5 ¹¹ When news of what had happened reached the king, he took it to mean that Judea was in revolt. So, raging inwardly, he left Egypt and took the city by storm. 5 ¹² And he commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly every one they met and to slay those who went into the houses. 5 ¹³ Then there was killing of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaughter of virgins and infants. 5 ¹⁴ Within the total of three days eighty thousand were destroyed, forty thousand in hand-to-hand fighting; and as many were sold into slavery as were slain.

5 ¹⁵ Not content with this, Antiochus dared to enter the most holy temple in all the world, guided by Menelaus, who had become a traitor both to the laws and to his country. 5 ¹⁶ He took the holy vessels with his polluted hands, and swept away with profane hands the votive offerings which other kings had made to enhance the glory and honour of the place. 5 ¹⁷ Antiochus was elated in spirit, and did not perceive that the Lord was angered for a little while because of the sins of those who dwelt in the city, and that therefore he was disregarding the holy place. 5 ¹⁸ But if it had not happened that they were involved in many sins, this man would have been scourged and turned back from his rash act as soon as he came forward, just as Heliodourus was, whom Seleucus the king sent to inspect the treasury. 5 ¹⁹ But the Lord did not choose the nation for the sake of the holy place, but the place for the sake of the nation. 5 ²⁰ Therefore the place itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation and afterward participated in its benefits; and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory when the great Lord became reconciled.