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[298]
Upon this Lysias chose Ptolemy, the son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor,
and Gorgias, very potent men among the king's friends, and delivered to
them forty thousand foot soldiers, and seven thousand horsemen, and sent
them against Judea, who came as far as the city Emmaus, and pitched their
camp in the plain country. There came also to them auxiliaries out of Syria,
and the country round about; as also many of the runagate Jews. And besides
these came some merchants to buy those that should be carried captives,
(having bonds with them to bind those that should be made prisoners,) with
that silver and gold which they were to pay for their price. And when Judas
saw their camp, and how numerous their enemies were, he persuaded his own
soldiers to be of good courage, and exhorted them to place their hopes
of victory in God, and to make supplication to him, according to the custom
of their country, clothed in sackcloth; and to show what was their usual
habit of supplication in the greatest dangers, and thereby to prevail with
God to grant you the victory over your enemies. So he set them in their
ancient order of battle used by their forefathers, under their captains
of thousands, and other officers, and dismissed such as were newly married,
as well as those that had newly gained possessions, that they might not
fight in a cowardly manner, out of an inordinate love of life, in order
to enjoy those blessings. When he had thus disposed his soldiers, he encouraged
them to fight by the following speech, which he made to them: "O my
fellow soldiers, no other time remains more opportune than the present
for courage and contempt of dangers; for if you now fight manfully, you
may recover your liberty, which, as it is a thing of itself agreeable to
all men, so it proves to be to us much more desirable, by its affording
us the liberty of worshipping God. Since therefore you are in such circumstances
at present, you must either recover that liberty, and so regain a happy
and blessed way of living, which is that according to our laws, and the
customs of our country, or to submit to the most opprobrious sufferings;
nor will any seed of your nation remain if you be beat in this battle.
Fight therefore manfully; and suppose that you must die, though you do
not fight; but believe, that besides such glorious rewards as those of
the liberty of your country, of your laws, of your religion, you shall
then obtain everlasting glory. Prepare yourselves, therefore, and put yourselves
into such an agreeable posture, that you may be ready to fight with the
enemy as soon as it is day tomorrow morning."
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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