The Hasidim come to treat with high priest Alkime are seized and executed the same day

Alkime, appointed high priest by the Seleucid ruler Démétrios, presented himself as a man of the Law: he belonged to the priestly lineage of Aaron, which the Hasmoneans could not claim. A group of hassidim — the "pious," who had taken up arms for the sake of worship and not for a dynasty — came to Jerusalem to negotiate with him, judging that the restoration of the legitimate priesthood was sufficient for their cause.

They were seized and put to death that very day, on the orders of Alkime and the general Bacchidès. The episode permanently alienated pious circles from Seleucid power and drove toward Judas Maccabée those who had still been hesitating.

The first book of Maccabees applies to this massacre the verse from the psalm: "They have given the bodies of your faithful to the birds of the heavens." It is one of the first times that a Jewish text employs Scripture to speak of a contemporary event.