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Catholic Commentary
Judas Strikes Edom, Passes Through Samaria, and Destroys Philistine Idols
65Judas and his kindred went out and fought against the children of Esau in the land toward the south. He struck Hebron and its villages, pulled down its strongholds, and burned its towers all around.66He marched to go into the land of the Philistines, and he went through Samaria.67In that day certain priests, desiring to do exploits there, were slain in battle, when they went out to battle unadvisedly.68But Judas turned toward Azotus, to the land of the Philistines, pulled down their altars, burned the carved images of their gods with fire, took the plunder of their cities, and returned into the land of Judah.
1 Maccabees 5:65–68 describes Judas Maccabee's military campaigns against foreign occupiers, including the reclamation of Hebron from Edomites and the destruction of pagan altars in Philistine cities, particularly Azotus. The passage emphasizes that unauthorized priests who pursued personal glory died in battle, contrasting their rash ambition with Judas's methodical, divinely-mandated actions to purify the land.
Judas Maccabeus burned the idols at Azotus because his zeal was ordered by God's mandate, while unnamed priests died in the same campaign because they sought exploits for themselves—a brutal distinction between sacred action rooted in obedience and religious performance rooted in pride.
Verse 68 – Azotus and the Destruction of Idols Azotus is the Greek name for Ashdod, one of the five great Philistine cities and home, notoriously, to the temple of Dagon where the Ark of the Covenant had once been held captive (1 Sam 5:1–7). Judas pulling down the altars and burning the carved images directly mirrors the iconoclastic mandate of the Torah (Deut 7:5; 12:3) and the actions of the great reforming kings Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18:4) and Josiah (2 Kgs 23). The Greek word for "carved images" (gluptois) is the Septuagintal term used throughout the prophetic literature for the idols denounced by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah. Judas is thus cast not merely as a general but as a successor to the great reformers of Israel—a priestly-kingly figure purifying the land. The chapter ends not with Judas enthroned but with him returning, quietly, "into the land of Judah," the plunder taken and the idols burned. The restraint of that final phrase is itself theologically eloquent: glory belongs to God, not to the warrior.
From a Catholic perspective, this passage illuminates several interlocking doctrinal and spiritual themes.
Zeal ordered by obedience. The Catechism of the Catholic Church distinguishes between authentic zeal—rooted in charity and conformity to God's will—and a counterfeit zeal animated by pride or vainglory (CCC 1765, 2540). The fate of the rash priests in verse 67 is a canonical illustration of this distinction. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae (II-II, q. 83, a. 1), warns that religious action undertaken from self-seeking glory rather than the glory of God is not virtue but its corruption. Pope Francis has echoed this in Evangelii Gaudium (§271), cautioning against a "feverish activism" untethered from discernment and community.
The theology of idolatry. Catholic tradition, drawing on the First Commandment (CCC 2112–2114), understands idolatry as the fundamental inversion of right worship: giving to a creature what belongs to the Creator. Judas's burning of the Philistine idols is an enacted proclamation that the living God tolerates no rivals. The Church Fathers—Origen, Tertullian, and John Chrysostom—repeatedly used the Maccabean campaigns as types of the Christian's war against disordered attachments, reading the idols as figures of the passions and vices that must be purged from the soul.
Hebron and the communion of saints. The liberation of Hebron, resting place of the Patriarchs, carries an implicit theology of the communio sanctorum: the living and the dead belong to one covenant people. The Second Vatican Council's Lumen Gentium (§49–51) articulates this unity, and the reclaiming of Hebron can be read typologically as the restoration of the full household of faith—the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant—to its rightful inheritance in God.
Typology of Christian mission. The march from Hebron through Samaria to the Philistine coast prefigures the universal reach of the Gospel—from Jerusalem, through Samaria, to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)—with idols destroyed not by iron but by the Word.
The contrast drawn in verse 67 between Judas's ordered courage and the rash priests' fatal presumption is perhaps the most urgently practical lesson of this passage for Catholics today. In an age saturated with social media, Christian activism, and the constant temptation to perform faith for an audience, the unnamed priests who "desired to do exploits" are disturbingly recognizable. The question their fate poses is blunt: Am I acting because God has called me here, or because I want to be seen doing something impressive for God?
The Ignatian tradition of discernment (formalized in the Spiritual Exercises) offers concrete tools for this self-examination: consolation that leads to humility versus consolation that inflates the ego; movements of spirit that draw us toward God versus those that subtly orbit the self. Before any significant act of apostolic service—volunteering, public witness, advocacy, even intense private devotion—Catholics are invited to ask: Have I prayed over this? Have I sought counsel? Is this mine to do, or am I grasping at another's calling? The destruction of the idols at Azotus, meanwhile, challenges contemporary Catholics to identify the carved images that occupy the altars of their own interior life—whether those are screens, status, security, or approval—and to bring them before God for the burning.
Commentary
Verse 65 – Striking Hebron and the Children of Esau "The children of Esau" is the standard biblical designation for the Edomites (cf. Gen 36; Num 20:14–21), the descendants of Jacob's brother whose ancestral enmity with Israel stretches back to the womb (Gen 25:22–23). By the Maccabean period, Edomites (called Idumeans by the Greeks) had moved into the Negev and the southern Judean highlands, occupying territory including Hebron itself. Hebron carries enormous patriarchal weight: it is the burial place of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah (Gen 23; 49:29–32), the city where David was first anointed king (2 Sam 2:1–4), and thus a city whose possession by foreign peoples represented a theological affront as much as a strategic threat. Judas does not merely defeat the enemy in open battle; he dismantles the infrastructure of occupation—strongholds and towers—signaling that the land itself is being reclaimed for God's covenant purposes. The phrase "land toward the south" (Hebrew Negev) echoes the Deuteronomic geography of inheritance, connecting Maccabean action to the original conquest under Joshua.
Verse 66 – The March Through Samaria The topographical note that Judas passed through Samaria to reach Philistine territory is historically significant and theologically charged. The Samaritans were regarded by most Jews of the Second Temple period as a mixed and religiously compromised people (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24–41), and the route through their territory underscores Judas's bold, urgent thrust toward the coast. The verse is terse—almost deliberately so—offering no incident, no engagement, no treaty. Samaria is simply traversed. This narrative compression may imply that the author's interest is not in Samaria as such but in what lies beyond: the Philistine cities with their notorious idol-temples. The march also echoes the great campaigns of Joshua and the Judges, in which Israel moved across the full breadth of Canaan to assert covenant dominion.
Verse 67 – The Rash Priests Who Fell This single verse is one of the most theologically dense and pastorally pointed in the chapter. "Certain priests, desiring to do exploits"—the Greek carries the sense of seeking glory, of wanting to distinguish themselves in battle—act "unadvisedly," without proper discernment or authorization. They die. The contrast with Judas is deliberate and sharp: Judas acts under clear mandate, proceeds methodically, and succeeds; these unnamed priests act from personal ambition dressed in religious clothing, and they perish. The author of 1 Maccabees does not shy away from this uncomfortable lesson. Even those consecrated to sacred service are not exempt from the consequences of arrogant presumption. This resonates with the tradition of Nadab and Abihu (Lev 10:1–3), who offered "unauthorized fire" before the Lord and were consumed, and with Uzzah, who touched the Ark without authorization and died (2 Sam 6:6–7). Sacred office confers no immunity from the need for obedience and discernment.