15. Wherefore if you want these things, send some that may fetch them to you.
16. As we are then about to celebrate the purification, we have written unto you: and you shall do well, if you keep the same days.
17. And we hope that God who hath delivered his people, and hath rendered to all the inheritance, and the kingdom, and the priesthood, and the sanctuary,
18. As he promised in the law, will shortly have mercy upon us, and will gather us together from every land under heaven into the holy place.
19. For he hath delivered us out of great perils, and hath cleansed the place.
20. Now as concerning Judas Machabeus, and his brethren, and the purification of the great temple, and the dedication o the altar:
21. As also the wars against Antioch the Illustrious, and his son Eupator:
22. And the manifestations that from heaven to them, that behaved themselves manfully on the behalf of the Jews, so that, being but a few, they made themselves masters of the whole country, and put to flight; the barbarous multitude:
23. And recovered again the most renowned temple in all the world, and delivered the city, and restored the laws that were abolished, the Lord with all clemency shewing mercy to them.
24. And all such things as have been comprised in five books by Jason of Cyrene, we have attempted to abridge in one book.
25. For considering the multitude of books, and the difficulty that they find that desire to undertake the narrations of histories, because of the multitude of the matter,
26. We have taken care for those indeed that are willing to read, that it might be a pleasure of mind: and for the studious, that they may more easily commit to memory: and that all that read might receive profit.
27. And as to ourselves indeed, in undertaking this work of abridging, we have taken in hand no easy task, yea rather a business full of watching and sweat.
28. But as they that prepare a feast, and seek to satisfy the will of others: for the sake of many, we willingly undergo the labour.
29. Leaving to the authors the exact handling of every particular, and as for ourselves, according to the plan proposed, studying to be brief.
30. For as the master builder of a new house must have care of the whole building: but he that taketh care to paint it, must seek out fit things for the adorning of it: so must it be judged for us.
31. For to collect all that is to be known, to put the discourse in order, and curiously to discuss every particular point, is the duty of the author of a history:
32. But to pursue brevity of speech, and to avoid nice declarations of things, is to be granted to him that maketh an abridgment.