ADARSA. — Thus the Vulgate, I Mach. 7:40, which has Adazer in I Mach. 7:45 (Adas in the Greek text and in Flavius Josephus; Dessau [Gr. Δασακού] in II Mach. 14:16), calls the village north of Jerusalem where Judas Maccabaeus, with 3,000 men, routed Nicanor (13 Adar of 161 B.C.). After he had been killed, the Jews pursued the Syrians, annihilating them as far as Gezer, and carried their spoils to Jerusalem (I Mach. 7:39–49).
It is identified with Hirbet 'Adasèh, which corresponds to the topographical indications supplied by I Mach. (7:45: a day’s journey from Gezer) and by Flavius Josephus (Ant. Jud. XII, 10, 5: 30 stadia from Bethoron). All reject the opinion of Eusebius, who identified it with a village near Gophna, which he erroneously placed in the tribe of Judah (Onomasticon, ed. Klostermann, p. 26, 1).