The Josippon (Zëna Ayhud, 'History of the Jews') is a medieval historical chronicle composed in southern Italy around 953 CE, anonymously attributed to Joseph ben Gurion (identified with the historian Josephus). Unlike all other books in the Ethiopian canon, the Josippon has no native division into chapters and verses in its manuscript tradition. It was translated from Arabic into Ge'ez around 1300 CE and added to the Scriptures of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In this digital edition, each 'verse' represents one complete paragraph of the continuous text.
Josippon
Chapter 23 — Antiochus Eupator's War
When Antiochus Eupator heard of all the battles that Yehudah had waged and the cities that he had captured, he broke the treaty that he had with Yehudah and came with an army as numerous as the sand of the seashore, and with him chariots and cavalry and twenty-two elephants; Lysias, his cousin, was with him with a huge army; he invaded the land of Judaea and besieged Beitar. Yehudah and all the elders of Israel called unto God with fasting, weeping, and entreaties, offering up burnt offerings and sacrificing whole offerings.
That night Yehudah took with him all the Hasmonean youth and infiltrated the king's camp at night. He destroyed four thousand of the king's warriors and killed the largest of the elephants. At dawn, the king advanced in battle to confront Yehudah, and the fighting was very intense. Yehudah saw one of the elephants with gold armor larger than all the other elephants—he thought that the king was sitting upon it, and he called, saying: "Who among you, my lads? Who among you will come to me?" Then Elazar, one of the Hasmonean youth, sprang forward and ran toward the elephant, killing all who came against him from among the king's warriors, and he smote right and left, the dead falling all about him. He dove into the depth of the fighting, and reaching between the elephant's legs, he stabbed its navel with his sword, and the elephant plummeted upon him. He died for the Lord and for his people. He left a glorious act to those hearing about him and mourning to his people. Eight hundred of the king's nobles fell in that war, apart from a great multitude of the men of the army, killed in battle.
The king ceased from battle and went to his tent. He was told thus: "Behold, Philip has revolted in your land, and also Demetrius, son of King Seleucus, is coming from the city of Roma with a huge army, to take the kingdom from your hand." The king feared greatly and made peace; he made a covenant with Yehudah and embraced him and kissed him and swore, he and Lysias, his cousin, saying: "We shall not go up against Jerusalem any more in war for the rest of our lives." The king brought forth gold aplenty and gave an offering to the House of the Lord in Jerusalem, and he seized Menelaus the wicked, the Judaean who had brought his father, Antiochus, to Jerusalem to do all the evil that he did there. It was this Menelaus who brought King Eupator to Judaea. Now the king was furious against him and said: "Seize him!" There was a tower in that place fifty cubits high and below it ash and cinder without measure. The king commanded, and they raised Menelaus upon the tower and binding him hand and foot, threw him down, drowning him in the depth of the ash. He sank into the depths of the ash, dying for his cruelties and his sins, for he had done many abominations before the altar of God, whose cinder and ash were holy; therefore, the wicked one was punished by dying of suffocation in the ash. Righteous is the Lord, who renders unto man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds!
The king went his way to Makedonia. And Yehudah began to judge his people and do righteousness and justice.