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He mustered about eighty thousand foot soldiers and all of his cavalry and advanced against the Jews. His intent was to make Jerusalem a settlement for Greeks, to levy a tax[a] on the temple as he did on the shrines of other nations, and to put the office of high priest up for sale every year. He gave no consideration whatsoever to the power of God, for he was supremely confident in his infantry numbering in the tens of thousands, and in his thousands of cavalry and his eighty elephants.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Maccabees 11:3 Levy a tax: all temples were subjected to taxes, but the temple of Jerusalem had been exempted by Antiochus III.