8
Heliodorus immediately made the journey, supposedly to inspect the cities of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia but actually to put the king's plan into effect.
9
When he arrived in Jerusalem and was received in a friendly manner by the high priest of the city, he revealed the information that had been reported and stated plainly why he had come. Then he asked whether these things were true.
10
The high priest informed him that these were the deposits of widows and orphans,
11
and also some deposits of Hyrcanus the Tobiad, an exceedingly prominent man. He also said that there were only four hundred talents of silver and two hundred talents of gold, and that the ungodly Simon had given a false report.
12
It was wholly unthinkable, he added, to commit such an injustice against those who trusted in the holiness of the place and in the dignity and sacredness of the temple that is honored throughout the whole world.