25. When he had fully confirmed his solemn pledge to restore them unharmed, they let him go for the sake of saving their relatives.
26. Judas then marched to Karnion and the shrine of Atargatis, where he killed twenty-five thousand people.
27. After the defeat and destruction of these, he moved his army to Ephron, a fortified city inhabited by Lysias and people of many nationalities. Robust young men took up their posts in defense of the walls, from which they fought valiantly; inside were large supplies of war machines and missiles.
28. But the Jews, invoking the Sovereign who powerfully shatters the might of enemies, got possession of the city and slaughtered twenty-five thousand of the people in it.
29. Then they set out from there and hastened on to Scythopolis, seventy-five miles from Jerusalem.
30. But when the Jews who lived there testified to the goodwill shown by the Scythopolitans and to their kind treatment even in times of adversity,
31. Judas and his men thanked them and exhorted them to be well disposed to their nation in the future also. Finally they arrived in Jerusalem, shortly before the feast of Weeks.
32. After this feast, also called Pentecost, they lost no time in marching against Gorgias, governor of Idumea,
33. who opposed them with three thousand foot soldiers and four hundred cavalry.