How does leadership pass from Judas to Jonathan?

Demetrius hears of Nicanor’s defeat and sends Bacchides and Alcimus back to Judea with the army’s right wing. Taking the road toward Galgal, they capture Masaloth in Arabella and kill many people. They reach Jerusalem in the first month of year 152 and advance to Berea with twenty thousand men and two thousand horsemen. Judas has three thousand chosen men at Laisa, but fear of the opposing army causes many to leave, reducing his company to eight hundred. With battle pressing and no time to gather them again, he is discouraged. His remaining companions propose saving their lives, returning to their brethren and fighting later. Judas refuses flight, saying that if their time has come they should die for their brethren without staining their glory.

The opposing horsemen form two troops; slingers and archers precede the army. Bacchides commands the right wing, and the legion approaches on two sides. Trumpets and cries accompany a battle lasting from morning until evening. Judas sees the stronger force on the right and gathers the stouthearted with him. They defeat that wing and pursue it to Mount Azotus. The left wing follows Judas from behind. Many are wounded on both sides; Judas is killed and the survivors flee. Jonathan and Simon bury him in their fathers’ sepulchre at Modin. Israel mourns for many days. The account says his other wars and noble deeds are too numerous to record.

After his death, the wicked rise throughout Israel. A great famine occurs and the country yields to Bacchides. He appoints wicked rulers, who search for Judas’s friends and deliver them for vengeance and abuse. In this tribulation, Judas’s friends choose Jonathan as prince and captain. Bacchides seeks his life, so Jonathan, Simon and their companions flee to the desert of Thecua by Lake Asphar. Bacchides crosses the Jordan on the Sabbath. Jonathan sends his brother to the friendly Nabutheans concerning their copious equipage. The children of Jambri come from Madaba and take John and his possessions. Jonathan and Simon subsequently hear of a great marriage involving Jambri’s family and a daughter of a Chanaanite prince. Remembering John’s blood, they hide beneath the mountain’s cover. The bridegroom’s armed party approaches with music; the brothers attack, kill many and take spoils, turning the wedding into mourning. They return to the Jordan after avenging John.

Bacchides again approaches on the Sabbath. Jonathan tells his company that battle faces them amid the Jordan’s water, banks, marshes and woods, with nowhere to turn aside. He urges a cry to heaven and joins battle. He reaches to strike Bacchides, who moves backward. Jonathan’s men leap into the Jordan and swim across; a thousand on Bacchides’s side fall that day. The account does not specify that all these casualties precede the crossing. Bacchides’s force returns to Jerusalem. Strongholds at Jericho, Ammaus, Bethoron, Bethel, Thamnata, Phara and Thopo receive walls, gates, bars and garrisons. Bethsura, Gazara and the castle are fortified and provisioned; sons of leading families are held as hostages in Jerusalem’s castle.

In the second month of year 153, Alcimus orders the sanctuary’s inner court walls and the prophets’ works demolished. He is struck with a palsy, loses speech and cannot order his household; he dies in great torment. The account supplies these symptoms without a modern diagnosis. Bacchides returns to the king, and the land is quiet for two years. Conspirators then invite him back to capture Jonathan in one night. Secret letters seek the capture, but the design becomes known. Verse 61 says that “he” kills fifty principal authors of the mischief without naming its subject in that sentence; this summary preserves that ambiguity.

Jonathan and Simon repair and fortify desert Bethbessen. Bacchides besieges it for many days with engines. Jonathan leaves Simon inside and attacks Odares, his brothers and the children of Phaseron in their tents, increasing his forces. Simon sallies out and burns the engines. Their fighting defeats Bacchides’s enterprise. Angry with his advisers, Bacchides kills many and plans to leave. Jonathan learns this and sends ambassadors for peace and restoration of prisoners. Bacchides agrees, swears to do Jonathan no harm throughout his life, restores the prisoners and departs without returning to their borders. The sword ceases from Israel; Jonathan dwells at Machmas, judges the people and destroys the wicked.