14
And someone heedlessly said that it was wrong to take this as a sign in itself.
15
"But since this has happened," the king said, "why should not I at least enter, whether they wish it or not?"
16
Then the priests in all their vestments prostrated themselves and entreated the supreme God to aid in the present situation and to avert the violence of this evil design, and they filled the temple with cries and tears;
17
and those who remained behind in the city were agitated and hurried out, supposing that something mysterious was occurring.
18
The virgins who had been enclosed in their chambers rushed out with their mothers, sprinkled their hair with dust, and filled the streets with groans and lamentations.
19
Those women who had recently been arrayed for marriage abandoned the bridal chambers prepared for wedded union, and, neglecting proper modesty, in a disorderly rush flocked together in the city.
20
Mothers and nurses abandoned even newborn children here and there, some in houses and some in the streets, and without a backward look they crowded together at the most high temple.
21
Various were the supplications of those gathered there because of what the king was profanely plotting.
22
In addition, the bolder of the citizens would not tolerate the completion of his plans or the fulfillment of his intended purpose.
23
They shouted to their fellows to take arms and die courageously for the ancestral law, and created a considerable disturbance in the holy place; and being barely restrained by the old men and the elders, they resorted to the same posture of supplication as the others.
24
Meanwhile the crowd, as before, was engaged in prayer,