Judas was the leader of the Jews during the Jewish revolt in the 160’s B.C. This story picks up when he and the Jewish army had rescued their captured brethren and destroyed or scattered their enemies. (ed.)
When he had done this, he gathered the Jews together with their children and wives and the substance that belonged to them, and was going to bring them back into Judea. But as soon as he was come to a certain city, the name of which was Ephron, that lay upon the road, (and as it was not possible for him to go any other way, so he was not willing to go back again,) he then sent to the inhabitants, and desired that they would open their gates, and permit them to go on their way
through the city; for they had stopped up the gates with stones, and cut off their passage through it. And when the inhabitants of Ephron would not agree to this proposal, he encouraged those that were with him, and encompassed the city round, and besieged it, and lying round it, by day and night took the city, and slew every male in it and burnt it all down, and so obtained a way through it . . . So they came over Jordan, and arrived at the great plain, over against which is situated the city Bethshan, which is called by the Greeks Scythopolis. And going away hastily from thence, they came into Judea, singing psalms and hymns as they went, and indulging such tokens of mirth as are usual in triumphs upon victory. They also offered thank-offerings, both for their good success and for the preservation of their army, for not one of the Jews was slain in these battles. (This most providential preservation of all the religious Jews in this expedition, which was according to the will of God, is observable often among God’s people, the Jews.)
But as to Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, whom Judas left as generals (of the rest of his forces) at the same time when . . . Judas himself and his brother Jonathan were in the land of Gilead, did these men also affect the glory of being courageous generals in war, in order whereto they took the army that was under their command, and came to Jamnia. There Gorgias, the general of the forces of Jamnia, met them; and upon joining battle with him, they (the Jews) lost two
thousand of their army and fled away and were pursued to the very borders of Judea. And this misfortune befell them by their disobedience to what injunctions Judas had given them, not to fight with anyone before his return. (Here is another great instance of providence, that when, even at the very time that Somon, and Judas, and Jonathan, were so miraculously preserved and blessed, in the just defense of their laws and religion, these other generals of the Jews, who went to fight for
honor in a vainglorious way, and without any commission from God or the family He had raised up to deliver them, were miserably disappointed and defeated.)
This is a quote from the writings of Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian who was born in 37 A.D. I have not read many of his writings, but what I have read is very interesting! If you are interested in reading his histories, check out your local library. The book I checked out is called The Works of Flavius Josephus translated by William Whiston, A.M. (ed.)