hat were in the citadel. This was in the hundred and
fiftieth year of the dominion of the Seleucidse. So he made engines of
war, and erected bulwarks, and very zealously pressed on to take the
citadel. But there were not a few of the runagates who were in the place
that went out by night into the country, and got together some other
wicked men like themselves, and went to Antiochus the king, and desired
of him that he would not suffer them to be neglected, under the great
hardships that lay upon them from those of their own nation; and this
because their sufferings were occasioned on his father's account, while
they left the religious worship of their fathers, and preferred that
which he had commanded them to follow: that there was danger lest the
citadel, and those appointed to garrison it by the king, should be
taken by Judas, and those that were with him, unless he would send them
succors. When Antiochus, who was but a child, heard this, he was angry,
and sent for his captains and his friends, and gave order that they
should get an army of mercenaries together, with such men also of his
own kingdom as were of an age fit for war. Accordingly, an army was
collected of about a hundred thousand footmen, and twenty thousand
horsemen, and thirty-two elephants.

4. So the king took this army, and marched hastily out of Antioch, with
Lysias, who had the command of the whole, and came to Idumea, and thence
went up to the city Bethsnra, a city that was strong, and not to be
taken without great difficulty. He set about this city, and besieged
it. And while the inhabitants of Bethsura courageously opposed him, and
sallied out upon him, and burnt his engines of war, a great deal of time
was spent in the siege. But when Judas heard of the king's coming, he
raised the siege of the citadel, and met the king, and pitched his camp
in certain straits, at a place called Bethzachriah, at the distance of
seventy furlongs from the enemy; but the king soon drew his forces from
Bethsura, and brought them to those straits. And as soon as it was
day, he put his men in battle-array, and made his elephants follow
one another through the narrow passes, because they could not be set
sideways by one another. Now round about every elephant there were a
thousand footmen, and five hundred horsemen. The elephants also had high
towers [upon their backs], and archers [in them]. And he also made the
rest of his army to go up the mountains, and put his frie