THE BOOK OF 1 MACCABEES
Lesson 6: Chapter 5
Juda's Expedition Outside of Judea
(Judas) Maccabaeus and his
companions, under the Lord's guidance, restored the Temple and the city and
pulled down the altars and shrines the foreigners had erected in the
marketplace. They purified the sanctuary and built another altar; then,
striking fire from flints and using this fire, they offered the first sacrifice
for two years, burning incense, lighting the lamps and setting out the loaves.
When they had done this, prostrating themselves on the ground, they implored
the Lord never again to let them fall into such adversity, but if they should
sin, to correct them with moderation and not to deliver them over to
blasphemous and barbarous nations. This day of the purification of the Temple
fell on the very day the foreigners had profaned the Temple, the twenty-fifth
of the same month, Chislev.
2 Maccabees 10:1-5
+ + +
After purifying and reestablishing proper worship in the Temple, Judas and his men celebrated what became the first Feast of Dedication, Hanukkah in Hebrew.1 They kept the festival by rejoicing for eight days. In a procession, they carried leafy boughs and palm branches. They sang hymns to God for cleansing His Holy Place (the Hallel Psalms 113-118). They also issued a public edict, voting to celebrate those same days every year (1 Macc 4:59 2 Macc 10:6-8).
For this lesson, see the handout with the map of Israel during the Maccabean period in Lesson 2.
1 Maccabees 5:1-8 ~ The Expedition Against the Idumaeans and Ammonites
1 When the surrounding nations heard that the altar had been rebuilt and the
sanctuary restored to what it had been before, they became very angry 2 and
decided to destroy the descendants of Jacob living among them; they began to
murder and evict our people. 3 Judas made war on the sons of Esau in Idumaea, in
the region of Acrabattene where they were besieging the Israelites. He dealt
them a serious blow, drove them off and despoiled them. 4 He also remembered
the wickedness of the sons of Baean, who were a menace and a trap for the
people with their ambushes on the roads. 5 Having blockaded them in their town
and besieged them, he put them under the curse of destruction; he then set fire
to their towers and burned them down with everyone inside. 6 Next, he crossed
over to the Ammonites where he found a strong fighting force and a numerous
people, commanded by Timotheus. 7 He fought many battles with them, defeated
them, and cut them to pieces. 8 Having captured Jazer and its dependent
villages, he retired to Judaea.
The Gentiles were persecuting the Jews living in the territories neighboring Judea. The Gentiles may have persecuted them out of fear of a resurgence of Judean dominance or to advance Seleucid power and policy. Judas decided to help the Jews living there and probably to recover territory that had belonged to Israel.
In those territories outside of Maccabean control where the Gentiles were killing Jews, Judas moved his army first against the Idumeans (sons of Esau), south of Judea, in the region of Acrabattene, near the border of Edom. During the Maccabean Revolt, the area was a focal point of conflict between the Jewish rebels and the Seleucid Empire. The name "Acrabattene" derives from the Hebrew word "Akrabbim," meaning "scorpions," suggesting the region's rugged, challenging terrain. It is historically significant for its strategic location and role in various Biblical events. Acrabattene lies in southern Judea. It is often associated with the "Ascent of Akrabbim," a steep pass mentioned in the Bible. This ascent is referenced in the Book of Numbers as a boundary marker for the land of Canaan: Then your border shall turn from the south to the Ascent of Akrabbim, continue to Zin, and end at Kadesh-Barnea (cf. Num 34:4). The region has an arid and mountainous landscape, which made it a natural defensive position in ancient times. Acrabattene holds historical significance because it appears in various Biblical narratives and helped delineate the tribes of Israel's territory. The Ascent of Akrabbim served as a boundary marker for the tribe of Judah, as described in the allotment of the Promised Land. The region's challenging terrain and strategic location made it militarily important throughout Israel's history. The rugged landscape provided a natural fortress for the Maccabees, who used it to their advantage in their struggle for independence.
Judas's activity in this area may allude to Obadiah 15-21, with Judas fulfilling that prophecy: For the Day of Yahweh is near for all the nations. As you have done, so will it be done to you: your deeds will recoil on your own head ... people from the Negeb will occupy the Mount of Esau, people from the lowlands the country of the Philistines; they will occupy Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will occupy Gilead. The exiles of this army, the sons of Israel, will have the Canaanites' land as far as Zarephthah, while the exiles from Jerusalem now in Sepharad will have the cities of the Negeb. Victorious, they will climb Mount Zion to rule over Mount Esau, and sovereignty will be Yahweh's!
Next, Judas turned his attention to the "sons of Baean" (verse 4), a semi-nomadic tribe that opposed the Maccabees. They were among those who harassed the Israelites, and Judas took action against them to protect his people. The brief mention of the Baeans underscores the many challenges the Maccabees faced as they sought to restore Jewish autonomy and religious practice. They represent one of the many adversaries the Maccabees confronted as they fought both external and internal threats. This account reflects the broader theme of perseverance and divine providence that runs through the Maccabean narrative.
The "sons of Ammon," the Ammonites, occupied the land east of the Jordan River. Verse 6 says Judas moved into Ammonite territory and faced a strong army commanded by Timotheus, a Seleucid military commander who may have been the Seleucid governor of Ammon and Gilead. He was defeated by Judas and his Jewish army at Dathema, a fortress in Gilead where the local Jews fled when being persecuted by Timotheus. According to Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews (12.8.1, 3-4), Timotheus hired mercenaries, both Arabian and Asian cavalry, and used those forces in a local struggle with the Jews of Ammon and Gilead. Judas Maccabeus's intervention drove him off and saved the besieged Jews (verse 7; also see 2 Macc 12). See the map in the Lesson 2 handout.
8 Having captured Jazer and its dependent villages, he retired to Judaea.
Jazer was an ancient city in Gilead, east of
the Jordan River. Its strategic location and resources made it important (see
Is 16:8-9), and it is often associated with Amorite territory. The city first
appears in the Israelites' conquest of the promised Land in Numbers 21:32;
Moses sent men to reconnoiter Jazer, and Israel took it and its
dependencies, evicting the Amorites who lived there. This verse indicates
that Jazer was initially an Amorite city before the Israelites took it. Judas
and his army repeated Moses' victory. The city also appears in the land
allocation to Israel's tribes in Joshua 13:25, where it was given to the tribe
of Gad, along with all the towns of Gilead and half the land of the Ammonites
as far as Aroer near Rabbah. These
campaigns were intended to rescue Jews living in those regions and to bring
them back to Judea (verses 23, 43-54).
1 Maccabees 5:9-20 ~ Preliminaries to Campaigns in Galilee and Gilead
9 Next, the Gentiles
of Gilead banded together to destroy the Israelites living in their territory.
The latter, however, took refuge in the fortress of Dathema, 10 and sent the
following letter to Judas and his brothers: "The Gentiles round us have banded
themselves together against us to destroy us, 11 and they are preparing to
storm the fortress in which we have taken refuge; Timotheus is in command of
their forces. 12 Come at once and rescue us from their clutches, for we have
already suffered great losses. 13 All our countrymen living in Tobias' country
have been killed, their women and children have been taken into captivity,
their property has been seized, and about a thousand men have been destroyed
there." 14 While the letter was being read, other messengers arrived from
Galilee with their garments torn, bearing similar news, 15 "The people of
Ptolemais, Tyre and Sidon have joined forces with the whole of gentile Galilee
to destroy us!" 16 When Judas and the people heard this, they held a great
assembly to decide what should be done for their oppressed countrymen who were
under attack from their enemies. 17 Judas said to his brother Simon, "Pick your
men and go and relieve your countrymen in Galilee, while my brother Jonathan
and I make our way into Gilead." 18 He left Joseph son of Zechariah and the
people's leader Azariah with the remainder of the army in Judaea to keep guard,
and gave them these orders, 19 "You are to be responsible for our people. Do
not engage the Gentiles until we return." 20 Simon was allotted three thousand
men for the expedition into Galilee, Judas eight thousand for Gilead.
After Judas Maccabeus achieved victories against the Seleucid forces in Judea, the Gentile populations in surrounding regions retaliated against local Jewish communities. Frightened Israelites in Gilead sought refuge in the fortress of Dathema (verses 9-10, 29) and sent Judas a letter begging for help. Judas immediately planned an expedition north to rescue the Jews/Israelites. The exact location of Dathema is uncertain, but it was somewhere in the Transjordan highlands, east of the Sea of Galilee and within a night's march of Bosora (Bostra) in Gilead.
15 "The people of Ptolemais, Tyre and Sidon have joined forces with the whole of
gentile Galilee to destroy us!"
The city of Ptolemais, named by Egyptian Pharaoh Ptolemy II in 261 BC, is also
known as Acre (Acca) in northwest Israel. Tyre and Sidon were important Phoenician
trading ports on the coast. Galilee was often called "Galilee of the Gentiles"
because so many Gentile peoples moved into the region after the Assyrians took
the Israelites who lived there into exile after the conquest in 701 BC.
In response to the Jews' request for help, Judas organized two parallel campaigns on either side of the Jordan River: Galilee to the west and Gilead to the east (verses 9-19).
1 Maccabees 5:21-54 ~ The Expeditions in Galilee and Gilead
21 Simon advanced into Galilee, engaged the Gentiles in several battles and swept all
before him; 22 he pursued them to the gate of Ptolemais, and they lost about
three thousand men, whose spoils he collected. 23 With him, he took away the
Jews of Galilee and Arbatta, with their wives and children and all their
possessions, and brought them into Judaea with great rejoicing. 24 Meanwhile
Judas Maccabaeus and his brother Jonathan crossed the Jordan and made a
three-days' march through the desert, 25 where they encountered the Nabataeans,
who gave them a friendly reception and told them everything that had been
happening to their brothers in Gilead, 26 many of whom, they said, were shut up
in Bozrah and Bosor, Alema, Chaspho, Maked and Carnaim, all large fortified
towns. 27 Others were blockaded in the other towns of Gilead, and the enemy
planned to attack and capture these strongholds the very next day, and destroy
all the people inside them on one day. 28 Judas and his army at once turned off
by the desert road to Bozrah. He took the town and, having put all the males to
the sword and collected the booty, burned it down. 29 When night came, he left
the place, and they continued their march until they reached the fortress. 30 In
the light of dawn they looked, and there was an innumerable horde, setting up
ladders and engines to capture the fortress; the assault was just beginning. 31
When Judas saw that the attack had begun and that the war cry was rising to
heaven from the city, mingled with trumpet calls and a great clamor, 32 he said
to the men of his army, "Into battle today for your brothers!" 33 Dividing them
into three commands, he advanced on the enemy's rear, with trumpets sounding
and prayers shouted aloud. 34 The troops of Timotheus, recognizing that this
was Maccabaeus, fled before his advance; Maccabaeus dealt them a crushing
defeat; about eight thousand of their men fell that day. 35 Then, wheeling on
Alema, he attacked and captured it and, having killed all the males and
collected the booty, burned the place down. 36 From there he moved on and took
Chaspho, Maked, Bosor and the remaining towns of Gilead. 37 After these events,
Timotheus mustered another force and pitched camp opposite Raphon, on the far
side of the stream-bed. 38 Judas sent men to reconnoiter the camp, and these
reported back as follows, "With him are massed all the Gentiles surrounding us,
making a very numerous army, 39 with Arab mercenaries as auxiliaries; they are
encamped on the far side of the stream-bed, and ready to launch an attack on
you." Judas then advanced to engage them, 40 and was approaching the
watercourse with his troops when Timotheus told the commanders of his army, "If
he crosses first we shall not be able to resist him, because he will have a
great advantage over us; 41 but if he is afraid and camps on the
other side of the stream, we shall cross over to him, and the advantage will
then be ours." 42 As soon as Judas reached the watercourse, he posted people's
scribes along it, giving them this order: "Do not let anyone pitch his tent;
all are to go into battle!" 43 He was himself the first across to the enemy
side, with all the people following. He defeated all the opposing Gentiles, who
threw down their arms and ran for refuge in the sanctuary of Carnaim. 44 The
Jews first captured the town and then burned down the temple with everyone
inside. And so Carnaim was overthrown, and the enemy could offer no further
resistance to Judas. 45 Next, Judas assembled all the Israelites living in
Gilead, from the least to the greatest, with their wives, children and
belongings, an enormous muster, to take them to Judaea. 46 They reached Ephron,
a large town straddling the road and strongly fortified. As it was impossible
to by-pass it either to right or to left, there was nothing for it but to march
straight through. 47 But the people of the town denied them passage and
barricaded the gates with stones. 48 Judas sent them a conciliatory message in
these terms, "We want to pass through your territory to reach our own; no one
will do you any harm, we only want to go through on foot." But they would not
open up for him. 49 So Judas sent an order down the column for everyone to halt
where he stood. 50 The fighting men took up their positions; Judas attacked the
town all day and night, and the town fell to him. 51 He put all the males to
the sword, razed the town to the ground, plundered it and marched through the
town square over the bodies of the dead. 52 They then crossed the Jordan into
the Great Plain, opposite Beth-Shean, 53 Judas all the time rallying
the stragglers and encouraging the people the whole way until they reached
Judaea. 54 They climbed Mount Zion in joy and gladness and presented burnt
offerings because they had returned safe and sound without having lost a single
man.
Judas sent his brother Simon into Galilee (verses 21-22), while he and his brother Jonathan led a force across the Jordan River into Gilead (verses 25-54). After a three-day march through the wilderness, they met friendly Nabatean Arabs who gave them information about Dathema and also told them that 26 many of whom, they said, were shut up in Bozrah and Bosor, Alema, Chaspho, Maked and Carnaim, all large fortified towns. These are all cities in Transjordan Gilead:
Judas and his men marched through the night and arrived at Dathema to find the Gentiles besieging the city (verse 29). Judas attacked the enemy from the rear, sounding trumpets and battle cries, and routed the enemy, saving the Jews inside the fortress.
Judas's brother Simeon also led his army against the Gentiles in Galilee, pursuing them to Ptolemais and rescuing the Jews of Galilee and Arbatta, believed to be located between Galilee and Samaria (verse 23). Judas also rescued Jews living in the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. His campaign was also successful, but he was unable to guarantee the safety of the Galilean Jews, so he evacuated them to Judea.
Judas and his brother Jonathan crossed the Jordan River and moved east into Gilead (verse 24). After a three-day journey, they met the Nabateans (verse 25), an Arabian tribe, who provided helpful information about Timotheus's forces (see 1 Macc 5:25 and 9:35). Originally nomadic desert people, they began to take a role in the history of the region at the beginning of the Seleucid era (312 BC), settling in the former territory of Edom and Moab and the regions to the south of those territories. They built numerous caravan cities and fortified posts along the trade routes, and their most famous city was Petra, the rock-carved rose-red city. They played an important role in the region until the Muslim conquest in the 7th century AD. 1 Maccabees says they were peaceable, but 2 Maccabees 12:11-12 says they became peaceable only after being soundly defeated in a skirmish with Judas's troops.
Timotheus, Judas's opponent in the Transjordan battles, rallied many Gentiles to his side and hired Arab mercenaries. Judas won the battles, and the Gentiles took refuge in a pagan temple at Carnaim (verse 43), but Judas's forces burned the temple. Then Judas evacuated the Jews from the area and returned with Judas's forces to Judea.
The rescue of the Jews at Dathema and the other Transjordan towns and their safe return to Judea to offer sacrifices and worship at the holy Temple on Mount Zion (verses 52-54) illustrates the continuing themes of divine deliverance and the protection of God's covenant people during persecution. It echoes earlier Biblical narratives of God raising up deliverers for Israel in times of crisis. Judas's willingness to risk his men to save fellow Jews reflects the Biblical ethic of communal responsibility and covenant solidarity.
1 Maccabees 5:55-62 ~ Reversal at Jamnia
55 While Judas and Jonathan were in Gilead and Simon his brother in Galilee outside Ptolemais, 56 Joseph
son of Zechariah, and Azariah, who were in command of the army, heard of their
valiant deeds and of the battles they had been fighting, 57 and said, "Let us
make a name for ourselves too and go and fight the nations around us." 58 So
they issued orders to the men under their command and marched on Jamnia. 59 Gorgias
and his men came out of the town and gave battle. 60 Joseph and Azariah were
routed and pursued as far as the frontiers of Judaea. That day, about two
thousand Israelites lost their lives. 61 Our people thus met with a great
reverse, because they had not listened to Judas and his brothers, thinking that
they would do something equally valiant. 62 They were not, however, of the same
breed of men as those to whom the deliverance of Israel was entrusted.
In verses 18-19, Judas left Joseph and Azariah with the remainder of the army to guard Judea with orders not to engage the enemy. Azariah is not mentioned elsewhere in 1 Maccabees, but Joseph is mentioned in 2 Maccabees 10:19-22. While Simon was in Galilee and Judas and Jonathan were fighting in the Transjordan, Joseph and Azariah violated their orders by attacking the Gentiles in Judea and were defeated. They violated their orders because they wanted to "make a name" for themselves (verse 57). God planned to use the faithful Maccabees, who always gave credit to God for their victories, to bring blessings and salvation to His people. Other plans that were not consistent with Judas and his brothers would not receive God's blessings.
1 Maccabees 5:63-68 ~ Successes in Idumaea and Philistia
63 The noble Judas and his brothers, however, were held in high honor throughout Israel and among
all the nations wherever their name was heard, 64 and people thronged round to
acclaim them. 65 Judas marched out with his brothers to fight the Edomites in
the country towards the south; he stormed Hebron and its dependent villages,
threw down its fortifications and burned down its encircling towers. 66 Leaving
there, he made for the country of the Philistines and passed through Marisa. 67
Among the fallen in that day's fighting were some priests who sought to prove
their courage there by joining in the battle, a foolhardy venture. 68 Judas
next turned on Azotus, which belonged to the Philistines; he overthrew their
altars, burned the statues of their gods and, having pillaged their towns,
withdrew to Judaea.
In Judas's next campaign, he turned south and fought the Edomites, storming the major city of Hebron. Then he moved toward the Mediterranean coast and the town of Marisa. Marisa is the Greek form of Mareshah, an ancient city in Judea's Shephelah region. There, some Jewish priests had personal ambitions, like Joseph and Azariah, but they were killed in battle. The Levitical priesthood had three chief duties:
The priests who lost their lives should have been committed to praying for the Maccabean army's success and God's mercy for the souls of those who sacrificed their lives for the covenant people in the battles.
The lesson is that the military actions against the Seleucids were meant to bring salvation to God's covenant people, not to fulfill personal ambitions. God's divine plan is achieved by His agents, who give honor and glory to the Lord God.
Then Judas turned eastward to Azotus. Azotus was the Greek name for Ashdod, one of the five major Philistine cities on the Mediterranean coast: he overthrew their altars, burned the statues of their gods and, having pillaged their towns, withdrew to Judaea.
Joseph, Azariah, and some Jewish priests had their own agendas and made wrong decisions contrary to God's plan. God gave humankind the gift of free will, beginning with our first parents in Eden. He respects our free-will decisions even when they go against His divine plan. He will try to intervene for our own good, sending His agents and prophets to point us to the correct path, but when we are stubborn, He will let us make those wrong decisions. However, when that happens, we must accept His judgment.
Endnote:
1. The Feast of Dedication, Hanukkah, is not a God-ordained feast but a national
feast. However, it shares similarities with the Feast of Shelters, commemorated
at the inauguration of the Temple of Solomon (1 Kng 8:2-66).
Return to the lesson.
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2026 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.