According to it: When Seron, the commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had gathered a large company, including a body of faithful soldiers who stayed with him and went out to battle, he said, 'I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom.

This makes it plausible as a spot for a small force to inflict major damage, as coordination among a surprised procession would be difficult, and superior numbers would count for little.

[2] In the narrow terrain of the mountain ascent, the ambush would work better with only a small force anyway, with less risk of being spotted; it would be part of the plan rather than an ominous sign that indicated divine favor was needed to win the battle.

[2] The book of 1 Maccabees occasionally uses archaic phrasings to present the deeds of the Hasmoneans as similar or equivalent to those of earlier heroes of Jewish Scripture.

Rather, it is a poetic reference to eparchy of Paralia on Judea's coastal plain to the west of Beth Horon, which in this era only had a Jewish minority and was friendly to the Greeks.

He thinks that the description is basically accurate, although the author inflated the number of enemy soldiers as well as Seron's rank in the army to make the victory seem more impressive.

The claim that "terror" befell the Gentiles in their vicinity as a result of the victory against Seron seems somewhat overblown; later events in the text would show that they were not so afraid as to avoid antagonizing the Maccabees.

The non-Jewish Idumeans, Samaritans, and Greek residents of coastal towns would go on to cause quite a bit of trouble for the Maccabees as the Maccabean Revolt proceeded, forcing Judas and his army to protect Jews in the outlying areas and escort them to Judea as refugees during the campaigns of 163 BC.