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The Capture of Gazara by Simon

43 In those days Simon^* encamped against Gazara^* and surrounded it with troops. He made a siege-engine, brought it up to the city, and battered and captured one tower. ⁴⁴The men in the siege-engine leapt out into the city, and a great tumult arose in the city. ⁴⁵The men in the city, with their wives and children, went up on the wall with their clothes torn, and they cried out with a loud voice, asking Simon to make peace with them; ⁴⁶they said, ‘Do not treat us according to our wicked acts but according to your mercy.’ ⁴⁷So Simon reached an agreement with them and stopped fighting against them. But he expelled them from the city and cleansed the houses in which the idols were located, and then entered it with hymns and praise. ⁴⁸He removed all uncleanness from it, and settled in it those who observed the law. He also strengthened its fortifications and built in it a house for himself.