---
title: "1 Maccabees 16 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/1-maccabees/16/
description: "The sons of Simon defeat the troops of Antiochus. Simon with two of his… 1 Maccabees 16 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# 1 Maccabees 16

1 Maccabees 16 is chapter 16 of 16 in the First Book of Maccabees. Here are all 24 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The sons of Simon defeat the troops of Antiochus. Simon with two of his sons are treacherously murdered by Ptolemee his son in law.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## 1 Maccabees 16 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And so, John came up from Gazara, and he reported to Simon, his father, what Cendebeus had done against their people.
2. And Simon called his two eldest sons, Judas and John, and he said to them: “I and my brothers, and my father’s house, have fought against the enemies of Israel from our youth, even to this day. And this work has prospered in our hands, so that we have delivered Israel several times.
3. And now that I am old, you must act in place of me and my brothers, and go out to fight for our nation. Truly, may the help of heaven be with you.”
4. Then he chose from the region twenty thousand men of warfare, and horsemen; and they started out toward Cendebeus. And they rested in Modin.
5. And they rose up in the morning and went out into the plains. And behold, an abundant army of foot soldiers and horsemen was there to meet them, and there was a river flowing between them.
6. And he and his people moved their camp opposite their face, and he saw the trepidation of the people to cross over the river, and so he crossed over first. And seeing him, the men also crossed after him.
7. And he divided the people and the horsemen into the midst of the foot soldiers. But the horsemen of the adversary were exceedingly numerous.
8. And they sounded the holy trumpets. And Cendebeus and his army were turned back. And many of them fell wounded. But the rest fled into the fortress.
9. Then Judas, the brother of John, was wounded. But John pursued them, until he came to Kedron, which he had built.
10. And they fled all the way to the towers that were in the fields of Azotus, and he burnt them with fire. And there fell of them two thousand men, and he returned to Judea in peace.
11. Now Ptolemy, the son of Abubus, was appointed commander over the plain of Jericho, and he held much silver and gold.
12. For he was the son-in-law of the high priest.
13. And his heart was exalted, and he wanted to obtain the region, and he devised treachery against Simon and his sons, so as to destroy them.
14. Now when Simon was traveling through the cities that were in the region of Judea, and acting with concern for them, he went down to Jericho, he and Mattathias and Judas, his sons, in the one hundred and seventy-seventh year, in the eleventh month; this is the month of Shevat.
15. And the son of Abubus received them, with deceitfulness, into a little fortress, which is called Dok, that he had built. And he made them a great feast, and he hid men there.
16. And when Simon and his sons became inebriated, Ptolemy and his men rose up, and took their weapons, and entered into the gathering. And they killed him, and his two sons, and some of his servants.
17. And he committed a great treachery in Israel, and he repaid good with evil.
18. And Ptolemy wrote about these things, and he sent to the king, so that he would send him an army to assist him, and he could deliver to him the region, and their cities and tributes.
19. And he sent others to Gazara to destroy John. And he sent letters to the tribunes to come to him, and he would give them silver, and gold, and gifts.
20. And he sent others to occupy Jerusalem and the mountain of the temple.
21. Now a certain one, running ahead, reported to John in Gazara, that his father and his brothers perished, and that “he sent to kill you also.”
22. But when he heard it, he was very afraid, and he apprehended the men who came to destroy him, and he killed them. For he knew that they sought to destroy him.
23. And the rest of the stories about John, and his wars, and the virtuous deeds that he performed with fortitude, and the building of the walls that he raised, and the things that he did,
24. behold, these have been written in the book of the days of his priesthood, from the time that he became high priest, after his father.

## 1 Maccabees 16 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Et ascendit Joannes de Gazaris, et nuntiavit Simoni patri suo quæ fecit Cendebæus in populo ipsorum.
2. Et vocavit Simon duos filios seniores, Judam et Joannem, et ait illis: Ego, et fratres mei, et domus patris mei expugnavimus hostes Israël ab adolescentia usque in hunc diem: et prosperatum est in manibus nostris liberare Israël aliquoties.
3. Nunc autem senui: sed estote loco meo, et fratres mei, et egressi pugnate pro gente nostra: auxilium vero de cælo vobiscum sit.
4. Et elegit de regione viginti millia virorum belligeratorum, et equites: et profecti sunt ad Cendebæum, et dormierunt in Modin.
5. Et surrexerunt mane, et abierunt in campum: et ecce exercitus copiosus in obviam illis peditum et equitum: et fluvius torrens erat inter medium ipsorum.
6. Et admovit castra contra faciem eorum ipse et populus ejus, et vidit populum trepidantem ad transfretandum torrentem: et transfretavit primus, et viderunt eum viri, et transierunt post eum.
7. Et divisit populum et equites in medio peditum: erat autem equitatus adversariorum copiosus nimis.
8. Et exclamaverunt sacris tubis, et in fugam conversus est Cendebæus et castra ejus: et ceciderunt ex eis multi vulnerati: residui autem in munitionem fugerunt.
9. Tunc vulneratus est Judas frater Joannis: Joannes autem insecutus est eos, donec venit Cedronem, quam ædificavit:
10. et fugerunt usque ad turres, quæ erant in agris Azoti, et succendit eas igni. Et ceciderunt ex illis duo millia virorum, et reversus est in Judæam in pace.
11. Et Ptolemæus filius Abobi constitutus erat dux in campo Jericho, et habebat argentum et aurum multum:
12. erat enim gener summi sacerdotis.
13. Et exaltatum est cor ejus, et volebat obtinere regionem, et cogitabat dolum adversus Simonem et filios ejus, ut tolleret eos.
14. Simon autem, perambulans civitates quæ erant in regione Judææ, et sollicitudinem gerens earum, descendit in Jericho ipse, et Mathathias filius ejus, et Judas, anno centesimo septuagesimo septimo, mense undecimo: hic est mensis Sabath.
15. Et suscepit eos filius Abobi in munitiunculam, quæ vocatur Doch, cum dolo, quam ædificavit: et fecit eis convivium magnum, et abscondit illic viros.
16. Et cum inebriatus esset Simon et filii ejus, surrexit Ptolemæus cum suis, et sumpserunt arma sua, et intraverunt in convivium: et occiderunt eum, et duos filios ejus, et quosdam pueros ejus:
17. et fecit deceptionem magnam in Israël, et reddidit mala pro bonis.
18. Et scripsit hæc Ptolemæus, et misit regi ut mitteret ei exercitum in auxilium, et traderet ei regionem, et civitates eorum, et tributa.
19. Et misit alios in Gazaram tollere Joannem: et tribunis misit epistolas, ut venirent ad se, et daret eis argentum, et aurum, et dona.
20. Et alios misit occupare Jerusalem et montem templi.
21. Et præcurrens quidam, nuntiavit Joanni in Gazara quia periit pater ejus et fratres ejus, et quia misit te quoque interfici.
22. Ut audivit autem, vehementer expavit: et comprehendit viros, qui venerant perdere eum, et occidit eos: cognovit enim quia quærebant eum perdere.
23. Et cetera sermonum Joannis, et bellorum ejus, et bonarum virtutum, quibus fortiter gessit, et ædificii murorum, quos exstruxit, et rerum gestarum ejus:
24. ecce hæc scripta sunt in libro dierum sacerdotii ejus, ex quo factus est princeps sacerdotum post patrem suum.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: “John” … He was afterwards surnamed Hircanus, and succeeded his father in both his dignities of high priest and prince. He conquered the Edomites, and obliged them to a conformity with the Jews in religion; and destroyed the schismatical temple of the Samaritans.
- Verse 6: “He” … Viz., John.
- Verse 9: Otherwise called Gedon, the city that Cendebeus was fortifying.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).