Judas, at the dying request of his father, and with the full consent of his brothers, took upon himself the command of the forces, and at once erected his standard. Judas is henceforth called Judas Maccabees, because he chose for the motto of his banner in the field of battle, the sentence from the song of Moses, Exodus, chap, XV: "Who is like unto thee, amongst the powers, oh Lord!" In Hebrew the initials of the words in the sentence form the word "_Mochbee_." Hence it is, that all those who fought under the banner of Judas, were called "_Maccabees_," and all of that race were known by that name. Judas and his brethren achieved many very valiant deeds, in defending the cause of the holy law, and the holy religion of the God of Israel, of which they were the bold champions. Judas was successful in gaining the many battles he fought with Antiochus; and to encourage his army to fight bravely, he exhorted them to put their trust in God and that they would conquer. This inducement held out to the army, appears to have produced the desired effect. The tyrant Antiochus, seeing their repeated success, became resolute and determined to be avenged of his powerful opponents, the Maccabees. To effectuate this, he adopted the following stratagem: when he went into Persia to gather the tribute of the countries round about, he left Lysias with half his army, with express orders to destroy and root out all the Jews from their land. Lysias proved as cruel as his master; he collected numerous forces and encamped near Jerusalem; his army consisted of forty thousand foot, and seven thousand horse. Encouraged by the hope of success on the part of Lysias, a body of merchants, about a thousand in number, repaired to the place of action, provided with large quantities of gold and silver, with the full expectation of buying the captive Jews for slaves. Whilst the enemy contemplated a complete victory, Judas and his brethren gathered themselves together unto Mizpah; here they fasted, put on sackcloth, and prayed to God to help them in their great distress. They opened the book of the law before God, where the heathens had polluted it by painting their images which they worshiped. They then sounded the trumpets and prepared for battle, resolved to a man to die in defence of their country and their religion. The result of this zeal and courage on the part of Judas, proved successful; Judas and his army put to flight and destroyed several large forces which Lysias had sent against them. They drove the enemy out of Jerusalem, and almost out of the land of Judea, and succeeded in possessing themselves of a large booty, both from the army and the merchants, who expected to become their masters.