ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-two; as also Jehoiachin, and his mother and friends: And when these were brought to him, he kept them in custody, and appointed Jehoiachin's uncle Zedekiah to be king; and made him take an oath, that he would certainly keep the kingdom for him, and make no innovation, nor have any league of friendship with the Egyptians.

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2. Now Zedekiah was twenty and one years old, when he took the government; and had the same mother with his brother Jehoiakim, but was a despiser of justice, and of his duty, for truly those of the same age with him were wicked about him, and the whole multitude did what unjust and insolent things they pleased; for which reason the prophet Jeremiah came often to him, and protested to him, and insisted, That " he must leave off his impieties and transgressions, "and take care of what was right, and neither give ear to "the rulers, (among whom were wicked men,) nor give cre"dit to their false prophets, who deluded them, as if the "king of Babylon would make no more war against them, "and as if the Egyptians would make war against him, and conquer him, since what they said was not true, and the " events would not prove such [as they expected]." Now as to Zedekiah himself, while he heard the prophet speak he believed him, and agreed to every thing as true, and supposed it was for his advantage: but then his friends perverted him, and dissuaded him from what the prophet advised, and obliged him to do what they pleased. Ezekiel also foretold in Babylon what calamities were coming upon the people, which when he heard, he sent accounts of them unto Jerusalem; but Zedekiah did not believe their prophecies, for the reasons following: It happened that the two prophets agreed with one another in what they said as to all other things, that the city should be taken, and Zedekiah himself should be taken captive, but Ezekiel disagreed with him, and said, That" Zedekiah should not see Babylon," while Jeremiah said to him, That "the king of Babylon should carry "him away thither in bonds." And because they did not both say the same thing as to this circumstance, he disbelieved what they both appeared to agree in, and condemned them as not speaking truth therein, although all the things foretold him did come to pass according to their prophecies, as we shall shew upon a fitter opportunity.

3. Now when Zedekiah preserved the league of mutual assistance he had made with the Babylonians, for eight years, he brake it, and revolted to the Egyptians, in hopes by their assistance, of overcoming the Babylonians. When the king

of Babylon knew this, he made war against him: he laid his country waste, and took his fortified towns, and came to the city Jerusalem itself to besiege it: But when the king of Egypt heard what circumstances Zedekiah his ally was in, he took a great army with him, and came into Judea, as if he would raise the siege; upon which the king of Babylon departed from Jerusalem, and met the Egyptians, and joined battle with them, and beat them, and when he had put them to flight, he pursued them, and drove them out of all Syria. Now as soon as the king of Babylon was departed from Jerusalem, the false prophets deceived Zedekiah, and said, That" the king of Babylon would not any more make

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war against him or his people, nor remove them out of "their own country into Babylon, and that those then in captivity would return, with all those vessels of the temple, of which the king of Babylon had despoiled that tem"ple." But Jeremiah came among them, and prophesied what contradicted those predictions, and what proved to be true, That they did ill, and deluded the king; that the "Egyptians would be of no advantage to them, but that the "king of Babylon would renew the war against Jerusalem, "and besiege it again, and would destroy the people by fa"mine, and carry away those that remained into captivity, "and would take away what they had as spoils, and would "" carry off those riches that were in the temple; nay that, "besides this, he would burn it, and utterly overthrow the "city, and that they should serve him and his posterity se

venty years; that then the Persians and the Medes should "put an end to their servitude, and overthrow the Babylo"nians, and that we shall be dismissed, and return to this "land, and * rebuild the temple, and restore Jerusalem." When Jeremiah said this, the greater part believed him, but the rulers, and those that were wicked, despised him, as one disordered in his senses. Now he had resolved to go elsewhere, to his own country, which was called Anathoth, and was twenty furlongs distant from Jerusalem; and as he was going, one of the rulers met him, and seized upon him, and accused him falsely, as though he were going as a deserter to the Babylonians; but Jeremiah said, that he accused him falsely, and added, that he was only going to his own country, but the other would not believe him, but seized upon him,

Josephus says here, that Jeremiah prophesied not only of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and this under the Persians and Medes, as in our other copies; but of their rebuilding the temple, and even the city Je rusalem, which do not appear in our copies under his name, see the note on Antiq. B. XI. chap. i. sect. 3.

and led him away to the rulers, and laid an accusation against him, under whom he endured all sorts of torments and tortures, and was reserved to be punished; and this was the condition he was in for some time, while he suffered what I have already described unjustly.

4. Now in the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the king of Babylon made a second expedition against Jerusalem, and lay before it eighteen months, and besieged it with the utmost application. There came upon them also two of the greatest calamities at the same time that Jerusalem was besieged, a famine and a pestilential distemper, and made great havock of them: And though the prophet Jeremiah was in prison, he did not rest, but cried out, and proclaimed aloud, and exhorted the multitude to open their gates, and admit the king of Babylon, for that if they did so, they should be preserved, and their whole families, but if they did not so, they should be destroyed; and he foretold that if any one staid in the city, he should certainly perish by one of these ways, either be consumed by the famine, or slain by the enemy's sword, but that if he would fly to the enemy he should escape death: Yet did not these rulers who heard believe him, even when they were in the midst of their sore calamities, but they came to the king, and, in their anger, informed him what Jeremiah said, and accused him, and complained of the prophet as of a madman, and one that disheartened their minds, and by the denunciation of miseries, weakened the alacrity of the multitude, who were otherwise ready to expose themselves to dangers for him, and for their country, while he in a way of threatening, warned them to fly to the enemy, and told them that the city should certainly be taken, and be utterly destroyed.

5. But for the king himself, he was not at all irritated against Jeremiah, such was his gentle and righteous disposition; yet that he might not be engaged in a quarrel with those rulers at such a time, by opposing what they intended, he let them do with the prophet, whatsoever they would; Whereupon, when the king had granted them such a permission, they presently came into the prison and took him, and let him down with a cord into a pit full of mire, that he might be suffocated, and die of himself. So he stood up to the neck in the mire, which was all about him, and so continued; but there was one of the king's servants, who was in esteem with him, an Ethiopian by descent, who told the king what a state the prophet was in, and said, that his friends and his rulers had done evil in putting the prophet into the mire, and by that means contriving against him that he should suffer a death

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more bitter than that by his bonds only. When the king heard this, he repented of his having delivered up the prophet to the rulers, and bid the Ethiopian take thirty men of the king's guards, and cords with them, and whatsoever else they understood to be necessary for the prophet's preservation, and to draw him up immediately. So the Ethiopian took the men he was ordered to take, and drew up the prophet out of the mire, and left him at liberty [in the prison.]

6. But when the king had sent to call him privately, and enquired what he could say to him from God, which might be suitable to his present circumstances, and desired him to inform him of it, Jeremiah replied, that " he had somewhat to say;" but he said withal," he should not be believed, nor, "if he admonished them, should he be hearkened to; for, said "he, thy friends have determined to destroy me, as though "I had been guilty of some wickedness: and where are now "those men who deceived us, and said, that the king of Ba"bylon would not come and fight against us any more; but "I am afraid now to speak the truth, lest thou shouldst con"demn me to die." And when the king had assured him upon oath, that he would neither himself put him to death, nor deliver him up to the rulers, he became bold upon that assurance that was given him; and gave him this advice, that "he should deliver the city up to the Babylonians; and he "said, that it was God that prophesied this by him, that [he 66 must do so] if he would be preserved and escape out of the "danger he was in, and that then neither should the city fall "to the ground, nor should the temple be burned; but that "[if he disobeyed,] he would be the cause of these miseries "coming upon the citizens, and of the calamity that would "befal his whole house." When the king heard this, he said, that "he would willingly do what he persuaded him to, and "what he declared would be to his advantage, but that he 66 was afraid of those of his own country that had fallen away "to the Babylonians, lest he should be accused by them to "the king of Babylon, and be punished." But the prophet encouraged him, and said," he had no cause to fear such "punishment, for that he should not have the experience "of any misfortune, if he would deliver all up to the Baby"lonians, neither himself nor his children, nor his wives, and "that the temple should then continue unhurt." So when Jeremiah had said this, the king let him go, and charged him, "To betray what they had resolved on to none of "the citizens, nor to tell any of these matters to any of the "rulers, if they should have learned that he had been sent "for, and should enquire of him what it was that he was sent

"for, and what he had said to him? but to pretend to them, "that he besought him that he might not be kept in bonds " and in prison." And indeed he said so to them; for they came to the prophet, and asked him, what advice it was that he came to give the king relating to them? and thus I have finished what concerns this matter.

CHAP. VIII.

How the king of Babylon took Jerusalem and burnt the temple, and removed the people of Jerusalem and Zedekiah to Babylon. As also, who they were that had succeeded in the high priesthood under the kings.

§1. Now the king of Babylon was very intent and earnest

upon the siege of Jerusalem; and he erected towers upon great banks of earth, and from them repelled those that stood upon the walls: he also made a great number of such banks round about the whole city, whose height was equal to those walls. However, those that were within, bore the siege with courage and alacrity, for they were not discouraged, either by the famine, or by the pestilential distemper, but were of cheerful minds in the prosecution of the war, although those miseries within oppressed them also, and they did not suffer themselves to be terrified, either by the contrivances of the enemy, or by their engines of war, but contrived still different engines to oppose all the other withal, till indeed there seemed to be an entire struggle between the Babylonians, and the people of Jerusalem, which had the greater sagacity and skill; the former party supposing they should be thereby too hard for the other, for the destruction of the city, the latter placing their hopes of deliverance in nothing else but in persevering in such inventions in opposition to the other, as might demonstrate the enemies' engines were useless to them. And this siege they endured for eighteen months, until they were destroyed by the famine, and by the darts which the enemy threw at them from the towers.

2. Now the city was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah. They were indeed only generals of the king of Babylon, to whom Nebuchadnezzar committed the care of the siege, for he abode himself in the city of Riblah. The names of these generals who ravaged and subdued Jerusalem, if any one desire to know them were these, Nergal Sharezer, Samgar Nebo, Rabsaris, Sarsechim, and Rabmag. And when the city was taken about mid-night, and the enemies generals were enter