THE WORKS OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. TO WHICH ARE ADDED THREE DISSERTATIONS, CONCERNING JESUS CHRIST, JOHN THE BAPTIST, JAMES THE JUST, GOD'S WITH AN INDEX TO THE WHOLE. THE WORKS OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, THE LEARNED AND AUTHENTIC JEWISH HISTORIAN, TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM WHISTON, A. M. PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE: R. M. TIMS, DUBLIN; AND R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW. 1825. 9845- ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. BOOK IX. CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS. From the Death of Ahab to the Captivity of the Ten Tribes. CHAP. I. Concerning Jehoshaphat again; how he constituted Judges, and, by God's Assistance, overcame his Enemies. § 1. WH HEN Jehoshaphat the king was come to Jerusalem, from the assistance he had afforded Ahab, the king of Israel, when he fought with Benhadad, king of Syria, the prophet Jehu met him, and accused him for assisting Ahab, a man both impious and wicked; and said to him, that "God was displeased with him for so doing, but that he delivered him from the enemy, notwithstanding he had sinned, because of his own proper disposi tion, which was good." Whereupon the king betook himself to thanksgivings and sacrifices to God; after which he presently went over all that country which he ruled round about, and taught the people, as well the laws which God gave them by Moses, and that religious worship that was due to him. He also constituted judges in every one of the cities in his kingdom, and charged them "to have regard to nothing so much in judging the multitude as to do justice, and not to be moved by bribes, nor by the dignity of men eminent for either their riches or their high birth, but to distribute justice equally to all, as knowing that God is conscious of every secret action of theirs." When he had himself instructed them thus, and gone over every city of the two tribes, he returned to Jerusalem. He there also constituted judges out of the priests * and the Levites, and prin * These judges, constituted by Jehoshaphat, were a kind of Jerusalem Sanhe◄ drim, out of the priests, the Levites, and the principal of the people, both here and 2 Chron. xix. 8, much like the old Christian judicatures of the bishop, the presbyters, the deacons, and the people. VOL. II. B |