Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture.

The Bible in a year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.

Using the rated adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.

It is day 30. You have 60 after today. 60 days. Gosh, what a gift. It's day 305. We're reading Second Maccabees Chapter 8, Wisdom, Chapter 5 and 6, two of those chapters. Proverbs chapter 24 versus 30 through 34. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the revised standard version, the second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. It's day 305. We're reading Second Maccabees, Chapter 8, Wisdom, 5, and 6, as well as Proverbs chapter 24 versus 30 through 34.

The second book of the Maccabees Eight, Wisdom 5 and 6, as well as Proverbs chapter 24, verses 30 through 34.

The second book of the Maccabees, chapter 8, the revolt of Judas Maccabias.

But Judas, who was also called Maccabias, and his companions secretly entered the villages and summoned their kinsmen and enlisted those who had continued in the Jewish faith,

and so they gathered about six thousand men. They begged the Lord to look upon the people who were

oppressed by all, and to have pity on the temple which had been profaned by ungodly men, and to have

mercy on the city which was being destroyed and about to be leveled to the ground, and to heed

the blood that cried out to him, and to remember also

the lawless destruction of the innocent babies and the blasphemies committed against his name,

and to show his hatred of evil. As soon as Maccabias got his army organized, the Gentiles could not

withstand him, for the wrath of the Lord had turned to mercy. Coming without warning, he would set fire to towns and villages.

He captured strategic positions and put to flight not a few of the enemy. He found the

knights most advantageous for such attacks, and talk of his valor spread everywhere.

When Philip saw that the man was gaining ground little by little, and that he was pushing

ahead with more frequent successes, he wrote to Ptolemy, the governor of Kwell, Syria, and Phoenicia, for aid to the king's government.

And Ptolemy promptly appointed Nicanor, the son of Patroclus, one of the king's chief friends,

and sent him in command of no fewer than 20,000 Gentiles of all nations, to wipe out the whole

race of Judea. He associated him with

Gorgias, a general and a man of experience in military service. Nicanor determined to make up for the

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