The Maccabees (Hebrew: Makabim or Maqabim, "Hammers") are a Jewish rebel army who takes control of Judea, which had been a client state of the Seleucid Empire.

They establish the Hasmonean dynasty, which rules all or parts if the Jewish temple-state from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion, expanding the boundaries of the Jewish homeland and reducing the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism.