1 Maccabees 3:27-29

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

The Policy of Antiochus

²⁷ When King Antiochus heard these reports, he was greatly angered; and he sent and gathered all the forces of his kingdom, a very strong army. ²⁸ He opened his coffers and gave a year’s pay to his forces, and ordered them to be ready for any need. ²⁹ Then he saw that the money in the treasury was exhausted, and that the revenues from the country were small because of the dissension and disaster that he had caused in the land by abolishing the laws that had existed from the earliest days.