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February 26, 2026 (Gregorian calendar/Day 56)
Thursday, 19 Yekatit 2018 (Ethiopian calendar/6th month)
Ḥayr Hayir (Hayr) ריח 5 (Enochian calendar/12th month/White of frost)
1 March, 2026 (International Fixed calendar)
Galactic Moon 8, Limi 20 (13 Moon calendar/First Quarter moon)
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Month of the Bony Moon…Ka ga li (Cherokee moon)
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1 Maccabees 7

Expedition of Bacchides and Alcimus.

1 In the one hundred and fifty-first year, Demetrius, son of Seleucus, set out from Rome, arrived with a few men at a coastal city, and began to rule there.

2 As he was entering the royal palace of his ancestors, the soldiers seized Antiochus and Lysias to bring them to him.

3 When he was informed of this, he said, “Do not show me their faces.”

verses 1-3: The one hundred and fifty-first year:
the spring of 161 B.C.
Demetrius, son of Seleucus, was the lawful heir to the kingdom;
but when only nine years old, he was taken as a hostage
to Rome in place of his uncle, who ruled as Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
At the age of twenty-five Demetrius fled secretly from Rome and,
with the support of the Syrians, overcame his rival Antiochus V
and put him to death. The royal palace: at Antioch.

4 So the soldiers killed them, and Demetrius assumed the royal throne.

5 Then all the lawless men and renegades of Israel came to him. They were led by Alcimus, who desired to be high priest.

6 They made this accusation to the king against the people: “Judas and his brothers have destroyed all your friends and have driven us out of our land.

verses 5-6: Alcimus: a Jew hostile to the Maccabees,
who became high priest after the death of Menelaus.
He received confirmation in his office
from the new king Demetrius, and brought malicious charges
against Judas and his brothers and the people.

7 So now, send a man whom you trust to go and see all the destruction Judas has wrought on us and on the king’s territory, and let him punish them and all their supporters.”

8 So the king chose Bacchides, one of the King’s Friends, who ruled the province of West-of-Euphrates, a great man in the kingdom, and faithful to the king.

9 He sent him and the renegade Alcimus, to whom he granted the high priesthood, with orders to take revenge on the Israelites.

10 They set out and, on arriving in the land of Judah with a great army, sent messengers who spoke deceitfully to Judas and his brothers in peaceful terms.

11 But these paid no attention to their words, seeing that they had come with a great army.

12 A group of scribes, however, gathered about Alcimus and Bacchides to ask for a just agreement.

13 The Hasideans were the first among the Israelites to seek peace with them,

14 for they said, “A priest of the line of Aaron has come with the army, and he will not do us any wrong.”

15 He spoke with them peacefully and swore to them, “We will not seek to injure you or your friends.”

16 So they trusted him. But he arrested sixty of them and killed them in one day, according to the words that he wrote:

verse 16: The words that he wrote: based on Ps 79:2–3.
But who is “he” – David, Alcimus, Judas, or someone else?

Psalm 79
(1599 Geneva Bible)
The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat
unto fowls of the heaven, and the flesh of thy saints
unto the beasts of the earth.
³ Their blood have they shed like waters, round about Jerusalem,
and there was none to bury them.

17 “The flesh of your faithful, and their blood they have spilled all around about Jerusalem, and no one was left to bury them.”

18 Then fear and dread of them came upon all the people, who said: “There is no truth or justice among them; they violated the agreement and the oath that they swore.”

19 Bacchides withdrew from Jerusalem and camped in Beth-zaith. He had many of the men who deserted to him arrested and some of the people. He killed them and threw them into a great cistern.

verse 19: Beth-zaith: about three miles north of Beth-zur
and twelve miles south of Jerusalem.

20 He handed the province over to Alcimus, leaving troops to help him, while he himself returned to the king.

21 Alcimus struggled to maintain his high priesthood,

22 and all those who were troubling the people gathered about him. They took possession of the land of Judah and caused great distress in Israel.

23 When Judas saw all the evils that Alcimus and those with him were bringing upon the Israelites, even more than the Gentiles had,

24 he went about all the borders of Judea and took revenge on the men who had deserted, preventing them from going out into the country.

25 But when Alcimus saw that Judas and his followers were gaining strength and realized that he could not resist them, he returned to the king and accused them of grave crimes.

Defeat of Nicanor.

26 Then the king sent Nicanor, one of his honored officers, who was a bitter enemy of Israel, with orders to destroy the people.

27 Nicanor came to Jerusalem with a large force and deceitfully sent to Judas and his brothers this peaceable message:

verse 27: Nicanor…deceitfully sent to Judas:
a more favorable picture of Nicanor,
as an honest man who became a personal friend of Judas.
Their friendship was broken by the intrigues of Alcimus

28 “Let there be no fight between me and you. I will come with a few men to meet you face to face in peace.”

29 So he came to Judas, and they greeted one another peaceably. But Judas’ enemies were prepared to seize him.

30 When he became aware that Nicanor had come to him with deceit in mind, Judas was afraid of him and would not meet him again.

31 When Nicanor saw that his plan had been discovered, he went out to fight Judas near Capharsalama.

verse 31: Capharsalama: a village north of Jerusalem
whose precise location is disputed.

32 About five hundred men of Nicanor’s army fell; the rest fled to the City of David.

verse 32: City of David: the citadel
occupied by the Seleucid garrison in Jerusalem.

33 After this, Nicanor went up to Mount Zion. Some of the priests from the sanctuary and some of the elders of the people came out to greet him peaceably and to show him the burnt offering that was being sacrificed for the king.

34 But he mocked and ridiculed them, defiled them, and spoke arrogantly.

verse 34: Defiled them: spitting on the priests
caused them to become legally defiled.

35 In a rage he swore: “If Judas and his army are not delivered to me at once, when I return victorious I will burn this temple down.” He went away in great anger.

36 The priests, however, went in and stood before the altar and the sanctuary. They wept and said:

37 “You have chosen this house to bear your name, to be a house of prayer and supplication for your people.

38 Take revenge on this man and his army, and let them fall by the sword. Remember their blasphemies, and do not let them continue.”

39 Nicanor left Jerusalem and camped at Beth-horon, where the Syrian army joined him.

40 But Judas camped in Adasa with three thousand men. Here Judas uttered this prayer:

verse 40: Adasa: a village between Jerusalem and Beth-horon.

41 “When they who were sent by the king blasphemed, your angel went out and killed a hundred and eighty-five thousand of them.

verse 41: They who were sent by the king:
2 Kgs 18:19–25, 29–35; 19:10–13
recount in detail the boastful threats made by Sennacherib,
the Assyrian king, through his emissaries.
Your angel: a reference to 2 Kgs 19:35,
which describes the fate of the Assyrian army
which besieged Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

2 Kings 18: 19-25; 29-35;
(1599 Geneva Bible)
¹⁹ And Rabshakeh said unto them, Tell ye Hezekiah, I pray you,
Thus saith the great king, even the great king of Assyria,
What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
²⁰ Thou thinkest, Surely I have eloquence, but counsel and strength are for the war. On whom then doest thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
²¹ Lo, thou trustest now in this broken staff of reed, to wit, on Egypt,
on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it:
so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.
²² But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God, is not that he whose high places, and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
²³ Now therefore give hostages to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able to set riders upon them.
²⁴ For how canst thou despise any captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
²⁵ Am I now come up without the Lord to this place, to destroy it? the Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
²⁹ Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of mine hand.
³⁰ Neither let Hezekiah make you to trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given over into the hand of the king of Assyria.
³¹ Hearken not unto Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make appointment with me, and come out to me, that every man may eat of his own vine, and every man of his own fig tree, and drink every man of the water of his own well,
³² Till I come, and bring you to a land like your own land, even a land of wheat and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive’s oil, and honey, that ye may live and not die: and obey not Hezekiah, for he deceiveth you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.
³³ Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
³⁴ Where is the god of Hamath, and of Arpad? where is the god of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? how have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
³⁵ Who are they among all the gods of the nations, that have delivered their land out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?

2 Kings 19:10-13
(1599 Geneva Bible)
¹⁰ Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, and say, Let not thy God deceive thee in whom thou trustest, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
¹¹ Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, how they have destroyed them: and shalt thou be delivered?
¹² Have the gods of the heathen delivered them which my fathers have destroyed? as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were in Telassar?
¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Shepharvaim, Hena and Ivah?

42 In the same way, crush this army before us today, and let the rest know that Nicanor spoke wickedly against your sanctuary; judge him according to his wickedness.”

43 The armies met in battle on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. Nicanor’s army was crushed, and he himself was the first to fall in the battle.

44 When his army saw that Nicanor had fallen, they threw down their weapons and fled.

45 The Jews pursued them a day’s journey from Adasa to near Gazara, blowing the trumpets behind them as signals.

46 From all the surrounding villages of Judea people came out and outflanked them. They turned them back, and all the enemies fell by the sword; not a single one escaped.

47 Then the Jews collected the spoils and the plunder; they cut off Nicanor’s head and his right arm, which he had lifted up so arrogantly. These they brought and displayed in the sight of Jerusalem.

48 The people rejoiced greatly, and observed that day as a day of much joy.

49 They decreed that it should be observed every year on the thirteenth of Adar.

verse 49: The thirteenth of Adar: March 27, 160 B.C.
This day in the Jewish calendar was called the “Day of Nicanor”,
but it was not long celebrated by the Jews.
“The Day of Nicanor, celebrated on the 13th of Adar,
commemorates the victory of Judas Maccabeus
over the Seleucid general Nicanor
during the Maccabean Revolt in 161 BC.
This day is marked by Jewish tradition
as a holiday to honor the defeat of Nicanor
and the preservation of the Jewish people and their temple.
(search assist)

50 And so for a few days the land of Judah was at rest.

verse 50: For a few days: about one month
following the death of Nicanor.
After that began the attack of Bacchides
resulting in the death of Judas.

hope you have a great day!
thanks for stopping by!!

1 Maccabees, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB