23. We happily served your father. We did what he said, obeying his commands.
24. Because of this, some of our people have laid siege to the citadel and are hostile to us. Furthermore, they’ve killed as many of us as they could catch. Now they’ve taken our wealth.
25. Judas and his forces haven’t lifted their hands against us alone. They’ve also attacked all the neighboring lands.
26. Look, today they’ve camped against the elevated fortress in Jerusalem to capture it. They’ve fortified both the sanctuary and Beth-zur.
27. Unless you do something soon to prevent them, they’ll do even worse things. Then you won’t be able to stop them."
28. The king was enraged when he heard this. He gathered all his chief political advisors, the commanders of his troops, and those with authority.
29. Mercenary forces from other kingdoms and the Mediterranean islands also joined him.
30. The total number of his forces was one hundred thousand army troops and twenty thousand cavalry, with thirty-two elephants trained for war.
31. They came through Idumea and camped against Beth-zur. For many days, they fought and constructed war engines. But the Jews would go out and burn the war engines with fire and continued to fight bravely.
32. Then Judas marched away from the elevated fortress and camped at Beth-zechariah, opposite the king’s camp.
33. Early in the morning the king marched out, taking his army on a forced march along the road to Beth-zechariah. His troops readied themselves for battle, and they sounded their trumpets.
34. They aroused the elephants using grape and mulberry juices, to get them ready for battle.
35. They distributed the animals among groups of soldiers. With each elephant, they stationed one thousand infantry wearing armor and brass helmets. Five hundred select cavalry were also assigned to each animal.