They reformed and charged a second time and we beat them back.
Then they took another counsel.

Standing among the dead and dying at the base of the wall, which was built of loose stones and earth, where we could not easily get at them because of the showers of spears which were rained at anyone who showed himself, they began to undermine it, levering out the bottom stones with stakes and battering them with poles.
In five minutes a breach appeared, through which they poured tumultuously.

It was hopeless to withstand that onslaught of so vast a number.

Fighting desperately, we were driven down the tunnel and through the doors that were opened to us, into the first court of the temple.
By furious efforts we managed to close these doors and block them with stones and earth.

But this did not avail us long, for, bringing brushwood and dry grass, they built a fire against them that soon caught the thick cedar wood of which they were made.
While they burned we consulted together.