51. For many days he besieged the sanctuary, setting up platforms and siege engines, fire-throwers, catapults and mechanical bows for shooting arrows and projectiles.
52. The defenders countered by setting up siege engines of their own, and kept up the fight a long time.
53. But there were no provisions in the storerooms, because it was the seventh year, and the reserves had been eaten up by those who had been rescued from the Gentiles and brought to Judea.
54. Few men remained in the sanctuary because the famine was too much for them; the rest scattered, each to his own home.
55. Lysias heard that Philip, whom King Antiochus, before his death, had appointed to train his son Antiochus to be king,
56. had returned from Persia and Media with the army that accompanied the king, and that he was seeking to take over the government.
57. So he hastily decided to withdraw. He said to the king, the leaders of the army, and the soldiers: “We are growing weaker every day, our provisions are scanty, the place we are besieging is strong, and it is our duty to take care of the affairs of the kingdom.