Key Verse Spotlight
2 Maccabees 3:34 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" See that you, since you have been scourged from heaven, proclaim to all men the sovereign majesty of God.” When they had spoken these words, they vanished out of sight. "
2 Maccabees 3:34
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
32 The high priest, secretly fearing lest the king might come to think that some treachery toward Heliodorus had been perpetrated by the Jews, brought a sacrifice for the recovery of the man.
33 But as the high priest was making the atoning sacrifice, the same young men appeared again to Heliodorus, arrayed in the same garments. They stood and said, “Give Onias the high priest great thanks, for for his sake the Lord has granted you life.
34 See that you, since you have been scourged from heaven, proclaim to all men the sovereign majesty of God.” When they had spoken these words, they vanished out of sight.
35 So Heliodorus, having offered a sacrifice to the Lord and vowed great vows to him who had saved his life, and having bidden Onias farewell, returned with his army to the king.
36 He testified to all men the works of the greatest God, which he had seen with his eyes.
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2 Maccabees 3:1
"When the holy city was inhabited with unbroken peace and the laws were kept very well because of the godliness of Onias the high priest and his hatred of wickedness,"
2 Maccabees 3:2
"it came to pass that even the kings themselves honored the place and glorified the temple with the noblest presents,"
2 Maccabees 3:3
"so that even King Seleucus of Asia bore all the costs belonging to the services of the sacrifices out of his own revenues."
2 Maccabees 3:4
"But a man named Simon of the tribe of Benjamin, having been made guardian of the temple, disagreed with the high priest about the ruling of the market in the city."
2 Maccabees 3:5
"When he couldn’t overcome Onias, he went to Apollonius of Tarsus, who at that time was governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia."
2 Maccabees 3:6
"He brought him word how that the treasury in Jerusalem was full of untold sums of money, so that the multitude of the funds was innumerable, and that they didn’t pertain to the account of the sacrifices, but that it was possible that these should fall under the king’s power."
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