[Sidenote:  I Macc. 3:16-22] As he approached the ascent of Bethhoron, Judas went forth to meet him with a small company.  But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas, How shall we, few as we are, be able to battle against so great a multitude? and we are faint also, having tasted no food to-day.  Then Judas said, It is an easy thing for many to be shut up in the hands of a few; and with Heaven it is equally easy to save by many or by few; for victory in battle does not depend upon the size of an army, but from Heaven comes the strength.  They come to us full of insolence and lawlessness, to destroy us with our wives and children and to plunder us; but, as for us, we are fighting for our lives and our laws.  And he himself will crush them before our face; so do not be afraid of them.

[Sidenote:  I Macc. 3:23, 24] Now when he had finished speaking, he leaped suddenly upon them, and Seron and his army were put to flight before him.  And they pursued them by the descent of Bethhoron to the plain, and there fell of them about eight hundred men; but the rest fled into the land of the Philistines.

[Sidenote:  I Macc. 3:25-31] Now the fear of Judas and his brothers and the dread of them began to fall upon the nations round about them.  And his reputation reached the king, for every nation was telling of the battles of Judas.  But when King Antiochus heard these things, he was filled with indignation and sent and gathered together all the forces of his realm, a very strong army.  And he opened his treasury and gave his forces pay for a year, and commanded them to be ready for every emergency.  And seeing that money was scarce in his treasury and that the tributes of the country were small, because of the dissension and calamity which he had brought upon the land, for the purpose of taking away the laws which had been in force from the earliest days, he feared that he should not have enough, as at other times, for the expenses and the gifts which he had formerly given with a liberal hand, in which he had surpassed the kings who had been before him.  And he was exceedingly perplexed in his mind, and determined to go into Persia and to take the tributes of the countries and to gather much money.

[Sidenote:  I Macc. 3:32-37] So he left Lysias, an honorable man and one of the royal family in charge of the affairs of the king from the River Euphrates to the borders of Egypt and to bring up his son Antiochus, until he returned.  And he delivered to him the half of his forces and the elephants, and gave him charge of all the things that he wished to have done and concerning those who dwelt in Judea and in Jerusalem, that he should send a force against them, to root out and destroy the strength of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem, and to take away their memory from the place, and that he should make foreigners dwell in all their territory and should divide their land to them by lot.  Then the king took the remaining half of the forces and set out from Antioch his capital, in the one hundred and forty-seventh year, and, crossing the Euphrates, he went through the upper countries.