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1 Maccabees 9: What the Passage Says

210 claims across 73 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Maccabees 9 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Demetrius sends Bacchides and Alcimus into Judea again with a large force; Judas fights them at Elasa with only eight hundred men, breaks the right wing, and is killed, and his brothers bury him at Modin. After his death lawless men rise up across Israel, a great famine comes, the country goes over to Bacchides, and Judas's friends choose Jonathan as their leader in his place. Jonathan and Simon fight Bacchides in the wilderness and at the Jordan, avenge their brother John on the children of Jambri, and hold out at Bethbasi until Bacchides, defeated there, makes peace with Jonathan, returns the prisoners, and leaves Judea for good.

Claim by Claim

  1. 9:1
    • Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his army had been killed in battle.
    • Demetrius sent Bacchides and Alcimus into the land of Judea a second time.
    • He sent the right wing of his army with them.
  2. 9:2
    • They went by the road that leads to Galgala.
    • They encamped before Masaloth, which is in Arbela.
    • They captured Masaloth.
    • They killed many people.
  3. 9:3
    • In the first month of the one hundred fifty-second year they encamped against Jerusalem.
  4. 9:4
    • They departed from there and went to Berea.
    • They had twenty thousand foot soldiers.
    • They had two thousand horsemen.
  5. 9:5
    • Judas was encamped at Eleasa.
    • Three thousand chosen men were with him.
  6. 9:6
    • They saw that the enemy force was very numerous.
    • They were greatly afraid.
    • Many slipped away out of the camp.
    • No more than eight hundred of them remained.
  7. 9:7
    • Judas saw that his army had slipped away.
    • Judas saw that the battle was pressing upon him.
    • He was greatly troubled in spirit.
    • He had no time to gather his men together.
    • He became faint.
  8. 9:8
    • Judas said to those who remained that they should arise and go up against their enemies.
    • Judas said they might perhaps be able to fight against them.
  9. 9:9
    • They tried to dissuade him.
    • They said they would not be able to do it.
    • They said they should save their lives now.
    • They said they would return afterward with their brethren and fight against them.
    • They said they were few.
  10. 9:10
    • Judas said it must not be that he should do this thing and flee from them.
    • Judas said that if their time had come they should die manfully for their brethren.
    • Judas said they should not leave a stain upon their honour.
  11. 9:11
    • The army of Bacchides moved out of their camp.
    • They stood opposite Judas's men.
    • The horsemen were divided into two companies.
    • The slingers and the archers went ahead of the army.
    • All those in the front rank were mighty men.
  12. 9:12
    • Bacchides was in the right wing.
    • The formation drew near from the two sides.
    • They sounded their trumpets.
  13. 9:13
    • The men on Judas's side also sounded their trumpets.
    • The earth shook at the noise of the armies.
    • The battle continued from morning until evening.
  14. 9:14
    • Judas saw that Bacchides and the strength of his army were on the right side.
    • All the brave-hearted men went with Judas.
  15. 9:15
    • They defeated the right wing.
    • They pursued them as far as Mount Azotus.
  16. 9:16
    • Those of the left wing saw that the right wing was defeated.
    • They turned and followed close behind Judas and those with him.
  17. 9:17
    • The battle was severe.
    • Many on both sides were slain.
  18. 9:18
    • Judas was killed.
    • The rest fled.
  19. 9:19
    • Jonathan and Simon took Judas their brother.
    • They buried him in the tomb of his fathers at Modin.
  20. 9:20
    • They bewailed him.
    • All Israel made great lamentation for him.
    • They mourned for many days.
    • They spoke these words.
  21. 9:21
    • They said the valiant man had fallen.
    • They said he had delivered Israel.
  22. 9:22
    • The remaining acts of Judas, his wars, his noble deeds and his greatness are not written.
    • The reason they are not written is that they were very many.
  23. 9:23
    • After the death of Judas the wicked appeared in all the territories of Israel.
    • All who worked iniquity rose up.
  24. 9:24
    • In those days there was a very great famine.
    • The country revolted and went over to their side.
  25. 9:25
    • Bacchides chose the wicked men.
    • He made them rulers of the country.
  26. 9:26
    • They sought out and searched for the friends of Judas.
    • They brought them to Bacchides.
    • Bacchides took vengeance on them.
    • Bacchides treated them despitefully.
  27. 9:27
    • There was great affliction in Israel.
    • Such affliction had not happened since the time a prophet ceased to be seen among them.
  28. 9:28
    • All the friends of Judas gathered together.
    • They spoke to Jonathan.
  29. 9:29
    • They said that since his brother Judas had died they had no man like him.
    • They said they had no such man to go out against their enemies and against Bacchides.
    • They said they had no such man to go out against those of their own nation who were their adversaries.
  30. 9:30
    • They said they had chosen Jonathan that day to be their prince and captain in Judas's place.
    • They said this was so that he might fight their battles.
  31. 9:31
    • Jonathan took the leadership at that time.
    • Jonathan rose up in place of his brother Judas.
  32. 9:32
    • Bacchides learned of it.
    • Bacchides sought to kill Jonathan.
  33. 9:33
    • Jonathan and Simon his brother and all who were with him perceived it.
    • They fled into the wilderness of Thecoe.
    • They encamped by the water of the pool of Asphar.
  34. 9:34
    • Bacchides learned of this.
    • Bacchides came to the Jordan with all his army on the sabbath day.
  35. 9:35
    • Jonathan had sent his brother John.
    • John was a captain of the people.
    • John was sent to ask the Nabathites, who were their friends, to store their baggage with them.
    • The baggage was much.
  36. 9:36
    • The children of Jambri came out of Medaba.
    • They seized John and everything he had.
    • They went away with it.
  37. 9:37
    • Afterward word came to Jonathan and Simon his brother.
    • The word was that the children of Jambri were holding a great wedding.
    • The word was that they were bringing the bride from Nadabatha with a great escort.
    • The bride was the daughter of one of the great princes of Canaan.
  38. 9:38
    • They remembered John their brother.
    • They went up and hid themselves under the cover of the mountain.
  39. 9:39
    • They lifted up their eyes and looked.
    • There was a great commotion and much baggage.
    • The bridegroom came out with his friends and his brethren to meet them.
    • They came with drums and musical instruments and many weapons.
  40. 9:40
    • Jonathan and those with him rose up against them from their ambush.
    • They made a slaughter of them.
    • Many fell down dead.
    • The remnant fled into the mountain.
    • They took all their spoils.
  41. 9:41
    • The wedding was turned into mourning.
    • The sound of their music was turned into lamentation.
  42. 9:42
    • They fully avenged the blood of their brother.
    • They returned to the marsh of the Jordan.
  43. 9:43
    • Bacchides heard of it.
    • Bacchides came on the sabbath day to the banks of the Jordan with a great force.
  44. 9:44
    • Jonathan said to his company that they should go up and fight for their lives.
    • Jonathan said that today was not like former days for them.
  45. 9:45
    • Jonathan said the battle was before them and behind them.
    • Jonathan said the water of the Jordan was on this side and that side.
    • Jonathan said there was marsh and thicket.
    • Jonathan said there was no place for them to turn aside.
  46. 9:46
    • Jonathan told them to cry out to heaven.
    • He said this was so they might be delivered from the hand of their enemies.
  47. 9:47
    • They joined battle.
    • Jonathan stretched out his hand to strike Bacchides.
    • Bacchides turned back away from him.
  48. 9:48
    • Jonathan and those with him leapt into the Jordan.
    • They swam across to the other bank.
    • The enemy did not cross the Jordan after them.
  49. 9:49
    • About a thousand men on Bacchides' side were killed that day.
  50. 9:50
    • Bacchides returned to Jerusalem.
    • They built up strong cities in Judea.
    • The fortified places were the stronghold in Jericho, Emmaus, Bethhoron, Bethel, Thamnatha, Pharathoni and Taphon.
    • He strengthened these with high walls, with gates and with bars.
  51. 9:51
    • He placed a garrison in them.
    • The purpose was that they might do harm to Israel.
  52. 9:52
    • He fortified the city of Bethsura.
    • He fortified Gazera.
    • He fortified the citadel.
    • He put troops in them.
    • He put stores of food in them.
  53. 9:53
    • He took the sons of the chief men of the country as hostages.
    • He put them under guard in the citadel at Jerusalem.
  54. 9:54
    • In the one hundred fifty-third year, in the second month, Alcimus gave orders to pull down the wall of the inner court of the sanctuary.
    • He pulled down the works of the prophets.
  55. 9:55
    • As he began to pull it down, Alcimus was stricken at that time.
    • His undertakings were hindered.
    • His mouth was stopped.
    • He was seized with a palsy.
    • He could no longer speak anything.
    • He could not give orders concerning his house.
  56. 9:56
    • Alcimus died at that time with great torment.
  57. 9:57
    • Bacchides saw that Alcimus was dead.
    • Bacchides returned to the king.
    • The land of Judea had rest for two years.
  58. 9:58
    • All the ungodly men held a council.
    • They said Jonathan and his company were at ease and dwelling without care.
    • They said they would bring Bacchides there.
    • They said Bacchides would capture them all in one night.
  59. 9:59
    • They went and consulted with Bacchides.
  60. 9:60
    • Bacchides set out and came with a great army.
    • He sent letters secretly to his supporters in Judea.
    • The letters told them to seize Jonathan and those with him.
    • They were not able to do it.
    • They were not able because their plan had become known to Jonathan's side.
  61. 9:61
    • They seized about fifty men of the country who were the authors of that wickedness.
    • They killed them.
  62. 9:62
    • Jonathan and Simon and those with him went away to Bethbasi.
    • Bethbasi is in the wilderness.
    • They repaired what had been ruined there.
    • They made it strong.
  63. 9:63
    • Bacchides learned of it.
    • He gathered together all his army.
    • He sent word to those who were of Judea.
  64. 9:64
    • He went and laid siege against Bethbasi.
    • They fought against it for a long time.
    • They made engines of war.
  65. 9:65
    • Jonathan left his brother Simon in the city.
    • Jonathan himself went out into the country.
    • He went out with a certain number of men.
  66. 9:66
    • He struck Odonarkes and his brethren.
    • He struck the children of Phasiron in their tent.
  67. 9:67
    • He began to strike them and advanced with his forces.
    • Simon and his company went out of the city.
    • They burned up the engines of war.
  68. 9:68
    • They fought against Bacchides.
    • Bacchides was defeated by them.
    • They afflicted him severely.
    • His plan and his expedition were in vain.
  69. 9:69
    • He was very angry with the wicked men who had counseled him to come into the country.
    • He killed many of them.
    • He determined to return to his own country.
  70. 9:70
    • Jonathan learned of this.
    • Jonathan sent ambassadors to him.
    • The purpose was to make peace with him.
    • The purpose was that he should hand over the prisoners.
  71. 9:71
    • Bacchides accepted the proposal.
    • He acted according to Jonathan's demands.
    • He swore to him that he would never do him harm all the days of his life.
  72. 9:72
    • He restored to him the prisoners he had previously taken out of the land of Judea.
    • He returned and went away into his own land.
    • He came no more into their borders.
  73. 9:73
    • The sword ceased from Israel.
    • Jonathan dwelt at Machmas.
    • Jonathan began to govern the people.
    • Jonathan destroyed the ungodly men out of Israel.

Words Worth Explaining

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

9:1
Demetrius is Demetrius I, the Seleucid (Greek-Syrian) king who ruled from Antioch and claimed authority over Judea; Bacchides was his governor and general for the lands west of the Euphrates, and Alcimus was the Jewish high priest Demetrius had installed, opposed by Judas and his followers. "Host" is the King James word for an army, and it is used that way throughout this chapter.
9:2
Galgala is the Greek spelling of Gilgal. Masaloth and Arbela lay in Galilee, west of the Sea of Galilee, so the army seems to have swung north before turning down toward Jerusalem; the route is not certain, and the places cannot all be identified.
9:3
1 Maccabees counts years from the founding of the Seleucid kingdom in 312 or 311 BC, so the one hundred fifty-second year is about 160 BC. The first month is Nisan, falling in March or April.
9:4
Berea, probably Beerzeth, was a village north of Jerusalem. Its exact site is unknown.
9:5
Eleasa lay somewhere in the hills north of Jerusalem near Beth-horon; the site has not been identified with certainty.
9:8
"Peradventure" is the King James word for perhaps.
9:9
"Dehorted" is an old English word meaning urged him not to, the opposite of exhorted. It has dropped out of the language since 1611.
9:10
"Stain our honour" is the language of reputation: to run away would leave a permanent mark of shame on the family name, not merely a feeling of embarrassment.
9:11
Slingers hurled stones with a leather strap whirled around the head; a slinger and an archer were the long-range weapons of an ancient army, sent ahead to soften up the enemy before the lines closed. "Foreward" means the front line of the advancing army.
9:12
In Greek-style armies the commander took the right wing and put his best troops there, so the right was the strongest point of the line. This is why verse 14 says Judas went straight for it: he was attacking the head of the army.
9:13
The trumpets are signal instruments, not musical ones. Short blasts carried orders across the noise of a battlefield, and both sides used them to start the fight.
9:15
"Discomfited" in the King James means routed, broken and put to flight, a far stronger word than it sounds today. "Mount Azotus" is a problem in the text: Azotus (Ashdod) was a city on the coast, many miles from this battlefield, and the Greek here is widely thought to be corrupt. The place Judas chased them to cannot now be identified.
9:18
Judas Maccabeus died in the spring of 160 BC, about eight years after the revolt began.
9:19
Jonathan and Simon are two of Judas's four brothers (the others were John and Eleazar); the family is known as the Hasmoneans. Modin was their home village, northwest of Jerusalem, where the revolt had started. A "sepulchre of his fathers" is the family burial cave, where the bones of earlier generations already lay: to be buried there was to be gathered back to one's own people.
9:20
Mourning meant crying out loud so everyone could hear. People did this for days after someone died.
9:21
The lament deliberately echoes David's song over Saul and Jonathan, "How are the mighty fallen" (2 Samuel 1). A reader in the first century BC would have heard the borrowed line at once.
9:22
This is the standard closing formula of the books of Kings, where a reign ends "the rest of the acts of" so-and-so. Using it of Judas puts him in the company of Israel's kings.
9:23
"Coasts" in the King James means borders or territory, and has nothing to do with the sea. Throughout this book "the wicked" and "the ungodly" are not wrongdoers in general but the party of Jews who cooperated with the Greek kings and adopted Greek ways; that is the political label being used here.
9:24
Famine here is a political weapon as much as a hardship: the party in control of supplies could buy loyalty, so hungry villages "went with them" and accepted Seleucid rule.
9:26
"Used them despitefully" means treated them with deliberate insult and outrage, not simply harshly.
9:27
There was a widespread belief in this period that prophecy in Israel had ceased after Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, and that no prophet had spoken since. The writer is dating the suffering by that gap: nothing this bad had happened in living memory or in the memory of the generations since the voice fell silent.
9:30
"Prince and captain" translates two offices: civil ruler and commander in war. What is described is an election by the surviving supporters, not an inheritance; the leadership of the movement passes by the choice of the men, not by birth.
9:33
Thecoe is Tekoa, a village about ten miles south of Jerusalem; its "wilderness" is the dry, broken country falling away east toward the Dead Sea, classic country for fugitives. The pool of Asphar was a cistern or reservoir there.
9:34
Verse 34 and verse 43 tell very nearly the same thing, and many scholars think one of them is a stray copy that drifted into the wrong place in the manuscripts. The sabbath matters because Jews had traditionally refused to fight on it; earlier in this book Judas's party decided they would defend themselves on the sabbath rather than be slaughtered, which is why an enemy could still gain some advantage by choosing that day.
9:35
John is another of the Maccabee brothers. The Nabathites are the Nabateans, an Arab people who controlled the trade routes east and south of the Jordan and later built Petra; they are treated here as allies. "Carriage" in the King James means baggage, the goods an army carries with it, not a vehicle.
9:36
The children of Jambri were a clan in the region of Medaba (Medeba), a town in the old territory of Moab, east of the Dead Sea.
9:37
Chanaan is the Greek spelling of Canaan. A wedding of this kind ran for days, and its central public event was the procession that carried the bride from her father's house to the bridegroom's, with an escort whose size advertised the family's standing.
9:39
"Much ado" means a great deal of commotion, and "carriage" again means baggage and goods. The drums are hand drums or tambourines. The weapons are not a sign of trouble: an armed escort firing off shouts and noise was part of the display at a wealthy wedding.
9:41
The line echoes the prophet Amos, "I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation" (Amos 8:10).
9:42
Long ago, a family was expected to punish someone who killed one of them. People called that paying back a brother's blood.
9:45
A marsh is soft, wet, muddy ground. It is very hard to run or fight there.
9:46
1 Maccabees never uses the name of God. "Cry unto heaven" is the book's habitual reverent substitute: heaven stands in for God, as it does everywhere else in these pages.
9:47
The Greek leaves it open who pulled back, Bacchides from the blow or Jonathan from his target. Translators have to pick one; the sentence itself does not say.
9:48
The Jordan is the river that runs down through that land.
9:50
These are the forts of a ring of control around Judea: Jericho guarding the Jordan valley, Emmaus and Beth-horon covering the roads up from the coastal plain, Bethel to the north, and Thamnatha, Pharathoni and Taphon in the hill country. "Bars" are the heavy beams dropped across gates on the inside to hold them shut.
9:52
Bethsura is Beth-zur, the fortress on the southern approach to Jerusalem; Gazera is Gezer, on the road from the coast. "The tower" is the Akra, the Seleucid citadel inside Jerusalem itself, a garrison of foreign troops planted in the middle of the city and a standing grievance for years.
9:53
Taking the sons of leading families as hostages was normal imperial practice. The boys were not punished; they were held as a guarantee, and their fathers knew what would happen to them if their fathers rebelled.
9:54
The one hundred fifty-third year, second month, is about spring 159 BC. The wall of the inner court divided the area open only to Jews from the outer court, which Gentiles could enter; pulling it down erased that separation. "The works of the prophets" is obscure: it probably means building work credited to the prophets Haggai and Zechariah at the rebuilding of the temple, but the phrase is not explained, and no one is certain what structure is meant.
9:55
"Palsy" is the King James word for paralysis; the symptoms described, sudden loss of speech and of the use of the body, read like a stroke. "Give order concerning his house" means settle his affairs and say how his estate was to be handled, which a dying man was expected to do aloud.
9:57
"Returned to the king" means went back to the royal court at Antioch in Syria, several hundred miles north.
9:62
Bethbasi was a ruined fort in the wilderness southeast of Bethlehem. "Repaired the decays thereof" means rebuilt the parts that had collapsed.
9:64
"Engines of war" are siege machines: battering rams, movable towers, and catapults for throwing stones. Building them took time, which is why the siege drags, and burning them in verse 67 undoes weeks of work.
9:66
Odonarkes and the children of Phasiron appear to be desert clans allied with Bacchides. The names are spelled differently in different manuscripts, and nothing else is known about them.
9:68
"Travail" means hard labor or exertion, here his whole campaign; the sentence says his plan and his effort both came to nothing.
9:73
"The sword ceased" is a set phrase for the end of a state of war. Machmas is Michmash, a village about seven miles north of Jerusalem. The Greek word behind "govern" is the verb used of the judges in the book of Judges, so the sentence casts Jonathan as a judge of Israel rather than a king.

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