For there appeared to them a horse magnificently caparisoned, mounted by a rider of terrifying mien. Charging furiously, the horse attacked Heliodorus with its front hooves. The rider was seen to be accoutred entirely in golden armor. Then two young men, remarkably strong, strikingly beautiful, and magnificently attired, also appeared before him. Taking their stand on either side of him, they flogged him unremittingly, inflicting numerous blows on him.
Suddenly he fell to the ground, enveloped in a great darkness. His men picked him up and laid him on a stretcher. This man, who but a moment previously had entered the treasury with a great retinue and his entire bodyguard, now was carried away utterly helpless, and those under his command openly acknowledged the sovereign power of GOD.
While he lay prostrate, without the power of speech because of the divine intervention and bereft of any hope of deliverance, the Jews praised THE LORD for HIS miraculous glorification of HIS holy place. And the temple, which a short time before had been filled with terror and commotion, was now overflowing with joy and gladness at the manifestation of THE LORD ALMIGHTY.
Some of the companions of Heliodorus quickly pleaded with Onias to entreat THE MOST HIGH to spare the life of the man who was now breathing his last. Fearful that the king might suspect that Heliodorus had met with foul play at the hands of the Jews, the high priest offered a sacrifice for the man's recovery. While the high priest was making a sacrifice of expiation, the same young men again appeared to Heliodorus, clad in the identical apparel, and stood before him. "Be very grateful to the high priest Onias," they said to him, "since it is for his sake that THE LORD has spared your life. Since you have been scourged by Heaven, proclaim to all people the majestic power of GOD." When they had said this, they vanished.
2 MACCABEES: chapter 3, verses 22 - 34
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