17. So Antiochus, having gone astray in mind, did not consider that, because of the sins of the inhabitants of the city, God had become angry for a while, and so, for this reason, contempt had fallen upon the place.
18. Otherwise, if it had not happened that they were involved in so many sins, as with Heliodorus, who was sent by king Seleucus to plunder the treasury, so also this one, as soon as he had arrived, certainly would have been scourged and driven away from his audacity.
19. Truly, God did not choose the people because of the place, but the place because of the people.
20. And therefore, the place itself also became a participant in the evils of the people. But afterwards, it shall be a companion to what is good. And she who was abandoned to the wrath of Almighty God shall be exalted again with the greatest glory, at the reconciliation of the great Lord.
21. Therefore, when Antiochus had taken away from the temple one thousand eight hundred talents, he quickly returned to Antioch, thinking, in his arrogance, to navigate the earth, even by finding a passage leading across the open ocean: such was the elation of his mind.
22. Yet he left behind rulers to afflict the people. In fact, at Jerusalem, Philip was by birth a Phrygian, but he was in manners more cruel than he who had appointed him.
23. Yet Andronicus and Menelaus hung a heavier weight over the citizens at Garizim than the others.
24. And when he had been appointed over the Jews, he sent that hateful leader, Apollonius, with an army of twenty-two thousand, instructing him to execute all men in the prime of life, and to sell the women and the youths.
25. When he had arrived at Jerusalem, feigning peace, he remained quiet until the holy day of the Sabbath. And then, when the Jews were taking rest, he instructed his own to take up arms.
26. And he slaughtered all those who were seen going out. And rushing throughout the city with armed men, he destroyed a vast multitude.
27. But Judas Maccabeus, who was the tenth, had withdrawn himself to a deserted place, and there he lived life among the wild beasts in the mountains, with his own. And they remained there, consuming herbs as food, lest they be partakers in the defilement.