“What is signified by Lysias, if not worldly pride, which through three men, that is, three orders of persecutors, brings war upon the Church of Christ, namely through pagans, heretics, and false Christians? To these are added forty thousand men and seven thousand horsemen, to destroy Judas according to the king's comm…”
Rabanus Maurus, 9th c. — Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Original
38Then Lysias chose Ptolemee the son of Dorymenes, Nicanor, and Gorgias, mighty men of the king’s friends:
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In context
36And that he should place strangers in all their quarters, and divide their land by lot.
37So the king took the half of the forces that remained, and departed from Antioch, his royal city, the hundred forty and seventh year; and having passed the river Euphrates, he went through the high countries.
— 1 Maccabees 3:38 —
39And with them he sent forty thousand footmen, and seven thousand horsemen, to go into the land of Juda, and to destroy it, as the king commanded.
40So they went forth with all their power, and came and pitched by Emmaus in the plain country.