1 Maccabees 13:51-53

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁵¹ On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred seventy-first year,^[a] the Jews^[b] entered it with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel. ⁵² Simon^[c] decreed that every year they should celebrate this day with rejoicing. He strengthened the fortifications of the temple hill alongside the citadel, and he and his men lived there. ⁵³ Simon saw that his son John had reached manhood, and so he made him commander of all the forces; and he lived at Gazara.