in danger of being overturned, and not to be
carried away with those that either by their own inclination or out of
necessity betray it, but to become such sons as are worthy of me; to be
above all force and necessity, and so to dispose your souls as to be
ready when it shall be necessary to die for your laws, as sensible of
this, by just reasoning, that if God see that you are so disposed he
will not overlook you, but will have a great value for your virtue, and
will restore to you again what you have lost and will return to you that
freedom in which you shall live quietly and enjoy your own customs.

"Your bodies are mortal and subject to fate; but they receive a sort of
immortality by the remembrance of what actions they have done; and I
would have you so in love with this immortality that you may pursue
after glory, and that when you have undergone the greatest difficulties
you may not scruple for such things to lose your lives. I exhort you
especially to agree one with another, and in what excellency any one of
you exceeds another, to yield to him so far, and by that means to reap
the advantage of everyone's own virtues. Do you then esteem Simon as
your father because he is a man of extraordinary prudence, and be
governed by him in what counsels he gives you. Take Maccabaeus for the
general of your army, because of his courage and strength, for he will
avenge your nation and will bring vengeance on your enemies. Admit among
you the righteous and religious, and augment their power."

When Mattathias had thus discoursed to his sons and had prayed to God to
be their assistant and to recover to the people their former
constitution, he died a little afterward, and was buried at Modin, all
the people making great lamentation for him. Whereupon his son Judas
took upon him the administration of public affairs, in the hundred and
forty-sixth year; and thus, by the ready assistance of his brethren and
of others, Judas cast their enemies out of the country and put those of
their own country to death who had transgressed its laws, and purified
the land of all the pollutions that were in it.

When Apollonius, the general of the Samaritan forces, heard this he took
his army and made haste to go against Judas, who met him and joined
battle with him, and beat him and slew many of his men, and among them
Apollonius himself, their general, whose sword, being that which he
happened then to wear, he seized upon and kept for himself;