19. Those who were left in the city suffered no less an agony, anxious as they were about the battle in the open country.
20. Everyone now awaited the decisive moment. The enemy were already drawing near with their troops drawn up in battle line, their beasts placed in strategic positions, and their cavalry stationed on the flanks.
21. Maccabeus, surveying the hosts before him, the variety of weaponry, and the fierceness of their beasts, stretched out his hands toward heaven and called upon the Lord who works wonders; for he knew that it is not weapons but the Lord’s decision that brings victory to those who deserve it.
22. Calling upon God, he spoke in this manner: “You, master, sent your angel in the days of King Hezekiah of Judea, and he slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand men of Sennacherib’s camp.
23. And now, Sovereign of the heavens, send a good angel to spread fear and trembling ahead of us.
24. By the might of your arm may those be struck down who have blasphemously come against your holy people!” With these words he ended his prayer.
25. Nicanor and his troops advanced to the sound of trumpets and battle songs.
26. But Judas and his troops met the enemy with supplication and prayers.
27. Fighting with their hands and praying to God with their hearts, they laid low at least thirty-five thousand, and rejoiced greatly over this manifestation of God’s power.
28. When the battle was over and they were joyfully departing, they discovered Nicanor fallen there in all his armor;
29. so they raised tumultuous shouts in their ancestral language in praise of the divine Sovereign.
30. Then Judas, that man who was ever in body and soul the chief defender of his fellow citizens, and had maintained from youth his affection for his compatriots, ordered Nicanor’s head and right arm up to the shoulder to be cut off and taken to Jerusalem.
31. When he arrived there, he assembled his compatriots, stationed the priests before the altar, and sent for those in the citadel.