1 The Lord led Judas Maccabeus and our troops into battle, and they recaptured the temple and the city of Jerusalem.
2 Then they destroyed the places where the foreigners had worshiped, including the altars they had built in the public market.
3 Judas and his followers made the temple an acceptable place of worship once again. They built a new altar for sacrifices and started a fire on it by rubbing flint rocks together. After this, they offered sacrifices for the first time in two years. They burned incense, then lit the lamps and brought out the sacred loaves of bread.
4 When all of this was done, the troops lay face down on the ground and prayed, “Our Lord, please don't let us suffer such terrible troubles again. If we should ever turn from you, don't correct us so harshly. And please, never again hand us over to these foreign savages, who insult you.”
5 The dedication of the temple took place on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev—the same day of the same month that the foreigners had made the temple unfit for worship.