26. It was the day before the sabbath, and for that reason they could not continue the pursuit.
27. They collected the enemy’s weapons and stripped them of their spoils, and then observed the sabbath with fervent praise and thanks to the Lord who kept them safe for that day on which he allotted them the beginning of his mercy.
28. After the sabbath, they gave a share of the spoils to those who were tortured and to widows and orphans; the rest they divided among themselves and their children.
29. When this was done, they made supplication in common, imploring the merciful Lord to be completely reconciled with his servants.
30. They also challenged the forces of Timothy and Bacchides, killed more than twenty thousand of them, and captured some very high fortresses. They divided the considerable plunder, allotting half to themselves and the rest to victims of torture, orphans, widows, and the aged.
31. They collected the enemies’ weapons and carefully stored them in strategic places; the rest of the spoils they carried to Jerusalem.
32. They also killed the commander of Timothy’s forces, a most wicked man, who had done great harm to the Jews.
33. While celebrating the victory in their ancestral city, they burned both those who had set fire to the sacred gates and Callisthenes, who had taken refuge in a little house; so he received the reward his wicked deeds deserved.
34. The thrice-accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand slave dealers to buy the Jews,
35. after being humbled through the Lord’s help by those whom he had thought of no account, laid aside his fine clothes and fled alone across country like a runaway slave, until he reached Antioch. He was eminently successful in destroying his own army.
36. So he who had promised to provide tribute for the Romans by the capture of the people of Jerusalem proclaimed that the Jews had a champion, and that because they followed the laws laid down by him, they were unharmed.