2 Maccabees 8:1–7

But Judas, who is also called Maccabaeus, together with his companions, went round the villages by stealth, summoning their kinsfolk and mustering those who had adhered to Judaism, till they collected as many as six thousand. And they invoked the Lord to look upon the people whom all men oppressed, to have compassion on the sanctuary which the godless had profaned, and also to pity the ruined city which was on the point of being levelled with the ground, to hearken to the blood that cried to him, to remember the impious massacre of the innocent babes and the blasphemies committed against his name, and to manifest his hatred of evil. Now as soon as Maccabaeus had got his company together, the heathen found him irresistible, for the Lord’s anger was now turned into mercy. He would surprise and burn both towns and villages, gaining possession of strategic positions and routing large numbers of the enemy. He took special advantage of the night for such attacks. And the whole country echoed with the fame of his valour.