Judas Maccabeus' Final Battle

After Nicanor was killed in battle, Demetrius sent Bacchides and Alcimus back into Judah a second time, with the right wing of his army. They went by the road to Gilgal, camped against Mesaloth in Arbela, took it, and killed many people there. In the first month of that year, they camped against Jerusalem.

Then they marched on to Berea with twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry. Judas was camped at Elasa with three thousand chosen men. But when his soldiers saw how many enemies there were, they were afraid. Many slipped away until no more than eight hundred men were left.

Judas was deeply troubled. The battle was pressing on him, and there was no time to gather his scattered men again. He urged the ones who remained to rise and fight. They tried to persuade him to retreat and return later with their kindred, because they were too few. Judas refused to flee and said he would not leave behind dishonour.

The armies took their places. The cavalry was split into two companies, with slingers and archers in front, and the strongest fighters at the front of the battle. Bacchides stood in the right wing. Trumpets sounded on both sides, and the fighting raged from morning until evening. Judas attacked the right wing and drove it back as far as mount Azotus.

But the left wing turned and followed Judas and the men with him. The battle became desperate, and many on both sides fell dead from their wounds. Judas fell, and the rest fled. Then Jonathan and Simon buried their brother in the tomb of his ancestors at Modin. All Israel wept and mourned many days, crying out that the mighty one, the saviour of Israel, had fallen.