New flames sprang up in other parts of the vast Temple. It was doomed.
The golden doors were burst open and, attended by his officers, Titus
passed through them to view for the first and last time the home of
Jehovah, God of the Jews. From chamber to chamber he passed, yes, even
into the Holy of Holies itself, whence by his command were brought out
the golden candlesticks and the golden table of shrewbread, nor, since
God had deserted His habitation, did any harm come to him for that deed.
Now the Temple which for one thousand one hundred and thirty years had
stood upon the sacred summit of Mount Moriah, went upwards in a sheet of
flame, itself the greatest of the sacrifices that had ever been offered
there; while soldiers stripped it of its gold and ornaments, tossing the
sacred vessels to each other and tearing down the silken curtains of the
shrine. Nor were victims lacking to that sacrifice, for in their blind
fury the Romans fell upon the people who were crowded in the Court of
Israel, and slew them to the number of more than ten thousand, warrior
and priest, citizen and woman and child together, till the court swarm
with blood and the Rock of Offering was black with the dead who had
taken refuge there.
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