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[90]
However, when he fought with Obodas, king of the Arabians, who had
laid an ambush for him near Golan, and a plot against him, he lost his
entire army, which was crowded together in a deep valley, and broken to
pieces by the multitude of camels. And when he had made his escape to Jerusalem,
he provoked the multitude, which hated him before, to make an insurrection
against him, and this on account of the greatness of the calamity that
he was under. However, he was then too hard for them; and, in the several
battles that were fought on both sides, he slew not fewer than fifty thousand
of the Jews in the interval of six years. Yet had he no reason to rejoice
in these victories, since he did but consume his own kingdom; till at length
he left off fighting, and endeavored to come to a composition with them,
by talking with his subjects. But this mutability and irregularity of his
conduct made them hate him still more. And when he asked them why they
so hated him, and what he should do in order to appease them, they said,
by killing himself; for that it would be then all they could do to be reconciled
to him, who had done such tragical things to them, even when he was dead.
At the same time they invited Demetrius, who was called Eucerus, to assist
them; and as he readily complied with their requests, in hopes of great
advantages, and came with his army, the Jews joined with those their auxiliaries
about Shechem.
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