The Assideans. . .A set of men that led a religious life; and were zealous for the law and worship of God.
2:43. And all they that fled from the evils, joined themselves to them, and were a support to them.
2:44. And they gathered an army, and slew the sinners in their wrath, and the wicked men in their indignation: and the rest fled to the nations for safety.
2:45. And Mathathias and his friends went round about, and they threw down the altars:
2:46. And they circumcised all the children whom they found in the confines of Israel that were uncircumcised: and they did valiantly.
2:47. And they pursued after the children of pride, and the work prospered in their hands:
2:48. And they recovered the law out of the hands of the nations, and out of the hands of the kings: and they yielded not the horn to the sinner.
They yielded not the horn, etc. . .That is, they suffered not the power of Antiochus, that man of sin, to abolish the law and religion of God.
2:49. Now the days drew near that Mathathias should die, and he said to his sons: Now hath pride and chastisement gotten strength, and the time of destruction, and the wrath of indignation:
2:50. Now, therefore, O my sons, be ye zealous for the law, and give your lives for the covenant of your fathers.