2 Maccabees 8:1–7

The Revolt of Judas Maccabeus

⁸Meanwhile Judas, who was also called Maccabeus, and his companions secretly entered the villages and summoned their kindred and enlisted those who had continued in the Jewish faith, and so they gathered about six thousand.^{* 2}They implored the Lord to look upon the people who were oppressed by all and to have pity on the temple that had been profaned by the godless,^{* 3}to have mercy on the city that was being destroyed and about to be leveled to the ground, to hearken to the blood that cried out to him,^{* 4}to remember also the lawless destruction of the innocent babies and the blasphemies committed against his name, and to show his hatred of evil.

⁵As soon as Maccabeus got his army organized, the nations could not withstand him, for the wrath of the Lord had turned to mercy. ⁶Coming without warning, he would set fire to towns and villages. He captured strategic positions and put to flight not a few of the enemy.^{* 7}He found the nights most advantageous for such attacks. And talk of his valor spread everywhere.^*