16. And they approached even as far as Bethhoron. And Judas went forth to meet him, with a few men.
17. But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas, "How will we few be able to fight against so great and so strong a multitude, even though we are weakened by fasting today?"
18. And Judas said: "It is easy for many to be enclosed in the hands of a few, for there is no difference in the sight of the God of heaven to liberate by means of many, or by means of few.
19. For victory in warfare is not in the multitude of the army, but in the strength from heaven.
20. They come to us with a contemptuous multitude and with arrogance, in order to destroy us, with our wives and our sons, and to despoil us.
21. In truth, we will fight on behalf of our souls and our laws.
22. And the Lord himself will crush them before our face. But as for you, do not fear them."
23. And as soon as he had ceased speaking, he attacked them suddenly. And Seron and his army were crushed in his sight.
24. And he pursued him from the descent of Bethhoron, even to the plains. And eight hundred of their men were cut down, but the rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
25. And the fear and dread of Judas, as well as his brothers, fell upon all the nations around them.
26. And his name reached even to the king, and all the nations told stories of the battles of Judas.
27. But when king Antiochus heard these accounts, he was angry to his very soul. And he sent and gathered together forces from his entire kingdom, a very strong army.
28. And he opened his treasury, and he gave out stipends to the army for a year. And he commanded them to make ready for all things.
29. And he saw that the money from his treasures had failed, and that the tributes of the country were small, because of the dissension and the scourging that he had caused on earth in order to take away the legitimate laws, which had been since the first days.
30. And he feared, lest he not have enough the second time as the first, for expenses and gifts, which he had given before with a liberal hand. For his excesses were more than the kings who had been before him.