"The army was very great and mighty," (ver. 41.) "When the sun shone upon the shields of gold and brass, the mountains glistered therewith, and shined like lamps of fire," (ver. 39.) Each of the thirty-two elephants was attended by "a thousand men armed with coats of mail, and with helmets of brass on their heads; and besides this, for every beast was ordained five hundred horsemen of the best--these were ready at every occasion: wheresoever the beast was, and whithersoever the beast went they went also, neither departed they from him; and upon the beasts were there strong towers of wood, which covered every one of them, and were girt fast unto them with devices; there were upon every one thirty-two strong men that fought upon them, beside the Indian that ruled him," (ver. 35, etc.) This strange host marched along the Philistine plain southwards to Idumea, which is on the south of Hebron: this being the only way for such an army and its elephants to get at Jerusalem. Thence they swept the land before them northwards, "and pitched against Bethsura, which they assaulted many days, making engines of war, but they of the city came out and fought valiantly," (ver. 31.) Whereupon Judas desisted from his siege of the citadel--which, I may remark in passing, must have been on Acra, not like David's citadel taken from the Jebusites, on Zion--and hastened to attack the royal host, mighty though it was. Some have supposed that Bethsura is to be found at Bait Zur, near Hebron, the Beth Zur of Josh. xv. 33; whereas this place is more than a hundred furlongs from Jerusalem, being not much more than an hour (north) from Hebron, and is altogether too far removed to answer the description of Bethsura, and the operations carried on there, close to the Holy City. The 5th verse of the 11th chapter of 2 Maccabees sets the whole question at rest; the words are distinctly, "So he (Lysias) came to Judea and drew near to Bethsura, which was a strong town, but distant from Jerusalem _about five furlongs_, and he laid sore siege unto it." Again, immediately after taking the city of Jerusalem and dedicating the temple, Judas "fortified Bethsura in order to preserve it," (that is, Mount Zion,) that the people might have a defence against Idumea, (I Macc. iv. 61.) And the accusation which had been formerly made to the King Antiochus Epiphanes in Persia against Judas and his men was "that they had compassed about the sanctuary with high walls as before, and his city Bethsura;" also to the present king at Antioch, "that the sanctuary also and Bethsura have they fortified," (chap. vi. 7, 26.) It is clear that one was an outwork of the other, Bethsura being the defence of Jerusalem against incursions from the south.