18 People rushed out of their houses and crowded together making common supplication, because the place was in danger of being profaned.
19 Women, girded with sackcloth below their breasts, filled the streets. Young women secluded indoors all ran, some to the gates, some to the walls, others peered through the windows—
20 all of them with hands raised toward heaven, making supplication.
21 It was pitiful to see the populace prostrate everywhere and the high priest full of dread and anguish.
22 While they were imploring the almighty Lord to keep the deposits safe and secure for those who had placed them in trust,
23 Heliodorus went on with his plan.
24 But just as Heliodorus was arriving at the treasury with his bodyguards, the Lord of spirits and all authority produced an apparition so great that those who had been bold enough to accompany Heliodorus were panic-stricken at God’s power and fainted away in terror.