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itsual solitude could mean. bers into the lanes of the city, with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook without mercy, and set fire to the houses whither the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great many of the rest; and when they were come to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is, of such as died by the famine; they then stood in an horror at this sight, and went out without touching any thing. But, although they had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed, that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood. And truly so it happened, that though the slayers left off at the evening, yet did the fire greatly prevail in the night; and, as all was burning, came that eighth day of the month Gorpeius, [Elul,] upon Jerusa lem, a city that had been liable to so many miseries during this siege, that had it always enjoyed as much happiness from its first foundation, it would certainly have been the envy of the world. Nor did it, on any other account, so much deserve these sore misfortunes, as by producing such a generation of men as were the occasions of this its overthrow.

But, when they went in num

CHAP. IX.

What instructions Cæsar gave when he was come within the city. The number of the captives, and of those that perished in the siege; as also concerning those that had escaped into the subterranean caverns among whom were the tyrants Simon and John themselves.

§ 1. Now, when Titus was come into this [upper] city, he admired not only some other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong towers which the tyrants in their mad conduct, had relinquished: for, when he saw their solid altitude, and the largeness of their several stones, and the exactness of their joints, as also how great was their breadth, and how extensive their length, he expressed him

self after the manner following: "We have certainly had "God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than "God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications; for, "what could the hands of men, or any machines, do to"wards overthrowing these towers?" At which time, he had many such discourses to his friends: he also let such go free as had been bound by the tyrants, and were left in the prisons. To conclude, when he entirely demolished. the rest of the city, and overthrew its walls, he left these towers as a monument of his good fortune, which had proved his auxiliaries, and enabled him to take what otherwise could not have been taken by him.

2. And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired with killing men, and yet there appeared to be a vast multitude still remaining alive, Cæsar gave orders that they should kill none but those that were in arms, and opposed them, 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 which did not taste any food, through the hatred their guards bore to them, and others would not take in any

* 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. 4. 5. Esd xv. 10-13. with Authentic Records, Part i. page 49, 121. and Reland Palæstina, tom. ii. page 715.

when it was given them. The multitude also was so very great, that they were in want even of corn for their susten

ance.

3. Now, the number* of those that were carried captive during this whole war, was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom indeed were 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, 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 sa

*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 1,337.490. 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, Perea, and other remoter regions, to the Passover, in vast numbers, and there cooped up, as in a prison, by the Roman army, as Josephus himself well ob serves in this and the next section, and as is exactly related elsewhere, B. v. ch. iii. 1. and ch. xiii. § 6. vol. v.

+ This number of a company for one paschal lamb, between ten and twenty, agrees exactly with the number thirteen, 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 B. ii. ch. xiv. 3. vol. v. 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 apostacy from God, and from obedience to him. Nor is it possibie, 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.

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crifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves;) and many of us are twenty in a company. Now, the number of sacrifices was two hundred fifty-six thousand and five hundred, which upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast 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 women that have their monthly courses, or such as are otherwise polluted, it is not lawful for them to be partakers of this sacrifice; nor indeed for any foreigners neither, who come hither to worship.

4. Now, this vast multitude is indeed collected out of remote places; but the entire nation was now shut up by fate, as in 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 ill savour of the dead bodies was most offensive to those that lighted upon them, insomuch that some were obliged to get away immediately, while others were so greedy of gain, that they would go in among the dead bodies 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 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 Ro

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mans set fire to the extreme parts of the city, and burnt them down, and entirely demolished its walls.

CHAP. X.

That whereas the city Jerusalem had been five times taken formerly, this was the second time of its desolation. A brief account of its history.

1. AND thus was Jerusalem taken, in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, on the eighth day of the mouth Gorpieus, [Elul. It had been taken five times before, though this was the second time of its desolation; for Shishak the king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey, and after them Sosias 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 and sixty-eight years and six months after it was built. But, he who first built † it was a potent man among the Canaanites, and is in our tongue called [Melchisedek,] 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, the king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and settled his own people therein. It was demolished entirely by the Babyloniaus, four hundred and 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

* Besides these five here enumerated who had taken Jerusalem of old, Josephus, upon farther recollection, reckons a sixth. Antiq B. xii. ch. i § 1. vol. iii. who should have been here inserted in the second place, I mean Ptolemy, the son of Lagus.

Why the great Bochart should say, De Phoenic. Colon. B. ii. ch. iv. That "there are in this clause of Josephus as many mistakes as words." I do by no means understand. Josephus thought Melchisedek first built, or rebuilt and adorned this city, and that it was then called Salem, as Ps. lxxvi. 2. that it afterward came to be called Jerusalem; and that Melchisedek, 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 ought we know to the contrary. And for the word depov, or Temple, as if it must needs belong to the Great temple built by Solomon long afterward, Josephus himself uses vads, for the small tabernacle of Moses, Antiq. B. iii. ch. vi. § 4. vol. i. See also Antiq. B. iii. ch. vi. § 1. as he here presently uses ispov for a large and splendid synagogue of the Jews at Antioch only. B. vii, ch. iii. § 3.

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