1 Maccabees 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Judas, called Maccabeus, takes his father's place as leader and is described in the language of a lion and a warrior who protects his people. He defeats Apollonius and then Seron at Bethhoron with a small force, and news of him reaches King Antiochus, who gathers his army but finds his treasury short and leaves for Persia, putting Lysias in charge with orders to destroy Israel. Lysias sends a large army under Ptolemee, Nicanor, and Gorgias, which camps at Emmaus; the Israelites gather at Maspha to fast and pray, and Judas organizes the people and calls them to be ready to fight in the morning.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • Judas, the son of Mattathias, rose up in his father's place.
   • Judas was called Maccabeus.
2. 3:2
   • All of Judas's brothers helped him.
   • All those who had joined with his father helped him.
   • They fought the battle of Israel with gladness.
3. 3:3
   • Judas extended his people's glory.
   • Judas put on a breastplate like a giant.
   • Judas girded his weapons of war about him.
   • Judas set battles in array.
   • Judas protected the army with his sword.
4. 3:4
   • In his deeds Judas was like a lion.
   • Judas was like a lion's cub roaring for its prey.
5. 3:5
   • Judas pursued the lawless and searched them out.
   • Judas burned up those who troubled his people.
6. 3:6
   • The lawless shrank back for fear of Judas.
   • All the workers of lawlessness were thrown into confusion.
   • Deliverance prospered by Judas's hand.
7. 3:7
   • Judas embittered many kings.
   • Judas made Jacob glad by his deeds.
   • Judas's memorial is blessed forever.
8. 3:8
   • Judas went through the cities of Judah.
   • Judas destroyed the ungodly out of them.
   • Judas turned wrath away from Israel.
9. 3:9
   • Judas was renowned to the utmost part of the earth.
   • Judas gathered to himself those who were perishing.
10. 3:10
    • Apollonius gathered the Gentiles together.
    • Apollonius gathered a great army out of Samaria.
    • Apollonius's purpose was to fight against Israel.
11. 3:11
    • Judas learned of it.
    • Judas went out to meet Apollonius.
    • Judas struck Apollonius.
    • Judas killed Apollonius.
    • Many fell slain.
    • The rest fled.
12. 3:12
    • They took the spoils of the defeated.
    • Judas took the sword of Apollonius.
    • Judas fought with that sword all his days.
13. 3:13
    • Seron was a commander of the army of Syria.
    • Seron heard that Judas had gathered a large company to himself.
    • Seron heard that a company of the faithful was with Judas.
    • Seron heard that they went out to war.
14. 3:14
    • Seron said he would make himself a name.
    • Seron said he would gain glory in the kingdom.
    • Seron said he would fight against Judas and those with him.
    • Seron said those with Judas despise the king's command.
15. 3:15
    • Seron went up.
    • A strong army of the ungodly went up with him to help him.
    • Their purpose was to take vengeance on the children of Israel.
16. 3:16
    • Seron came near to the ascent of Bethhoron.
    • Judas went out to meet him with a small company.
17. 3:17
    • Judas's men saw the army coming to meet them.
    • They said to Judas that they were few and asked how they could fight so great and strong a multitude.
    • They said they were faint from having eaten nothing that day.
18. 3:18
    • Judas answered them.
    • Judas said it is an easy thing for many to be shut up in the hands of a few.
    • Judas said it makes no difference before heaven to save by many or by few.
19. 3:19
    • Victory in battle does not stand in the multitude of an army.
    • Strength comes from heaven.
20. 3:20
    • The enemy comes against us in great insolence and lawlessness.
    • The enemy comes to destroy us and our wives and our children.
    • The enemy comes to plunder us.
21. 3:21
    • We fight for our lives.
    • We fight for our laws.
22. 3:22
    • He himself will crush them before our face.
    • Judas told his men not to be afraid of them.
23. 3:23
    • Judas finished speaking.
    • Judas leapt suddenly upon them.
    • Seron and his army were crushed before Judas.
24. 3:24
    • They pursued the enemy down the descent of Bethhoron to the plain.
    • About eight hundred men of the enemy fell.
    • The rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
25. 3:25
    • The fear of Judas and his brothers began.
    • Dread of them began to fall on the nations around them.
26. 3:26
    • Judas's name reached the king.
    • Every nation told of the battles of Judas.
27. 3:27
    • King Antiochus heard these words.
    • Antiochus was filled with rage.
    • Antiochus sent and gathered all the forces of his kingdom.
    • The army gathered was exceedingly strong.
28. 3:28
    • Antiochus opened his treasury.
    • Antiochus gave his forces pay for a year.
    • Antiochus commanded them to be ready for every need.
29. 3:29
    • Antiochus saw that the money had failed from his treasuries.
    • The tributes of the country were small.
    • The tributes were small because of the dissension and the plague he had brought upon the land.
    • He had brought this about by taking away the laws that had existed from the earliest days.
30. 3:30
    • Antiochus feared he would not have enough, as he had before, for the expenses and the gifts he used to give with a liberal hand.
    • He had given more abundantly than the kings before him.
31. 3:31
    • Antiochus was greatly perplexed in his mind.
    • Antiochus decided to go into Persia.
    • Antiochus decided to take the tributes of the countries.
    • Antiochus decided to gather much money.
32. 3:32
    • Antiochus left Lysias behind.
    • Lysias was an honorable man.
    • Lysias was of royal lineage.
    • Lysias was put over the affairs of the king from the river Euphrates to the borders of Egypt.
33. 3:33
    • Lysias was to bring up Antiochus's son Antiochus until the king returned.
34. 3:34
    • Antiochus handed over to Lysias half of his forces.
    • Antiochus handed over to Lysias the elephants.
    • Antiochus gave Lysias charge concerning all he wanted done.
    • Antiochus gave Lysias charge concerning those who dwelt in Judea and Jerusalem.
35. 3:35
    • Lysias was to send an army against them.
    • The army was to crush and root out the strength of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem.
    • The army was to take away their memorial from that place.
36. 3:36
    • Lysias was to settle foreigners in all their territory.
    • Lysias was to divide their land by lot.
37. 3:37
    • The king took the half of the forces that remained.
    • The king departed from Antioch, his royal city.
    • This was in the one hundred and forty-seventh year.
    • The king crossed the river Euphrates.
    • The king traveled through the upper countries.
38. 3:38
    • Lysias chose Ptolemy the son of Dorymenes.
    • Lysias chose Nicanor.
    • Lysias chose Gorgias.
    • These were mighty men among the king's friends.
39. 3:39
    • Lysias sent with them forty thousand foot soldiers.
    • Lysias sent with them seven thousand horsemen.
    • They were to go into the land of Judah.
    • They were to destroy it according to the king's word.
40. 3:40
    • They set out with all their army.
    • They came and encamped near Emmaus in the plain country.
41. 3:41
    • The merchants of the country heard the report of them.
    • The merchants took very much silver and gold.
    • The merchants took servants with them.
    • The merchants came into the camp to buy the children of Israel for slaves.
    • Forces of Syria and of the land of the Philistines joined themselves to them.
42. 3:42
    • Judas and his brothers saw that the evils were multiplied.
    • They saw that the forces were encamping in their borders.
    • They learned of the king's commands to destroy the people and make an end of them.
43. 3:43
    • They said one to another that they should restore the ruin of their people.
    • They said they should fight for their people and the holy things.
44. 3:44
    • The congregation was gathered together.
    • They gathered to be ready for battle.
    • They gathered to pray and to ask for mercy and compassion.
45. 3:45
    • Jerusalem was uninhabited like a wilderness.
    • There was none of her children going in or out.
    • The sanctuary was trodden down.
    • Sons of foreigners were in the citadel.
    • The Gentiles had their lodging there.
    • Joy was taken away from Jacob.
    • The pipe and the harp ceased.
46. 3:46
    • They gathered together and came to Mizpeh, opposite Jerusalem.
    • Mizpeh had formerly been a place of prayer for Israel.
47. 3:47
    • They fasted that day.
    • They put on sackcloth.
    • They put ashes on their heads.
    • They tore their clothes.
48. 3:48
    • They spread open the book of the law.
    • The Gentiles searched in such books for the likenesses of their idols.
49. 3:49
    • They brought the priests' garments.
    • They brought the firstfruits.
    • They brought the tithes.
    • They stirred up the Nazirites who had completed their days.
50. 3:50
    • They cried with a loud voice toward heaven.
    • They asked what they should do with these things.
    • They asked where they should carry them away.
51. 3:51
    • Your sanctuary is trodden down and profaned.
    • Your priests are in mourning and humiliation.
52. 3:52
    • The Gentiles are assembled against us to destroy us.
    • You know what they plan against us.
53. 3:53
    • They asked how they would be able to stand against them unless God helped them.
54. 3:54
    • They sounded the trumpets.
    • They cried out with a loud voice.
55. 3:55
    • After this Judas appointed leaders of the people.
    • He appointed captains of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
56. 3:56
    • Judas spoke to those building a house, those betrothing wives, those planting vineyards, and those who were fearful.
    • He told each of them to return to his own house, according to the law.
57. 3:57
    • The camp set out.
    • They encamped on the south side of Emmaus.
58. 3:58
    • Judas told them to gird themselves.
    • Judas told them to be valiant men.
    • Judas told them to be ready in the morning to fight these nations.
    • Judas said these nations were assembled against them to destroy them and their holy things.
59. 3:59
    • It is better for us to die in battle than to look upon the evils of our nation and of the holy things.
60. 3:60
    • As the will is in heaven, so he will do.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

"Maccabeus" is a nickname, not a family name. Its sense is disputed; the most common explanation derives it from a Semitic word for hammer, but other explanations have been offered and the Greek text never explains it. "In his stead" means in his place: his father Mattathias, who began the revolt, has just died.

3:2

"All they that held with his father" means everyone who had taken his father's side. The Greek word behind "brethren" covers brothers and wider kin alike.

3:3

Verses 3 through 9 are a short poem in praise of Judas, set into the narrative before the story resumes at verse 10. "As a giant" translates a Greek word used in the Greek Old Testament for a hero or mighty warrior, not for a creature of unusual size. "Warlike harness" in 1611 English means a soldier's armor, nothing to do with horses.

3:6

This means he kept on saving his people, over and over.

3:7

"Jacob" stands for the whole people descended from him, a standard poetic substitute for Israel.

3:8

The ungodly here are people who stopped keeping God's laws. Some of them had joined the king's side.

3:9

These were people who had lost everything. They were hungry and hunted, and Judas kept them alive.

3:10

"Gentiles" means people who are not Jews; the Greek word simply means the nations. Samaria was the province immediately north of Judea, under the same Greek rulers. Apollonius was their commander there.

3:12

Carrying a dead enemy commander's sword for life is a warrior's trophy, and the detail deliberately echoes David, who kept the sword of Goliath.

3:13

"Syria" here means the Seleucid kingdom, the Greek-speaking empire ruled from Antioch that controlled Judea. "Prince of the army" means its commanding general, not a member of the royal family.

3:14

The king had ordered the Jews to stop keeping their own laws. Judas and his men would not obey that order.

3:16

Bethhoron sat on the narrow road climbing from the coastal plain into the hill country toward Jerusalem. An army had to march up it in a long thin column, which is why a small force could fight a large one there. The same pass appears in older battles in Joshua and Samuel.

3:17

"Faint with fasting" here means weak from having had nothing to eat that day, an accident of a forced march rather than a religious fast.

3:18

Throughout this book the writer avoids naming God directly and says "heaven" instead, a reverent habit of the period. The Greek of this verse says only "with heaven it is all one"; the King James translators supplied "the God of." The same substitution lies behind verses 19, 50 and 60.

3:21

"Our laws" means the law of Moses and the way of life built on it, which Antiochus had banned on pain of death. The fight is described as a fight over whether those laws may be kept at all.

3:24

By this period there were no Philistines as a distinct people. The name survived as the old biblical label for the coastal plain southwest of Judea and its Greek-speaking cities, which were hostile territory for a Jewish army.

3:27

This is Antiochus IV, called Epiphanes, the Seleucid king whose ban on Jewish practice and desecration of the temple set off the revolt described in chapters 1 and 2.

3:28

Hellenistic armies were largely paid professionals and mercenaries. Paying a full year in advance bought the right to summon them at any moment, and it is mentioned here to set up the money problem in the next verse.

3:29

"Tributes" are the taxes and payments owed by subject provinces to the king. The "laws which had been of old time" are the Jewish laws he had abolished; the writer is saying the king's own religious policy wrecked his revenue.

3:30

Greek kings were expected to hand out lavish gifts to cities, temples and courtiers, and their standing depended on it. Failing to keep up that spending was a political danger, not merely a private embarrassment.

3:31

Persia here means the eastern provinces of the empire. Kings short of money went there to collect overdue tribute and, notoriously, to strip wealthy temples of their treasures.

3:32

"Of the blood royal" means a member of the ruling family by descent. Lysias is left as regent over the whole western half of the empire, from the Euphrates to the Egyptian frontier.

3:34

War elephants were the heaviest weapon a Seleucid army had, trained to break infantry lines and often carrying armed men in a tower on the back. Handing them over marks how seriously the king took this command.

3:36

Dividing land "by lot" means parceling out confiscated territory to incoming settlers by drawing lots, the standard way of distributing land fairly among claimants. The phrase pointedly reverses the way Israel's own land was once divided in the book of Joshua.

3:37

Dates in this book count from the start of the Seleucid kingdom, in what we call 312 or 311 BC, so the one hundred forty-seventh year is roughly 166 to 165 BC. "The high countries" or upper countries means the inland provinces east of the Euphrates.

3:38

"The king's friends" was a formal rank at the Greek royal court, a graded title held by senior officials and officers. It describes an office, not personal affection.

3:40

Emmaus lay in the low country about twenty miles west of Jerusalem, where the coastal plain meets the foothills, controlling the approaches into the Judean hills.

3:41

Slave dealers routinely followed armies to buy captives on the spot, and the chains are the equipment of their trade. The King James "servants" renders a Greek word that means fetters. Their arrival before the battle shows how certain everyone was of the outcome.

3:43

"The sanctuary" or holy place is the temple in Jerusalem, at this point occupied and defiled and so unusable for its ordinary services.

3:45

"The strong hold" is the citadel, called the Akra, a fortress the king's men had built in Jerusalem and garrisoned with foreign troops, which left the city effectively under occupation. "The pipe with the harp" stands for the music of festivals and worship, so its silence means the festivals had stopped.

3:46

Maspha, usually spelled Mizpah, was a town a few miles north of Jerusalem where Israel had assembled to fast and pray in the days of Samuel. They gather there because the temple itself is in enemy hands.

3:47

Sackcloth was coarse dark cloth worn next to the skin, and throwing dust or ashes on the head and tearing one's clothing were the recognized public signs of mourning and distress, performed openly so that others could see them.

3:48

The Greek of this verse is unusually obscure and has been read in more than one way: that they opened the law to search it as the Gentiles consulted the images of their gods for guidance, or that they opened the scrolls on which the Gentiles had painted figures of their idols. The King James rendering follows the second sense; the ambiguity is in the original.

3:49

The priests' garments were vestments worn only for service in the temple. Firstfruits are the first portion of a harvest and tithes a tenth of the produce, both owed to the sanctuary. A Nazarite had taken the vow of Numbers 6, abstaining from wine and leaving the hair uncut for a set period, at the end of which the hair had to be shaved and burned with sacrifices at the sanctuary. "Who had accomplished their days" means those whose term was now up.

3:50

"These" are the items and the men just listed. Every one of them was due at a sanctuary that was now defiled, so the people had obligations they physically could not discharge and no lawful place to put them.

3:51

"Profaned" means treated as ordinary rather than holy. "In heaviness" is older English for in mourning or grief.

3:54

The trumpets are the straight silver trumpets of Numbers 10, blown to summon the assembly and sounded in war both as a signal and as a formal call for God to take notice.

3:55

Commanders over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens are the ranks of Israel's army in the books of Moses. Adopting them presents this force as the old national militia rather than a band of rebels.

3:56

Deuteronomy 20 exempts from battle any man who has built a house but not yet lived in it, planted a vineyard but not yet eaten from it, or become engaged but not yet married, and sends home anyone who is afraid so that his fear does not spread. Judas is following that law to the letter.

3:60

The Greek says only "as may be the will in heaven," avoiding the divine name as the book does throughout; the King James translators added the word God.