1. In the one hundred and fifty-first year, Demetrius, son of Seleucus, set out from Rome, arrived with a few men at a coastal city, and began to rule there.
2. As he was entering the royal palace of his ancestors, the soldiers seized Antiochus and Lysias to bring them to him.
3. When he was informed of this, he said, “Do not show me their faces.”
4. So the soldiers killed them, and Demetrius assumed the royal throne.
5. Then all the lawless men and renegades of Israel came to him. They were led by Alcimus, who desired to be high priest.
6. They made this accusation to the king against the people: “Judas and his brothers have destroyed all your friends and have driven us out of our land.
7. So now, send a man whom you trust to go and see all the destruction Judas has wrought on us and on the king’s territory, and let him punish them and all their supporters.”