John 3:22-30

Today's Readings

John 3:22-30 

 

²² and he will crush them before our eyes; do not be afraid of them.'

²³ When he had finished speaking, he made a sudden sally against Seron and his force and overwhelmed them.

²⁴ Judas pursued them down from Beth-Horon as far as the plain. About eight hundred of their men fell, and the rest took refuge in the country of the Philistines.

²⁵ Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and alarm seized the surrounding peoples.

²⁶ His name even reached the king's ears, and among the nations there was talk of Judas and his battles.

²⁷ The news of these events infuriated Antiochus, and he ordered mobilisation of all the forces in his kingdom, a very powerful army.

²⁸ Opening his treasury, he distributed a year's pay to his troops, telling them to be prepared for any eventuality.

²⁹ He then found that the money in his coffers had run short and that the tribute of the province had decreased, as a result of the dissension and disaster brought on the country by his own abrogation of laws that had been in force from antiquity.

³⁰ He began to fear that, as had happened more than once, he would not have enough to cover the expenses and the lavish bounties he had previously been accustomed to make on a larger scale than his predecessors on the throne.