70. “You are the only one who resists us. I am laughed at and put to shame on your account. Why are you exercising authority against us in the mountains?
71. If you have confidence in your forces, come down now to us in the plain, and let us test each other’s strength there; for the forces of the cities are on my side.
72. Inquire and find out who I am and who the others are who are helping me. People are saying that you cannot make a stand against us because your ancestors were twice put to flight in their own land.
73. Now you too will be unable to withstand our cavalry and such a force as this in the plain, where there is not a stone or a pebble or a place to flee.”
74. When Jonathan heard the message of Apollonius, he was provoked. Choosing ten thousand men, he set out from Jerusalem, and Simon his brother joined him to help him.
75. He encamped near Joppa, but the people of the city shut him out because Apollonius had a garrison in Joppa. When they attacked it,
76. the people of the city became afraid and opened the gates, and so Jonathan took possession of Joppa.
77. When Apollonius heard of it, he drew up three thousand cavalry and a large force of infantry. He marched toward Azotus as though he were going on through, but at the same time he was advancing into the plain, because he had such a large number of cavalry to rely on.
78. Jonathan pursued him toward Azotus, and the armies engaged in battle.
79. Apollonius, however, had left a thousand cavalry in hiding behind them.
80. Jonathan discovered that there was an ambush behind him; his army was surrounded. From morning until evening they showered his troops with arrows.
81. But his troops held their ground, as Jonathan had commanded, while the enemy’s horses became tired out.
82. Then Simon brought forward his force, and engaged the phalanx in battle. Since the cavalry were exhausted, the phalanx was crushed by him and fled,
83. while the cavalry too were scattered over the plain. They fled to Azotus and entered Beth-dagon, the temple of their idol, to save themselves.
84. But Jonathan burned and plundered Azotus with its neighboring towns, and destroyed by fire both the temple of Dagon and those who had taken refuge in it.
85. Those who fell by the sword, together with those who were burned alive, came to about eight thousand.
86. Then Jonathan left there and encamped at Askalon, and the people of that city came out to meet him with great pomp.