8 When Philip, the governor, found out that Judas was winning more and more victories and slowly taking over the country, he wrote a letter to Ptolemy, the royal governor of Southwest Syria Province. The letter said, “Send someone to help me protect the government of King Antiochus.”
9 At once, Ptolemy chose Nicanor, one of the king's most trusted friends. He also picked Gorgias, who was a high-ranking official and an expert in war. Then Ptolemy ordered them to take an army of more than 20,000 foreign soldiers to Judea and destroy our nation.
10 Antiochus owed 2,000,000 silver coins to the Romans, and Nicanor planned to raise the money by selling captured Jews as slaves.
11 So he decided to charge about ten silver coins for each slave, then he sent news of the sale to the coastal towns.Nicanor did not expect it, but God All-Powerful was about to punish him.
12 When Judas found out that Nicanor had invaded Judea, he told his army what had happened.
13 Some of his troops were cowards, and others did not believe that God would punish the foreigners. And so all of them ran away.
14 Others sold their property and prayed:Our Lord, please rescue your troops from that godless Nicanor. He has already started selling us as slaves, before the battle has even begun.