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that were in arms, but should take the rest alive. But, together with those whom they had orders to slay, they slew the aged, and the infirm. But for those that were in their flourishing age; and who might be useful to them, they drove them together into the temple; and shut them up within the walls of the court of the women. Over which Cæsar set one of his freed-men; as also Fronto, one of his own friends: which last was to determine every one's fate according to his merits. So this Fronto slew all those that had been seditious, and robbers, who were impeached one by another. But of the young men, he chose out the tallest, and most beautiful; and reserved them for the triumph. And as for the rest of the multitude, that were above seventeen years old, he put them into bonds, and sent them to the *Egyptian mines. Titus also sent a great number into the provinces, as a present to them that they might be destroyed upon their theatres by the sword, and by the wild beasts. But those that were under

seventeen years of age, were sold for slaves. Now during the days wherein Fronto was distinguishing these men, there perished, for want of food, eleven thousand. Some of whom did not taste any food through the hatred their guards bore to them and others would not take any when it was given them. The multitude also was so very great, that they were in want even of corn for their sustenance.

Now the number of those that were carried captive, during this whole war, was computed to be ninety-seven thousand: as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege eleven

* See the several predictions, that the Jews, if they became obstinate in their idolatry and wickedness, should be sent again, or sold into Egypt, for their punishment; Deut. xxviii. 68; Jer. xliv. 7; Hos. viii. 13; ix. 3; xi. 5. Esd. xv. 10— 13, with Authentic Records, Part I. page 49, 121, and Reland, Palestina, Tom. II. page 715.

+ The whole multitude of Jews that were destroyed during the entire seven years before this time, in all the countries of, and bordering on, Judea, is summed up by archbishop Usher, from Lypsius, out of Josephus, at the year of Christ 70, and amounts to 1,337,390. Nor could there have been that number of Jews in Jerusalem to be destroyed in this siege, as will be presently set down by Josephus, but that both Jews and proselytes of justice were just then come up out of the other countries of Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and Perea, and other remoter regions to the Passover, in vast numbers: and therein cooped up, as in prison, by the Roman army: as Josephus himself well observes elsewhere, V. 3.

hundred thousand. The greater part of whom were, indeed, of the same nation with the citizens of Jerusalem: but not belonging to the city itself. For they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread; and were on a sudden shut up by an army; which at the very first occasioned so great a straitness among them, that there came a pestilential destruction upon them; and soon afterward such a famine as destroyed them more suddenly. And that this city could contain so many people in it, is manifest by that number of them, which was taken under Cestius. Who being desirous of informing Nero of the flower of the city, who otherwise was disposed to contemn that nation, entreated the high-priests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their whole multitude. So these high-priests did so upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh ; but so that a company not less than *ten, belonging to every sacrifice: (for it is not law ful for them to feast singly by themselves.) And many of us are twenty in a company. Now, the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand, and five hundred which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feasted together, amounts to two millions, seven hundred thousand, and two hundred persons that were pure and holy. For as to those that have the leprosy, or the gonorrhoea; or such as are otherwise polluted, it is not lawful for them to be partakers of this sacrifice. Nor, indeed, for any foreigners who come hither to worship.

This number of a company for one paschal lamb, between 10 and 20, agrees exactly with the number 13, at our Saviour's last Passover. As to the whole number of the Jews, that used to come up to the Passover, and eat of it at Jerusalem, see the note on II. 14. This number ought to be here, indeed, just ten times the number of the lambs, or just 2,565,000, by Josephus's own reasoning. Whereas it is, in his present copies, no less than 2,700,000, which last number, is however, nearest the other number in the place now cited, which is 3,000,000. But what is here chiefly remarkable is this, that no foreign nation ever came thus to destroy the Jews at any of their solemn festivals, from the days of Moses till this time; but came now upon their apostasy from God, and from obedience to him. See the note on II. 19. Nor is it possible, in the nature of things, that in any other nation such vast numbers should be gotten together, and perish in the siege of any one city whatsoever, as now happened in Jerusalem.

Two millions, five hundred and sixty-five thousand. VOL. IV.

39

Now this vast multitude is, indeed, collected out of remote places. But the entire nation was now shut up by fate, as in a prison; and the Roman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world. For, to speak only of what was publicly known, the Romans slew some of them; some they carried captives; and others they made a search for under ground and when they found where they were they broke up the ground, and slew all they met with. There were also found slain there above two thousand persons: partly by their own hands, and partly by one another: but chiefly destroyed by the famine. But then, the stench of the dead bodies was so offensive to those that found them, that some were obliged to get away immediately while others were so greedy of gain, that they would go in among the corpses that lay on heaps, and tread upon them. For a great deal of treasure was found in these caverns: and the hope of gain made every way of getting it to be esteemed lawful. Many also of those that had been put in prison by the tyrants were now brought out. For they did not leave off their barbarous cruelty at the very last. Yet did God avenge himself upon them both, in a manner agreeable to justice. As for John, he wanted food, together with his brethren, in these caverns; and begged that the Romans would now give him their right hand for his security, which he had often proudly rejected before. But as for Simon, he struggled hard with the distress he was in, till he was forced to surrender himself, as we shall relate hereafter. So he was reserved for the triumph, and to be then slain: as was John condemned to perpetual imprisonment. And now the Romans set fire to the extreme parts of the city, and burnt them down, and entirely demolished its walls.

CHAP. X.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OF JERUSALEM.

THUS was Jerusalem taken, in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, on the eigth day of the month Gorpieus, or Elul.* It had been taken †five times before; though this was the second time of its desolation. For Shishak, king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey, and after them Sosius and Herod, took the city: but still preserved it. But before all these, the king of Babylon conquered it, and made it desolate: one thousand, four hundred, sixty-eight years, and six months, after it was first built. But he who first built it was a potent man among the Canaanites; and is in our own tongue called Melchisedeck, the Righteous King. For such he really was. On which account he was there the first priest of God; and first built a temple there, and called the city Jerusalem which was formerly called Salem. However, David, king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and settled his own people therein. It was demolished entirely by the Babylonians, four hundred, seventy-seven years, and six months after him. And from king David, who was the first of the Jews who reigned therein, to this destruction under Titus, were one thousand, one hundred, and seventy-nine years. But

* A. D. 70.

+ Besides these five here enumerated, who had taken Jerusalem of old, Josephus, upon farther recollection, reckons a sixth, Antiq. XII. 1, who should have been here inserted in the second place: I mean Ptolemy, the son of Lagus.

Why the great Bochart should say, De Pœnic. Colon. II. 4, that "There are in this clause of Josephus as many mistakes as words," I by no means understand. Josephus thought Melchisedeck first built, or rebuilt, and adorned this city, and that it was then called Salem: as Psal. lxxvi. 2, that it afterward came to be called Jerusalem; and that Melchisedeck, being a priest as well as a king, built to the true God therein a temple, or place for public divine worship and sacrifice. All which things may be very true, for aught we know to the contrary. And for the word ipov, or temple, as if it must needs belong to the great temple built by Solomon long afterward; Josephus himself uses vaòs for the small tabernacle of Moses, Antiq. III. 6. He also here presently uses tapòv for a large splendid synagogue of the Jews at Antioch only, VII. 3.

Of the tribe of Judah.

from its first building till this last destruction, were two thousand, one hundred, and seventy-seven years. Yet hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion of its *nation over all the habitable earth; nor the greatness of the veneration paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of Jerusalem.

* Or, Glory.

N. B. This is the proper place for such as have closely attended to these latter books of the war, to peruse, and that with equal attention, those distinct and plain predictions of Jesus of Nazareth, in the Gospels thereto relating, as compared with their exact completions in Josephus's History. Upon which completions, as Dr. Whitby well observes, Annot. on Matt. xxiv. 2, no small part of the evidence for the truth of the Christian religion depends.

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