2 Maccabees 14:26-30

New Catholic Bible

²⁶ Nicanor Moves Anew against Judas. When Alcimus^[a] discovered the depth of the friendship that these two men had for each other, he went to Demetrius with a copy of the treaty they had signed. He claimed that Nicanor was engaged in treasonable activity against the state, since he had appointed Judas, a conspirator against the kingdom, to be his successor. ²⁷ Enraged by the slanderous charges of that villain, the king wrote to Nicanor, expressing his displeasure with the terms of the treaty and commanding him to send Maccabeus as a prisoner to Antioch at once.

²⁸ When this message reached Nicanor, he was greatly upset, for he did not wish to break his agreement with a man who had done nothing wrong. ²⁹ However, since there was no possible way to flaunt the king’s wishes, he waited for an opportunity to carry out the order by means of some stratagem. ³⁰ But Maccabeus began to notice that Nicanor was becoming much cooler in his dealings with him and displaying unaccustomed rudeness whenever they met, and he surmised that such an attitude did not bode well for him. Therefore, he gathered a large number of his followers and went into hiding from Nicanor.^[b]