2 Maccabees 3

1 While the holy city was living in complete peace, and the laws were being kept as well as they could be, because of the devoutness of Onias the chief priest and his hatred of evil, [a] 2 it came about that even the kings themselves honored the place, and honored the temple with the finest gifts they sent, 3 so that Seleucus, king of Asia, paid out of his own revenues all the costs that belonged to the service of the sacrifices. [b]

4 But a man named Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, who had been appointed captain of the temple, fell out with the chief priest over the running of the city market. [c] 5 When he could not get the better of Onias, he went to Apollonius son of Thraseas, who at that time was commander of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, [d] 6 and reported to him that the treasury in Jerusalem was full of money past telling — that the sum of the funds was beyond counting and did not belong to the account of the sacrifices, and that it was possible for all of it to fall under the king’s authority.

7 When Apollonius met with the king he told him about the money that had been reported to him. The king picked out Heliodorus, the man over his affairs, and sent him with orders to carry off the money just spoken of. [e] 8 Heliodorus set out at once, to all appearances to make a round of the cities of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, but in fact to carry out the king’s purpose.

9 When he reached Jerusalem and had been received kindly by the chief priest of the city, he set out the report that had been made and explained why he was there, and he asked whether it was really so. 10 The chief priest showed him that these were deposits left in trust, belonging to widows and to the fatherless, 11 and that some of it belonged to Hyrcanus son of Tobias, a man of very high standing — this was how the godless Simon had been misreporting it — and that the whole came to four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold; [f] 12 and that it was altogether impossible to wrong those who had put their trust in the holiness of the place, and in the dignity and inviolable safety of the temple that is honored the whole world over.

13 But Heliodorus, because of the royal orders he carried, said flatly that this money had to be taken into the king’s treasury. 14 He set a day and went in to conduct the inspection of these things; and the whole city was in no small anguish.

15 The priests threw themselves down in front of the altar in their priestly robes and called out toward heaven to the one who laid down the law about deposits left in trust, that he would keep them safe for those who had left them. 16 Anyone who looked at the face of the chief priest would have been wounded in his mind: his look, and the changed color of his skin, showed the anguish in his soul. 17 Dread had poured over the man, and a shuddering of the body, and by them the pain settled in his heart was plain to everyone watching.

18 People came pouring out of their houses in crowds to plead together, because the place was about to fall into contempt. 19 Women with sackcloth wrapped under their breasts filled the streets; and the young unmarried girls who were kept indoors — some ran to the gateways, some to the walls, and some looked out through the windows; 20 and all of them held out their hands toward heaven and made their plea.

21 It would have moved anyone to pity: the crowd flinging themselves down all together, and the chief priest waiting there in his great anguish. 22 So they called on the all-powerful Lord to keep what had been placed in trust safe and secure, with every safeguard, for those who had entrusted it.

23 Heliodorus went ahead with what had been decided. 24 He was already there with his bodyguards at the treasury when the Sovereign of spirits and of all authority made a great appearance, so that everyone who had dared to come in with him was stunned by the power of God and gave way to faintness and fear. [g]

25 For there appeared to them a horse with a fearful rider on it, decked out in the finest harness; and it charged and struck at Heliodorus with its front hooves. The rider seemed to be wearing armor of gold. 26 Two other young men also appeared to him, outstanding in strength, most beautiful in glory, splendid in dress. They stood on either side of him and flogged him without stopping, laying blow after blow on him.

27 He fell suddenly to the ground, wrapped in deep darkness. They snatched him up and put him in a litter, 28 and carried him out — the man who a moment before had gone into that treasury with a great retinue and his whole bodyguard, now with no way to help himself — and they plainly acknowledged the power of God. 29 So he lay flung down there, speechless by the working of God, stripped of all hope and all rescue, 30 while they blessed the Lord, who had honored his own place beyond all expectation; and the temple, which a little before had been full of fear and confusion, was filled with joy and gladness when the Almighty Lord appeared. [h]

31 Very soon some of Heliodorus’s own companions were begging Onias to call on the Most High to grant life to the man, who was lying at his very last breath. 32 The chief priest, afraid the king might take it into his head that the Jews had done Heliodorus some foul play, brought a sacrifice for the man’s rescue.

33 And while the chief priest was making the atonement, the same young men appeared again to Heliodorus, dressed in the same clothes; and they stood and said, “Be very grateful to Onias the chief priest, for it is because of him that the Lord has granted you your life. 34 And you, who have been flogged from heaven, tell everyone the greatness of God’s power.” When they had said this, they vanished.

35 So Heliodorus offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made the greatest vows to the one who had preserved his life, and took his leave of Onias, and broke camp and marched back to the king. 36 And he testified to everyone about the works of the greatest God, which he had seen with his own eyes.

37 When the king asked Heliodorus what sort of man would be fit to be sent to Jerusalem one more time, he said, 38 “If you have some enemy, or someone plotting against the government, send him there, and you will get him back well flogged — if he even comes through alive — because there is truly some power of God about that place. 39 For he who has his dwelling in heaven watches over that place himself and comes to its help, and those who come to do it harm he strikes down and destroys.” 40 That is how things went with Heliodorus, and with the guarding of the treasury.