The Battle of Beth Zechariah took place around May 162 BC during the Maccabean revolt fought between Jewish rebels under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) against an army of the Seleucid Empire, the Greek successor state (diadochi) to the Macedonian conquests that controlled Syria and Babylonia.

The battle was fought at Beth Zechariah (modern Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah) and was a Seleucid victory, with the rebels driven from the field in retreat.

Antiquities largely echoes 1 Maccabees, Josephus's main source, although he adds additional details based on his first-hand knowledge of Judean topography and geography; War of the Jews contains new material that is absent from and sometimes contradicts 1 Maccabees, however, suggesting other Greek sources were used by Josephus in its composition, such as Nicolaus of Damascus.

It seems the author knew the truth of the battle as 2 Maccabees describes Lysias's eventual retreat as due to political concerns and not the result of a military defeat, and did not want to linger on an embarrassing setback for the rebellion.

The Maccabees participated in a number of campaigns across greater Palestine while the Seleucid government was concerned with internal politics in the capital.

Around April 162 BC (Year 150 of the Ancient Macedonian calendar), Judas laid siege to the Acra, attempting to eradicate the most prominent symbol of Seleucid power in Judea.

[2] This drew a strong Seleucid response: Lysias left Antioch and made a second expedition to Judea to relieve the Acra.

The sources say that it was a fallow year previously; the exact implications of that statement are unclear, but it appears food supplies were thin if not at famine level.

Lysias's expeditionary force was quite large, and armies acquired a substantial amount of their provisions from local foraging and requisitions in antiquity.

[6] Lysias and the Seleucid army of Syrian Greeks approached Judea from the southwest through Mount Hebron and besieged Beth-zur.

As the Jews began to break for the rear, Judas's brother, Eleazar Avaran, attempted to show his fellow soldiers that the elephants were vulnerable.

With the peace deal in place, Lysias was able to return to Antioch to fend off a renewed challenge from Philip for leadership of the Seleucid empire and guardianship of the young Antiochus V Eupator.

Scholars believe these numbers grossly exaggerated - such manpower likely exceeds the entire Seleucid army, and if actually sent, would have been even more of a logistics nightmare to feed and supply than Josephus's suggestion of 50,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry.

If the version in 2 Maccabees is trusted, then it is possible that Lysias arranged for Alcimus to be High Priest as part of the peace deal that concluded his expedition.

The Romans sent a delegation in 162 BC a few months after the battle, and interpreting the treaty in the harshest possible way, they hamstrung the remaining elephants they could find and burnt some Seleucid warships.

European Christian artists also made works at least partially due to the opportunity to draw an elephant, an exotic and exciting subject in the medieval and Renaissance era.