religious liberty.

News of the victory soon brought Seron, the governor of Coele-Syria, with
a large army. He advanced from the coast plain by the most direct road to
Jerusalem over the famous pass of the Bethhorons. Within a distance of two
miles the road ascended nearly fifteen hundred feet. At points it was
merely a steep, rocky pass, so that an invading army was forced to march
single file and to pull themselves up over the rocks. Here on the heights
that looked out toward his home at Modein Judas, appealing to the faith
and patriotism of his men, swept down upon the enemy and won his first
great victory.

IV. The Battle of Emmaus. The first great Jewish victory was a severe
blow to the power of Antiochus Epiphanes, for at that time he was
confronted by a depleted treasury. He therefore left his kingdom in charge
of Lysias, one of his nobles, and set out on a campaign into Persia from
which he never returned. Three generals with a large army were sent by
Lysias against the Jews. So confident were they of a Syrian victory that a
horde of slave merchants accompanied the army that they might purchase the
Jewish captives. This time the Syrians avoided the difficult pass of
Bethhoron and chose the Wady Ali, along which the modern carriage road
winds up from the coast to Jerusalem. The main camp was pitched at Emmaus
at the southeastern side of the Plain of Ajalon under the Judean hills.
Meantime Judas had selected as his head-quarters the lofty hill of Mizpah,
associated by earlier tradition with Samuel and the scene of the
short-lived rule of Gedaliah. It was well chosen, for it commanded a view
of the territory to the north, south, and west. While the army of the
Syrians, sent by night to surprise Judas, were marching up the northern
valley, the Jewish patriots were led westward toward the plain along one
of the parallel valleys that penetrated the Judean hills. Having appealed