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Context No. 243 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 11:67-74: in context

67Jonathan and his army encamped at the water of Gennesareth, and early in the morning they marched to the plain of Hazor. 68Behold, an army of foreigners met him in the plain. They laid an ambush for him in the mountains, but they themselves met him face to face. 69But those who lay in ambush rose out of their places and joined battle. All those who were on Jonathan’s side fled. 70Not one of them was left, except Mattathias the son of Absalom, and Judas the son of Chalphi, captains of the forces. 71Jonathan tore his clothes, put dirt on his head, and prayed. 72He turned again to them in battle, and routed them, and they fled. 73When the men on his side who had fled saw this, they returned to him and pursued with him to Kedesh to their camp, and they encamped there. 74About three thousand men of the foreigners fell on that day. Then Jonathan returned to Jerusalem.

This is the generation after Judas Maccabeus, when his brother Jonathan has taken up the leadership of the Jewish forces. Marching through Galilee near Hazor, Jonathan walks straight into an ambush his scouts had missed, and an enemy army rises out of the hills around him.

What happens next is honest about how battles actually break. Jonathan's whole army panics and runs. The text says not one of them was left except two captains, Mattathias and Judas, so the commander is standing on the field essentially alone while everyone he led scatters. He does not give a speech to rally them, because there is no one there to rally. Instead he does two things. He tears his clothes and throws dirt on his head, the gestures of a man in mourning, and he prays. Then he turns back into the battle himself, with his two officers, and routs the very force that had just scattered his army. Only then, seeing him fight, do the men who fled come back and join the pursuit, and three thousand of the enemy fall.

The order of it is the lesson. The rally does not come first. Jonathan grieves, prays, and turns around while he is still nearly alone, and the others return because he had already turned. He did not wait to have an army again before he faced the thing. When everyone around me has scattered, can I turn back and pray and face it before I have any company in it?

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