Latest / Wars of the Jews / 65 - Wars of the Jews by Flavius Josephus
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Books six, chapters eight through ten of The Wars of
- 0:03Speaker 1: the Jews. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
- 0:08Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
- 0:11Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. The Wars of the Jews
- 0:15Speaker 1: by Josephus, translated by William Wiston, chapters eight through ten.
- 0:21Speaker 1: Chapter eight, How Caesar raised banks round about the upper
- 0:24Speaker 1: city Mount Zion, and when they were completed, gave orders
- 0:28Speaker 1: that the machines should be brought. He then possessed himself
- 0:31Speaker 1: of the whole city. One Now, when Caesar perceived that
- 0:35Speaker 1: the upper city was so steep that it could not
- 0:37Speaker 1: possibly be taken without raising banks against it, he distributed
- 0:41Speaker 1: the several parts of that work among his army, and
- 0:44Speaker 1: this on the twentieth day of the month lose ab. Now,
- 0:48Speaker 1: the carriage of the materials was a difficult task, since
- 0:51Speaker 1: all the trees, as I have already told you, that
- 0:54Speaker 1: were about the city within the distance of a hundred furlongs,
- 0:57Speaker 1: had their branches cut off already in order to make
- 1:00Speaker 1: the former banks. The works that belonged to the four
- 1:03Speaker 1: legions were erected on the west side of the city
- 1:06Speaker 1: over against the royal palace. But the whole body of
- 1:10Speaker 1: the auxiliary troops, with the rest of the multitude that
- 1:13Speaker 1: were with them, erected their banks at the Zistus. Whence
- 1:16Speaker 1: they reached to the bridge and that tower of Simon,
- 1:19Speaker 1: which he had built as a citadel for himself against
- 1:22Speaker 1: John when they were at war one with another two.
- 1:26Speaker 1: It was at this time that the commanders of the
- 1:28Speaker 1: Idumians got together privately and took council about surrendering up
- 1:32Speaker 1: themselves to the Romans. Accordingly, they sent five men to
- 1:36Speaker 1: Titus and entreated him to give them his right hand
- 1:39Speaker 1: for their security. So Titus, thinking that the tyrants would
- 1:43Speaker 1: yield if the Idumians, upon whom a great part of
- 1:46Speaker 1: the war depended, were once withdrawn from them, after some
- 1:49Speaker 1: reluctancy and delay, complied with them and gave them security
- 1:53Speaker 1: for their lives, and sent the five men back. But
- 1:57Speaker 1: as these Idumians were preparing to march out, Simon perceived
- 2:01Speaker 1: it and immediately slew the five men that had gone
- 2:03Speaker 1: to Titus, and took their commanders and put them in prison,
- 2:07Speaker 1: of whom the most eminent was Jacob, the son of Sosas.
- 2:10Speaker 1: But as for the multitude of the Idomians, who did
- 2:13Speaker 1: not at all know what to do now their commanders
- 2:16Speaker 1: were taken from them. He had them watched and secured
- 2:19Speaker 1: the walls by a more numerous garrison. Yet could not
- 2:22Speaker 1: that garrison resist those that were deserting. For although a
- 2:26Speaker 1: great number of them were slain, yet were the deserters
- 2:29Speaker 1: many more in number. They were all received by the
- 2:32Speaker 1: Romans because Titus himself grew negligent as to his former
- 2:35Speaker 1: orders for killing them, and because the very soldiers grew
- 2:38Speaker 1: weary of killing them, and because they hoped to get
- 2:41Speaker 1: some money by sparing them, For they left only the
- 2:44Speaker 1: populace and sold the rest of the multitude, with their
- 2:47Speaker 1: wives and children, and every one of them, at a
- 2:50Speaker 1: very low price, And that because such as were sold
- 2:53Speaker 1: were very many and the buyers were few. Footnote. This
- 2:57Speaker 1: innumerable multitude of Jews that were sold by the Romans
- 3:00Speaker 1: was an eminent completion of God's ancient threatening by Moses
- 3:04Speaker 1: that if they apostasized from the obedience of his laws,
- 3:07Speaker 1: they should be quote sold unto their enemies for bond
- 3:10Speaker 1: men and bondwomen end quote Deuteronomy twenty eight sixty eight.
- 3:15Speaker 1: Seymour especially the note on Chapter nine, section two. But
- 3:19Speaker 1: one thing is here peculiarly remarkable. That Moses adds, though
- 3:23Speaker 1: they should be sold for slaves, yet no man should
- 3:26Speaker 1: buy them, i e. Either they should have none to
- 3:29Speaker 1: redeem them from the sale into slavery, or rather that
- 3:32Speaker 1: the slaves to be sold should be more than were
- 3:34Speaker 1: the purchasers for them, and so they should be sold
- 3:37Speaker 1: for little or nothing, which is what Josephus here affirms
- 3:40Speaker 1: to have been the case at this time and footnote.
- 3:43Speaker 1: And although Titus had made proclamation beforehand that no deserter
- 3:47Speaker 1: should come alone by himself, that so they might bring
- 3:50Speaker 1: out their families with them, yet did he receive such
- 3:53Speaker 1: as these. Also, however, he set over them such as
- 3:57Speaker 1: were to distinguish some from others, in order to to
- 4:00Speaker 1: see if any of them deserved to be punished. And
- 4:03Speaker 1: indeed the number of those that were sold was immense.
- 4:05Speaker 1: But of the populace above, forty thousand were saved, whom
- 4:09Speaker 1: Caesar let go, wither every one of them pleased three.
- 4:13Speaker 1: But now at this time it was that one of
- 4:16Speaker 1: the priests, the son of Thebuthus, whose name was Jesus,
- 4:19Speaker 1: upon his having security given him by the oath of
- 4:22Speaker 1: Caesar that he should be preserved upon condition that he
- 4:25Speaker 1: should deliver to him certain of the precious things that
- 4:28Speaker 1: had been reposited in the temple. Came out of it
- 4:31Speaker 1: and delivered him from the wall of the Holy House
- 4:33Speaker 1: two candlesticks like to those that lay in the Holy House,
- 4:37Speaker 1: with tables and cisterns and vials, all made of solid
- 4:41Speaker 1: gold and very heavy. Footnote what became of these spoils
- 4:45Speaker 1: of the temple that escaped the fire See Josephus himself
- 4:48Speaker 1: thereafter and Rieland de Spoliis templey and footnote. He also
- 4:53Speaker 1: delivered to him the vales and the garments with the
- 4:56Speaker 1: precious stones, and a great number of other precious vessels
- 4:59Speaker 1: that belonged to their sacred worship. The treasurer of the temple,
- 5:03Speaker 1: also whose name was Phineas, was seized on and showed
- 5:07Speaker 1: Titus the coats and girdles of the priests, with a
- 5:09Speaker 1: great quantity of purple and scarlet, which were there reposited
- 5:13Speaker 1: for the uses of the veil, and also a great
- 5:15Speaker 1: deal of cinnamon and cassia, with a large quantity of
- 5:18Speaker 1: other sweet spices which used to be mixed together, and
- 5:21Speaker 1: offered as incense to God every day. Footnote. These various
- 5:26Speaker 1: sorts of spices, even more than these four which Moses
- 5:29Speaker 1: prescribed Exodus thirty one thirty four, we see, are used
- 5:33Speaker 1: in their public worship under Herod's temple, particularly cinnamon and cassia,
- 5:38Speaker 1: which Rieland takes particular notice of, as agreeing with the
- 5:41Speaker 1: latter testimony of the Talmudists. And footnote A great many
- 5:45Speaker 1: other treasures were also delivered to him with sacred ornaments
- 5:49Speaker 1: of the temple. Not a few which things thus delivered
- 5:52Speaker 1: to Titus obtained of him for this man the same
- 5:54Speaker 1: pardon that he had allowed to such as deserted of
- 5:57Speaker 1: their own accord. Four and now were the banks finished
- 6:01Speaker 1: on the seventh day of the month Gorpius eleul in
- 6:05Speaker 1: eighteen days time, when the Romans brought their machines against
- 6:08Speaker 1: the wall, But for the seditious some of them, as
- 6:11Speaker 1: despairing of saving the city, retired from the wall to
- 6:15Speaker 1: the citadel. Others of them went down into the subterranean vaults.
- 6:19Speaker 1: Those still a great many of them defended themselves against
- 6:22Speaker 1: those that brought the engines for the battery. Yet did
- 6:24Speaker 1: the Romans overcome them by their number, and by their strength,
- 6:28Speaker 1: and what was the principal thing of all, by going
- 6:30Speaker 1: cheerfully about their work, while the Jews were quite dejected
- 6:34Speaker 1: and become weak. Now, as soon as a part of
- 6:37Speaker 1: the wall was battered down and certain of the towers
- 6:40Speaker 1: yielded to the impression of the battering rams, those that
- 6:43Speaker 1: opposed themselves fled away, and such a terror fell upon
- 6:46Speaker 1: the tyrants as was much greater than the occasion required,
- 6:50Speaker 1: For before the enemy got over the breach, they were
- 6:52Speaker 1: quite stunned, and were immediately for flying away. And now
- 6:57Speaker 1: one might see these men, who had hitherto been so
- 7:00Speaker 1: insolent and arrogant in their wicked practices, to be cast
- 7:03Speaker 1: down and to tremble, insomuch that it would pity one's
- 7:06Speaker 1: heart to observe the change that was made in these
- 7:08Speaker 1: vile persons. Accordingly, they ran with great violence upon the
- 7:13Speaker 1: Roman wall that encompassed them, in order to force away
- 7:16Speaker 1: those that guarded it, and to break through it and
- 7:18Speaker 1: get away. But when they saw that those who had
- 7:21Speaker 1: formerly been faithful to them had gone away, as indeed
- 7:24Speaker 1: they were fled whithersoever, the great distress they were in
- 7:27Speaker 1: persuaded them to flee as also when those that came
- 7:30Speaker 1: running before the rest told them that the western wall
- 7:33Speaker 1: was entirely overthrown, while others said the Romans were gotten in,
- 7:38Speaker 1: and others that they were near and looking out for them.
- 7:41Speaker 1: Which were only the dictates of their fear, which imposed
- 7:44Speaker 1: upon their sight. They fell upon their face and greatly
- 7:47Speaker 1: lamented their own mad conduct, and their nerves were so
- 7:50Speaker 1: terribly loosed that they could not flee away. And here
- 7:54Speaker 1: one may chiefly reflect on the power of God exercised
- 7:57Speaker 1: upon these wicked wretches, and on the good fortune of
- 8:00Speaker 1: the Romans, For these tyrants did now wholly deprive themselves
- 8:04Speaker 1: of the security they had in their own power, and
- 8:07Speaker 1: came down from those very towers of their own accord,
- 8:10Speaker 1: wherein they could have never been taken by force, nor
- 8:12Speaker 1: indeed by any other way than by famine. And thus
- 8:16Speaker 1: did the Romans, when they had taken such great pains
- 8:18Speaker 1: about weaker walls, get by good fortune what they could
- 8:21Speaker 1: never have gotten by their engines, For three of these
- 8:24Speaker 1: towers were too strong for all mechanical engines whatsoever concerning
- 8:29Speaker 1: which we have treated above five. So they now left
- 8:33Speaker 1: these towers of themselves, or rather they were ejected out
- 8:36Speaker 1: of them by God himself, and fled immediately to that
- 8:39Speaker 1: valley which was under saloam, where they again recovered themselves
- 8:43Speaker 1: out of the dread they were in for a while,
- 8:45Speaker 1: and ran violently against that part of the Roman wall
- 8:48Speaker 1: which lay on that side. But as their courage was
- 8:51Speaker 1: too much depressed to make their attacks with sufficient force,
- 8:54Speaker 1: and their power was now broken with fear and affliction,
- 8:57Speaker 1: they were repulsed by the guards, and, dispersing themselves at
- 9:01Speaker 1: distances from each other, went down into the subterranean caverns,
- 9:05Speaker 1: so the Romans, being now become masters of the walls.
- 9:08Speaker 1: They both placed their ensigns upon the towers and made
- 9:11Speaker 1: joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained, as having
- 9:15Speaker 1: found the end of this war much lighter than its beginning.
- 9:18Speaker 1: For when they had gotten upon the last fall without
- 9:21Speaker 1: any bloodshed, they could hardly believe what they found to
- 9:24Speaker 1: be true. But seeing nobody to oppose them, they stood
- 9:27Speaker 1: in doubt what such an unusual solitude could mean. But
- 9:31Speaker 1: when they went in numbers into the lanes of the
- 9:33Speaker 1: city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they
- 9:36Speaker 1: overtook without and set fire to the houses whither the
- 9:39Speaker 1: Jews were fled and burnt every soul in them, and
- 9:42Speaker 1: laid waste a great many of the rest. And when
- 9:45Speaker 1: they were come to the houses to plunder them, they
- 9:47Speaker 1: found in them entire families of dead men, and the
- 9:50Speaker 1: upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is, of such
- 9:53Speaker 1: as died by the famine. They then stood in a
- 9:56Speaker 1: horror at this sight, and went out without touching anything.
- 10:00Speaker 1: But although they had this commiseration for such as were
- 10:02Speaker 1: destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same
- 10:05Speaker 1: for those that were still alive. But they ran every
- 10:08Speaker 1: one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very
- 10:11Speaker 1: lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city
- 10:14Speaker 1: run down with blood to such a degree, indeed, that
- 10:16Speaker 1: the fire of many of the houses was quenched with
- 10:19Speaker 1: these men's blood. And truly so it happened that though
- 10:23Speaker 1: the slayers left off at the evening, yet did the
- 10:25Speaker 1: fire greatly prevail in the night. And as all was burning,
- 10:29Speaker 1: came that eighth day of the month Gorpius Eleuel upon Jerusalem,
- 10:34Speaker 1: a city that had been liable to so many miseries
- 10:36Speaker 1: during this siege, that had it always enjoyed as much
- 10:39Speaker 1: happiness from its first foundation, it would certainly have been
- 10:43Speaker 1: the envy of the world. Nor did it, on any
- 10:46Speaker 1: other account so much deserve these sore misfortunes, as by
- 10:49Speaker 1: producing such a generation of men, as were the occasions
- 10:52Speaker 1: of this its overthrow. Chapter nine, What injunction Caesar gave
- 10:58Speaker 1: when he was come within the city the number of
- 11:01Speaker 1: the captives and of those that perished in the siege,
- 11:04Speaker 1: as also concerning those that had escaped into the subterranean caverns,
- 11:08Speaker 1: among whom were the tyrants Simon and John themselves. One Now,
- 11:13Speaker 1: when Titus was come into this upper city, he admired
- 11:17Speaker 1: not only some other places of strength in it, but
- 11:20Speaker 1: particularly those strong towers which the tyrants, in their mad
- 11:23Speaker 1: conduct had relinquished, for when he saw their solid altitude,
- 11:27Speaker 1: and the largeness of their several stones, and the exactness
- 11:30Speaker 1: of their joints, as also how great was their breadth,
- 11:33Speaker 1: and how extensive their length, he expressed himself after the
- 11:37Speaker 1: manner following quote, we have certainly had God for our
- 11:41Speaker 1: assistant in this war, and it was no other than
- 11:43Speaker 1: God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications. For
- 11:47Speaker 1: what could the hands of men or any machines do
- 11:50Speaker 1: towards overthrowing these towers end quote, at which time he
- 11:54Speaker 1: had many such discourses to his friends. He also let
- 11:57Speaker 1: such gophrey as had been bound by the tyrants and
- 12:00Speaker 1: were left in the prisons to conclude. When he entirely
- 12:03Speaker 1: demolished the rest of the city and overthrew its walls,
- 12:07Speaker 1: he left these towers as a monument of his good fortune,
- 12:10Speaker 1: which had proved his auxiliaries and enabled him to take
- 12:13Speaker 1: what could not otherwise have been taken by him. Two
- 12:17Speaker 1: and now, since his soldiers were already quite tired with
- 12:20Speaker 1: killing men, and yet there appeared to be a vast
- 12:23Speaker 1: multitude still remaining alive, Caesar gave orders that they should
- 12:27Speaker 1: kill none but those that were in arms and opposed them,
- 12:30Speaker 1: but should take the rest alive. But together with those
- 12:33Speaker 1: whom they had orders to slay. They slew the aged
- 12:36Speaker 1: and the infirm. But for those that were in their
- 12:39Speaker 1: flourishing age and who might be useful to them, they
- 12:42Speaker 1: drove them together into the temple and shut them up
- 12:45Speaker 1: within the walls of the court of the Women, over
- 12:48Speaker 1: which Caesar set one of his freed men, as also
- 12:51Speaker 1: fronto one of his own friends, which last was to
- 12:54Speaker 1: determine every one's fate according to his merits. So this
- 12:58Speaker 1: Fronto slew all those that had been seditious and robbers
- 13:01Speaker 1: who were impeached one by another. But of the young men,
- 13:05Speaker 1: he chose out the tallest and most beautiful, and reserved
- 13:08Speaker 1: them for the triumph. As for the rest of the
- 13:11Speaker 1: multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put them
- 13:14Speaker 1: into bonds and sent them to the Egyptian mines. Titus
- 13:17Speaker 1: also sent a great number into the provinces as a
- 13:20Speaker 1: present to them, that they might be destroyed upon their
- 13:23Speaker 1: theaters by the sword and by the wild beasts. But
- 13:26Speaker 1: those that were under seventeen years of age were sold
- 13:29Speaker 1: for slaves. Footnote. See the several predictions that the Jews,
- 13:33Speaker 1: if they became obstinate in their idolatry and wickedness, should
- 13:37Speaker 1: be sent again or sold into Egypt for their punishment
- 13:40Speaker 1: Deuteronomy twenty eight sixty eight, Jeremiah forty four seven, Josea
- 13:44Speaker 1: eight thirteen, nine, three, nine, four and five. Second Samuel
- 13:49Speaker 1: fifteen ten to thirteen, with authentic records and Rieland painest
- 13:54Speaker 1: and and footnote. Now, during the days wherein Fronto was
- 13:58Speaker 1: distinguishing these men their perished for want of food eleven thousand,
- 14:03Speaker 1: some of whom did not taste any food through the
- 14:05Speaker 1: hatred their guards bore to them, and others would not
- 14:08Speaker 1: take in any when it was given them. The multitude
- 14:11Speaker 1: also was so very great that they were in want
- 14:14Speaker 1: even of corn for their sustenance. Three Now, the number
- 14:19Speaker 1: of those that were carried captive during this whole war
- 14:22Speaker 1: was collected to be ninety seven thousand footnote. The whole
- 14:26Speaker 1: multitude of the Jews that were destroyed during the entire
- 14:28Speaker 1: seven years before this time in all the countries of
- 14:32Speaker 1: and bordering on Judaea is summed up by Archbishop Usher
- 14:36Speaker 1: from Lypsius out of Josephus at the year of Christ
- 14:39Speaker 1: seventy and amounts to one million, three hundred thirty seven thousand,
- 14:43Speaker 1: four hundred ninety Nor could there have been that number
- 14:46Speaker 1: of Jews in Jerusalem to be destroyed in this siege,
- 14:49Speaker 1: as will be presently set down by Josephus, but that
- 14:52Speaker 1: both Jews and proselytes of justice were just then come
- 14:55Speaker 1: up out of the other countries of Galilee, Samaria, Judea
- 14:59Speaker 1: and Poiea, and other remoter regions to the passover in
- 15:03Speaker 1: vast numbers, and therein cooped up as in a prison
- 15:06Speaker 1: by the Roman army, as Josephus himself well observes in
- 15:09Speaker 1: this and the next section, and as is exactly related
- 15:12Speaker 1: elsewhere end footnote, as was the number of those that
- 15:16Speaker 1: perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, the greater
- 15:20Speaker 1: part of whom were indeed of the same nation with
- 15:23Speaker 1: the citizens of Jerusalem, but not belonging to the city itself,
- 15:27Speaker 1: For they were come up from all the country to
- 15:29Speaker 1: the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden
- 15:32Speaker 1: shut up by an army which, at the very first
- 15:35Speaker 1: occasions so great a straitness among them, that there came
- 15:38Speaker 1: a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterwards such a
- 15:42Speaker 1: famine as destroyed them more suddenly. And that this city
- 15:45Speaker 1: could contain so many people in it is manifest by
- 15:48Speaker 1: that number of them which was taken under Cestius, who,
- 15:51Speaker 1: being desirous of informing Nero of the power of the city,
- 15:54Speaker 1: who otherwise was disposed to condemn that nation, entreated the
- 15:58Speaker 1: high priests if the thing were possible to take the
- 16:01Speaker 1: number of their whole multitude. So these high priests, upon
- 16:05Speaker 1: the coming of that feast which is called the Passover,
- 16:07Speaker 1: when they slay their sacrifices from the ninth hour till
- 16:10Speaker 1: the eleventh. But so that a company not less than
- 16:13Speaker 1: ten belonged to every sacrifice, for it is not lawful
- 16:16Speaker 1: for them to feast singly by themselves, And many of
- 16:19Speaker 1: us are twenty in a company found the number of
- 16:21Speaker 1: sacrifices was two hundred and fifty six thousand, five hundred, which,
- 16:26Speaker 1: upon the allowance of no more than ten, that feast
- 16:28Speaker 1: together amounts to two millions, seven hundred thousand and two
- 16:32Speaker 1: hundred persons that were pure and holy. Footnote. This number
- 16:36Speaker 1: of a company for one partial lamb between ten and
- 16:39Speaker 1: twenty agrees exactly with the number thirteen at Our Saviour's
- 16:43Speaker 1: last passover. As to the whole number of the Jews
- 16:46Speaker 1: that used to come up to the passover and eat
- 16:48Speaker 1: it at Jerusalem, see the note on Book two, Chapter fourteen,
- 16:52Speaker 1: section three. This number ought to be here indeed just
- 16:55Speaker 1: ten times the number of the Lambs, or just two million,
- 16:58Speaker 1: five hundred sixty five thousand, by Josephus's own reasoning, whereas
- 17:02Speaker 1: it is in his present copies no less than two million,
- 17:06Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand, two hundred, which last number is, however,
- 17:09Speaker 1: nearest the other number in the place now sighted, which
- 17:12Speaker 1: is three million. But what is here chiefly remarkable in
- 17:16Speaker 1: this that no foreign nation ever came thus to destroy
- 17:18Speaker 1: the Jews at any of their solemn festivals from the
- 17:21Speaker 1: days of Moses till this time, but came now upon
- 17:25Speaker 1: their apostasy from God and from obedience to him. Nor
- 17:29Speaker 1: is it possible in the nature of things, that in
- 17:31Speaker 1: any other nation such vast numbers should be gotten together
- 17:35Speaker 1: and perish in the siege of any one city, whatsoever,
- 17:38Speaker 1: as now happened in Jerusalem. End footnote. For as to
- 17:42Speaker 1: those that have the leprosy or the ganarrhea, or women
- 17:45Speaker 1: that have their monthly courses, or such as are otherwise polluted,
- 17:49Speaker 1: it is not lawful for them to be partakers of
- 17:51Speaker 1: this sacrifice, nor indeed for any foreigners neither who come
- 17:55Speaker 1: hither to worship. Four. Now, this vast multitude is indeed
- 18:00Speaker 1: collected out of remote places. But the entire nation was
- 18:03Speaker 1: now shut up by fate as in prison, and the
- 18:06Speaker 1: Roman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly,
- 18:11Speaker 1: the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the
- 18:14Speaker 1: destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world.
- 18:18Speaker 1: For to speak only of what is publicly known, the
- 18:21Speaker 1: Romans slew some of them, some they carried captives, and
- 18:25Speaker 1: others they made a search for under ground, and when
- 18:28Speaker 1: they found where they were, they broke up the ground
- 18:30Speaker 1: and slew all they met with. There were also found
- 18:33Speaker 1: slain there above two thousand persons, partly by their own
- 18:37Speaker 1: hands and partly by one another, but chiefly destroyed by
- 18:40Speaker 1: the famine. But then the ill savor of the dead
- 18:43Speaker 1: bodies was most offensive to those that lighted upon them,
- 18:46Speaker 1: insomuch that some were obliged to get away immediately, while
- 18:50Speaker 1: others were so greedy of gain that they would go
- 18:53Speaker 1: in among the dead bodies that lay on heaps and
- 18:55Speaker 1: tread upon them. For a great deal of treasure was
- 18:58Speaker 1: found in these caverns, and the hope of gain made
- 19:01Speaker 1: every way of getting it to be esteemed lawful. Many also,
- 19:05Speaker 1: of those that had been put in prison by the
- 19:06Speaker 1: tyrants were now brought out, for they did not leave
- 19:09Speaker 1: off their barbarous cruelty at the very last. Yet did
- 19:12Speaker 1: God avenge himself upon them. Both in a manner agreeable
- 19:16Speaker 1: to justice. As for John, he wanted food together with
- 19:20Speaker 1: his brethren in these caverns, and begged that the Romans
- 19:23Speaker 1: would now give him their right hand for his security,
- 19:26Speaker 1: which he had often proudly rejected before. But for Simon
- 19:30Speaker 1: he struggled hard with the distress he was in till
- 19:33Speaker 1: he was forced to surrender himself, as we shall relate hereafter.
- 19:37Speaker 1: So he was reserved for the triumph and to be
- 19:39Speaker 1: slain then, as was John, condemned to perpetual imprisonment. And
- 19:44Speaker 1: now the Romans set fire to the extreme parts of
- 19:47Speaker 1: the city and burnt them down and entirely demolished its walls.
- 19:52Speaker 1: Chapter ten, that, whereas the city of Jerusalem had been
- 19:55Speaker 1: five times taken formerly, this was the second time of
- 19:58Speaker 1: its desolation a brief account of its history one. And
- 20:03Speaker 1: thus was Jerusalem taken in the second year of the
- 20:06Speaker 1: reign of Vespasian, on the eighth day of the month
- 20:09Speaker 1: Gorpius a lul. It had been taken five times before,
- 20:13Speaker 1: though this was the second time of its desolation. Footnote
- 20:17Speaker 1: this is the proper place for such as have closely
- 20:20Speaker 1: attended to these latter books of the war, to pursue
- 20:23Speaker 1: and that with equal attention those distinct and plain predictions
- 20:26Speaker 1: of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels thereunto relating as
- 20:30Speaker 1: compared with their exact completions in Josephus's history, upon which completions,
- 20:35Speaker 1: as doctor Whitby well observes, no small part of the
- 20:38Speaker 1: evidence for the truth of the Christian religion does depend.
- 20:42Speaker 1: And as I have step by step compared them together
- 20:44Speaker 1: in my literal accomplishment of scripture prophecies, the reader is
- 20:48Speaker 1: to observe further that the true reason why I have
- 20:51Speaker 1: so seldom taken notice of these completions in the course
- 20:54Speaker 1: of these notes, notwithstanding their being so very remarkable and
- 20:58Speaker 1: frequently so very obvious, is this that I had entirely
- 21:02Speaker 1: prevented myself in that treatise beforehand, to which therefore I
- 21:06Speaker 1: must hear once for all seriously refer every inquisitive reader,
- 21:10Speaker 1: besides these five here enumerated who had taken Jerusalem of
- 21:14Speaker 1: old Josephus, upon further recollection, reckons a sixth who should
- 21:19Speaker 1: have been here inserted in the second place, I mean Ptolemy,
- 21:22Speaker 1: the son of Lagus, and footnote for Shishak, the king
- 21:26Speaker 1: of Egypt. And after him Antiochus, and after him POMPEII,
- 21:31Speaker 1: and after him Sosius and Herod took the city but
- 21:34Speaker 1: still preserved it. But before all these the king of
- 21:37Speaker 1: Babylon conquered it and made it desolate one thousand, four
- 21:41Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight years and six months after it
- 21:43Speaker 1: was built. But he who first built it was a
- 21:46Speaker 1: potent man among the Canaanites, and is in our own
- 21:49Speaker 1: tongue called Melchizedek, the Righteous King, for such he really was,
- 21:54Speaker 1: on which account he was there the first priest of God,
- 21:57Speaker 1: and first built a temple there and called the city Jerusalem,
- 22:01Speaker 1: which was formerly called Salem. However, David, the king of
- 22:04Speaker 1: the Jews, ejected the Canaanites and set tied his own
- 22:08Speaker 1: people therein it was demolished entirely by the Babylonians four
- 22:12Speaker 1: hundred and seventy seven years and six months after him,
- 22:16Speaker 1: and from King David, who was the first of the
- 22:18Speaker 1: Jews who reigned therein to this destruction under Titus were
- 22:22Speaker 1: one thousand, one hundred and seventy nine years. But from
- 22:25Speaker 1: its first building till this last destruction were two thousand,
- 22:29Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy seven years. Yet hath not its
- 22:33Speaker 1: great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion of
- 22:37Speaker 1: its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness
- 22:40Speaker 1: of the veneration paid to it on a religious account,
- 22:43Speaker 1: been sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed, and thus
- 22:47Speaker 1: ended the Siege of Jerusalem. End of Book six, Chapters
- 22:51Speaker 1: eight through ten. End of Book six