Upon his return, two years later from Egypt, where he had been expelled,
Antiochus determined to avenge himself upon the Jews, whom he now hated
bitterly. Appolonius, one of his chief generals, was sent to Judea with
an army. Inasmuch as that general had been sent there before with his
troops as a collector of taxes, his coming caused no alarm. His soldiers
did not trouble the inhabitants, who had not the slightest suspicion of
their intentions. When the Sabbath came, the Syrians, knowing that the
Jews would not take up arms on that day even in self-defence, fell upon
them and slaughtered them mercilessly. The Jews, obeying the laws of the
Sabbath, which forbade them to fight on that day, meekly submitted to be
butchered. Houses were pulled down and plundered, and the walls of the
city destroyed.