1 Maccabees 16
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1THen came Iohn vp from Gazara, & tolde Simon his father, what Cendebeus had done. 2So Simon called two of his eldest sonnes, Iudas and Iohn, and said vnto them, I, and my brethren, and my fathers house, haue euer from our youth vnto this day foghten against the enemies of Israel, & the matters haue had good successe vnder our hands, & we haue deliuered Israel often times. 3But I am now olde, & ye by Gods mercie are of a sufficient age: be ye therefore in stead of me, & my brother, & go forthe & fight for our nacion, & the helpe of heauen be with you. 4So he chose twentie thousand fighting men of the countrey with the horsemen, which went forthe against Cendebeus, & rested at Modin. 5In the morning thei arose, and went into the plaine field: & beholde, a mightie great hoste came against them bothe of fotemen, & horsemen: but there was a riuer betwixt them. 6And Iohn ranged his armie ouer against him, and when he sawe that the people was afrayed to go ouer the riuer, he went ouer first him self, and the men seing him, passed through after him. 7Then he deuided his men, & set the horsemen in the middes of the fotemen. 8For their enemies horsemen were verie manie: but when thei blewe the trumpets, Cendebeus fled with his hoste, whereof manie were slayne, & the remnant gate them to the forteresse. 9Then was Iudas Iohns brother wounded: but Iohn followed after them, til he came to Cedron, which Cendebeus had buylt. 10Also thei fled vnto the towres, that were in the fields of Azotus, and those did Iohn burne with fyre: thus were there slaine two thousand men of them: so he returned peaceably into the land of Iuda. 11¶Now in the field of Iericho was Ptolomeus the sonne of Abubus made captaine, and he had abundance of siluer and golde. 12(For he had maried the daughter of the hie Priest.) 13Therefore he waxed proude in his minde, and thoght to rule the land, & thoght to slay Simon and his sonnes by deceit. 14Now as Simon went about thorowe the cities of the countrey, & studied carefully for them, he came downe to Iericho with Mattathias, and Iudas his sonnes in the hundreth, seuentie & seuen yere, in the eleuenth moneth, which is the moneth Sabat. 15Then the sonne of Abubus receiued them by treason into a litle holde, called Dochus, which he had buylte, where he made them a great banket, and had hid men there. 16So when Simon and his sonnes had made good chere, Ptolemeus stode vp with his men, and toke their weapons, and entred in to Simon in the banket house, and slewe him with his two sonnes, and certeine of his seruants. 17Whereby he committed a great vilenie, and recompensed euil for good. 18Then wrote Ptolemeus these things and sent to the King, that he might send him an hoste to helpe him, & so wolde deliuer him the countrey with the cities. 19He sent other men also vnto Gazara, to take Iohn, and sent letters vnto the captaines to come to him, and he wolde giue them siluer, and golde and rewardes. 20And to Ierusalem he sent other to take it, and the mountaine of the Temple. 21But one ranne before, and tolde Iohn in Gazara, that his father, and his brethren were slaine, and that Ptolemeus had sent to slay him. 22When he heard this, he was sore astonished, & laid hands of them that were come to slay him, and slewe them: for he knewe that they went about to kill him. 23Concerning other things of Iohn, bothe of his warres, and of his noble actes (wherein he behaued him self manfully) of the buylding of walles which he made, and other of his dedes, 24Beholde, they are writen in the chroninicles of his priesthode, from the time, that he was made high Priest after his father.