when the neighboring nations understood that he was returned, they got
together in great numbers in the land of Gilead, and came against those
Jews that were at their borders, who then fled to the garrison of Dathema;
and sent to Judas, to inform him that Timotheus was endeavoring to take
the place whither they were fled
And as these epistles were reading, there
came other messengers out of Galilee, who informed him that the inhabitants
of Ptolemais, and of Tyre and Sidon, and strangers of Galilee, were gotten
together. FJAJ 12.67
2. Accordingly Judas, upon considering what was fit to be done, with
relation to the necessity both these cases required, gave order that Simon
his brother should take three thousand chosen men, and go to the assistance
of the Jews in Galilee, while he and another of his brothers, Jonathan,
made haste into the land of Gilead, with eight thousand soldiers
And he
left Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, to be over the rest of
the forces; and charged them to keep Judea very carefully, and to fight
no battles with any persons whomsoever until his return
Accordingly, Simon-went
into Galilee, and fought the enemy, and put them to flight, and pursued
them to the very gates of Ptolemais, and slew about three thousand of them,
and took the spoils of those that were slain, and those Jews whom they
had made captives, with their baggage, and then returned home. FJAJ 12.68
3. Now as for Judas Maccabeus, and his brother Jonathan, they passed
over the river Jordan; and when they had gone three days journey, they
lighted upon the Nabateans, who came to meet them peaceably, and who told
them how the affairs of those in the land of Gilead stood; and how many
of them were in distress, and driven into garrisons, and into the cities
of Galilee; and exhorted him to make haste to go against the foreigners,
and to endeavor to save his own countrymen out of their hands
To this
exhortation Judas hearkened, and returned to the wilderness; and in the
first place fell upon the inhabitants of Bosor, and took the city, and
beat the inhabitants, and destroyed all the males, and all that were able
to fight, and burnt the city
Nor did he stop even when night came on,
but he journeyed in it to the garrison where the Jews happened to be then
shut up, and where Timotheus lay round the place with his army
And Judas
came upon the city in the morning; and when he found that the enemy were
making an assault upon the walls, and that some of them brought ladders,
on which they might get upon those walls, and that others brought engines
[to batter them], he bid the trumpeter to sound his trumpet, and he encouraged
his soldiers cheerfully to undergo dangers for the sake of their brethren
and kindred; he also parted his army into three bodies, and fell upon the
backs of their enemies
But when Timotheus's men perceived that it was
Maccabeus that was upon them, of both whose courage and good success in
war they had formerly had sufficient experience, they were put to flight;
but Judas followed them with his army, and slew about eight thousand of
them
He then turned aside to a city of the foreigners called Malle, and
took it, and slew all the males, and burnt the city itself
He then removed
from thence, and overthrew Casphom and Bosor, and many other cities of
the land of Gilead. FJAJ 12.69
4. But not long after this, Timotheus prepared a great army, and took many others as auxiliaries; and induced some of the Arabians, by the promise of rewards, to go with him in this expedition, and came with his army beyond the brook, over against the city Raphon; and he encouraged his soldiers, if it came to a battle with the Jews, to fight courageously, and to hinder their passing over the brook; for he said to them beforehand, that "if they come over it, we shall be beaten." And when Judas heard that Timotheus prepared himself to fight, he took all his own army, and went in haste against Timotheus his enemy; and when he had passed over the brook, he fell upon his enemies, and some of them met him, whom he slew, and others of them he so terrified, that he compelled them to throw down their arms and fly; and some of them escaped, but some of them fled to what was called the Temple of Camaim, and hoped thereby to preserve themselves; but Judas took the city, and slew them, and burnt the temple, and so used several ways of destroying his enemies. FJAJ 12.70
5. When he had done this, he gathered the Jews together, with their
children and wives, and the substance that belonged to them, and was going
to bring them back into Judea; but as soon as he was come to a certain
city, whose name was Ephron, that lay upon the road, (and it was not possible
for him to go any other way, so he was not willing to go back again,) he
then sent to the inhabitants, and desired that they would open their gates,
and permit them to go on their way through the city; for they had stopped
up the gates with stones, and cut off their passage through it
And when
the inhabitants of Ephron would not agree to this proposal, he encouraged
those that were with him, and encompassed the city round, and besieged
it, and, lying round it by day and night, took the city, and slew every
male in it, and burnt it all down, and so obtained a way through it; and
the multitude of those that were slain was so great, that they went over
the dead bodies
So they came over Jordan, and arrived at the great plain,
over against which is situate the city Bethshah, which is called by the
Greeks Scythopolis. FJAJ 12.71
(20)
The reason why Bethshah was called Scythopolis is well known from Herodotus,
B. I. p. 105, and Syncellus, p. 214, that the Scythians, when they overran
Asia, in the days of Josiah, seized on this city, and kept it as long as
they continued in Asia, from which time it retained the name of Scythopolis,
or the City of the Scythians.
And going away hastily from thence, they came into Judea, singing psalms
and hymns as they went, and indulging such tokens of mirth as are usual
in triumphs upon victory
They also offered thank-offerings, both for their
good success, and for the preservation of their army, for not one of the
Jews was slain in these battles.(21)
This most providential preservation of all the religious Jews in this expedition,
which was according to the will of God, is observable often among God's
people, the Jews; and somewhat very like it in the changes of the four
monarchies, which were also providential. See Prideaux at the years 331,
333, and 334. FJAJ 12.72
6. But as to Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, whom Judas left
generals [of the rest of his forces] at the same time when Simon was in
Galilee, fighting against the people of Ptolemais, and Judas himself, and
his brother Jonathan, were in the land of Gilead, did these men also affect
the glory of being courageous generals in war, in order whereto they took
the army that was under their command, and came to Jamnia
There Gorgias,
the general of the forces of Jamnia, met them; and upon joining battle
with him, they lost two thousand of their army, (22)
Here is another great instance of Providence, that when, even at the very
time that Simon, and Judas, and Jonathan were so miraculously preserved
and blessed, in the just defense of their laws and religion, these other
generals of the Jews, who went to fight for honor in a vain-glorious way,
and without any commission from God, or the family he had raised up to
deliver them, were miserably disappointed and defeated. See 1 Macc. 5:61,
62.
and fled away, and were pursued to the very borders of Judea
And this
misfortune befell them by their disobedience to what injunctions Judas
had given them, not to fight with any one before his return
For besides
the rest of Judas's sagacious counsels, one may well wonder at this concerning
the misfortune that befell the forces commanded by Joseph and Azarias,
which he understood would happen, if they broke any of the injunctions
he had given them
But Judas and his brethren did not leave off fighting
with the Idumeans, but pressed upon them on all sides, and took from them
the city of Hebron, and demolished all its fortifications, and set all
its towers on fire, and burnt the country of the foreigners, and the city
Marissa
They came also to Ashdod, and took it, and laid it waste, and
took away a great deal of the spoils and prey that were in it, and returned
to Judea. FJAJ 12.73