"called my father, and to be all along worshipped, and to "have honour paid him by all in the second rank after the "royal honour due to ourselves, he could not bear his good "fortune, nor govern the magnitude of his prosperity with "sound reason; nay, he made a conspiracy against me and my life, who gave him his authority, by endeavouring to "take away Mordecai my benefactor, and my saviour, and "by basely and treacherously requiring to have Esther, the partner of my life, and of my dominion, brought to destruction, for he contrived by this means to deprive me "of my faithful friends, and transfer the government to "others: But since I perceived that these Jews, that were "by this pernicious fellow devoted to destruction, were not "wicked men, but conducted their lives after the best man(6 ner, and were men dedicated to the worship of that God "who hath preserved the kingdom to me and my ancestors, I do not only free them from the punishment which "the former epistle, which was sent by Haman, ordered to "be inflicted on them, to which if you refuse obedience, 66 you shall do well, but I will that they have all honour paid "them. Accordingly I have hanged up the man that con"trived such things against them, with his family before the gates of Shushan, that punishment being sent upon him by "God, who seeth all things. And I give you in charge, that you publicly propose a copy of this epistle through all my kingdom, that the Jews may be permitted peaceably to use their own laws, and that you assist them, that at the same season whereto their miserable estate did belong, they may defend themselves the very same day from unjust violence, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is "Adar, for God hath made that day a day of salvation instead "of a day of destruction to them: and may it be a good day to "those that wish us well, and a memorial of the punish"ment of the conspirators against us! and I will that you "take notice, that every city, and every nation, that shall disobey any thing that is contained in this epistle, shall be destroyed by fire and sword. However, let this epistle be 66 66 66 *These words give an intimation as if Artaxerxes suspected a deeper design in Haman than openly appeared, viz. that knowing the Jews would be faithful to him, and that he could never transfer the crown to his own family, who was an Aggagite, Esth. iii. 1, 10. or of the posterity of Agag, the old king of the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xv. 8, 32, 33. while they were alive, and spread over all his dominions, he therefore endeavoured to destroy them. Nor is it to me improbable, that those 75,800 of the Jews' enemies which were soon destroyed by the Jews on the permission of the king, which must be on some great occasion, were Amalekites, their old and hereditary enemies, Exod. xvii. 14, 15. and that thereby was fulfilled Balaam's prophecy," Amalek was the first of the nations, but his latter end shall be, that he perish for ever." Numb. xxiv. 20. I VOL. II. "published through all the country that is under our obe"dience, and let all the Jews, by all means be ready against "the day before-mentioned, that they may avenge themselves their enemies." 66 upon 13. Accordingly the horsemen who carried the epistles proceeded on the ways which they were to go with speed: but as for Mordecai, as soon as he had assumed the royal garment, and the crown of gold, and had put the chain about his neck, he went forth in a public procession; and when the Jews, who were at Shushan, saw him in so great honour with the king, they thought his good fortune was common to themselves also, and joy, and a beam of salvation encompassed the Jews, both those that were in the cities, and those that were in the countries, upon the publication of the king's letters, insomuch, that " many even of other nations circumcised their foreskin for fear of the Jews, that they might procure safety to themselves thereby; for on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which according to the Hebrews is called Adar, but according to the Macedonians, Dystrus, those that carried the king's epistle gave them notice, that the same day wherein their danger was to have been, on that very day should they destroy their enemies. But now the rulers of the provinces, and the tyrants, and the kings, and the scribes, had the Jews in esteem, for the fear they were in of Mordecai forced them to act with discretion. Now when the royal decree was come to all the country that was subject to the king, it fell out that the Jews at Shushan slew five hundred of their enemies: and when the king had told Esther the number of those that were slain in that city, but did not well know what had been done in the provinces, he asked her, whether she would have any thing farther done against them? for that it should be done accordingly: Upon which she desired that the Jews might be permitted to treat their remaining enemies in the same manner the next day; as also that they might hang the ten sons of Haman upon the gallows. So the king permitted the Jews so to do, as desirous not to contradict Esther. So they gathered themselves together again on the fourteenth day of the month Dystrus, and slew about three hundred of their enemies, but touched nothing of what riches they had. Now there were slain by the Jews that were in the country, and in the other cities seventy-five thousand of their enemies, and these were slain on the thirteenth day of the month, and the next day they kept as a festival. In like manner the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together and feasted on the fourteenth day, and that which followed it; whence it is, that even now all the Jews that are in the habitable earth keep these days festival, and send portions to one another. Mordecai also wrote to the Jews that lived in the kingdom of Artaxerxes to observe these days, and celebrate them as festivals, and to deliver them down to their posterity, that this festival might continue for all time to come, and that it might never be buried in oblivion; for since they were about to be destroyed on these days by Haman, they would do a right thing, upon escaping the danger in them, and on them inflicting punishments on their enemies, to observe those days, and give thanks to God on them: for which cause the Jews still keep the fore-mentioned days, and call them* days of Phrurim, [or Purim.] And Mordecai became a great and illustrious person with the king, and assisted him in the government of the people. He also lived with the queen; so that the affairs of the Jews were, by their means, better than they could ever have hoped for. And this was the state of the Jews under the reign of Artaxerxes.† CHAP. VII. How John slew his brother Jesus in the temple: and how Bagoses offered many injuries to the Jews; and what Sanballat did. § 1. WH HEN Eliashib the high priest was dead, his son Judas succeeded in the high priesthood: and when he was dead, his son John took that dignity; on whose account it was also that Bagoses, the general off another Artaxerxes's army, pol "In Josephus's *Take here part of Reland's note on this disputed passage; "copies these Hebrew words, days of Purim, or Lots, as in the Greek copies of "Esther, ch. ix. 26, 28-32. is read days of phurim, or days of protection, but 66 ought to be read days of purim, as in the Hebrew; than which emendation, "6 says he, nothing is more certain." And had we any assurance that Josephus's copy mentioned the casting of lots, as our other copies do, Esth. iii. 7. I should fully agree with Reland, but as it now stands, it seems to me by no means certain. As to this whole book of Esther in the present Hebrew copy, it is so very imperfect, in a case where the providence of God was so very remarkable, and the Septuagint and Josephus have so much of religion, that it has not so much as the name of God once in it; and it is hard to say who made that epitome which the Masorites have given us for the genuine book itself; no religious Jew could well be the authors of it, whose education obliged them to have a constant regard to God, and whatsoever related to his worship; nor do we know that there ever was so imperfect a copy of it in the world till after the days of Barchocab, in the second century. Concerning this other Artaxerxes, called Mnemon, and the Persiau affliction and captivity of the Jews under him, occasioned by the murder of the highpriest's brother in the holy house itself, see Authent. Rec. at large, page 49. And if any wonder why Josephus wholly omits the rest of the kings of Persia af luted the temple, and imposed tributes on the Jews, that out of the public stock, before they offered the daily sacrifices, they should pay for every lamb fifty shekels. Now Jesus was the brother of John, and was a friend of Bagoses, who had promised to procure him the high priesthood. In confidence of whose support, Jesus quarrelled with John in the temple, and so provoked his brother, that in his anger his brother slew him. Now it was an horrible thing for John when he was high priest, to perpetrate so great a crime, and so much the more horrible, that there never was so cruel and impious a thing done, neither by the Greeks nor Barbarians. However, God did not neglect its punishment, but the people were on that very account enslaved, and the temple was polluted by the Persians. Now when Bagoses, the general of Artaxerxes's army, knew that John the high priest of the Jews, had slain his own brother Jesus in the temple, he came upon the Jews immediately, and began in anger to say to them, "Have you had the impudence to perpetrate a mur"der in your temple!" And as he was aiming to go into the temple, they forbad him so to do; but he said to them, "Am (6 not I purer than he that was slain in the temple?" And when he had said these words, he went into the temple. Accordingly Bagoses made use of this pretence, and punished the Jews seven years for the murder of Jesus. 2. Now when John had departed this life, his son Jaddua succeeded in the high priesthood. He had a brother, whose name was Manasseh. Now there was one Sanballat, who was sent by Darius, the last king [of Persia,] into Samaria. He was a Cuthean by birth; of which stock were the Samaritans also. This man knew that the city Jerusalem was a famous city, and that their kings had given a great deal of trouble to the Assyrians, and the people of Celesyria; so that he willingly gave his daughter, whose name was Nicaso, in marriage to Manasseh, as thinking this alliance by marriage would be a pledge and security that the nation of the Jews should continue their good will to him. ter Artaxerxes Mnemon, till he came to their last king Darius, who was conquered by Alexander the Great, I shall give them Vossius's and Dr. Hudson's answer, though in my own words, viz. that Josephus did not do ill in omitting those kings of Persia with whom the Jews had no concern, because he was giving the history of the Jews, and not of the Persians: [Which is a sufficient reason also why he entirely omits the history and the book of Job, as not particularly relating to that nation.] He justly therefore returns to the Jewish affairs after the death of Longimanus, without any mention of Darius II. before Artaxerxes Mnemon, or of Ochus, or Arogus, as the Canon of Ptolemy names them after him. Nor had he probably mentioned this other Artaxerxes, unless Bagoas, one of the governors and commanders under him, had occasioned the pollution of the Jewish temple, and had greatly distressed the Jews upon that pollution. CHAP. VIII. Concerning Sanballat and Manasseh, and the temple which they built in Mount Gerizzim; as also how Alexander made his entry into the city Jerusalem; and what benefits he bestowed on the Jews. § 1. ABOUT this time it was that Philip, king of Macedon, was treacherously assaulted and slain at Ege by Pausanias, the son of Cerastes, who was derived from the family of Orestæ, and his son Alexander succeeded him in the kingdom; who passing over the Hellespont, overcame the generals of Darius's army in a battle fought at Granicum. So he marched over Lydia, and subdued Ionia, and over-ran Caria, and fell upon the places of Pamphylia, as has been related elsewhere. 2. But the elders of Jerusalem being very uneasy that the brother of Jaddua the high priest, though married to a fo reigner, should be a partner with him in the high priesthood, quarrelled with him; for they esteemed this man's marriage a step to such as should be desirous of transgressing about the marriage of [strange] wives, and that this would be the beginning of a mutual society with foreigners, although the offence of some about marriages, and their having married wives that were not of their own country, had been an occasion of their former captivity, and of the miseries they then underwent ; so they commanded Manasseh to divorce his wife, or not to approach the altar, the high-priest himself joining with the people in their indignation against his brother, and driving him away from the altar. Whereupon Manasseh came to his father-in-law, Sanballat, and told him, That" although he "loved his daughter Nicaso, yet was he not willing to be de"prived of his sacerdotal dignity on her account, which was "the principal dignity in their nation, and always continued "in the same family." And when Sanballat promised him not only to preserve to him the honour of his priesthood, to procure for him the power and dignity of an high-priest, and would make him governor of all the places he himself now ruled, if he would keep his daughter for his wife. He also told him farther, that he would build him a temple like to that at Jerusalem, upon mount Gerizzim, which is the highest of all the mountains that are in Samaria, and he promised that he would do this with the approbation of Darius the king. Manasseh was elevated with these promises, and stayed with Sanballat, upon a supposal that he should gain an but |