Though Judas was young in years, he lacked neither energy nor prudence, and succeeding to the designs of his aged father, first unfolded the banner of the MACCABEES. This name is of uncertain meaning. Some derive it from the concluding letters of a sentence in Exod. xv. 11, Mi Camo Car Baalim Jehovah, i.e., _Who is like unto Thee among the gods, O Jehovah?_ Others, again, derive it from the banner of the tribe of Dan, which is said to have contained the three last letters of the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Others, with more probability, understand it to have been a personal appellation of Judas himself, meaning the _Hammerer_, like Martel, the surname of the famous Carlovingian chief, Charles. Whatever was the precise meaning of the name, the new leader _girt his warlike harness about him_ (1 Macc. iii. 3), rallied his forces, and bent all his energies to the task of uniting in a compact body all who were zealous for the national faith. “By night attacks, by sudden surprises (2 Macc. viii. 6, 7), he taught his people how to fight and conquer. Alert of foot and quick of brain; yesterday in the mountains, to-day in the plain; now marching on a post, now storming a castle; in a few months of service he changed his rabble of zealots into an army of solid troops, capable of meeting and repelling the royal hosts commanded by generals trained in the Macedonian school of arms[29].” At length Apollonius, who had recently signalized himself by plundering Jerusalem and massacring its inhabitants, deemed it time to interfere. At the head of a large army, mostly composed of Samaritans and apostate Jews, he marched against the patriot chief, but was totally defeated and slain (1 Macc. iii. 10–12). Tidings of this disaster roused Seron, the deputy-governor of Cœlesyria, and he went forth at the head of a still larger force, determined to have his revenge. Judas did not decline the combat, which took place at Beth-horon, famous as the scene of Joshua’s victory over the southern Canaanites[30], and resulted in the complete defeat of the Syrian general, whose troops were driven in confusion down the rocky pass to the western lowlands (1 Macc. iii. 24). These two disasters moved the indignation of Antiochus beyond measure. He was himself, however, unable to take the field, for his exchequer being exhausted by his prodigal munificence (1 Macc. iii. 29), and his eastern provinces, Armenia and Persia, refusing to pay any further tribute, he deemed it expedient to lead an expedition thither in hopes of recruiting his treasury. Accordingly he entrusted the government of all that portion of his empire, which lay between the Euphrates and the borders of Egypt, to Lysias, one of his nobles and of the blood royal, and gave him the command of half his army, with instructions utterly _to destroy and root out the strength of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem_ (1 Macc. iii. 35). CHAPTER II.