41. All who heard the noise of their numbers, the tramp of their marching, and the clanging of the arms, trembled; for the army was very great and strong.
42. Judas with his army advanced to fight, and six hundred men of the king’s army fell.
43. Eleazar, called Avaran, saw one of the beasts covered with royal armor and bigger than any of the others, and so he thought the king was on it.
44. He gave up his life to save his people and win an everlasting name for himself.
45. He dashed courageously up to it in the middle of the phalanx, killing men right and left, so that they parted before him.
46. He ran under the elephant, stabbed it and killed it. The beast fell to the ground on top of him, and he died there.
47. But when Judas’ troops saw the strength of the royal army and the ardor of its forces, they retreated from them.
48. Some of the king’s army went up to Jerusalem to attack them, and the king established camps in Judea and at Mount Zion.
49. He made peace with the people of Beth-zur, and they evacuated the city, because they had no food there to enable them to withstand a siege, for that was a sabbath year in the land.
50. The king took Beth-zur and stationed a garrison there to hold it.