And so, in response to this attempt to soften the covenant, to make Israel like the nations, even to abandon distinctive marks of the covenant like circumcising one’s male children, Mattathias and his sons run up with zeal, burning with zeal—as Phinehas had done to enforce the covenant violently within Israel—forcibly circumcising male children that had been left uncircumcised, harassing not only Graeco-Syrian soldiers garrisoned in Judaea but also renegades within Israel.