"... The laments comprise about a third of the pieces that may qualify as poetry in 1 Maccabees (compare 2:49b–68; 3:3–9; 4:24b; 4:30b–33; 7:17, 37–38; 9:21, 41; 14:4–15). It is noteworthy that all except the last two of these lyrical segments are in the first half of the book, which is devoted to the careers of Mattathias and Judas. The only piece that explicitly mentions joy is the last one, the eulogy of Simon, which thereby reflects a reversal of fortunes compared to the five laments (14:4– 15). Three pieces are scriptural quotations (4:24b [compare Ps 136:1]; 7:17 [compare Psalm 79:2–3]; 9:21 [compare 2 Samuel 1:25a, 27a; Judges 3:9]). The five laments along with Mattathias’s farewell speech (2:48b–68) and the ode to Judas (3:3–9) represent the highest concentration of poetry in 1 Maccabees as they punctuate the narration from Antiochus’s plundering of the Temple to Judas’s leading of his troops into battle at Emmaus (1:20–3:60) ..."