Gorgias goes to Emmaus (1 Macc 4:1-4:5)

“Gorgias took five thousand infantry and one thousand picked cavalry. This division moved out by night to fall upon the camp of the Jews. They wanted to attack them suddenly. Men from the citadel were his guides. But Judas heard of it. He and his warriors moved out to attack the king’s force in Emmaus, while the division was still absent from the camp. When Gorgias entered the camp of Judas by night, he found no one there. Thus he looked for them in the hills, because he said.

‘These men are running away from us.’”

Gorgias, who had been picked by Lysias to command the Syrian army, took 5,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry to attack the Jews in a sudden ambush. They traveled at night led by guides from Jerusalem. However, Judas heard that they were coming. He and all his troops moved out of their camp in Emmaus. When Gorgias entered the camp of Judas at night, there was no one there. Then he began to look for them in the surrounding hills because he believed that they were running away from him.