IV.  The Battle of Beth-zacharias.  There was still a Syrian outpost in the heart of Judea:  it was the citadel at Jerusalem, which looked down upon the temple area.  This Judas attempted to capture, but in so doing incited to action the Syrian king, Antiochus Eupator, who had succeeded to the throne after the death of his father Antiochus Epiphanes.  Under the direction of his prime-minister Lysias he collected a huge army of one hundred thousand infantry and twenty thousand cavalry.  To this was added thirty-two elephants with full military equipment—­the heavy ordinance used in the warfare of the period.  The approach from the plain was along the valley of Elah and up past Bethsura, as in the last Syrian campaign.  Judas, who was able at this time to rally an army of ten thousand men, met the Syrian host near the town of Beth-zacharias, a little north of Bethsura on the central highway from Hebron to Jerusalem.  This time the natural advantages were with the Syrians, one wing of whose army rested upon a declining hill and the other on the level plain.  Thus they were able to utilize their entire fighting force and to launch against the valiant Jews their elephants against which the heroism of an Eleazar was fruitless.  For the first time during this struggle Judas was defeated and fell back upon Jerusalem, where he was closely besieged.  Soon the Jews were obliged to surrender, and the Maccabean cause would have been lost had not complications at Antioch compelled the Syrians to retire.

V. Victories Over Nicanor.  In the treaty which followed the surrender of Jerusalem the religious liberty of the Jews was assured.  This concession satisfied the majority of the Hasideans, so that henceforth Judas found himself deserted by a great body of his followers.  The apostate high priest who was placed in control of the temple was supported by Syrian soldiery and Judas was obliged to resort again to outlaw life.  He succeeded, however, in winning two signal victories over Nicanor, the Syrian general.  The one at Capharsalama was probably fought near the modern town of Kefr Silwan, across the Kidron Valley from the City of David on the southern slope of Jerusalem.  In the latter victory Nicanor was slain, and Judas was left for the moment in control of Judea.

VI.  The Death of Judas.  Soon another Syrian army invaded the land.  The advance was from the northwest up over the pass of Bethhoron.  A little east of the road that ascends from Lower to Upper Bethhoron, near where he won his first great battle and in sight of his home at Modein, the intrepid Jewish champion fought his last battle.  Terror at the approach of the enemy had thinned his ranks until he was obliged to meet them with only eight hundred men at his back.  Even against these great odds he was on the eve of victory when he was slain.  At the sight of their fallen leader his followers fled.  This disastrous ending of his career as a warrior obscured to a great extent the character and quality of Judas’s