1. But Maccabeus and those who were with him, the Lord protecting them, even recovered the temple and the city.
2. Then he demolished the altars, which the foreigners had constructed in the streets, and likewise the shrines.
3. And, having purged the temple, they made another altar. And, taking glowing stones from the fire, they began to offer sacrifices again after two years, and they set out incense, and lamps, and the bread of the Presence.
4. Having done these things, they petitioned the Lord, lying prostrate on the ground, lest they should fall once more into such evils, but also, if they should at any time sin, that they might be chastised by him more mildly, and not be delivered over to barbarians and blasphemous men.
5. Then, on the day that the temple had been polluted by the foreigners, it happened on the same day that the purification was accomplished, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, which was Kislev.
6. And they celebrated for eight days with joy, in the manner of the Feast of Tabernacles, remembering that, a little time before, they had celebrated the solemn days of the Feast of Tabernacles in mountains and caves, in the manner of wild beasts.
7. Because of this, they now preferred to carry boughs and green branches and palms, for him who had prospered the cleansing of his place.
8. And they decreed a common precept and decree, that all the people of the Jews should keep those days every year.
9. Now certainly Antiochus, who was called illustrious, held himself to be so at the passing of his life.
10. But next we will describe what happened with Eupator, the son of the impious Antiochus, abridging the evils which happened in the wars.
11. For when he assumed the kingdom, he appointed, over the affairs of the kingdom, a certain Lysias, leader of the Phoenician and Syrian military.
12. For Ptolemy, who was called Macer, decided to be strict in justice toward the Jews, especially because of the iniquity that had been done to them, and to deal with them peacefully.
13. But, for this reason, he was accused before Eupator by his friends, and was frequently called a traitor. For he had deserted Cyprus, which Philometor had entrusted to him. And so, transferring to Antiochus the illustrious, he even withdrew from him. And he ended his life by poison.
14. But Gorgias, when he was the leader of the places, taking to him new arrivals, frequently made war against the Jews.
15. In truth, the Jews, who held the strategic fortresses, took in those who were fleeing from Jerusalem, and they attempted to make war.
16. In fact, those who were with Maccabeus, petitioning the Lord through prayers to be their helper, made a forceful attack upon the fortresses of the Idumeans.
17. And, persevering with much force, they obtained the places, killing those they met, and cutting down in all no less than twenty thousand.