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1Simon’s son John came up from Gazara and told his father what Cendebeus had done.
2Simon called for his two eldest sons, Judas and John, and said to them, “My brothers and my father’s family and I have spent our whole lives fighting Israel’s battles. Things have gone well under our leadership, for we have rescued Israel many times.
3Now I am old, but by God’s grace you have matured to manhood. You must replace me and my brother and continue fighting for our nation. May God help you.”[#16:3a Greek by heaven’s mercy.; #16:3b Greek May heaven.]
4John chose twenty thousand soldiers and horsemen from Judea, and they marched out to fight Cendebeus. They camped for the night in Modein.
5Then they got up early in the morning and moved out on to the plain, where they faced a large army of foot soldiers and horsemen. A stream separated the two armies.
6As John and his troops lined up against the enemy, he saw that his troops were afraid to cross the stream. So he went over first. When his men saw him lead the way, they crossed over behind him.
7John divided his army, positioning the horsemen in the center of the foot soldiers, for the enemy also had a large cavalry.
8John’s men sounded the trumpets and attacked, and Cendebeus and his army fled. Many of the enemy were wounded and fell, and the rest fled into the fortress.
9At the same time, John’s brother Judas was wounded, but John chased the enemy as far as Kedron, which Cendebeus had built up.
10Some also fled into the towers in the fields of Azotus, but John burned these down. About two thousand enemy soldiers were killed, and John returned safely to Judea.
11Ptolemy son of Abubus had been appointed governor over the plain of Jericho. He had a large amount of silver and gold,
12for he was a son-in-law of Simon the high priest.
13He became overly ambitious and wanted to gain control of the whole country. So he plotted against Simon and his sons to get rid of them by treachery.
14As Simon was going through the towns of Judea and attending to their needs, he and his sons Mattathias and Judas went down to Jericho in late winter of the one hundred seventy-seventh year of Greek rule.[#16:14 Greek in the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat. This month of the Hebrew lunar calendar occurred in February 134 b.c.]
15At Dok, a small fortress he had built, Ptolemy welcomed them with a deceptive display of friendliness. He invited them to a great banquet, but he hid his men in the fortress.[#16:15 Greek the son of Abubus; see 16:11.]
16When Simon and his sons were drunk, Ptolemy and his men jumped up, grabbed their weapons, and rushed into the banquet hall, killing Simon and his two sons and some of his servants.
17In this way, Ptolemy committed an act of great treachery, repaying evil for good.
18Ptolemy wrote a report of his actions and sent it to King Antiochus Sidetes, asking him to send soldiers to help him. He also asked the king to place the towns and the country under his authority.
19Ptolemy also sent soldiers to Gazara to kill Simon’s son John, and he sent letters to the army officers, asking them to come to him so he could give them silver and gold and gifts.
20He sent other soldiers to capture Jerusalem and the Temple mount as well.
21But someone ran ahead to Gazara and told John that his father and his brothers were dead and that Ptolemy had sent men to kill him, too.
22When John heard this, he was astounded. He captured the men that came to kill him, and he killed them instead, for he knew their intentions.
23The rest of John’s deeds, his battles, his brave accomplishments, his rebuilding of the walls, and his achievements,
24are all recorded in the history of his high priesthood, beginning from the time he succeeded his father as high priest.