The Maccabees and the light of the Temple

What the Bible says

1 Maccabees 4:36-59

³⁶Then Judas, and his brethren said: Behold our enemies are discomfited: let us go up now to cleanse the holy places and to repair them. ³⁷And all the army assembled together, and they went up into mount Sion. ³⁸And they saw the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt, and shrubs growing up in the courts as in a forest, or on the mountains, and the chambers joining to the temple thrown down. ³⁹And they rent their garments, and made great lamentation, and put ashes on their heads: ⁴⁰And they fell face down to the ground on their faces, and they sounded with the trumpets of alarm, and they cried towards heaven. ⁴¹Then Judas appointed men to fight against them that were in the castle, till they had cleansed the holy places. ⁴²And he chose priests without blemish, whose will was set upon the law of God: ⁴³And they cleansed the holy places, and took away the stones that had been defiled into an unclean place. ⁴⁴And he considered about the altar of holocausts that had been profaned, what he should do with it. ⁴⁵And a good counsel came into their minds, to pull it down: lest it should be a reproach to them, because the Gentiles had defiled it; so they threw it down. ⁴⁶And they laid up the stones in the mountain of the temple in a convenient place, till there should come a prophet, and give answer concerning them. ⁴⁷Then they took whole stones according to the law, and built a new altar according to the former: ⁴⁸And they built up the holy places, and the things that were within the temple: and they sanctified the temple, and the courts. ⁴⁹And they made new holy vessels, and brought in the candlestick, and the altar of incense, and the table into the temple. ⁵⁰And they put incense upon the altar, and lighted up the lamps that were upon the candlestick, and they gave light in the temple. ⁵¹And they set the loaves upon the table, and hung up the veils, and finished all the works that they had begun to make. ⁵²And they arose before the morning on the five and twentieth day of the ninth month (which is the month of Casleu) in the hundred and forty-eighth year. ⁵³And they offered sacrifice according to the law upon the new altar of holocausts which they had made. ⁵⁴According to the time, and according to the day wherein the heathens had defiled it, in the same was it dedicated anew with canticles, and harps, and lutes, and cymbals. ⁵⁵And all the people fell upon their faces, and adored, and blessed up to heaven, him that had prospered them. ⁵⁶And they kept the dedication of the altar eight days, and they offered holocausts with joy, and sacrifices of salvation, and of praise. ⁵⁷And they adorned the front of the temple with crowns of gold, and escutcheons, and they renewed the gates, and the chambers, and hanged doors upon them. ⁵⁸And there was exceeding great joy among the people, and the reproach of the Gentiles was turned away. ⁵⁹And Judas, and his brethren, and all the church of Israel decreed, that the day of the dedication of the altar should be kept in its season from year to year for eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month of Casleu, with joy and gladness.

Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.