1. When Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his army had fallen in battle, he again sent Bacchides and Alcimus into the land of Judah, along with the right wing of his army.
2. They took the road to Galilee, and camping opposite the ascent at Arbela, they captured it and killed many people.
3. In the first month of the one hundred and fifty-second year, they encamped against Jerusalem.
4. Then they set out for Berea with twenty thousand men and two thousand cavalry.
5. Judas, with three thousand picked men, had camped at Elasa.
6. When they saw the great number of the troops, they were very much afraid, and many slipped away from the camp, until only eight hundred of them remained.
7. When Judas saw that his army was melting away just as the battle was imminent, he was brokenhearted, because he had no time to gather them together.