There they were, a handful of brave men in the mountains, and all the
heathen world and apostate Jews against them. They used to come down
into the villages, remind the people of the law, promise their help, and
throw down any idol altars that they found, and the enemy never were
able to follow them into their rocky strongholds. But the old Mattathias
could not long bear the rude wild life in the cold mountains, and he
soon died. First he called all his five sons, and bade them to 'be
zealous for the law, and give their lives for the covenant of their
fathers'; and he reminded them of all the many brave men who had before
served God, and been aided in their extremity. He appointed his son
Judas, as the strongest and mightiest, to lead his brethren to battle,
and Simon, as the wisest, to be their counsellor; then he blessed them
and died; and his sons were able to bury him in the tomb of his fathers
at Modin.

Judas was one of the bravest men who ever lived; never dreading the
numbers that came against him. He was surnamed Maccabeus, which some
people say meant the hammerer; but others think it was made up of the
first letters of the words he carried on his banner, which meant 'Who is
like unto Thee, among the gods, O Lord?' Altogether he had about six
thousand men round him when the Greek governor, Apollonius, came out to
fight with him. The Jews gained here their first victory, and Judas
killed Apollonius, took his sword, and fought all his other battles with
it. Next came a captain called Seron, who went out to the hills to lay
hold of the bold rebels that dared to rise against the King of Syria.
The place where Judas met him was one to make the Jews' hearts leap with
hope and trust. It was on the steep stony broken hillside of Beth-horon,
the very place where Joshua had conquered the five kings of the
Amorites, in the first battle on the coming in of the children of Israel