39:1
Et ecce nocte quae ad incipiendum opus jam sola restabat, terraemotus ingens oboritur, et non solum fundamentorum saxa longe lateque jactantur, verum etiam totius loci pene aedificia complanantur. Porticus quoque publicae, in quibus Judaeorum multitudo, quae operi videbatur insistere, commanebat, ad solum deductae, omnes Judaeos qui reperti sunt oppressere. Luce vero orta, cum se mala crederent effugisse, ad requirendos eos qui oppressi fuerant, reliqua multitudo concurrit.
And behold, on the very night that alone remained before the work was to begin, a mighty earthquake arose, and not only were the stones of the foundations hurled far and wide, but even almost all the buildings of the whole place were leveled to the ground. The public porticoes also, in which the multitude of Jews who seemed bent upon the work were lodging, were brought down to the ground and crushed all the Jews who were found there. When daylight had come, supposing that they had escaped the disaster, the rest of the multitude ran together to seek out those who had been crushed.
看哪，就在動工前夜，那僅存的一夜，忽然發生了一場劇烈的地震，不單地基的石頭被遠遠四散拋擲，連那整個地方幾乎所有的建築都被夷為平地。那些公共的柱廊——其中住著似乎執意要動工的猶太群眾——也被夷平到地面，把所有被困在那裡的猶太人都壓死了。天亮時，眾人以為自己已逃過了這場災禍，其餘的群眾便聚集起來，去尋找那些被壓住的人。