1 Maccabees 2:31-41
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
31 It was reported to the officers and soldiers of the king who were in the City of David, in Jerusalem, that those who had flouted the king’s order had gone out to secret refuges in the wilderness. 32 (A)Many hurried out after them, and having caught up with them, camped opposite and prepared to attack them on the sabbath. 33 The pursuers said to them, “Enough of this! Come out and obey the king’s command, and you will live.” 34 But they replied, “We will not come out, nor will we obey the king’s command to profane the sabbath.” 35 Then the enemy attacked them at once. 36 But they did not retaliate; they neither threw stones, nor blocked up their secret refuges. 37 They said, “Let us all die in innocence; heaven and earth are our witnesses that you destroy us unjustly.” 38 So the officers and soldiers attacked them on the sabbath, and they died with their wives, their children and their animals, to the number of a thousand persons.
39 When Mattathias and his friends heard of it, they mourned deeply for them. 40 They said to one another, “If we all do as our kindred have done, and do not fight against the Gentiles for our lives and our laws, they will soon destroy us from the earth.” 41 So on that day they came to this decision: “Let us fight against anyone who attacks us on the sabbath, so that we may not all die as our kindred died in their secret refuges.”
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