5 While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news that the armies that had gone into the land of Judah had been routed;
6 that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army and been driven back; that the people of Judah had grown strong by reason of the arms, wealth, and abundant spoils taken from the armies they had cut down;
7 that they had pulled down the abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded with high walls both the sanctuary, as it had been before, and his city of Beth-zur.
8 When the king heard this news, he was astonished and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed.
9 There he remained many days, assailed by waves of grief, for he thought he was going to die.
10 So he called in all his Friends and said to them: “Sleep has departed from my eyes, and my heart sinks from anxiety.
11 I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now! Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’