29. Mercenary forces also came to him from other kingdoms and from the islands of the seas.
30. His army numbered a hundred thousand footsoldiers, twenty thousand cavalry, and thirty-two elephants trained for war.
31. They passed through Idumea and camped before Beth-zur. For many days they attacked it; they constructed siege engines, but the besieged made a sortie and burned these, and they fought bravely.
32. Then Judas marched away from the citadel and moved his camp to Beth-zechariah, opposite the king’s camp.
33. The king, rising before dawn, moved his force hastily along the road to Beth-zechariah; and the troops prepared for battle and sounded the trumpet.
34. They made the elephants drunk on the juice of grapes and mulberries to get them ready to fight.
35. The beasts were distributed along the phalanxes, each elephant having assigned to it a thousand men in coats of mail, with bronze helmets on their heads, and five hundred picked cavalry.
36. These accompanied the beast wherever it was; wherever it moved, they moved too and never left it.
37. Each elephant was outfitted with a strong wooden tower, fastened to it by a harness; each tower held three soldiers who fought from it, besides the Indian driver.
38. The remaining cavalry were stationed on one or the other of the two flanks of the army, to harass the enemy and to be protected by the phalanxes.
39. When the sun shone on the gold and bronze shields, the mountains gleamed with their brightness and blazed like flaming torches.
40. Part of the king’s army spread out along the heights, while some were on low ground, and they marched forward steadily in good order.