BOOK XI. Containing an Interval of Two Hundred and Fifty-three Years and Five months. FROM THE FIRST YEAR OF CYRUS TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. CHAP. I. OF THE PERMISSION GRANTED TO THE JEWS BY CYRUS, KING* God did afford them. For he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him write thus throughout all Asia: "Thus saith Cyrus the king, Since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God whom the nation of the Israelites N the first † year of the reign of Cyrus; worship.: for indeed he foretold my name by that the Jews were removed out of their own land into Babylon: God commiserated the captivity and calamity of these poor people; according as he had foretold by Jeremiah the prophet, before the destruction of the city; that after they had served Nebuchadnezzar, and his posterity, and after they had undergone that servitude seventy years, he would restore them again to the land of their fathers, and they should rebuild their temple, and enjoy their ancient prosperity. And these things *N. B. Josephus never makes use of our Hebrew book of Ezra, which probably he never saw; but only of the first book of Esdras, by us called apocryphal : and which he read in Hebrew; but which Hebrew copy has been long lost; our book being now only extant in the Septuagint, and vulgar Latin versions. + 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22.-Ezra i. 1. This Cyrus is called God's shepherd by Xenophon, page 581, as well as by Isaiah xliv. 28, as also it is said of him by the same prophet, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir," Is. xiii. 12, which character makes Xenophon's most excellent history of him very credible. Jeremiah xxv. 11. and that should him house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea." ]] This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies. For this prophet said, that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision:"My will is, that Cyrus whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple." This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished. Accordingly pro perintendent or prime minister of state over all the vinces of it. In this station of life, Daniel must have been a person of great authority at court, and highly in the esteem of his prince: and therefore, as we find him earnest in his prayer to God for the restoration of his people, Dan. ix. we cannot but think, that he would be equally warm in his intercessions for it with the king. To which purpose, it is not improbable, that he might shew him those passages in Isaiah, which speak of him by name, (150 years before he was born,) as a great prince and conqueror, the ruler of many nations, and the restorer of his people, by causing his temple to be built, and the city of Jerusalem re-inhabited. For, that Cyrus had seen those prophecies, the thing is plain, not only from the testimony of Josephus, Antiq. lib. xi. c. 1, but from the recital that is made of them in the decree itself, Ezra i. It is a good deal more than probable, that this decree in favour of the Jews was, in a great measure, owing to Daniel's good offices. Cyrus, at his first coming to Baby-2; and if so, who shall be so proper to shew them to him, Jon, after he had taken the city, found him there an old minister of state, famed for his great wisdom over all the East, and in many things, for a knowledge superior to the rest of mankind; and accordingly we find, that he not only employed him as such, but, upon the settling of the government of the whole empire, inade him first su and to recommend the accomplishment of them to his princely care, as Daniel, who had so great credit with him, and so passionate a concern for the restoration of Zion? Prideaux's Connection, anno 539. B. Isaiah xliv. 28. when when Cyrus read this, and admired the divine power, an earnest desire seized upon him, to fulfil what was so written. So he called for the most eminent Jews that were in Babylon, and said that he gave them leave to go back to their own country, and to rebuild their city Jerusalem and the temple of God, for that he would be their assistant; and that he would write to the rulers and governors that were in the neighbourhood of Judea, that they should contribute gold and silver, for the building of the temple, and besides that, beasts for their sacrifices. When Cyrus had said this to the Israelites, the rulers of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites and priests, went in haste to Jerusalem. Yet did many of them stay at Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions. And when they were come thither, all the king's friends assisted them, and brought in, for the building of the temple, some gold, and some silver, and some a great many cattle and horses. So they performed their vows to God: and offered the sacrifices that had been accustomed of old time; I mean this upon the rebuilding of their city, and the revival of the ancient practices relating to their worship. Cyrus also sent back the vessels of God which king Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged out of the temple, and had carried to Babylon. So he committed these things to Mithridates the treasurer, to be sent away; with an order to give them to Sanabasser, that he might keep them till the temple was built; and when it was finished, he might deliver them to the priests and rulers of the multitude, in order to their being restored to the temple. This permission to build Jerusalem, and this epistle of Cyrus to Sisinnes and Sathrabuzanes, to the same purpose, are, most unfortunately, omitted in all our other copies, but this best and completest copy of Josephus; and by such omission the famous prophecy of Isaiah, xliv. 28, where we are informed, that God said of, or to Cyrus He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built; and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid: could not hitherto be demonstrated from the sacred history to have been completely fulfilled; I mean as to that part of it which concerned his giving a commission, for the rebuilding the city Jerusalem, as distinct from the temple whose rebuilding is alone permitted or directed in the decree of Cyrus in all our copies. † Some are of opinion, that, among the sacred things | Cyrus also sent the following epistle to the governors that were in Syria: KING CYRUS TO SISINNES AND SATHRABUZANES SENDETH GREETING. I HAVE given permission to as many of the Jews in my country as please to return to their own country, and to rebuild their city, and to build the temple of God at Jerusalem, on the same place where it was before. I have also sent my treasurer Mithridates, and Zorobabel, the governor of the Jews, that they may lay the foundations of the temple, and may build it sixty cubits high, and of the same latitude making three edifices of polished stones, and one of the wood of the country; and the same order extends to the altar whereon they offer sacrifices to God. I require also that the expenses for these things be given out of my revenues. I have also sent the vessels which king Nebuchadnezzar pillaged out of the temple, and have given them to Mithridates the treasurer; and to Zorobabel the governor of the Jews; that they may have them carried to Jerusalem, and may restore them to the temple of God. Now their number is as follows: fifty chargers of gold, and five hundred of silver; forty Thericlean cups of gold, and five hundred of silver; fifty basons of gold, and five hundred of silver; thirty vessels for pouring the drink offerings, and three hundred of silver; thirty vials of gold, and two thousand four hundred of silver; with a thousand other vessels. I permit them to have the same bonor which they were used to have from their forefathers, as also for their which Cyrus ordered to be restored, the ark of the covenant was one; but it no where appears, that this ark was carried from Jerusalem to Babylon. They tell us, indeed, that in the second temple, sacrifices were offered, as in the first, and all solemn days observed, especially the great day of expiation, when the law ordained, that the blood should be sprinkled before the mercy-seat; and the mercy-seat, say they, was part of the ark: but besides that the ark, without the Shechinah, or divine glory, (which was then withdrawn,) would have been of no great significance, the Jews universally acknowledged that the ark was one of the five things that were wanting in the second temple. B. Of the true number of golden and silver vessels, here and elsewhere belonging to the temple of Solomon, see the description of the temples, chap. 13. ト small cattle, and for wine, and oil, two hundred and five thousand and five hundred drachmæ; and for wheat flour, twenty thousand and five hundred artabæ. And I give order that these expenses shall be given them out of the tributes due from Samaria. The priests shall also offer these sacrifices accordand when they offer them, they shall pray to God for the perservation of the king, and of his family; that the kingdom of Persia may continue. But my will is, that those who disobey these injunctions, and make them void, shall be hung upon a cross and their substance brought into the king's treasury. And such was the import of this epistle. Now the number of those that came out of captivity to Jerusalen, were forty-two thousand four hundred and sixty-two. ing to the laws of Moses in Jerusal accord CHAP. II. OF THE OPPOSITION WHICH THE JEWS EXPERIENCED FROM THE CUTHEANS, AND THE NEIGHBOURING GOVERNORS; OF THE COMMAND OF CAMBYSES TO STOP THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. WHE HEN the foundations of the temple were laying, and when the Jews were zealous about building it, the neighbouring nations, and especially the Cutheans, whom Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, had brought * Josephus here follows Herodotus, and those that related how Cyrus made war with the Scythians, and Massagetes, near the Caspian Sea, and perished in it. Of whom Strabo speaks, XI. page 307, to whom yet he gives little credit. While Xenophon's account, which appears never to have been seen by Josephus, that Cyrus died in peace in his own country of Persia, corroborated by the writers of the affairs of Alexander the Great; when they agree, that he found Cyrus's sepulchre or Pasargada near Persepolis. This account of Xenophon's is also strongly confirmed by the circumstances of Cambyses upon his succession to Cyrus; who instead of a war to avenge his father's death upon the Scythians and Massagetes, and to prevent those nations from over-running his northern provinces; which would have been the natural consequence of his father's ill success and death there; went immediately to an Egyptian war, long ago begun by Cyrus, according to Xenophon, page 644. and conquered that kingdom. Nor is there, that I ever heard of, the least mention in the reign of this Cambyses of any war against the Scythians or Massagetes that he was ever engaged in. Nor, by the way, is this Cambyses any other than that Artashashta, which our canonical Ezra names in this place, iv. 5, &c. out of Persia and Media, and had planted in Samaria, when he carried the people of Israel captive; besought the governors, and those that had the care of such affairs, that they would interrupt the Jews, both in the rebuilding of their city, and in the building their temple. Now as these men were corrupted with money, they sold the Cutheans their interest for rendering this building a slow and careless work. For Cyrus, who was busy about other wars, knew nothing of all this and it so happened that when he had led his army against the Massagetæ, he ended his life. But when Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, had taken the kingdom, the governors in Syria, and Phoenicia, and in the countries of Ammon and Moab, and Samaria, wrote an epistle to Cambyses, whose contents were as follows: * "To our lord Cambyses; we thy servants, Rathumus the historiographer, and Semellies the scribe, and the rest that are thy judges in Syria and Phoenicia, greeting. It is fit, O king! that thou shouldest know, that those Jews who were carried to Babylon, are come into our country; and are building that rebellious and wicked city, and its marketplaces, and setting up its walls, and raising up the temple. Know therefore, that when these things are finished, they will not be willing to pay tribute, nor will they submit It is generally agreed by historians, that Cyrus was much about seventy years old when he died; but then they widely differ among themselves as to the manner of his death. Some say, that he was taken in an engage ment, and hanged; others, that he died of a wound which he received in his thigh; and others, that he was killed in a battle with the people of Samos. Herodotus, Justin, and Valerius Maximus relate, that, in his war against the Scythians, falling into an ambush which Queen Tomyris had laid for him, he was taken prisoner, and, with insult enough, had his head cut off by her order; but Xenophon's account is, that he died peaceably in his bed, amidst his friends, and in his own country; as, indeed, there is little reason to think, either that so wise a man as Cyrus should, in his advanced years, engage in so desperate an undertaking as this Scythian expedition is represented on all hands, or that, had he died in Seythia, his mangled body could have ever been got out of the hands of these barbarians to be buried at Pasargada in Persia, as most authors agree it was, and where his monument was to be seen in the time of Alexander the Great. Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Cyrus; and Prideaux's Connection, anno 530. B. to to thy commands; but will resist kings, and When Cambyses bad read the epistle, being naturally wicked, he was irritated at what they told him; and wrote back to them as follows: that time overthrew Egypt; and when he was come back, he died at Damascus. CHAP. III. OF THE ELEVATION OF DARIUS TO THE THRONE OF PERSIA; with two others, thought worthy to be guards of the king's body; and obtained that honor which he hoped for. AFTER the slaughter of the Magi, † who upon the death of Cambyses, retained the government of the Persians for a year, those families which were called the seven families of the Persians appointed Darius, the son of Hystaspes, to be their king. Now he, while he was a private man, had made a vow to God, that if he came to be king, he would send all the vessels of God that were in Babylon to the temple at Jerusalem. Now it so fell out, that about this time Zorobabel, who had been made governor of the Jews that "Cambyses the king, to Rathumus the had been in captivity, came to Darius, from 'historiographer, to Beeltethmus, to Semellius Jerusalem; for there had been an old friendthe scribe, and the rest that are in commis-ship between him and the king. He was also, sion, and dwelling in Samaria and Phoenicia, after this manner. I have read the epistle that was sent from you; and I gave order that the books of my forefathers should be searched into. And it is there found, that this city hath always been an enemy to kings: and its inhabitants have raised seditions and wars. We also are sensible that their kings have been powerful, and tyrannical, and have exacted tribute of Colesyria and Phoenicia. Wherefore I give order, that the Jews shall not be permitted to build that city; lest such mischief as they used to bring upon kings, be greatly augmented." When this epistle was read, Rathumus, and Semellius the scribe, and their associates got suddenly on horseback, and made haste to, Jerusalem; they also brought a great company with them, and forbade the Jews to build the city, and the temple. Accordingly these works were hindered from going on till the second year of the reign of Darius; for nine more years. For Cambyses reigned seven yaers; * and within Cambyses reigned, according to the canon of Ptolemy, including the seven months of the Magi, eight years. Josephus gives here Cambyses but six years, and the Magi one year; seven in all. I suppose Ptolemy's Now in the first year of the king's reign, Darins feasted those that were about him, and those born in his house, with the rulers of the Medes, and princes of the Persians, and the toparchs of India and Ethiopia, and the generals of the armies, of his hundred and twentyseven provinces. But when they had eaten. and drank abundantly, they every one departed to their own houses. And Darius the king went to bed. But after he had rested a little part of the night, he awoke, and not being able to sleep any more, he fell into conversation with the three guards of his body; and promised that to him who should make an oration, about points that he should enquire of, such as should be most agreeable to truth, and to the dictates of wisdom, he would grant it as a reward of his victory, to put on a purple garment, to drink in cups of gold, to sleep upon gold, and to have a chariot with bridles of canon to be the true number; though the difference be them all. gold and a head tire of fine linen, and a chain As soon as the first had given the aforeof gold about his neck, and to set next to him- mentioned demonstrations of the strength of self, on account of his wisdom, and to be call-wine; the next to him began to speak about ed his cousin. Now when he had promised to the strength of a king, and demonstrated that give them these gifts, he asked the first of he was the strongest of all, and more powerthem, whether wine were not the strongest? ful than any thing else, that appears to have the second whether kings were not such? and any force or wisdom. "They are men," said the third whether women were not such? he, "who govern all things: they force the or whether truth were not rather the strong- earth and the sea to become profitable to est of all? When he had proposed that they them, in what they desire: and over these should make their enquiries about these pro- men do kings rule: and over them they have blems, he went to rest. But in the morning authority. Now those who rule over that anihe sent for his great men, his princes, and mal which is of all the strongest, and most toparchs of Persia and Media; and set him- powerful, must needs deserve to be esteemed self down in the place where he used to give insuperable in power and force. For examaudience; and bade each of his body guards ple, when kings command their subjects to to declare what they thought proper concernmake wars and undergo dangers, they are ing the proposed questions, in the hearing of hearkened to: and when they send them against their enemies, their power is so great, that they are obeyed. They command men to level mountains, and to pull down walls and towers: nay, when they are commanded to be killed, and to kill, they submit to it; that they may not appear to transgress the king's commands. And when they have conquered, they bring what they have gained in the war to the king. Those also who are not soldiers, but cultivate the ground, after they have endured the labor, and all the inconveniences of such works of husbandry, and have reaped and gathered in their fruits, they bring tributes to the king. And whatsoever. it is which the king says or commands, it is done of necessity, and that without any delay. While he in the mean time, is satiated with all sorts of food and pleasure, and sleeps, in quiet. He is guarded by such as watch; and such as are, as it were, fixed down to the place through fear. For no one dares leave him, even when he is asleep; nor does any one go away and take care of his own affairs; but he esteems this one thing to be the only work of necessity, to guard the king; and accordingly to this he wholly addicts himself. How then can it be otherwise, but that the king exceeds all in strength, while so great a multitude obey his injunctions ?" Accordingly the first of them began to speak of the strength of wine; and demonstrated it thus: "When," said he, "I am to give my opinion of wine, O ye men, I find that it exceeds every thing by the following indications. It deceives the mind of those that drink it, and reduces that of the king to the same state with that of the orphan, and he who stands in need of a tutor; and erects that of the slave to the boldness of him that is free, and that of the needy becomes like that of the rich man. For it changes and renews the souls of men, when it gets into them: and it quenches the sorrow of those that are under calamities, and makes men forget the debts they owe to others, and makes them think themselves to be of all men the richest; it makes them talk of no small things, but of talents, and such other names as become wealthy men only. Nay, more, it makes them insensible of their cominanders, and of their kings, and takes away the remembrance of their friends and companions. For it arms men even against those that are dearest to them, and makes them appear the greatest strangers to them. And when they are become sober, and they have slept out their wine in the night, they arise without knowing any thing they have done in their cups. I take these for signs of power, and by them discover that wine is the strongest, and most insuperable of all things." Now when this man had held his peace, the third of them, who was Zorobabel, began to speak concerning women and truth."Wine," said he, "is strong; as is the king also |