1 Then John traveled from Gazara and told his father Simon the damage Cendebeus was inflicting.
2 So Simon called his two oldest sons, Judas and John, and said to them, “My brothers and I and my father's house have fought Israel's battles from our youth until this very day. Things have gone well for us, so as to rescue Israel many times over.
3 Now I have become old, and you by His mercy are men of maturity. Take over my position and my brother's role and go fight for our country, and may the help sent from heaven be yours.”
4 Thus John chose twenty thousand fighting men and cavalry from the country. Together they marched toward Cendebeus and encamped overnight in Modein.
5 They arose early, marching to the plain. Behold, a huge army was marching out to meet them, infantry and cavalry, and there was a stream between them.
6 John and his army faced off against them, and when he saw that his troops were afraid to ford the stream, he crossed first. His soldiers saw him and crossed behind him.
7 He then divided up the men, putting the cavalry in the middle of the infantry, for the enemy's cavalry was very large.
8 When they sounded the trumpet, Cendebeus and his army were routed, and numbers of them fell wounded. The rest of them fled into the fortress.
9 Then Judas, the brother of John, was wounded, but John pursued them until Cendebeus reached Kedron, where he had done construction.
10 When they ran into the towers in the fields of Azotus, John set them afire, and roughly two thousand of their men perished. Then he returned to Judea in peace.
11 Now Ptolemy, the son of Abubus, had been made governor to rule over the plain of Jericho. He had large hoards of silver and gold,
12 for he was the son-in-law of the high priest.
13 He was optimistic and full of determination to seize control of the country. So he developed an evil strategy to seize Simon and his sons by trickery.
14 Now Simon was paying a visit to the cities throughout the country, concentrating on their needs. So he went down to Jericho along with his sons Mattathias and Judas in the one hundred and seventy-seventh year, in the eleventh month, the month of Shebat.
15 The son of Abubus received them with deceit in the little fortress called Dok, which he had erected, and he gave them a grand feast and hid the men there.
16 So when Simon and his sons became drunk, Ptolemy and his soldiers emerged and grabbed their weapons. When they encountered Simon in the banquet hall, they murdered him along with his two sons and certain of his servants.
17 Indeed, Ptolemy committed great treachery, returning evil for good.
18 Ptolemy then drafted a report to the king about these things and asked that he might send him soldiers to help, and to secure their country and cities.
19 He also dispatched soldiers to Gazara to seize John, and sent letters to military tribunes to come to him, so he might give them silver, gold, and gifts.
20 Then he sent others to capture Jerusalem and the temple hill.
21 But somebody ran ahead and told John in Gazara that his father and his brothers had been killed and that “he has sent men to kill you as well.”
22 When John heard this, he was deeply shocked. He captured the soldiers who came to crush him and killed them; for he discovered they were there to kill him.
23 The rest of John's words and his war history and brave acts, which he did so courageously, plus the heightening of the walls which he built, and his other accomplishments,
24 behold, they are written in the book of his high priesthood, from when he was first made high priest following his father.