3 In the first month of the one hundred and fifty-second year, they encamped against Jerusalem.
4 Then they set out for Berea with twenty thousand men and two thousand cavalry.
5 Judas, with three thousand picked men, had camped at Elasa.
6 When they saw the great number of the troops, they were very much afraid, and many slipped away from the camp, until only eight hundred of them remained.
7 When Judas saw that his army was melting away just as the battle was imminent, he was brokenhearted, because he had no time to gather them together.
8 In spite of his discouragement he said to those who remained: “Let us go forward to meet our enemies; perhaps we can put up a good fight against them.”
9 They tried to dissuade him, saying: “We certainly cannot. Let us save our own lives now, and come back with our kindred, and then fight against them. Now we are too few.”