Revolt

Judas Maccabaeus and his 6000 partisans raise a revolt in the Judaean countryside.
Seleucid forces are mobilised by Ptolemaeus, governor of Coele Syria and Phoenicia, under the command of Nicanor, who:

determined to pay off the 2000 talents due from the king as tribute to the Romans, by the sale of the Jews that he would take prisoner; and he at once made an offer of Jewish slaves to the coastal towns, undertaking to deliver them at the price of 90 to the talent.

Nicanor is defeated and Timotheus, garrison commander in Jerusalem, is killed.

Thus by God’s help, Nicanor, that double-dyed villain who had brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jewish captives, was humiliated by the very people whom he despised above all others. He threw off his magnificent uniform and all alone like a runaway slave made his escape through the interior, and was, indeed, very lucky to reach Antioch after losing his whole army.

2 Macc.8. 21-36

In 164 BC Antiochus IV, on his death bed, repents and allows political and religious freedom for Jerusalem

2 Macc. 9.11-17

writes a letter designating his son (Antiochus V) to succeed him

2 Macc. 9.19-27