40. If any of you are qualified to be enrolled in our bodyguard, let them be enrolled. Finally, let there be peace between us.
41. In the year 170, the yoke of the Gentiles was removed from Israel.
42. The people of Israel began to write in their documents and contracts, "In the first year of Simon the great high priest, commander and leader of the Jews."
43. In those days, Simon camped against Gazara and surrounded it with troops. He made a siege engine and brought it up to the city. He battered and captured one tower.
44. The men in the siege engine leaped out into the city, and a great tumult arose.
45. Together with their wives and children, the men went up on the wall with their clothes torn. They cried out loudly, asking Simon to make peace with them.
46. They said, "Don’t treat us according to our wicked acts but according to your mercy."
47. So Simon reached an agreement with them and stopped fighting. But he expelled them from the city and cleansed the houses in which the idols were located. He then entered it with hymns and praise.
48. He removed all pollution from it and settled people there who observed the Law. He also strengthened its defenses and built a house for himself there.
49. Those who were in the elevated fortress at Jerusalem were prevented from moving around to buy and sell in the country. So they were very hungry, and many perished from famine.