1 In the year 160, Alexander Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the Fourth, landed at Ptolemais and captured it. The people welcomed him as their king.
2 When King Demetrius heard of it, he gathered a large army and went out to meet him in battle.
3 At that time Demetrius sent Jonathan a friendly letter full of flattery,
4 in the hope of winning Jonathan over to his side and making peace with the Jews before Alexander made a treaty with them against him.
5 Demetrius thought that Jonathan would certainly remember all the wrongs he had done to him, his brothers, and the entire Jewish nation.