14. joined the battle. They crushed the Gentiles, who fled toward the plain.
15. Their whole rear guard fell by the sword, and they were pursued as far as Gazara and the plains of Idumaea, to Azotus and Jamnia. About three thousand of their men fell.
16. When Judas and the army returned from the pursuit,
17. he said to the people: “Do not be greedy for plunder; for there is a fight ahead of us,
18. and Gorgias and his army are near us on the mountain. But now stand firm against our enemies and fight them. Afterward you can freely take the plunder.”
19. As Judas was finishing this speech, a detachment appeared, looking down from the mountain.
20. They saw that their army had been put to flight and their camp was burning. The smoke they saw revealed what had happened.
21. When they realized this, they completely lost heart; and when they also saw the army of Judas in the plain ready to attack,
22. they all fled to the land of the foreigners.
23. Then Judas went back to plunder the camp, and they took much gold and silver, cloth dyed blue and marine purple, and great treasure.
24. As they returned, they were singing hymns and glorifying Heaven, “who is good, whose mercy endures forever.”
25. Thus Israel experienced a great deliverance that day.
26. But those of the foreigners who had escaped went and told Lysias all that had occurred.
27. When he heard it he was disturbed and discouraged, because things had not turned out in Israel as he intended and as the king had ordered.
28. So the following year he gathered together sixty thousand picked men and five thousand cavalry, to fight them.
29. They came into Idumea and camped at Beth-zur, and Judas met them with ten thousand men.
30. Seeing that the army was strong, he prayed thus:“Blessed are you, Savior of Israel, who crushed the attack of the mighty one by the hand of your servant David and delivered the foreign camp into the hand of Jonathan, the son of Saul, and his armor-bearer.
31. Give this army into the hands of your people Israel; make them ashamed of their troops and their cavalry.
32. Strike them with cowardice, weaken the boldness of their strength, and let them tremble at their own destruction.