THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS

CHAPTER 3

Concerning the Flood; And after What Manner Noah Was Saved in an Ark, with His Relatives, and Afterward Dwelt in the Plain of Shinar.

1. Now this posterity of Seth continued to regard God as the Lord of the universe, and to have a complete regard for virtue, for seven generations; but in the course of time, they were perverted and forsook the practices of their forefathers, and neither paid those honors to God which were appointed them, nor did they have any concern to do justice toward men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy. For many messengers of God accompanied with women, and begot sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants. But Noah was very troubled by what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land.

2. Now God loved this man for his righteousness: yet He not only condemned those other men for their wickedness, but determined to destroy the whole race of mankind, and to make another race that should be pure from wickedness; and cutting short their lives, and making their years not so many as they formerly lived, but one hundred and twenty only, He turned the dry land into sea; and thus were all these men destroyed: but Noah alone was saved; for God suggested to him the following contrivance and way of escape: That he should make an ark of four stories high, three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits broad, and thirty cubits high. Accordingly, he entered into that Ark, and his wife, and sons, and their wives, and put into it not only other provisions, to support their wants there, but also sent in with the rest all sorts of living creatures, the male and his female, for the preservation of their kinds; and others of them by sevens. Now this Ark had firm walls, and a roof, and was braced with crossbeams, so that it could not be drowned in any way, nor overborne by the violence of the water. And thus was Noah, with his family, preserved. Now he was the tenth from Adam, as being the son of Lamech, whose father was Methuselah; he was the son of Enoch, the son of Jared; and Jared was the son of Mahalalel, who, with many of his sisters, were the children of Cainan, the son of Enosh. Now Enosh was the son of Seth, the son of Adam.

3. This calamity happened in the six hundredth year of Noah’s government [(age)], in the second month, called by the Macedonians Dius, but by the Hebrews Marchesuan: for so did they order their year in Egypt. But Moses appointed that Nisan, which is the same with Xanthicus, should be the first month for their festivals, because he brought them out of Egypt in that month: so that this month began the year as to all the solemnities they observed to the honor of God, although he preserved the original order of the months as to selling and buying, and other ordinary affairs. Now he says that this flood began on the twenty-seventh [[or seventeenth]] day of the aforementioned month; and this was two thousand six hundred and fifty-six [[or one thousand six hundred and fifty-six]] years from Adam, the first man; and the time is written down in our sacred books, those who then lived having noted down, with great accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men.

4. For indeed Seth was born when Adam was in his two hundred and thirtieth year [[or one hundred and thirtieth year]], who lived nine hundred and thirty years. Seth begot Enosh in his two hundred and fifth year [[or one hundred and fifth year]]; who, when he had lived nine hundred and twelve years, delivered the government to Cainan his son, whom he had in his one hundred and ninetieth year [[or ninetieth year]]. He lived nine hundred and five years. Cainan, when he had lived [[nine hundred and ten years]], had his son Mahalalel, who was born in his one hundred and seventieth year [[or seventieth year]]. This Mahalalel, having lived eight hundred and ninety-five years, died, leaving his son Jared, whom he begot when he was in his hundred and sixty-fifth year [[or sixty-fifth year]]. He lived nine hundred and sixty-two years; and then his son Enoch succeeded him, who was born when his father was one hundred and sixty-two years old. Now he, when he had lived three hundred and sixty-five years, departed and went to God; from which it is that they have not written down his death. Now Methuselah, the son of Enoch, who was born to him when he was one hundred and sixty-five years old [[or sixty-five years old]], had Lamech for his son when he was one hundred and eighty-seven years of age; to whom he delivered the government when he had retained it nine hundred and sixty-nine years. Now Lamech, when he had governed seven hundred and seventy-seven years, appointed Noah, his son, to be ruler of the people, who was born to Lamech when he was one hundred and eighty-two years old [[or one hundred and eighty-eight years old]], and retained the government nine hundred and fifty years. These years, collected together, make up the sum previously set down. But let no one inquire into the deaths of these men, for they extended their lives along together with their children and grandchildren; but let him have regard to their births only.

5. When God gave the signal, and it began to rain, the water poured down forty entire days, until it became fifteen cubits higher than the earth, which was the reason why there was no greater number preserved, since they had no place to flee to. When the rain ceased, the water had just begun to abate after one hundred and fifty days (that is, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month), it then ceasing to subside for a little while. After this, the Ark rested on the top of a certain mountain in Armenia; which, when Noah understood, he opened it; and seeing a small piece of land around it, he continued patiently, and conceived some cheerful hopes of deliverance. But a few days afterward, when the water was decreased to a greater degree, he sent out a raven, as desirous to learn whether any other part of the earth was left dry by the water, and whether he might go out of the Ark with safety; but the raven, finding all the land still overflowed, returned to Noah again. And after seven days, he sent out a dove, to know the state of the ground, which came back to him covered with mud, and bringing an olive branch: hereby Noah learned that the earth had become clear of the flood. So after he had stayed seven more days, he sent the living creatures out of the Ark; and both he and his family went out, when he also sacrificed to God, and feasted with his companions. However, the Armenians call this place The Place of Descent, for the Ark being saved in that place, its remains are shown there by the inhabitants to this day.

6. Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this Ark; among whom is Berossus the Chaldean. For when he is describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: “It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans, and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs.” Hieronymus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, and Mnaseas, and a great many more, make mention of the same. No, Nicolaus of Damascus, in his ninety-sixth book, has a particular relation about them, where he speaks thus: “There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, on which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved, and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore on the top of it, and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote.”

7. But as for Noah, he was afraid, since God had determined to destroy mankind, lest He should drown the earth every year; so he offered burnt-offerings, and pleaded with God that nature might hereafter go on in its former orderly course, and that He would not bring on such a great judgment anymore, by which the whole race of creatures might be in danger of destruction: but that, having now punished the wicked, He would of His goodness spare the remainder, and such as He had thus far judged fit to be delivered from so severe a calamity; because otherwise these last must be more miserable than the first, and that they must be condemned to a worse condition than the others, unless they are permitted to escape entirely; that is, if they are reserved for another deluge; while they must be afflicted with the terror and sight of the first deluge, and must also be destroyed by a second. He also pleaded with God to accept his sacrifice and to grant that the earth might never again undergo the same effects of His wrath; that men might be permitted to go on cheerfully in cultivating the same; to build cities, and live happily in them; and that they might not be deprived of any of those good things which they enjoyed before the flood, but might attain to the like length of days, and old age, which the ancient people had arrived at before.

8. When Noah had made these supplications, God, who loved the man for his righteousness, granted entire success to his prayers, and said that it was not He who brought the destruction on a polluted world, but that they underwent that vengeance on account of their own wickedness; and that He had not brought men into the world if He had Himself determined to destroy them, it being an instance of greater wisdom not to have granted them life at all, than, after it was granted, to procure their destruction; “But the injuries,” He said, “they offered to My holiness and virtue, forced Me to bring this punishment on them. But I will cease for the time to come to require such punishments, the effects of such great wrath, for their future wicked actions, and especially on account of your prayers. But if I will at anytime send tempests of rain, in an extraordinary manner, be not frightened at the extent of the showers, for the water will no longer overspread the earth. However, I require you to abstain from shedding the blood of men, and to keep yourselves pure from murder, and to punish those that commit any such thing. I permit you to make use of all the other living creatures at your pleasure, and as your appetites lead you, for I have made you lords of them all, both of those that walk on the land, and those that swim in the waters, and of those that fly in the regions of the air on high, excepting their blood, for therein is the life. But I will give you a sign that I have ceased My anger by My bow [(whereby is meant the rainbow, for they determined that the rainbow was the bow of God)]. And when God had said and promised thus, He went away.

9. Now when Noah had lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and that all that time happily, he died, having lived the number of nine hundred and fifty years. But let no one, on comparing the lives of the ancients with our lives, and with the few years which we now live, think that what we have said of them is false; or make the shortness of our lives at present an argument, that neither did they attain to so long a duration of life, for those ancients were beloved of God, and [recently] made by God Himself, and because their food was then fitter for the prolongation of life, might well live such a great number of years: and besides, God provided them a longer time of life on account of their virtue, and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical discoveries, which would not have provided the time of foretelling [the periods of the stars] unless they had lived six hundred years, for the great year is completed in that interval. Now I have for witnesses to what I have said all those that have written Antiquities, both among the Greeks and barbarians; for even Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian History, and Berossus, who collected the Chaldean Monuments, and Mochus, and Hestieus, and, besides these, Hieronymus the Egyptian, and those who composed the Phoenician History, agree to what I here say: Hesiod also, and Hecatseus, Hellanicus, and Acusilaus; and, besides these, Ephorus and Nicolaus relate that the ancients lived one thousand years. But as to these matters, let everyone look on them as he thinks fit.

CHAPTER 4

Concerning the Tower of Babylon and the Confusion of Tongues.

1. Now the sons of Noah were three: Shem, Japheth, and Ham, born one hundred years before the Deluge. These, first of all, descended from the mountains into the plains and fixed their habitation there, and persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very reluctant to come down from the higher places, to venture to follow their examples. Now the plain in which they first dwelt was called Shinar. God also commanded them to send colonies abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth, that they might not raise seditions among themselves, but might cultivate a great part of the earth, and enjoy its fruits in a plentiful manner. But they were so ill instructed that they did not obey God, for which reason they fell into calamities, and were made sensible, by experience, of what sin they had been guilty: for when they flourished with numerous youth, God admonished them again to send out colonies; but they, imagining the prosperity they enjoyed was not derived from the favor of God, but supposing that their own power was the proper cause of the plentiful condition they were in, did not obey Him. No, they added to this their disobedience to the Divine will, the suspicion that they were therefore ordered to send out separate colonies, that, being divided, they might more easily be oppressed.

2. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an offense and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through His means they were blessed, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be avenged on God if He should intend to drown the world again—for he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach; and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.

3. Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than anyone could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, on the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, He did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they had not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners; but He caused a tumult among them, by producing in them various languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion. The Sibyl also makes mention of this tower, and of the confusion of the language, when she says thus: “When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to Heaven, but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar language; and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon.” But as to the plan of Shinar, in the country of Babylonia, Hestiaeus mentions it, when he says thus: “Such of the priests as were saved, took the sacred vessels of Jupiter Enyalius, and came to Shinar of Babylonia.”

CHAPTER 5

After What Manner the Posterity of Noah Sent Out Colonies and Inhabited the Whole Earth.

1. After this, they were dispersed abroad, on account of their languages, and went out by colonies everywhere; and each colony took possession of that land which they came to, and to which God led them, so that the whole continent was filled with them, both the inland and the maritime countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships and inhabited the islands: and some of those nations still retain the denominations which were given them by their first founders; but some have lost them also, and some have only admitted certain changes in them, that they might be more intelligible to the inhabitants. And they were the Greeks who became the authors of such mutations. For when in after-ages they grew potent, they claimed to themselves the glory of antiquity, giving names to the nations that sounded well (in Greek) that they might be better understood among themselves, and setting agreeable forms of government over them, as if they were a people derived from themselves.

CHAPTER 6

How Every Nation Was Denominated from Their First Inhabitants.

1. Now they were the grandchildren of Noah, in honor of whom names were imposed on the nations by those that first seized them. Japheth, the son of Noah, had seven sons: they inhabited so, that, beginning at the mountains Taurus and Amanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the river Tansis, and along Europe to Cadiz; and settling themselves on the lands which they came to, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names. For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians [(Gauls)], but were then called Gomerites. Magog founded those that from him were named Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called Scythians. Now as to Javan and Madai, the sons of Japheth, from Madai came the Madeans, who are called Medes, by the Greeks; but from Javan, Ionia and all the Grecians are derived. Thobel founded the Thobelites, who are now called Iberes; and the Mosocheni were founded by Mosoch; now they are Cappadocians. There is also a mark of their ancient denomination still to be shown, for there is even now among them a city called Mazaca, which may inform those that are able to understand, that so was the entire nation once called. Thiras also called those whom he ruled over Thirasians, but the Greeks changed the name into Thracians. And so many were the countries that had the children of Japheth for their inhabitants. Of the three sons of Gomer, Aschanax founded the Aschanaxians, who are now called by the Greeks Rheginians. So did Riphath found the Ripheans, now called Paphlagonians; and Thrugramma the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians. Of the three sons of Javan also, the son of Japheth, Elisa gave name to the Eliseans, who were his subjects; they are now the Aeolians. Tharsus to the Tharsians, for so was Cilicia of old called; the sign of which is this, that the noblest city they have, and a metropolis also, is Tarsus, the tau being by change put for the theta. Cethimus possessed the island Cethima: it is now called Cyprus; and from that it is that all islands, and the greatest part of the seacoasts, are named Cethim by the Hebrews: and one city there is in Cyprus that has been able to preserve its denomination; it has been called Citius by those who use the language of the Greeks, and has not, by the use of that dialect, escaped the name of Cethim. And so many nations have the children and grandchildren of Japheth possessed. Now when I have premised something, which perhaps the Greeks do not know, I will return and explain what I have omitted; for such names are pronounced here after the manner of the Greeks, to please my readers; for our own country language does not so pronounce them: but the names in all cases are of one and the same ending; for the name we here pronounce Noeas, is there Noah, and in every case retains the same termination.

2. The children of Ham possessed the land from Syria and Amanus, and the mountains of Lebanon, seizing all that was on its seacoasts, and as far as the ocean, and keeping it as their own. Some indeed of its names are utterly vanished away; others of them being changed, and another sound given them, are hardly to be discovered; yet a few there are which have kept their denominations entirely. For of the four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name of Cush; for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Chusites. The memory also of the Mesraites is preserved in their name; for all we who inhabit this country [of Judea] called Egypt Mestre, and the Egyptians Mestreans. Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites, from himself: there is also a river in the country of Moors which bears that name, from which it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention that river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut: but the name it has now has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mesraim, who was called Lybyos. We will inform you presently what has been the occasion why it has been called Africa also. Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, inhabited the country now called Judea, and called it from his own name Canaan. The children of these [four] were these: Sabas, who founded the Sabeans; Evilas, who founded the Evileans, who are called Getuli; Sabathes founded the Sabathens, they are now called by the Greeks Astaborans; Sabactas settled the Sabactens; and Ragmus the Ragmeans; and he had two sons, the one of whom, Judadas, settled the Judadeans, a nation of the western Ethiopians, and left them his name; as did Sabas to the Sabeans: but Nimrod, the son of Cush, stayed and tyrannized at Babylon, as we have already informed you. Now all the children of Mesraim, being eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to Egypt, though it retained the name of one only, the Philistim; for the Greeks call part of that country Palestine. As for the rest, Ludieim, and Enemim, and Labim, who alone inhabited in Libya, and called the country from himself, Nedim, and Phethrosim, and Chesloim, and Cephthorim, we know nothing of them besides their names; for the Ethiopic war which we will describe hereafter, was the cause that those cities were overthrown. The sons of Canaan were these: Sidonius, who also built a city of the same name; it is called by the Greeks Sidon; Amathus inhabited in Amathine, which is even now called Amathe by the inhabitants, although the Macedonians named it Epiphania, from one of his posterity: Arudeus possessed the island Aradus: Arucas possessed Arce, which is in Lebanon. But for the seven others, [Eueus,] Chetteus, Jebuseus, Amorreus, Gergesus, Eudeus, Sineus, Samareus, we have nothing in the sacred books but their names, for the Hebrews overthrew their cities; and their calamities came on them on the following occasion.

3. Noah, when, after the Deluge, the earth was resettled in its former condition, set about its cultivation; and when he had planted it with vines, and when the fruit was ripe, and he had gathered the grapes in their season, and the wine was ready for use, he offered sacrifice, and feasted, and, being drunk, he fell asleep, and lay naked in an unseemly manner. When his youngest son saw this, he came laughing, and showed him to his brothers; but they covered their father’s nakedness. And when Noah was made sensible of what had been done, he prayed for prosperity to his other sons; but for Ham, he did not curse him, by reason of his nearness in blood, but cursed his prosperity: and when the rest of them escaped that curse, God inflicted it on the children of Canaan. But as to these matters, we will speak more hereafter.

4. Shem, the third son of Noah, had five sons, who inhabited the land that began at Euphrates, and reached to the Indian Ocean. For Elam left behind him the Elamites, the ancestors of the Persians. Ashur lived at the city [of] Nineveh and named his subjects Assyrians, who became the most fortunate nation, beyond others. Arphaxad named the Arphaxadites, who are now called Chaldeans. Aram had the Aramites, which the Greeks called Syrians; as Laud founded the Laudites, which are now called Lydians. Of the four sons of Aram, Uz founded Trachonitis and Damascus: this country lies between Palestine and Coele-Syria. Ul founded Armenia; and Gather the Bactrians; and Mesa the Mesaneans; it is now called Charax Spasini. Salah was the son of Arphaxad; and his son was Eber, from whom they originally called the Jews Hebrews. Eber begot Joktan and Peleg: he was called Peleg, because he was born at the dispersion of the nations to their several countries; for Peleg among the Hebrews signifies division. Now Joktan, one of the sons of Eber, had these sons: Elmodad, Saleph, Asermoth, Jera, Adoram, Aizel, Decla, Ebal, Abimael, Sabeus, Ophir, Euilat, and Jobab. These inhabited from Cophen, an Indian river, and in part of Asia adjoining to it. And this will suffice concerning the sons of Shem.

5. I will now deal with the Hebrews. The son of Peleg, whose father was Eber, was Reu; whose son was Serug, to whom was born Nahor; his son was Terah, who was the father of Abraham, who accordingly was the tenth from Noah, and was born in the two hundred and ninety-second year after the Deluge; for Terah begot Abram in his seventieth year. Nahor begot Haran when he was one hundred and twenty years old; Nahor was born to Serug in his one hundred and thirty-second year; Reu had Serug at one hundred and thirty; at the same age also Peleg had Reu; Eber begot Peleg in his hundred and thirty-fourth year; he himself being begotten by Salah when he was one hundred and thirty years old, whom Arphaxad had for his son at the hundred and thirty-fifth year of his age. Arphaxad was the son of Shem and was born twelve years after the Deluge. Now Abram had two brothers, Nahor and Haran: of these Haran left a son, Lot; as also Sarai and Milcah his daughters; and died among the Chaldeans, in a city of the Chaldeans, called Ur; and his monument is shown to this day. These married their nieces. Nahor married Milcah, and Abram married Sarai. Now Terah hating Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Haran, they all removed to Haran of Mesopotamia, where Terah died and was buried when he had lived to be two hundred and five years old; for the life of man was already, by degrees, diminished, and became shorter than before, until the birth of Moses, after whom the term of human life was one hundred and twenty years, God determining it to the length that Moses happened to live. Now Nahor had eight sons by Milcah: Uz and Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Azau, Pheldas, Jadelph, and Bethuel. These were all the genuine sons of Nahor; for Teba, and Gaam, and Tachas, and Maaca, were born of Reuma his concubine: but Bethuel had a daughter, Rebecca, and a son, Laban.

CHAPTER 7

How Abram Our Forefather Went Out of the Land of the Chaldeans and Lived in the Land Then Called Canaan but Now Judea.

1. Now Abram, having no son of his own, adopted Lot, his brother Haran’s son, and his wife Sarai’s brother; and he left the land of Chaldea when he was seventy-five years old, and at the command of God went into Canaan, and therein he dwelt himself, and left it to his posterity. He was a person of great shrewdness, both for understanding all things and persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions; for which reason he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew and to change the opinion all men happened then to have concerning God; for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one God, the Creator of the universe; and that, as to other [gods], if they contributed anything to the happiness of men, that each of them provided it only according to his appointment, and not by their own power. This opinion of his was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea, as well as those that happen to the sun, and moon, and all the heavenly bodies, thus, [he said]: “If these bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their own regular motions; but since they do not preserve such regularity, they make it plain, that in so far as they cooperate to our advantage, they do it not of their own abilities, but as they are subservient to Him that commands them, to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honor and thanksgiving.” For which doctrines, when the Chaldeans, and other people of Mesopotamia, raised a tumult against him, he thought fit to leave that country; and at the command and by the assistance of God, he came and lived in the land of Canaan. And when he was settled there, he built an altar and performed a sacrifice to God.

2. Berossus mentions our father Abram without naming him, when he says thus: “In the tenth generation after the flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man righteous and great, and skillful in the celestial science.” But Hecatseus does more than barely mention him; for he composed, and left behind him, a book concerning him. And Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his History, says thus: “Abram reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got himself up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea, and this when his posterity had become a multitude; as to which posterity of his, we relate their history in another work. Now the name of Abram is even still famous in the country of Damascus; and there is shown a village named from him, The Habitation of Abram.”

CHAPTER 8

That When There Was a Famine in Canaan, Abram Went from There into Egypt; And after He Had Continued There a While He Returned Back Again.

1. Now, after this, when a famine had invaded the land of Canaan, and Abram had discovered that the Egyptians were in a flourishing condition, he was inclined to go down to them, both to partake of the plenty they enjoyed, and to become an auditor of their priests, and to know what they said concerning the gods; designing either to follow them, if they had better notions than he, or to convert them into a better way, if his own notions proved the truest. Now, seeing he was to take Sarai with him, and was afraid of the madness of the Egyptians with regard to women, lest the king should kill him on occasion of his wife’s great beauty, he contrived this scheme: he pretended to be her brother, and directed her in a dissembling way to pretend the same, for he said it would be for their benefit. Now, as soon as he came into Egypt, it happened to Abram as he supposed it would; for the fame of his wife’s beauty was greatly talked of, for which reason Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, would not be satisfied with what was reported of her, but desired to see her himself, and was preparing to enjoy her; but God put a stop to his unjust inclinations by sending on him a disease and a sedition against his government. And when he inquired of the priests how he might be freed from these calamities, they told him that this his miserable condition was derived from the wrath of God, on account of his inclinations to abuse the stranger’s wife. He then, out of fear, asked Sarai who she was, and who it was that she brought along with her. And when he had found out the truth, he excused himself to Abram, that supposing the woman to be his sister, and not his wife, he set his affections on her, as desiring an affinity with him by marrying her, but not as incited by lust to abuse her. He also made him a large present in money and gave him permission to enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians, from which conversation his virtue and his reputation became more conspicuous than they had been before.

2. For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another’s sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry with one another on that account, Abram conferred with each of them, and, refuting the reasonings they made use of—every one for their own practices—demonstrated that such reasonings were vain and void of truth: whereon he was admired by them in those conferences as a very wise man, and one of great shrewdness, when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them arithmetic and delivered to them the science of astronomy; for before Abram came into Egypt, they were unacquainted with those parts of learning; for science came from the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from there to the Greeks also.

3. As soon as Abram had come back into Canaan, he parted the land between him and Lot, on account of the tumultuous behavior of their shepherds, concerning the pastures wherein they should feed their flocks. However, he gave Lot the option and allowance to choose whichever lands he would take; and he took [for] himself what the other left, which were the lower grounds at the foot of the mountains; and he himself dwelt in Hebron, which is a city seven years more ancient than Tunis of Egypt. But Lot possessed the land of the plain, and the Jordan River, not far from the city of Sodom, which was then a fine city, but is now destroyed, by the will and wrath of God, the cause of which I will show in its proper place hereafter.

CHAPTER 9

The Destruction of the Sodomites by the Assyrian Wall.

At this time, when the Assyrians had the dominion over Asia, the people of Sodom were in a flourishing condition, both as to riches and the number of their youth. There were five kings that managed the affairs of this county: Ballas, Barsas, Senabar, and Sumobor, with the king of Bela; and each king led on his own troops: and the Assyrians made war on them; and, dividing their army into four parts, fought against them. Now every part of the army had its own commander; and when the battle was joined, the Assyrians were conquerors, and imposed a tribute on the kings of the Sodomites, who submitted to this slavery [for] twelve years; and so long they continued to pay their tribute: but on the thirteenth year they rebelled, and then the army of the Assyrians came on them, under their commanders Amraphel, Arioch, Chodorlaomer, and Tidal. These kings had laid waste all [of] Syria and overthrown the offspring of the giants. And when they had come opposite Sodom, they pitched their camp at the valley called the Slime Pits, for at that time there were pits in that place; but now, on the destruction of the city of Sodom, that valley became the Dead Sea, as it is called. However, concerning this lake we will speak more presently. Now when the Sodomites joined battle with the Assyrians, and the fight was very obstinate, many of them were killed, and the rest were carried captive; among which captives was Lot, who had come to assist the Sodomites.

CHAPTER 10

How Abram Fought with the Assyrians, and Overcame Them, and Saved the Sodomite Prisoners, and Took from the Assyrians the Prey They Had Gotten.

1. When Abram heard of their calamity, he was at once afraid for his relative Lot, and pitied the Sodomites, his friends and neighbors; and thinking it proper to provide them assistance, he did not delay it, but marched hastily, and the fifth night fell on the Assyrians, near Dan, for that is the name of the other spring of Jordan; and before they could arm themselves, he slew some as they were in their beds, before they could suspect any harm; and others, who had not yet gone to sleep, but were so drunk they could not fight, ran away. Abram pursued after them, until, on the second day, he drove them in a body to Hoba, a place belonging to Damascus; and thereby demonstrated that victory does not depend on multitude and the number of hands, but the eagerness and courage of soldiers overcome the most numerous bodies of men, while he got the victory over such a great army with no more than three hundred and eighteen of his servants, and three of his friends: but all those that fled returned home ingloriously.

2. So Abram, when he had saved the captive Sodomites, who had been taken by the Assyrians, and Lot also, his relative, returned home in peace. Now the king of Sodom met him at a certain place, which they called The King’s Dale, where Melchizedek, king of the city [of] Salem, received him. That name signifies, “The Righteous King”: and such he was, without dispute, insomuch that, on this account, he was made the priest of God: however, they afterward called Salem Jerusalem. Now this Melchizedek supplied Abram’s army in a hospitable manner and gave them provisions in abundance; and as they were feasting, he began to praise him, and to bless God for subduing his enemies under him. And when Abram gave him the tenth part of his prey, he accepted the gift: but the king of Sodom desired Abram to take the prey but implored that he might have those men restored to him whom Abram had saved from the Assyrians, because they belonged to him. But Abram would not do so; nor would he make any other advantage of that prey than what his servants had eaten, but still insisted that he should provide a part to his friends that had assisted him in the battle. The first of them was called Eschol, and then Enner, and Mamre.

3. And God commended his virtue, and said, “You will not however lose the rewards you have deserved to receive by such glorious actions of yours.” He answered, “And what advantage will it be to me to have such rewards, when I have none to enjoy them after me?” (For he was thus far childless.) And God promised that he should have a son, and that his posterity should be very numerous—insomuch that their number should be like the stars. When he heard that, he offered a sacrifice to God, as He commanded him. The manner of the sacrifice was this: He took a heifer of three years old, and a female goat of three years old, and a ram in like manner of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a pigeon, and as he was enjoined, he divided the three former, but the birds he did not divide. After which, before he built his altar, where the birds of prey flew around, as desirous of blood, a Divine voice came to him, declaring that their neighbors would be grievous to his posterity when they should be in Egypt for four hundred years; during which time they should be afflicted, but afterward should overcome their enemies, should conquer the Canaanites in war, and possess themselves of their land, and of their cities.

4. Now Abram dwelt near the oak called Ogyges—the place belongs to Canaan, not far from the city of Hebron. But being troubled by his wife’s barrenness, he pleaded with God to grant that he might have a male offspring; and God required of him to be of good courage and said that He would add to all the rest of the benefits that He had bestowed on him, ever since He led him out of Mesopotamia, the gift of children. Accordingly, Sarai, at God’s command, brought to his bed one of her handmaidens, a woman of Egyptian descent, in order to obtain children by her; and when this handmaid was with child, she triumphed, and ventured to insult Sarai, as if the dominion were to come to a son to be born of her. But when Abram resigned her into the hand of Sarai, to punish her, she contrived to flee away, as unable to bear the instances of Sarai’s severity to her; and she pleaded with God to have compassion on her. Now a Divine Messenger met her as she was going forward in the wilderness and commanded her to return to her master and mistress, for if she would submit to that wise advice, she would live better hereafter; for the reason of her being in such a miserable case was this: that she had been ungrateful and arrogant toward her mistress. He also told her that if she disobeyed God and went on still in her way, she should perish; but if she would return back, she should become the mother of a son who should reign over that country. These admonitions she obeyed, and returned to her master and mistress, and obtained forgiveness. A little while afterward, she bore Ishmael, whose [name] may be interpreted “Heard of God,” because God had heard his mother’s prayer.

5. The aforementioned son was born to Abram when he was eighty-six years old: but when he was ninety-nine, God appeared to him, and promised him that he should have a son by Sarai, and commanded that his name should be Isaac; and showed him that from this son should spring great nations and kings, and that they should obtain all the land of Canaan by war, from Sidon to Egypt. But he charged him, in order to keep his posterity unmixed with others, that they should be circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin, and that this should be done on the eighth day after they were born: the reason of which circumcision I will explain in another place. And Abram also inquiring concerning Ishmael, whether he should live or not, God signified to him that he should live to be very old and should be the father of great nations. Abram therefore gave thanks to God for these blessings; and then he, and all his family, and his son Ishmael, were circumcised immediately—the son being that day thirteen years of age, and he ninety-nine.

CHAPTER 11

How God Overthrew the Nation of the Sodomites, Out of His Wrath against Them for Their Sins.

1. About this time the Sodomites grew proud on account of their riches and great wealth; they became unjust toward men, and impious toward God, insomuch that they did not call to mind the advantages they received from Him: they hated strangers, and abused themselves with homosexual practices. God was therefore much displeased at them, and determined to punish them for their pride, and to overthrow their city, and to lay waste their country, until there should neither plant nor fruit grow out of it.

2. When God had thus resolved concerning the Sodomites, Abraham, as he sat by the oak of Mamre, at the door of his tent, saw three messengers; and thinking them to be strangers, he rose up, and saluted them, and desired they would accept an entertainment, and abide with him; to which, when they agreed, he ordered cakes of meal to be made presently; and when he had slain a calf, he roasted it, and brought it to them, as they sat under the oak. Now they made a show of eating; and besides, they asked him about his wife Sarah, where she was; and when he said she was within, they said they would come again hereafter and find her having become a mother. On which the woman laughed and said that it was impossible she should bear children, since she was ninety years of age, and her husband was one hundred. Then they concealed themselves no longer but declared that they were messengers of God; and that one of them was sent to inform them about the child, and two of the overthrow of Sodom.

3. When Abraham heard this, he was grieved for the Sodomites; and he rose up, and pleaded with God for them, and implored Him that He would not destroy the righteous with the wicked. And when God had replied that there was no good man among the Sodomites—for if there were but ten such man among them, He would not punish any of them for their sins—Abraham held his peace. And the messengers came to the city of the Sodomites, and Lot implored them to accept a lodging with him; for he was a very generous and hospitable man, and one that had learned to imitate the goodness of Abraham. Now when the Sodomites saw the young men to be of beautiful countenances, and this to an extraordinary degree, and that they took up their lodgings with Lot, they resolved themselves to enjoy these beautiful boys by force and violence; and when Lot exhorted them to sobriety, and not to offer anything immodest to the strangers, but to have regard to their lodging in his house, and promised that if their inclinations could not be governed, he would expose his daughters to their lust, instead of these strangers, neither thus were they made ashamed.

4. But God was much displeased at their impudent behavior, so that He both struck those men with blindness, and condemned the Sodomites to universal destruction. But Lot, on God’s informing him of the future destruction of the Sodomites, went away, taking with him his wife and daughters, who were two, and still virgins; for those that were betrothed to them were above the thoughts of going, and deemed that Lot’s words were trifling. God then cast a thunderbolt on the city, and set it on fire, with its inhabitants; and He laid waste the country with the same burning, as I formerly said when I wrote the Jewish War. But Lot’s wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive regarding what would become of it, although God had forbidden her to do so, was changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day. Now he and his daughters fled to a certain small place, encompassed with the fire, and settled in it: it is to this day called Zoar, for that is the word which the Hebrews use for a small thing. There it was that he lived a miserable life, on account of his having no company, and his lack of provisions.

5. But his daughters, thinking that all mankind were destroyed, approached their father, though taking care not to be perceived. This they did, that humankind might not utterly fail: and they bore sons; the son of the elder was named Moab, which denotes one derived from his father; the younger bore Ammon, which name denotes one derived from a relative. The former of whom was the father of the Moabites, which is even still a great nation; the latter was the father of the Ammonites; and both of them are inhabitants of Coele-Syria. And such was the departure of Lot from among the Sodomites.

CHAPTER 12

Concerning Abimelech; And Concerning Ishmael the Son of Abraham; And Concerning the Arabians, Who Were His Posterity.

1. Abraham now removed to Gerar of Palestine, leading Sarah along with him, under the notion of his sister, using the like dissimulation that he had used before, and this out of fear: for he was afraid of Abimelech, the king of that country, who had also himself fallen in love with Sarah, and was inclined to corrupt her; but he was restrained from satisfying his lust by a dangerous disease which befell him from God. Now when his physicians despaired of curing him, he fell asleep, and saw a dream, warning him not to abuse the stranger’s wife; and when he recovered, he told his friends that God had inflicted that disease on him, by way of punishment, for his injury to the stranger—and in order to preserve the chastity of his wife, because she did not accompany him as his sister, but as his legitimate wife; and that God had promised to be gracious to him for the time to come, if this person be once secure of his wife’s chastity. When he had said this, by the advice of his friends, he sent for Abraham, and commanded him not to be concerned about his wife or fear the corruption of her chastity; because God took care of him, and that it was by His providence that he received his wife again, without her suffering any abuse. And he appealed to God, and to his wife’s conscience, and said that he had not any inclination at first to enjoy her, if he had known she was his wife; but since, he said, “You led her around as your sister, I was guilty of no offense.” He also pleaded with him to be at peace with him and to make God propitious to him; and that if he thought suitable to continue with him, he should have what he wanted in abundance; but that if he designed to go away, he should be honorably led, and have whatsoever supply he wanted when he came there. On his saying this, Abraham told him that his pretense of relation to his wife was no lie, because she was his brother’s daughter; and that he did not think himself safe in his travels abroad, without this sort of dissimulation; and that he was not the cause of his disease, but was only attentive for his own safety: he said also that he was ready to stay with him. Whereon Abimelech assigned him land and money; and they covenanted to live together without guile, and took an oath at a certain well called Beersheba, which may be interpreted, “The Well of the Oath”: and so it is named by the people of the country to this day.

2. Now after a short time, Abraham had a son by Sarah, as God had foretold to him, whom he named Isaac, which signifies Laughter. And indeed, they so called him, because Sarah laughed when God said that she should bear a son, she not expecting such a thing, as being past the age of childbearing, for she was ninety years old, and Abraham one hundred; so that this son was born to them both in the last year of each of those decimal numbers. And they circumcised him on the eighth day and from that time the Jews continue the custom of circumcising their sons within that number of days. But as for the Arabians, they circumcise after the thirteenth year, because Ishmael, the founder of their nation, who was born to Abraham of the concubine, was circumcised at that age; concerning whom I will presently give a particular account, with great exactness.

3. As for Sarah, she at first loved Ishmael, who was born of her own handmaid Hagar, with an affection not inferior to that of her own son, for he was brought up in order to succeed in the government; but when she herself had borne Isaac, she was not willing that Ishmael should be brought up with him, as being too old for him, and able to do him injuries when their father should be dead; she therefore persuaded Abraham to send him and his mother to some distant country. Now, at first, he did not agree to what Sarah was so zealous for and thought it an instance of the greatest barbarity to send away a young child and a woman unprovided of necessities; but he finally agreed to it, because God was pleased with what Sarah had determined: so he delivered Ishmael to his mother, as not yet able to go by himself; and commanded her to take a bottle of water, and a loaf of bread, and so to depart, and to take necessity for her guide. But as soon as her necessary provisions failed, she found herself in a calamitous situation; and when the water was almost spent, she laid the young child, who was ready to expire, under a fig-tree, and went on further, so that he might die while she was absent. But a Divine Messenger came to her, and told her of a fountain nearby, and commanded her to take care, and bring up the child, because she should be very happy by the preservation of Ishmael. She then took courage, on the prospect of what was promised her, and, meeting with some shepherds, by their care she got clear of the distresses she had been in.

4. When the boy was grown up, he married a wife, by birth an Egyptian, from which the mother was herself derived originally. Of this wife were born to Ishmael twelve sons: Nabaioth, Kedar, Abdeel, Mabsam, Idumas, Masmaos, Masaos, Chodad, Theman, Jetur, Naphesus, Cadmas. These inhabited all the country from [the] Euphrates to the Red Sea and called it Nabatene. They are an Arabian nation, and name their tribes from these, both because of their own virtue, and because of the dignity of their father Abraham.

CHAPTER 13

Concerning Isaac, the Legitimate Son of Abraham.

1. Now Abraham greatly loved Isaac, as being his only begotten and given to him at the borders of old age, by the favor of God. The child also endeared himself to his parents still more, by the exercise of every virtue, and adhering to his duty to his parents, and being zealous in the worship of God. Abraham also placed his own happiness in this prospect, that, when he should die, he should leave this son of his in a safe and secure condition; which accordingly he obtained by the will of God: who being desirous to make an experiment of Abraham’s religious disposition toward Himself, appeared to him, and enumerated all the blessings He had bestowed on him; how He had made him superior to his enemies; and that his son Isaac, who was the principal part of his present happiness, was derived from Him; and He said that He required this son of his as a sacrifice and holy oblation. Accordingly, He commanded him to carry him to the mountain Moriah, and to build an altar, and offer him for a burnt-offering on it for this would best manifest his religious disposition toward Him, if he preferred what was pleasing to God, before the preservation of his own son.

2. Now Abraham thought that it was not right to disobey God in anything, but that he was obligated to serve Him in every circumstance of life, since all creatures that live enjoy their life by His providence, and the kindness He bestows on them. Accordingly, he concealed this command of God, and his own intentions about the slaughter of his son, from his wife, as also from every one of his servants, otherwise he should have been hindered from his obedience to God; and he took Isaac, together with two of his servants, and laying what things were necessary for a sacrifice on a donkey, he went away to the mountain. Now the two servants went along with him two days; but on the third day, as soon as he saw the mountain, he left those servants that were with him until then in the plain, and, having his son alone with him, he came to the mountain. It was that mountain on which King David afterward built the temple. Now they had brought with them everything necessary for a sacrifice, excepting the animal that was to be offered only. Now Isaac was twenty-five years old. And as he was building the altar, he asked his father what he was about to offer, since there was no animal there for an oblation: to which it was answered that God would provide Himself an oblation, He being able to make a plentiful provision for men out of what they lack, and to deprive others of what they already have, when they put too much trust therein; that therefore, if God were pleased to be present and propitious at this sacrifice, He would provide Himself an oblation.

3. As soon as the altar was prepared, and Abraham had laid on the wood, and all things were entirely ready, he said to his son, “O son, I poured out a vast number of prayers that I might have you for my son; when you had come into the world, there was nothing that could contribute to your support for which I was not greatly attentive, nor anything wherein I thought myself happier than to see you grown up to man’s estate, and that I might leave you at my death the successor to my dominion; but since it was by God’s will that I became your father, and it is now His will that I relinquish you, bear this consecration to God with a generous mind; for I resign you up to God who has thought fit now to require this testimony of honor to Himself, on account of the favors He has conferred on me, in being to me a supporter and defender. Accordingly, you, my son, will now die, not in any common way of going out of the world, but sent to God, the Father of all men, beforehand, by your own father, in the nature of a sacrifice. I suppose He thinks you worthy to get clear of this world neither by disease, neither by war, nor by any other severe way, by which death usually comes on men, but so that He will receive your soul with prayers and holy offices of religion, and will place you near to Himself, and you will be to me there a rescuer and supporter in my old age; on which account I principally brought you up, and you will thereby procure me God for my Comforter instead of yourself.”

4. Now Isaac was of such a generous disposition as fitting for the son of such a father, and was pleased with this discourse, and said that he was not worthy to be born at first, if he should reject the determination of God and of his father, and should not resign himself up readily to both their pleasures; since it would have been unjust if he had not obeyed, even if his father alone had so resolved. So he went immediately to the altar to be sacrificed. And the deed had been done if God had not opposed it; for He called loudly to Abraham by his name, and forbade him to slay his son, and said [that] it was not out of a desire of human blood that he was commanded to slay his son, nor was He willing that he should be taken away from him whom He had made his father, but to try the temper of his mind, whether he would be obedient to such a command. Since therefore He now was satisfied as to his eagerness, and the surprising readiness he showed in his piety, He was delighted in having bestowed such blessings on him; and that he would not be wanting in all sort of concern about him, and in bestowing other children on him; and that his son should live to a very great age; that he should live a blessed life, and bequeath a large principality to his children, who should be good and legitimate. He foretold also, that his family should increase into many nations and that those patriarchs should leave behind them an everlasting name; that they should obtain the possession of the land of Canaan and be envied by all men. When God had said this, He produced a ram for them, which had not appeared before, for the sacrifice. So Abraham and Isaac receiving each other unexpectedly, and having obtained the promises of such great blessings, embraced one another; and when they had sacrificed, they returned to Sarah, and lived happily together, God providing them His assistance in all things they desired.

CHAPTER 14

Concerning Sarah Abraham’s Wife; And How She Ended Her Days.

Now Sarah died a little while after, having lived one hundred and twenty-seven years. They buried her in Hebron; the Canaanites publicly allowing them a burying-place; which piece of ground Abraham bought for four hundred shekels, from Ephron, an inhabitant of Hebron. And both Abraham and his descendants built themselves tombs in that place.

CHAPTER 15

How the Nation of the Troglodytes Were Derived from Abraham by Keturah.

After this, Abraham married Keturah, by whom six sons were born to him, men of courage, and of sagacious minds: Zambran, and Jazar, and Madan, and Madian, and Josabak, and Sous. Now the sons of Sous were Sabathan and Dadan. The sons of Dadan were Latusim, and Assur, and Luom. The sons of Madian were Ephas, and Ophren, and Anoch, and Ebidas, and Eldas. Now, for all these sons and grandsons, Abraham contrived to settle them in colonies; and they took possession of Troglodytis, and the country of Arabia the Blessed, as far as it reaches to the Red Sea. It is related of this Ophren, that he made war against Libya, and took it, and that his grandchildren, when they inhabited it, called it, from his name, Africa. And indeed, Alexander Polyhistor gives his attestation to what I here say, who speaks thus: “Cleodemus the prophet, who was also called Malchus, who wrote a History of the Jews, in agreement with the History of Moses, their legislator, relates that there were many sons born to Abraham by Keturah—no, he names three of them: Apher, and Surim, and Japhran. That from Surim was the land of Assyria denominated; and that from the other two (Apher and Japbran) the country of Africa took its name, because these men were auxiliaries to Hercules, when he fought against Libya and Antaeus; and that Hercules married Aphra’s daughter, and of her he begot a son, Diodorus; and that Sophon was his son, from whom that barbaric people called Sophacians were denominated.”

CHAPTER 16

How Isaac Took Rebekah to Wife.

1. Now when Abraham, the father of Isaac, had resolved to take Rebekah, who was granddaughter to his brother Nahor, for a wife for his son Isaac, who was then about forty years old, he sent the most ancient of his servants to betroth her, after he had compelled him to give him the strongest assurances of his fidelity; which assurances were given in the following manner: they put each other’s hands under each other’s thighs; then they called on God as the witness of what was to be done. He also sent such presents to those that were there as were in esteem, on account that they either rarely or never were seen in that country. The servant got there not under a considerable time; for it requires much time to pass through Mesopotamia, in which it is tedious traveling, both in the winter for the depth of the clay, and in summer for lack of water; and, besides this, for the robberies there committed, which are not to be avoided by travelers but by caution beforehand. However, the servant came to Haran; and when he was in the suburbs, he met a considerable number of maidens going to the water; he therefore prayed to God that Rebekah might be found among them, or her whom Abraham sent him as his servant to espouse to his son, in case his will were that this marriage should be consummated, and that she might be made known to him by this sign: that while others denied him water to drink, she might give it to him.

2. With this intention he went to the well, and desired the maidens to give him some water to drink: but while the others refused, on pretense that they wanted it all at home, and could spare none for him, one only of the company rebuked them for their irritable behavior toward the stranger; and she said, “What is there that you will ever communicate to anybody, who have not so much as given the man some water?” She then offered him water in an obliging manner. And now he began to hope that his grand affair would succeed; but desiring still to know the truth, he commended her for her generosity and good nature, that she did not hesitate to provide a sufficiency of water to those that wanted it, though it cost her some pains to draw it; and he asked who were her parents, and wished them joy of such a daughter. “And may you be espoused,” he said, “to their satisfaction, into the family of an agreeable husband, and bring him legitimate children.” Nor did she disdain to satisfy his inquiries but told him of her family. “They,” she says, “call me Rebekah; my father was Bethuel, but he is dead; and Laban is my brother; and, together with my mother, takes care of all our family affairs, and is the guardian of my virginity.” When the servant heard this, he was very glad at what had happened, and at what was told him, as perceiving that God had thus plainly directed his journey; and producing his bracelets, and some other ornaments which it was esteemed decent for virgins to wear, he gave them to the girl, by way of acknowledgment, and as a reward for her kindness in giving him water to drink, saying [that] it was but just that she should have them, because she was so much more obliging than any of the rest. She also desired that he would come and lodge with them, since the approach of the night did not give him time to proceed farther. And producing his precious ornaments for women, he said he desired to trust them to none more safely than to such as she had shown herself to be; and that he believed he might guess at the humanity of her mother and brother, that they would not be displeased, from the virtue he found in her; for he would not be burdensome, but would pay the hire for his entertainment, and spend his own money. To which she replied that he guessed right as to the humanity of her parents but complained that he should think them so parsimonious as to take money, for he should have all free of cost. But she said she would first inform her brother Laban, and, if he gave her permission, she would lead him in.

3. As soon then as this was over, she introduced the stranger; and for the camels, the servants of Laban brought them in, and took care of them; and he was himself brought in to supper by Laban. And, after supper, he says to him, and to the mother of the girl, addressing himself to her, “Abraham is the son of Terah, and a relative of yours; for Nahor, the grandfather of these children, was the brother of Abraham, by both father and mother; on which account he has sent me to you, being desirous to take this girl for his son to wife. He is his legitimate son and is brought up as his only heir. He could indeed have had the most fortunate of all the women in that country for him, but he would not have his son marry any of them; but, out of regard to his own relations, he desired him to match here, whose affection and inclination I would not have you despise; for it was by the good pleasure of God that other accidents happened in my journey, and that thereby I came to your daughter and your house; for when I was near to the city, I saw a great many maidens coming to a well, and I prayed that I might meet with this girl, which has come to pass accordingly. Do you therefore confirm that marriage, whose espousals have already been made by a Divine appearance; and show the respect you have for Abraham, who has sent me with so much solicitude, in giving your consent to the marriage of this girl?” On this they understood it to be the will of God, and greatly approved of the offer, and sent their daughter, as was desired. Accordingly, Isaac married her, the inheritance having now come to him; for the children by Keturah had [already] gone to their own remote habitations.

CHAPTER 17

Concerning the Death of Abraham.

A little while after this, Abraham died. He was a man of incomparable virtue and honored by God in a manner agreeable to his piety toward Him. The whole time of his life was one hundred seventy and five years, and he was buried in Hebron, with his wife Sarah, by their sons Isaac and Ishmael.

CHAPTER 18

Concerning the Sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob; Of Their Nativity and Education.

1. Now Isaac’s wife proved with child after the death of Abraham; and when her belly was greatly burdened, Isaac was very anxious and inquired of God, who answered that Rebekah should bear twins; and that two nations should take the names of those sons; and that he who appeared the second should excel the elder. Accordingly, she, in a short time, as God had foretold, bore twins; the elder of whom, from his head to his feet, was very rough and hairy; but the younger took hold of his heel as they were in the birth. Now the father loved the elder, who was called Esau, a name agreeable to his roughness, for the Hebrews call such a hairy roughness Seir [[or Esau]]; but Jacob the younger was best beloved by his mother.

2. When there was a famine in the land, Isaac resolved to go into Egypt, the land there being good; but he went to Gerar, as God commanded him. Here Abimelech the king received him, because Abraham had formerly lived with him, and had been his friend. And as in the beginning, he treated him exceedingly kind, so he was hindered from continuing in the same disposition to the end, by his envy at him; for when he saw that God was with Isaac, and took such great care of him, he drove him away from him. But Isaac, when he saw how envy had changed the temper of Abimelech, retired to a place called the Valley, not far from Gerar: and as he was digging a well, the shepherds fell on him, and began to fight, in order to hinder the work; and because he did not desire to contend, the shepherds seemed to get the better of him, so he still retired, and dug another well; and when certain other shepherds of Abimelech began to offer him violence, he left that also, still retired, thus purchasing security for himself—a rational and prudent conduct. Eventually he gave him permission to dig a well without disturbance. He named this well Rehoboth, which denotes a large space; but of the former wells, one was called Escon, which denotes strife, the other Sitenna, which name signifies enmity.

3. It was now that Isaac’s affairs increased, and in a flourishing manner; and this from his great riches. But Abimelech, thinking in opposition to him, while their living made them suspicious of each other, and Isaac’s retiring, showing a secret enmity also, he was afraid that his former friendship with Isaac would not secure him if Isaac should endeavor the injuries he had formerly offered him; he therefore renewed his friendship with him, Philoc, one of his generals. And when he had obtained everything he desired, by reason of Isaac’s good nature, who preferred the earlier friendship Abimelech had shown to himself and his father to his later wrath against him, he returned home.

4. Now when Esau, one of the sons of Isaac, whom the father principally loved, had now come to the age of forty years, he married Adah, the daughter of Helon, and Aholibamah, the daughter of Esebeon; which Helon and Esebeon were great lords among the Canaanites: thereby taking on himself the authority, and pretending to have dominion over his own marriages, without so much as asking the advice of his father; for had Isaac been the arbitrator, he would not have given him permission to marry thus, for he was not pleased with contracting any alliance with the people of that country; but not caring to be uneasy to his son by commanding him to put away these wives, he resolved to be silent.

5. But when he was old, and could not see at all, he called Esau to himself, and told him that besides his blindness, and the disorder of his eyes, his very old age hindered him from his worship of God [by sacrifice]; he commanded him therefore to go out hunting, and when he had caught as much venison as he could, to prepare him a supper that after this he might make supplication to God, to be to him a supporter and an assister during the whole time of his life, saying that it was uncertain when he should die, and that he desired, by prayers for him, to procure, beforehand, God to be merciful to him.

6. Accordingly, Esau went out hunting. But Rebekah thought it proper to have the supplication made for obtaining the favor of God to Jacob, and that without the consent of Isaac commanded him to kill kids of the goats and prepare a supper. So Jacob obeyed his mother, according to all her instructions. Now when the supper was made ready, he took a goat’s skin and put it around his arm, that by reason of its hairy roughness he might, by his father, be believed to be Esau; for they being twins, and in all things else alike, differed only in this thing. This was done out of his fear, that before his father had made his supplications, he should be caught in his evil practice, and lest he should, on the contrary, provoke his father to curse him. So he brought in the supper to his father, Isaac perceiving [Jacob] to be Esau. So suspecting no deceit, he ate the supper, and committed himself to his prayers and intercessions with God, and said, “O Lord of all ages, and Creator of all substance! For it was You that proposed to my father great plenty of good things, and have granted to bestow on me what I have, and have promised to my posterity to be their kind supporter, and to bestow on them still greater blessings. Therefore, confirm these promises of Yours, and do not overlook me because of my present weak condition, on account of which I most earnestly pray to You. Be gracious to this son of mine; and preserve him and keep him from everything that is evil. Give him a blessed life, and the possession of as many good things as your power is able to bestow. Make him terrible to his enemies, and honorable and beloved among his friends.”

7. Thus Isaac prayed to God, thinking his prayers had been made for Esau. He had but just finished them when Esau came in from hunting. And when Isaac perceived his mistake, he was silent: but Esau required that he might be made partaker of the same blessing from his father that his brother had partaken of; but his father refused it, because all his prayers had been spent on Jacob: so Esau lamented the mistake. However, his father being grieved at his weeping, said that he should excel in hunting and strength of body, in arms, and all such sorts of work; and should obtain glory forever on those accounts—he and his posterity after him—but still should serve his brother.

8. Now the mother delivered Jacob, when she was afraid that his brother would inflict some punishment on him because of the mistake about the prayers of Isaac; for she persuaded her husband to take a wife for Jacob out of Mesopotamia, of her own relatives, Esau having already married Bashemath, the daughter of Ishmael, without his father’s consent; for Isaac did not like the Canaanites, so that he disapproved of Esau’s former marriages, which made him take Bashemath to wife, in order to please him; and indeed he had a great affection for her.

CHAPTER 19

Concerning Jacob’s Flight into Mesopotamia, by Reason of the Fear He Was in of His Brother.

1. Now Jacob was sent by his mother to Mesopotamia, in order to marry Laban her brother’s daughter (which marriage was permitted by Isaac, on account of his being sycophantic to the desires of his wife); and he accordingly journeyed through the land of Canaan; and because he hated the people of that country, he would not lodge with any of them, but took up his lodging in the open air, and laid his head on a heap of stones that he had gathered together, at which time he saw in his sleep such a vision standing by him: he seemed to see a ladder that reached from the earth to Heaven, and persons descending on the ladder that seemed more excellent than human; and at last God Himself stood above it, and was plainly visible to him, who, calling him by his name, spoke to him in these words: “O Jacob, it is not fit for you, who are the son of a good father, and grandson of one who had obtained a great reputation for his eminent virtue, to be dejected at your present circumstances, but to hope for better times, for you will have great abundance of all good things by My assistance: for I brought Abraham here, out of Mesopotamia, when he was driven away by his relatives, and I made your father a happy man, nor will I bestow a lesser degree of happiness on yourself: be of good courage, therefore, and under My conduct proceed on this journey of yours, for the marriage you go so zealously about will be consummated. And you will have children of good characters, but their multitude will be innumerable; and they will leave what they have to a still more numerous posterity, to whom, and to whose posterity, I give the dominion of all the land, and their posterity will fill the entire earth and sea, so far as the sun beholds them: but do not fear any danger, nor be afraid of the many labors you must undergo, for by My providence I will direct you what you are to do in the present time, and still much more in the time to come.”

2. Such were the predictions which God made to Jacob; whereon he became very joyful at what he had seen and heard; and he poured oil on the stones, because on them the prediction of such great benefits was made. He also vowed a vow, that he would offer sacrifices on them if he lived and returned safe; and if he came again in such a condition, he would give the tithe of what he had obtained to God. He also judged the place to be honorable and gave it the name of Bethel, which, in the Greek, is interpreted, “The House of God.”

3. So he proceeded on his journey to Mesopotamia, and finally came to Haran; and meeting with shepherds in the suburbs, with boys grown up, and maidens sitting around a certain well, he stayed with them, as wanting water to drink; and beginning to discourse with them, he asked them whether they knew such a one as Laban, and whether he was still alive. Now they all said they knew him, for he was not so inconsiderable a person as to be unknown to any of them; and that his daughter fed her father’s flock together with them; and that indeed they wondered that she had not yet come, for by her means you might learn more exactly whatever you desire to know about that family. While they were saying this, the girl came, and the other shepherds came down along with her. Then they showed her Jacob, and told her that he was a stranger, who came to inquire about her father’s affairs. But she, as pleased, after the custom of children, with Jacob’s coming, asked him who he was, and from where he came to them, and what it was he lacked that he came there. She also wished it might be in their power to supply the wants for which he came.

4. But Jacob was quite overcome, not so much by their relation, nor by that affection which might arise there, as by his love for the girl, and his surprise at her beauty, which was so flourishing, as few of the women of that age could vie with. He said then, “There is a relation between you and me, older than either your or my birth, if you be the daughter of Laban; for Abraham was the son of Terah, as well as Haran and Nahor. Of the last of whom [(Nahor)] Bethuel your grandfather was the son. My father Isaac was the son of Abraham and of Sarah, who was the daughter of Haran. But there is a nearer and later cement of mutual relation which we bear to one another, for my mother Rebekah was sister to your father Laban, both by the same father and mother; therefore, you and I are cousins. And I have now come to salute you, and to renew that affinity which is proper between us.” On this the girl, at the mention of Rebekah, as usually happens to young persons, wept, and that out of the kindness she had for her father, and embraced Jacob, she having learned an account of Rebekah from her father, and knew that her parents loved to hear her named; and when she had saluted him, she said that “he brought the most desirable and greatest pleasures to her father, with all their family, who was always mentioning his mother, and always thinking of her, and her alone”; and that “this will make you equal in his eyes to any advantageous circumstances whatsoever.” Then she commanded him to go to her father and follow her while she led him to him; and not to deprive him of such a pleasure by staying any longer away from him.

5. When she had said thus, she brought him to Laban; and being owned by his uncle, he was secure himself, as being among his friends; and he brought a great deal of pleasure to them by his unexpected coming. But a little while afterward, Laban told him that he could not express in words the joy he had at his coming; but still he inquired of him the occasion of his coming, and why he left his aged mother and father when they wanted to be taken care of by him; and that he would provide him all the assistance he wanted. Then Jacob gave him an account of the whole occasion of his journey, and told him that Isaac had two sons that were twins—himself and Esau—who, because he failed of his father’s prayers, which by his mother’s wisdom were put up for him, sought to kill him, as deprived of the kingdom which was to be given him from God, and of the blessings for which their father prayed; and that this was the occasion of his coming here, as his mother had commanded him to do: “For we are all”—he says—“brothers to one another; but our mother esteems an alliance with your family more than she does one with the families of the country; so I look on yourself and God to be the supporters of my travels, and think myself safe in my present circumstances.”

6. Now Laban promised to treat him with great humanity, both on account of his ancestors, and particularly for the sake of his mother, toward whom, he said, he would show his kindness, even though she was absent, by taking care of him; for he assured him he would make him the head shepherd of his flock, and give him authority sufficient for that purpose; and when he should intend to return to his parents, he would send him back with presents, and this in as honorable a manner as the nearness of their relation should require. This Jacob listened gladly; and he said he would willingly, and with pleasure, undergo any sort of pains while he tarried with him, but desired Rachel to wife, as the reward of those pains, who was not only on other accounts esteemed by him, but also because she was the means of his coming to him; for he said he was forced by the love of the girl to make this proposal. Laban was well pleased with this agreement, and consented to give the girl to him, as not desirous to meet with any better son-in-law; and he said he would do this, if he would stay with him some time, for he was not willing to send his daughter to be among the Canaanites, for he converted of the alliance he had made already by marrying his sister there. And when Jacob had given his consent to this, he agreed to stay seven years; for so many years he had resolved to serve his father-in-law, that, having given a specimen of his virtue, it might be better known what sort of a man he was. And Jacob, accepting his terms, after the time was over, he made the wedding-feast; and when it was night, without Jacob’s perceiving it, [Laban] put his other daughter into bed with him, who was both older than Rachel, and of no attractive countenance: Jacob lay with her that night, as being both drunk and in the dark. However, when it was day, he knew what had been done to him; and he reproached Laban for his unfair proceeding with him, who asked pardon for that necessity which forced him to do what he did; for he did not give him Leah out of any ill design, but as overcome by another greater necessity: that, notwithstanding this, nothing should hinder him from marrying Rachel; but that when he had served another seven years, he would give him her whom he loved. Jacob submitted to this condition, for his love for the girl did not permit him to do otherwise; and when another seven years were gone, he took Rachel to wife.

7. Now each of these had handmaids, by their father’s donation. Zilpah was handmaid to Leah, and Bilhah to Rachel; by no means slaves, but however subject to their mistresses. Now Leah was severely troubled at her husband’s love for her sister; and she expected she should be better esteemed if she bore him children: so she begged God perpetually; and when she had borne a son, and her husband was on that account better reconciled to her, she named her son Reuben, because God had had mercy on her in giving her a son, for that is the signification of this name. After some time, she bore three more sons: Simeon, which name signifies that God had listened to her prayer. Then she bore Levi, the confirmer of their friendship. After him was born Judah, which denotes thanksgiving. But Rachel, fearing lest the fruitfulness of her sister should make herself enjoy a lesser share of Jacob’s affections, put to bed to him her handmaid Bilhah, by whom Jacob had Dan (one may interpret that name into the Greek tongue, “a divine judgment”). And after him Naphtali, as it were, “unconquerable in strategies,” since Rachel tried to conquer the fruitfulness of her sister by this strategy. Accordingly, Leah took the same method and used a counter-strategy to that of her sister; for she put to bed to him her own handmaid. Jacob therefore had by Zilpah a son, whose name was Gad, which may be interpreted “fortune”; and after him Asher, which may be called “a happy man,” because he added glory to Leah. Now Reuben, the eldest son of Leah, brought apples of mandrakes to his mother. When Rachel saw them, she desired that she would give her the apples, for she longed to eat them; but when she refused, and commanded her be content that she had deprived her of the benevolence she ought to have had from her husband, Rachel, in order to mitigate her sister’s anger, said she would yield her husband to her; and he should lie with her that evening. She accepted the favor, and Jacob slept with Leah by the favor of Rachel. She then bore these sons: Issachar, denoting one born by hire: and Zebulun, one born as a pledge of benevolence toward her; and a daughter, Dinah. After some time, Rachel had a son named Joseph, which signified [that] there should be another added to him.

8. Now Jacob fed the flocks of his father-in-law Laban all this time, being twenty years, after which he desired permission of his father-in-law to take his wives and go home; but when his father-in-law would not give him permission, he contrived to do it secretly. He therefore made trial of the disposition of his wives—what they thought of this journey—and they appeared glad and approved of it. Rachel took along with her the images of the gods, which, according to their laws, they used to worship in their own country, and ran away together with her sister. Also, the children of them both, and the handmaids, and what possessions they had, went along with them. Jacob also drove away half the cattle, without letting Laban know of it beforehand. But the reason why Rachel took the images of the gods, although Jacob had taught her to despise such worship of those gods, was this: that in case they were pursued, and taken by her father, she might have recourse to these images, in order obtain his pardon.

9. But Laban, after one day’s time, being acquainted with Jacob’s and his daughters’ departure, was much troubled, and pursued after them, leading a band of men with him; and on the seventh day he overtook them, and found them resting on a certain hill; and then indeed he did not meddle with them, for it was evening; but God stood by him in a dream, and warned him to receive his son-in-law and his daughters in a peaceable manner; and not to venture on anything rashly or in wrath, but to make a covenant with Jacob. And He told him that if he despised their small number, and attacked them in a hostile manner, He would assist them. When Laban had been thus forewarned by God, he called Jacob to him the next day, in order to discuss with him, and showed him what dream he had; in dependence whereon, he came confidently to him, and began to accuse him, alleging that he had entertained him when he was poor, and in need of all things, and had given him plenty of all [the] things which he had. “For,” he said, “I have joined my daughters to you in marriage, and supposed that your kindness to me was greater than before; but you have had no regard to either your mother’s relations to me, nor to the affinity now newly contracted between us; nor to those wives whom you have married; nor to those children, of whom I am the grandfather. You have treated me as an enemy, driving away my cattle, and by persuading my daughters to run away from their father; and by carrying home those sacred paternal images which were worshiped by my forefathers, and have been honored with the like worship which they paid them by myself. In short, you have done this while you are my relative, and my sister’s son, and the husband of my daughters, and was hospitably treated by me, and ate at my table.” When Laban had said this, Jacob made his defense—that he was not the only person in whom God had implanted the love of his native country, but that he had made it natural to all men; and that therefore it was but reasonable that, after such a long time, he should go back to it. “But as to the prey, of whose driving away you accuse me, if any other person were the arbitrator, you would be found in the wrong; for instead of those thanks I ought to have had from you, for both keeping your cattle and increasing them, how is it that you are unjustly angry at me because I have taken, and have with me, a small portion of them? But then, as to your daughters, take notice, that it is not through any evil practices of mine that they follow me in my return home, but from that just affection which wives naturally have for their husbands. They follow, therefore, not so much me, as their own children.” And thus far of his apology was made, in order to clear himself of having acted unjustly. To which he added his own complaint and accusation of Laban, saying, “While I was your sister’s son, and you had given me your daughters in marriage, you have worn me out with your harsh commands, and detained me twenty years under them. That indeed which was required in order to my marrying your daughters, hard as it was, I own to have been tolerable; but as to those that were put on me after those marriages, they were worse, and such indeed as an enemy would have avoided.” For Laban had certainly used Jacob very badly; for when he saw that God was assisting Jacob in all that he desired, he promised him, that of the young cattle which should be born, he should sometimes have what was of a white color, and sometimes what should be of a black color; but when those that came to Jacob’s share proved numerous, he did not keep his faith with him, but said he would give them to him the next year, because of his envying him the multitude of his possessions. He promised him as before, because he thought such an increase was not to be expected; but when it appeared to be fact, he deceived him.

10. But then, as to the sacred images, he commanded him to search for them; and when Laban accepted the offer, Rachel, being informed of it, put those images into that camel’s saddle on which she rode, and sat on it, and said that her menstruation hindered her rising up: so Laban stopped searching any further, not supposing that his daughter in such circumstances would approach to those images. So he made a covenant with Jacob, and bound it by oaths, that he would not bear him any malice on account of what had happened; and Jacob made the same covenant, and promised to love Laban’s daughters. And these covenants they also confirmed with oaths, which he made with assurance as whereon they erected a pillar, in the form of an altar, from which that hill is called Gilead; and from there they call that land the Land of Gilead at this day. Now when they had feasted, after the making of the covenant, Laban returned home.

CHAPTER 20

Concerning the Meeting of Jacob and Esau.

1. Now as Jacob was proceeding on his journey to the land of Canaan, messengers appeared to him and suggested to him good hope of his future condition; and that place he named the Camp of God. And being desirous of knowing what his brother’s intentions were to him, he sent messengers to give him an exact account of everything, as being afraid, on account of the enmities between them. He charged those that were sent to say to Esau, “Jacob had thought it wrong to live together with him while he was in anger against him, and so had gone out of the country; and that he now, thinking the length of time of his absence must have made up their differences, was returning; that he brought with him his wives, and his children, with what possessions he had gotten; and delivered himself, with what was most dear to him, into his hands; and should think it his greatest happiness to partake together with his brother of what God had bestowed on him.” So these messengers told him this message. On which Esau was very glad and met his brother with four hundred men. And Jacob, when he heard that he was coming to meet him with such a number of men, was greatly afraid. However, he committed his hope of deliverance to God and considered how, in his present circumstances, he might preserve himself and those that were with him and overcome his enemies if they attacked him injuriously. He therefore distributed his company into parts; some he sent before the rest, and the others he ordered to come close behind, so that, if the first were overpowered when his brother attacked them, they might have those that followed as a refuge to flee to. And when he had put his company in this order, he sent some of them to carry presents to his brother. The presents were made up of cattle, and a great number of four-footed beasts, of many kinds, such as would be very acceptable to those that received them, on account of their rarity. Those who were sent went at certain intervals of space apart, that, by following closely, one after another, they might appear to be more numerous, that Esau might remit of his anger on account of these presents if he were still in a passion. Instructions were also given to those that were sent to speak gently to him.

2. When Jacob had made these appointments all through the day, and night came on, he moved on with his company; and, as they had gone over a certain river called Jabbok, Jacob was left behind; and meeting with a Messenger, he wrestled with Him, the Messenger beginning the struggle: but he prevailed over the Messenger, who used a voice, and spoke to him in words, exhorting him to be pleased with what had happened to him, and not to suppose that his victory was a small one, but that he had overcome a Divine Messenger, and to esteem the victory as a sign of great blessings that should come to him, and that his offspring should never fall, and that no man should be too hard for his power. He also commanded him to be called Israel, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that struggled with the Divine Messenger. These promises were made at the prayer of Jacob; for when he perceived Him to be the Messenger of God, he desired [that] He would signify to him what should happen to him hereafter. And when the Messenger had said what is before related, He disappeared; but Jacob was pleased with these things, and named the place Phanuel, which signifies, “the face of God.” Now when he felt pain by this struggling, on his broad sinew, he abstained from eating that sinew himself afterward; and for his sake it is still not eaten by us.

3. When Jacob understood that his brother was near, he ordered his wives to go before, each by herself, with the handmaids, so that they might see the actions of the men as they were fighting, if Esau were so inclined. He then went up to his brother Esau, and bowed down to him, who had no evil design toward him, but saluted him; and he asked him about the company of the children and of the women, and desired, when he had understood all he wanted to know about them, that he would go along with him to their father; but Jacob pretending that the cattle were weary, Esau returned to Seir, for there was his place of habitation, he having named the place Roughness, from his own hairy roughness.

CHAPTER 21

Concerning the Violation of Dinah’s Chastity.

1. Hereon Jacob came to the place until this day called Tents [(Succoth)], from where he went to Shechem, which is a city of the Canaanites. Now as the Shechemites were keeping a festival, Dinah, who was the only daughter of Jacob, went into the city to see the finery of the women of that country. But when Shechem, the son of Hamor the king, saw her, he defiled her by violence; and being greatly in love with her, desired of his father that he would procure the girl to himself for a wife. To which desire he acquiesced, and came to Jacob, desiring him to give permission that his son Shechem might, according to law, marry Dinah. But Jacob, not knowing how to deny the desire of one of such great dignity, and yet not thinking it lawful to marry his daughter to a stranger, implored him to give him permission to have a consultation about what he desired him to do. So the king went away hopeful that Jacob would grant him this marriage. But Jacob informed his sons of the defilement of their sister, and of the address of Hamor, and desired them to give their advice [about] what they should do. On this, the greatest part said nothing, not knowing what advice to give. But Simeon and Levi, the brothers of the girl by the same mother, agreed between themselves on the action following: It being now the time of a festival, when the Shechemites were employed in ease and feasting, they fell on the watch when they were asleep, and, coming into the city, slew all the males, as also the king and his son with them, but spared the women. And when they had done this without their father’s consent, they brought away their sister.

2. Now while Jacob was astonished at the greatness of this act, and was severely blaming his sons for it, God stood by him, and commanded him to be of good courage, but to purify his tents and to offer those sacrifices which he had vowed to offer when he first went into Mesopotamia and saw his vision. As he was therefore purifying his followers, he came to the gods of Laban; (for he did not know before [that] they were stolen by Rachel;) and he hid them in the earth, under an oak, in Shechem. And departing from there, he offered sacrifice at Bethel, the place where he saw his dream when he first went into Mesopotamia.

3. And when he had gone from there and had come near Ephrata, he there buried Rachel, who died in childbirth: she was the only one of Jacob’s relatives that had not had the honor of burial at Hebron. And when he had mourned for her a great while, he called the son that was born of her Benjamin, because of the sorrow the mother had with him. These are all the children of Jacob: twelve males and one female. Of them eight were legitimate: six of Leah, and two of Rachel; and four were of the handmaids, two of each, all whose names have been set down already.

CHAPTER 22

How Isaac Died and Was Buried in Hebron.

From there Jacob came to Hebron, a city situated among the Canaanites; and there it was that Isaac lived: and so they lived together for a little while; for as to Rebekah, Jacob did not find her alive. Isaac also died not long after the coming of his son and was buried by his sons, with his wife, in Hebron, where they had a monument belonging to them from their forefathers. Now Isaac was a man who was beloved by God, and was granted great instances of providence by God, after Abraham his father, and lived to be exceedingly old; for when he had lived virtuously one hundred and eighty-five years, he then died.

BOOK II

Containing the Interval of Two Hundred and Twenty Years. From the Death of Isaac to the Exodus Out of Egypt.

CHAPTER 1

How Esau and Jacob, Isaac’s Sons, Divided Their Habitation; And Esau Possessed Idumea and Jacob Canaan.

1. After the death of Isaac, his sons divided their habitations respectively; nor did they retain what they had before, but Esau departed from the city of Hebron, and left it to his brother, and dwelt in Seir, and ruled over Idumea. He called the country by that name from himself, for he was named Edom; which appellation he got on the following occasion: One day returning from the toil of hunting very hungry (it was when he was a child in age), he came to his brother when he was preparing lentil-pottage for his dinner, which was of a very red color; on which account he more earnestly longed for it and desired him to give him some of it to eat, but he took advantage of his brother’s hunger and forced him to resign up to him his birthright; and he, being pressed with famine, resigned it up to him, under an oath. From which it came, that, on account of the redness of this pottage, he was, in way of jest, by his contemporaries, called Edom, for the Hebrews call what is red Adom; and this was the name given to the country; but the Greeks gave it a more agreeable pronunciation, and named it Idumea.

2. He became the father of five sons; of whom Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah, were by one wife, whose name was Aholibamah; but of the rest, Eliphaz was born to him by Adah, and Reuel by Bashemath: and these were the sons of Esau. Eliphaz had five legitimate sons: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz; for Amalek was not legitimate, but by a concubine, whose name was Timnath. These dwelt in that part of Idumea which is called Gebalitis, and that denominated from Amalek, Amalekitis; for Idumea was a large country, and did then preserve the name of the whole, while in its several parts it kept the names of its peculiar inhabitants.

CHAPTER 2

How Joseph, the Youngest of Jacob’s Sons, Was Envied by His Brothers, When Certain Dreams Had Foreshown His Future Happiness.

1. It happened that Jacob came to such great happiness as rarely any other person had arrived at. He was richer than the rest of the inhabitants of that country and was at once envied and admired for such virtuous sons, for they were deficient in nothing, but were of great souls, both for laboring with their hands and enduring of toil; and shrewd also in understanding. And God exercised such a providence over him, and such a concern for his happiness, as to bring him the greatest blessings, even out of what appeared to be the most sorrowful condition; and to make him the cause of our forefathers’ departure out of Egypt—him and his posterity. The occasion was this: When Jacob had his son Joseph born to him by Rachel, his father loved him above the rest of his sons, both because of the beauty of his body, and the virtues of his mind, for he excelled the rest in prudence. This affection of his father excited the envy and the hatred of his brothers; as did also his dreams which he saw, and related to his father, and to them, which foretold his future happiness, it being usual with mankind to envy their very nearest relations of their prosperity. Now the visions which Joseph saw in his sleep were these:

2. When they were in the middle of harvest, and Joseph was sent by his father, with his brothers, to gather the fruits of the earth, he saw a vision in a dream, but greatly exceeding the customary appearances that come when we are asleep; which, when he had gotten up, he told his brothers, that they might judge what it portended. He said [that] he saw the last night, that his wheat-sheaf stood still in the place where he set it, but that their sheaves ran to bow down to it, as servants bow down to their masters. But as soon as they perceived the vision foretold that he should obtain power and great wealth, and that his power should be in opposition to them, they gave no interpretation of it to Joseph, as if the dream were not by them understood, but they prayed that no part of what they suspected to be its meaning might come to pass; and they bore a still greater hatred to him on that account.

3. But God, in opposition to their envy, sent a second vision to Joseph, which was much more wonderful than the former; for it seemed to him that the sun took with him the moon, and the rest of the stars, and came down to the earth, and bowed down to him. He told the vision to his father, and that, as suspecting nothing of animosity from his brothers, when they were there also, and desired him to interpret what it should signify. Now Jacob was pleased with the dream: for, considering the prediction in his mind, and shrewdly and wisely guessing at its meaning, he rejoiced at the great things thereby signified, because it declared the future happiness of his son; and that, by the blessing of God, the time would come when he should be honored, and thought worthy of worship by his parents and brothers, as guessing that the moon and sun were like his mother and father; the former, as she that gave increase and nourishment to all things; and the latter, he that gave form and other powers to them; and that the stars were like his brothers, since they were eleven in number, as were the stars that receive their power from the sun and moon.

4. And thus, Jacob made a judgment of this vision, and that a shrewd one also. But these interpretations caused very great grief to Joseph’s brothers; and they were affected to him hereon as if he were a certain stranger, that was to those good things which were signified by the dreams and not as one that was a brother, with whom it was probable they should be joint-partakers; and as they had been partners in the same parentage, so should they be of the same happiness. They also resolved to kill the boy; and having fully ratified that intention of theirs, as soon as their collection of the fruits was over, they went to Shechem, which is a country good for feeding of cattle, and for pasturage; there they fed their flocks, without acquainting their father with their removal there; whereon he had melancholy suspicions about them, as being ignorant of his sons’ condition, and receiving no messenger from the flocks that could inform him of the true state they were in; so, because he was in great fear about them, he sent Joseph to the flocks, to learn the circumstances his brothers were in, and to bring him word how they were.

CHAPTER 3

How Joseph Was Thus Sold by His Brothers into Egypt, by Reason of Their Hatred to Him; And How He There Grew Famous and Illustrious and Had His Brothers under His Power.

1. Now these brothers rejoiced as soon as they saw their brother coming to them, not indeed as at the presence of a near relation, or as at the presence of one sent by their father, but as at the presence of an enemy, and one that by Divine Providence was delivered into their hands; and they already resolved to kill him, and not let slip the opportunity that lay before them. But when Reuben, the eldest of them, saw them thus inclined, and that they had agreed together to execute their purpose, he tried to restrain them, showing them the heinous enterprise they were going about, and the horrid nature of it; that this action would appear wicked in the sight of God, and impious before men, even though they should kill one not related to them; but much more villainous and detestable to appear to have slain their own brother, by which act the father must be treated unjustly in the son’s slaughter, and the mother also be in perplexity while she laments that her son is taken away from her, and this not in a natural way either. So he pleaded with them to have regard for their own consciences, and wisely to consider what mischief would happen to them on the death of such a good child, and their youngest brother; that they would also fear God, who was already both a spectator and a witness of the designs they had against their brother; that He would love them if they abstained from this act, and yielded to conversion and amendment; but in case they proceeded to do the fact, all sorts of punishments would overtake them from God for this murder of their brother, since they polluted His providence, which was everywhere present, and which did not overlook what was done, either in deserts or in cities; for wheresoever a man is, there ought he to suppose that God is also. He told them further that their consciences would be their enemies if they attempted to go through [with] so wicked an enterprise, which they can never avoid, whether it be a good conscience; or whether it be such a one as they will have within them when once they have killed their brother. He also added this in addition to what he had previously said: that it was not a righteous thing to kill a brother, though he had injured them; that it is a good thing to forget the actions of such near friends, even in things wherein they might seem to have offended; but that they were going to kill Joseph, who had been guilty of nothing that was ill toward them, in whose case the infirmity of his small age should rather procure him mercy, and move them to unite together in the care of his preservation. That the cause of killing him made the act itself much worse, while they determined to take him off out of envy at his future prosperity, an equal share of which they would naturally partake while he enjoyed it, since they were to him not strangers, but the nearest relations, for they might reckon on what God bestowed on Joseph as their own; and that it was fit for them to believe that the anger of God would for this reason be more severe on them, if they slew him who was judged by God to be worthy of that prosperity which was to be hoped for; and while, by murdering him, they made it impossible for God to bestow it on him.

2. Reuben said these and many other things, and used pleas to them, and thereby endeavored to divert them from the murder of their brother. But when he saw that his discourse had not placated them at all, and that they made haste to do the fact, he advised them to alleviate the wickedness they were going about, in the manner of taking Joseph off; for as he had exhorted them first, when they were going to revenge themselves, to be dissuaded from doing it; so, since the sentence for killing their brother had prevailed, he said that they would not, however, be so grossly guilty, if they would be persuaded to follow his present advice, which would include what they were so eager about, but was not so very bad, but, in the distress they were in, of a lighter nature. He begged of them, therefore, not to kill their brother with their own hands, but to cast him into the pit that was nearby, and so to let him die; by which they would gain so much, that they would not defile their own hands with his blood. To this the young men readily agreed; so Reuben took the boy and tied him to a cord, and let him down gently into the pit, for it had no water at all in it; who, when he had done this, went his way to seek for such pasturage as was fit for feeding his flocks.

3. But Judah, being one of Jacob’s sons also, seeing some Arabians, of the posterity of Ishmael, carrying spices and Syrian wares out of the land of Gilead to the Egyptians, after Reuben was gone, advised his brothers to draw Joseph out of the pit, and sell him to the Arabians; for if he should die among strangers a great way off, they should be freed from this barbaric action. This, therefore, was resolved on; so, they drew Joseph up out of the pit and sold him to the merchants for twenty pounds. He was now seventeen years old. But Reuben, coming in the nighttime to the pit, resolved to save Joseph, without the privity of his brothers; and when, on his calling to him, he made no answer, he was afraid that they had destroyed him after he was gone; of which he complained to his brothers; but when they had told him what they had done, Reuben ceased his mourning.

4. When Joseph’s brothers had done thus to him, they considered what they should do to escape the suspicions of their father. Now they had taken away from Joseph the coat which he had on when he came to them at the time they let him down into the pit; so they thought proper to tear that coat to pieces, and to dip it into goats’ blood, and then to carry it and show it to their father, that he might believe he was destroyed by wild beasts. And when they had so done, they came to the old man, but this not until what had happened to his son had already come to his knowledge. Then they said that they had not seen Joseph, nor knew what mishap had happened to him; but that they had found his coat bloody and torn to pieces, from which they had a suspicion that he had fallen among wild beasts, and so perished, if that was the coat he had on when he came from home. Now Jacob had before some better hopes that his son was only made a captive; but now he laid aside that notion, and supposed that this coat was an evident argument that he was dead, for he well remembered that this was the coat he had on when he sent him to his brothers; so he hereafter lamented the boy as now dead, and as if he had been the father of no more than one, without taking any comfort in the rest; and so he was also affected with his misfortune before he met with Joseph’s brothers, when he also conjectured that Joseph was destroyed by wild beasts. He sat down also clothed in sackcloth and in heavy affliction, insomuch that he found no ease when his sons comforted him, neither did his pains remit by length of time.

CHAPTER 4

Concerning the Signal Chastity of Joseph.

1. Now Potiphar, an Egyptian, who was chief cook to King Pharaoh, bought Joseph from the merchants, who sold him to him. He held him in the greatest honor, and taught him the learning that befitted a free man, and gave him permission to make use of a diet better than was allotted to slaves. He also entrusted the care of his house to him. So he enjoyed these advantages, yet he did not abandon that virtue which he had before, on such a change of his condition; but he demonstrated that wisdom was able to govern the uneasy passions of life, in such as have it in reality, and do not only put it on for a show, under a present state of prosperity.

2. For when his master’s wife had fallen in love with him, both on account of his beauty of body, and his dexterous management of affairs; and supposed that if she should make it known to him, she could easily persuade him to come and lie with her, and that he would look on it as a piece of happy fortune that his mistress should implore him, as regarding that state of slavery he was in, and not his moral character, which continued after his condition was changed. So she made known her indecent inclinations and spoke to him about lying with her. However, he rejected her pleas, not thinking it agreeable to religion to yield so far to her as to do what would tend to the insult and injury of him that purchased him and had granted him such great honors. He, on the contrary, exhorted her to govern that passion; and laid before her the impossibility of her obtaining her desires, which he thought might be conquered, if she had no hope of succeeding; and he said, that as to himself, he would endure anything whatsoever before he would be persuaded to it; for although it was fit for a slave, as he was, to do nothing contrary to his mistress, he might well be excused in a case where the contradiction was to such sort of commands only. But this opposition of Joseph, when she did not expect it, made her still more violent in her love for him; and as she was deeply beset with this indecent passion, so she resolved to reach her goal by a second attempt.

3. When, therefore, there was a public festival coming on, in which it was the custom for women to come to the public solemnity, she pretended to her husband that she was sick, as contriving an opportunity for solitude and leisure, that she might implore Joseph again. Which opportunity being obtained, she used more kind words to him than before; and she said that it had been good for him to have yielded to her first solicitation, and to have given her no repulse, both because of the reverence he ought to bear to her dignity who solicited him, and because of the vehemence of her passion, by which she was forced though she were his mistress to condescend beneath her dignity; but that he may now, by taking more prudent advice, wipe off the imputation of his former folly; for whether it were that he expected the repetition of her solicitations she had now made, and that with greater earnestness than before, for she had pretended sickness on this very account, and had preferred his conversation before the festival and its solemnity; or whether he opposed her former discourses, as not believing she could be in earnest; she now gave him sufficient security, by thus repeating her application, that she meant not in the least by fraud to impose on him; and assured him, that if he complied with her affections, he might expect the enjoyment of the advantages he already had; and if he were submissive to her, he should have still greater advantages, but that he must look for revenge and hatred from her, in case he rejected her desires, and preferred the reputation of chastity before his mistress; for he would gain nothing by such procedure, because she would then become his accuser, and would falsely pretend to her husband that he had violated her chastity; and that Potiphar would listen to her words rather than to his, let his be ever so agreeable to the truth.

4. When the woman had said this, and even with tears in her eyes, neither did pity dissuade Joseph from his chastity, nor did fear compel him to a compliance with her; but he opposed her solicitations, and did not yield to her threats, and was afraid to do an evil thing, and chose to undergo the sharpest punishment rather than to enjoy his present advantages by doing what his own conscience knew would justly deserve that he should die for it. He also reminded her that she was a married woman and that she ought to cohabit with her husband only; and he desired her to permit these considerations to have more weight with her than the short pleasure of lustful dalliance, which would bring her to conversion afterward, would cause trouble to her, and yet would not amend what had been done wrongly. He also suggested to her the fear she would be in lest they should be caught; and that the advantage of concealment was uncertain, and that only while the wickedness was not known [would there be any peace for them]; but that she might have the enjoyment of her husband’s company without any danger. And he told her that in the company of her husband she might have great boldness from a good conscience, both before God and before men. No, that she would act better like his mistress, and make use of her authority over him better while she persisted in her chastity, than when they were both ashamed for what wickedness they had been guilty of; and that it is much better to a life, well and known to have been so, than on the hopes of the concealment of evil practices.

5. Joseph, by saying this, and more, tried to restrain the violent passion of the woman, and to reduce her affections within the rules of reason; but she grew more ungovernable and earnest in the matter; and since she despaired of persuading him, she laid her hands on him, and intended to force him. But as soon as Joseph had gotten away from her anger, also leaving his garment with her—for he left that to her, and leaped out of her chamber—she was greatly afraid lest he should expose her lewdness to her husband, and greatly troubled at the offense he had offered her; so she resolved to preempt him, and to accuse Joseph falsely to Potiphar, and by that means to revenge herself on him for his pride and contempt of her; and she thought it a wise thing in itself, and also befitting a woman, thus to prevent his accusation. Accordingly, she sat sorrowful and in confusion, framing herself so hypocritically and angrily, that the sorrow, which was really for her being disappointed of her lust, might appear to be for the violation of her chastity; so that when her husband came home, and was disturbed at the sight of her, and inquired what was the cause of the disorder she was in, she began to accuse Joseph: and, “O husband,” she said, “may you not live a day longer if you do not punish the wicked slave who has desired to defile your bed; who has neither minded who he was when he came to our house, so as to behave himself with modesty; nor has he been mindful of what favors he had received from your bounty (as he must be an ungrateful man indeed, unless he, in every respect, carry himself in a manner agreeable to us): this man, I say, laid a private design to abuse your wife, and this at the time of a festival, observing when you would be absent. So that it now is clear that his modesty, as it appeared to be formerly, was only because of the restraint he was in out of fear of you, but that he was not really of a good disposition. This has been occasioned by his being advanced to honor beyond what he deserved, and what he hoped for; insomuch that he concluded that he who was deemed fit to be trusted with your estate and the government of your family, and was preferred above your eldest servants, might be allowed to touch your wife also.” Thus, when she had ended her discourse, she showed him his garment, as if he then left it with her when he attempted to force her. But Potiphar not being able to disbelieve what his wife’s tears showed, and what his wife said, and what he saw himself, and being seduced by his love for his wife, did not set himself about the examination of the truth; but taking it for granted that his wife was a modest woman, and condemning Joseph as a wicked man, he threw him into the criminals’ prison; and had a still higher opinion of his wife, and bore her witness that she was a woman of an appropriate modesty and chastity.

CHAPTER 5

What Things Happened to Joseph in Prison.

1. Now Joseph, commending all his affairs to God, did not commit himself to make his defense, nor to give an account of the exact circumstances of the fact, but silently underwent the bonds and the distress he was in, firmly believing that God, who knew the cause of his affliction and the truth of the fact, would be more powerful than those that inflicted the punishments on him: a proof of whose providence he quickly received, for the keeper of the prison taking notice of his care and fidelity in the affairs he had set him about, and the dignity of his countenance, relaxed his bonds, and thereby made his heavy calamity lighter and more supportable to him. He also permitted him to make use of a diet better than that of the rest of the prisoners. Now, as his fellow prisoners, when their hard labors were over, fell to discoursing among one another, as is usual in such as are equal sufferers, and to inquire one of another what were the occasions of their being condemned to a prison: among them the king’s cupbearer, and one that had been respected by him, was put in bonds, on the king’s anger at him. This man was under the same bonds with Joseph and grew more familiar with him; and on his observing that Joseph had a better understanding than the rest had, he told him of a dream he had, and desired he would interpret its meaning, complaining that, besides the afflictions he underwent from the king, God also added to him trouble from his dreams.

2. He therefore said that in his sleep he saw three clusters of grapes hanging on three branches of a vine, large already, and ripe for gathering; and that he squeezed them into a cup which the king held in his hand; and when he had strained the wine, he gave it to the king to drink, and that he received it from him with a pleasant countenance. This, he said, was what he saw; and he desired Joseph, that if he had any portion of understanding in such matters, he would tell him what this vision foretold, who commanded him to be of good cheer, and expect to be loosed from his bonds in three days’ time, because the king desired his service, and was about to restore him to it again; for he let him know that God bestows the fruit of the vine on men for good; which wine is poured out to him, and is the pledge of fidelity and mutual confidence among men; and puts an end to their quarrels, takes away passion and grief out of the minds of them that use it, and makes them cheerful. “You say that you squeezed this wine from three clusters of grapes with your hands, and that the king received it: know, therefore, that this vision is for your good, and foretells a release from your present distress within the same number of days as the branches had from which you gathered your grapes in your sleep. However, remember what prosperity I have foretold you when you have found it true by experience; and when you are in authority, do not overlook us in this prison, wherein you will leave us when you have gone to the place we have foretold; for we are not in prison for any crime, but for the sake of our virtue and sobriety are we condemned to suffer the penalty of criminals, and because we are not willing to injure him that has thus distressed us, though it were for our own pleasure.” The cupbearer, therefore, as was natural to do, rejoiced to hear such an interpretation of his dream, and awaited the completion of what had been thus shown him beforehand.

3. But another servant there was of the king, who had been chief baker, and was now bound in prison with the cupbearer; he was also in good hope, on Joseph’s interpretation of the other’s vision, for he had also seen a dream; so he desired that Joseph would tell him what the visions he had seen the night before might mean. They were these that follow: “I think,” he says, “I carried three baskets on my head: two were full of loaves, and the third full of delicacies and other eatables, such as are prepared for kings; but that the birds came flying, and ate them all up, and had no regard to my attempt to drive them away.” And he expected a prediction like to that of the cupbearer. But Joseph, considering and reasoning about the dream, said to him that he would willingly be an interpreter of good events to him, and not of such as his dream pronounced to him; but he told him that he only had three days in all to live, because the [three] baskets signify that on the third day he should be crucified and devoured by birds, while he was unable to help himself. Now both of these dreams had the same several events that Joseph foretold they should have, and this to both the parties; for on the third day before mentioned, when the king solemnized his birthday, he crucified the chief baker, but set the butler free from his bonds, and restored him to his former ministration.

4. But God freed Joseph from his confinement after he had endured his bonds two years and had received no assistance from the cupbearer, who did not remember what he had said to him formerly; and God contrived this method of deliverance for him. Pharaoh the king had seen in his sleep the same evening two visions; and after them the interpretations of them had both been given [to] him. He had forgotten the latter but retained the dreams themselves. Being therefore troubled at what he had seen, for it seemed to him to be all of a melancholy nature, the next day he called together the wisest men among the Egyptians, desiring to learn from them the interpretation of his dreams. But when they hesitated about them, the king was so much more disturbed. And it was now that the memory of Joseph and his skill in dreams came into the mind of the king’s cupbearer when he saw the confusion that Pharaoh was in; so he came and mentioned Joseph to him, as also the vision he had seen in prison, and how the event proved as he had said; as also that the chief baker was crucified on the very same day; and that this also happened to him according to the interpretation of Joseph. That Joseph himself was laid in bonds by Potiphar, who was his head cook, as a slave; but, he said, he was one of the noblest of the stock of the Hebrews; and said further [that] his father lived in great splendor. “If, therefore, you will send for him, and not despise him on the score of his misfortunes, you will learn what your dreams signify.” So the king commanded that they should bring Joseph into his presence; and those who received the command came and brought him with them, having taken care of his attire, that it might be decent, as the king had enjoined them to do.

5. But the king took him by the hand, and, “O young man,” he says, “for my servant bears witness that you are at present the best and most skillful person I can consult with; grant me the same favors which you bestowed on this servant of mine, and tell me what events they are which the visions of my dreams foretell; and I desire you to suppress nothing out of fear, nor to flatter me with lying words, or with what may please me, although the truth should be of a melancholy nature. For it seemed to me that, as I walked by the river, I saw fat and very large cows, seven in number, going from the river to the marshes; and other cows of the same number like them met them out of the marshes, exceedingly lean and unpleasant, which ate up the fat and the large cows, and yet were no better than before, and not less miserably pinched with famine. After I had seen this vision, I awoke out of my sleep; and being in disorder, and considering within myself what this appearance might be, I fell asleep again, and saw another dream, much more wonderful than the previous, which frightened and disturbed me even more: I saw seven ears of corn growing out of one root, having their heads borne down by the weight of the grains, and bending down with the fruit, which was now ripe and fit for reaping; and near these I saw seven other ears of corn, meager and weak, for lack of rain, which fell to eating and consuming those that were fit for reaping; and [it] put me into great astonishment.”

6. To which Joseph replied: “This dream,” he said, “O king, although seen under two forms, signifies one and the same event of things; for when you saw the fat cows, which is an animal made for the plow and for labor, devoured by the worser cows, and the ears of corn eaten up by the smaller ears, they foretell a famine, and lack of the fruits of the earth for the same number of years, and equal with those when Egypt was in a fortunate state; and this so far, that the plenty of these years will be spent in the same number of years of scarcity, and that scarcity of necessary provisions will be very difficult to be corrected; as a sign whereof, the unpleasant cows, when they had devoured the better sort, could not be satisfied. But still God foretells what is to come on men, not to grieve them, but that, when they know it beforehand, they may by prudence make the actual experience of what is foretold more tolerable. If you, therefore, carefully dispose of the plentiful crops which will come in the former years, you will procure that the future calamity will not be felt by the Egyptians.”

7. Hereon the king wondered at the discretion and wisdom of Joseph and asked him by what means he might dispense the preceding plentiful crops in the blessed years, as to make the miserable crops more tolerable. Joseph then added this advice of his: to spare the good crops, and not permit the Egyptians to spend them luxuriously, but to reserve what they would have spent in luxury beyond their necessity against the time of need. He also exhorted him to take the corn of the farmers and give them only so much as will be sufficient for their food. Accordingly, Pharaoh being surprised at Joseph, not only for his interpretation of the dream, but for the counsel he had given him, entrusted him with dispensing the corn, with power to do what he thought would be for the benefit of the people of Egypt, and for the benefit of the king, as believing that he who first discovered this method of acting would prove the best overseer of it. But Joseph having this power given him by the king, with permission to make use of his seal, and to wear purple, drove in his chariot through all the land of Egypt, and took the corn of the farmers, allotting as much to everyone as would be sufficient for seed, and for food, but without revealing to anyone the reason why he did so.

CHAPTER 6

How Joseph When He Had Become Famous in Egypt, Had His Brothers in Subjection.

1. Joseph had now grown up to thirty years of age, and enjoyed great honors from the king, who called him Psothom Phanech, out of regard to his prodigious degree of wisdom; for that name denotes the revealer of secrets. He also married a wife of very high quality; for he married the daughter of Petephres, one of the priests of Heliopolis; she was a virgin, and her name was Asenath. By her he had children before the scarcity came on: Manasseh, the elder, which signifies forgetful, because his present happiness made him forget his former misfortunes; and Ephraim, the younger, which signifies restored, because he was restored to the freedom of his forefathers. Now after Egypt had happily passed over seven years, according to Joseph’s interpretation of the dreams, the famine came on them in the eighth year; and because this misfortune fell on them when they had no sense of it beforehand, they were all severely afflicted by it, and came running to the king’s gates; and he called on Joseph, who sold the corn to them, having become confessedly a savior to the whole multitude of the Egyptians. Nor did he open this market of corn for the people of that country only, but strangers also had liberty to buy—Joseph being willing that all men, who are naturally akin to one another, should have assistance from those that lived in happiness.

2. Now Jacob also, when he understood that foreigners might come, sent all his sons into Egypt to buy corn, for the land of Canaan was grievously afflicted with the famine; and this great misery touched the whole continent. He only retained Benjamin, who was born to him by Rachel, and was of the same mother with Joseph. These sons of Jacob then came into Egypt, and applied themselves to Joseph, wanting to buy corn; for nothing of this kind was done without his approbation, since even then only was the honor that was paid the king himself advantageous to the persons that paid it, when they took care to honor Joseph also. Now when he well knew his brothers, they thought nothing of him; for he was but a youth when he left them, and was now come to an age so much greater, that the features of his face were changed, and he was not known by them: besides this, the greatness of the dignity wherein he appeared, did not allow them so much as to suspect it was he. He now made trial of what sentiments they had about affairs of the greatest consequence; for he refused to sell them corn and said they had come as spies of the king’s affairs; and that they came from several countries, and joined themselves together, and pretended that they were related, it not being possible that a private man should breed up so many sons, and those of such great beauty of countenance as they were, such an education of so many children not being easily obtained by kings themselves. Now this he did in order to discover what concerned his father, and what happened to him after his own departure from him, and as desiring to know what had become of his brother Benjamin, for he was afraid that they had ventured on a similar wicked enterprise against him like they had done to himself and had taken him off also.

3. Now these brothers of his were under distraction and terror, and thought that very great danger hung over them; yet not at all reflecting on their brother Joseph, and standing firm under the accusations laid against them, they made their defense by Reuben, the eldest of them, who now became their spokesman: “We have not come here,” he said, “with any unjust design, nor in order to bring any harm to the king’s affairs; we only want to be preserved, as supposing your humanity might be a refuge for us from the miseries which our country labors under, we having heard that you proposed to sell corn, not only to your own countrymen, but to strangers also, and that you determined to allow that corn, in order to preserve all that need it; but that we are brothers, and of the same common blood, the peculiar features of our faces, and those not so much different from one another, plainly show. Our father’s name is Jacob, a Hebrew man, who had twelve of us for his sons by four wives; which twelve of us, while we were all alive, were a happy family; but when one of our brothers, whose name was Joseph, died, our affairs changed for the worse, for our father could not forbear to make a long lamentation for him; and we are in affliction, both by the calamity of the death of our brother, and the miserable state of our aged father. We have now, therefore, come to buy corn, having entrusted the care of our father, and the provision for our family, to Benjamin, our youngest brother; and if you send to our house, you may learn whether we are guilty of the least falsehood in what we say.”

4. And thus, Reuben endeavored to persuade Joseph to have a better opinion of them. But when he had learned from them that Jacob was alive, and that his brother was not destroyed by them, he for the present put them in prison, as intending to examine more into their affairs when he should be at leisure. But on the third day he brought them out, and said to them, “Since you constantly affirm that you have not come to do any harm to the king’s affairs—that you are brothers, and the sons of the father whom you named—you will satisfy me of the truth of what you say if you leave one of your company with me, who will suffer no injury here; and if, when you have carried corn to your father, you will come to me again, and bring your brother, whom you say you left there, along with you, for this will be by me honored [as] an assurance of the truth of what you have told me.” Hereon they were in greater grief than before; they wept, and perpetually deplored one among another the calamity of Joseph; and said [that] they had fallen into this misery as a punishment inflicted by God for what evil plots they had against him. And Reuben was large in his reproaches of them for their overly late conversion, from which no profit arose to Joseph; and earnestly exhorted them to bear with patience whatever they suffered, since it was done by God in way of punishment, on his account. Thus, they spoke to one another, not imagining that Joseph understood their language. A general sadness also seized them at Reuben’s words, and a conversion for what they had done; and they condemned the wickedness they had perpetrated, for which they judged they were justly punished by God. Now when Joseph saw that they were in this distress, he was so affected at it that he fell into tears, and not being willing that they should take notice of him, he retired; and after a while came to them again, and taking Simeon in order for his being a pledge for his brothers’ return, he commanded them to take the corn they had bought and go their way. He also commanded his steward to secretly put the money which they had brought with them for the purchase of corn into their sacks and to dismiss them with it, who did what he was commanded to do.

5. Now when Jacob’s sons had come into the land of Canaan, they told their father what had happened to them in Egypt, and that they were taken to have come there as spies on the king; and how they said they were brothers, and had left their eleventh brother with their father, but were not believed; and how they had left Simeon with the governor, until Benjamin should go there, and be a testimonial of the truth of what they had said: and they begged of their father to fear nothing, but to send the boy along with them. But Jacob was not pleased with anything his sons had done; and he took the detention of Simeon heinously, and there thought it a foolish thing to give up Benjamin also. Neither did he yield to Reuben’s persuasion, though he begged it of him, and gave permission that the grandfather might, in way of requital, kill his own sons, in case any harm came to Benjamin in the journey. So they were distressed and did not know what to do; no, there was another accident that still disturbed them more—the money that was found hidden in their sacks of corn. Yet when the corn they had brought failed them, and when the famine still afflicted them, and necessity forced them, Jacob did [not] still resolve to send Benjamin with his brothers, although there was no returning into Egypt unless they came with what they had promised. Now the misery growing every day worse, and his sons begging it of him, he had no other course to take in his present circumstances. And Judah, who was of a bold temper on other occasions, spoke his mind very freely to him—that it was not fitting for him to be afraid on account of his son, nor to suspect the worst, as he did; for nothing could be done to his son but by the appointment of God, which must also for certain come to pass, though he were at home with him; that he ought not to condemn them to such manifest destruction; nor deprive them of that plenty of food they might have from Pharaoh, by his unreasonable fear about his son Benjamin, but ought to take care of the preservation of Simeon, lest, by attempting to hinder Benjamin’s journey, Simeon should perish. He exhorted him to trust God for him and said he would either bring his son back to him safe, or, together with his, lose his own life, so that Jacob was finally persuaded, and delivered Benjamin to them, with the price of the corn doubled; he also sent presents to Joseph of the fruits of the land of Canaan, balsam and rosin, as also turpentine and honey. Now their father shed many tears at the departure of his sons, as well as themselves. His concern was that he might receive them back again safely after their journey; and their concern was that they might find their father well, and [in] no way afflicted with grief for them. And this lamentation lasted a whole day, so that the old man was at last tired with grief and stayed behind; but they went on their way for Egypt, endeavoring to mitigate their grief for their present misfortunes, with the hopes of better success hereafter.

6. As soon as they came into Egypt, they were brought down to Joseph: but here no small fear disturbed them, lest they should be accused about the price of the corn, as if they had cheated Joseph. They then made a long apology to Joseph’s steward and told him that when they came home they found the money in their sacks, and that they had now brought it along with them. He said he did not know what they meant, so they were delivered from that fear. And when he had freed Simeon, and put him into handsome attire, he permitted him to be with his brothers; at which time Joseph came from his attendance on the king. So they offered him their presents; and on his putting the question to them about their father, they answered that they found him well. He also, on his discovery that Benjamin was alive, asked whether this was their younger brother, for he had seen him; whereon they said he was. He replied that the God over all was his protector. But when his affection for him made him shed tears, he retired, desiring [that] he might not be seen in that plight by his brothers. Then Joseph took them to supper, and they were set down in the same order as they used to sit at their father’s table. And although Joseph treated them all kindly, yet he sent a portion to Benjamin that was double to what the rest of the guests had for their shares.

7. Now when after supper they had composed themselves to sleep, Joseph commanded his steward both to give them their measures of corn and to hide its price again in their sacks; and that additionally they should put into Benjamin’s sack the golden cup, out of which he loved to drink himself—which things he did, in order to make trial of his brothers, whether they would stand by Benjamin when he should be accused of having stolen the cup, and should appear to be in danger; or whether they would leave him, and, depending on their own innocence, go to their father without him. When the servant had done as he was commanded, the sons of Jacob, knowing nothing of all this, went their way, and took Simeon along with them, and had a double cause of joy, both because they had received him again, and because they took back Benjamin to their father as they had promised. But presently a troop of horsemen encompassed them and brought with them Joseph’s servant, who had put the cup into Benjamin’s sack, on which unexpected attack of the horsemen they were greatly disturbed and asked what the reason was that they came thus on men, who shortly before had been by their lord thought worthy of an honorable and hospitable reception. They replied by calling them wicked wretches, who had forgotten that very hospitable and kind treatment which Joseph had given them, and did not hesitate to be injurious to him, and to carry off that cup out of which he had, in so friendly a manner, drank to them, and not regarding their friendship with Joseph, no more than the danger they should be in if they were taken, in comparison of the unjust gain. Hereon he threatened that they should be punished; for though they had escaped the knowledge of him who was but a servant, yet they had not escaped the knowledge of God, nor had they gone off with what they had stolen; and, after all, asked why we come on them, as if they knew nothing of the matter: and he told them that they should immediately know it by their punishment. This, and more of the same nature, did the servant say, in way of reproach to them: but they being wholly ignorant of anything here that concerned them, laughed at what he said, and wondered at the abusive language which the servant gave them, when he was so forward as to accuse those who did not before so much as retain the price of their corn, which was found in their sacks, but brought it again, though nobody else knew of any such thing—so far were they from offering any injury to Joseph voluntarily. But still, supposing that a search would be a more sure justification of themselves than their own denial of the fact, they commanded him to search them, and that if any of them had been guilty of the theft, to punish them all; for being [in] no way conscious themselves of any crime, they spoke with assurance, and, as they thought, without any danger to themselves also. The servants desired [that] a search might be made there, but they said the punishment should extend to him alone who should be found guilty of the theft. So they made the search, and, having searched all the rest, they came last of all to Benjamin, as knowing it was Benjamin’s sack in which they had hidden the cup, they having indeed searched the rest only for a show of accuracy: so the rest were out of fear for themselves, and were now only concerned about Benjamin, but still were well assured that he would also be found innocent; and they reproached those that came after them for their hindering them, while they might, in the meanwhile, have gotten a good way on their journey. But as soon as they had searched Benjamin’s sack, they found the cup and took it from him; and all was changed into mourning and lamentation. They tore their garments and wept for the punishment which their brother was to undergo for his theft and for the delusion they had put on their father, when they promised they would bring Benjamin back safely to him. What added to their misery was that this melancholy accident came unfortunately at a time when they thought they had gotten off clear; but they confessed that this misfortune of their brother, as well as the grief of their father for him, was owing to themselves, since it was they that forced their father to send him with them when he was averse to it.

8. The horsemen therefore took Benjamin and brought him to Joseph, his brothers also following him, who, when he saw him in custody, and them in the attire of mourners, said, “How did you, vile wretches as you are, come to have such a strange notion of my kindness to you, and of God’s providence, as impudently to do thus to your benefactor, who in such a hospitable manner had entertained you?” Whereon they gave up themselves to be punished, in order to save Benjamin; and they called to mind what a wicked enterprise they had been guilty of against Joseph. They also pronounced him happier than themselves, if he were dead, in being freed from the miseries of this life; and if he were alive, that he enjoyed the pleasure of seeing God’s vengeance on them. They said further that they were the plague of their father, since they should now add to his former affliction for Joseph, this other affliction for Benjamin. Reuben was also large in cutting them on this occasion. But Joseph dismissed them, for he said they had been guilty of no offense, and that he would satisfy himself with the boy’s punishment; for he said it was not a fit thing to let him go free for the sake of those who had not offended; nor was it a fitting thing to punish them together with him who had been guilty of stealing. And when he promised to give them permission to go away in safety, the rest of them were under great consternation, and were able to say nothing on this sad occasion. But Judah, who had persuaded their father to send the boy from him, being otherwise also a very bold and active man, determined to endanger himself for the preservation of his brother. “It is true,” he said, “O governor, that we have been very wicked with regard to you, and on that account deserved punishment; even all of us may justly be punished, although the theft were not committed by all, but only by one of us, and he the youngest also; but yet there remains some hope for us, who otherwise must be under despair on his account, and this from your goodness, which promises us a deliverance out of our present danger. And now I beg [that] you will not look at us, or at that great crime we have been guilty of, but at your own excellent nature, and take advice of your own virtue, instead of that wrath you have against us; which passion those that otherwise are of lower character indulge, as they do their strength, and that not only on great, but also on very trivial occasions. Overcome, sir, that passion, and do not be subdued by it, nor permit it to slay those that do not otherwise presume on their own safety, but are desirous to accept it from you; for this is not the first time that you will bestow it on us, but before, when we came to buy corn, you provided us great abundance of food, and gave us permission to carry so much home to our family as has preserved them from perishing by famine. Nor is there any difference between not overlooking men that were perishing for lack of necessities, and not punishing those that seem to be offenders, and have been so unfortunate as to lose the advantage of that glorious benefaction which they received from you. This will be an instance of equal favor, though bestowed in a different manner; for you will save those this way whom you fed the other; and you will hereby preserve alive, by your own bounty, those souls which you did not permit to be distressed by famine, it being indeed at once a wonderful and a great thing to sustain our lives by corn, and to bestow on us that pardon, whereby, now we are distressed, we may continue those lives. And I am ready to suppose that God is willing to provide you this opportunity of showing your virtuous disposition, by bringing us into this calamity, that it may appear you can forgive the injuries that are done to yourself, and may be esteemed kind to others, besides those who, on other accounts, stand in need of your assistance; since it is indeed a right thing to do well to those who are in distress for lack of food, but still a more glorious thing to save those who deserve to be punished, when it is on account of heinous offenses against yourself; for if it is a thing deserving commendation to forgive such as have been guilty of small offenses, that tend to a person’s loss, and this is praiseworthy in him that overlooks such offenses, to restrain a man’s passion as to crimes which are capital to the guilty, is to be like the most excellent nature of God Himself. And truly, as for myself, had it not been that we had a father, who had discovered, on occasion of the death of Joseph, how miserably he is always afflicted at the loss of his sons, I had not made any words on account of the saving of our own lives; I mean, any further than as that would be an excellent character for yourself, to preserve even those that would have nobody to lament them when they were dead, but we would have yielded ourselves up to suffer whatsoever you pleased; but now (for we do not plead for mercy for ourselves, though indeed, if we die, it will be while we are young, and before we have had the enjoyment of life) have regard to our father, and take pity of his old age, on whose account it is that we make these supplications to you. We plead [that] you will give us those lives which this wickedness of ours has rendered obnoxious to your punishment; and this for his sake who is not himself wicked, nor does his being our father make us wicked. He is a good man, and not worthy to have such trials of his patience; and now [that] we are absent, he is afflicted with care for us. But if he hears of our deaths, and what was the cause of it, he will on that account die an immature death; and the reproachful manner of our ruin will hasten his end, and will directly kill him; no—will bring him to a miserable death, while he will make haste to rid himself out of the world, and bring himself to a state of insensibility, before the sad story of our end comes abroad into the rest of the world. Consider these things in this manner, although our wickedness does now provoke you with a just desire of punishing that wickedness, and forgive it for our father’s sake; and let your pity of him weigh more with you than our wickedness. Have regard to the old age of our father, who, if we perish, will be very lonely while he lives, and will also soon die himself. Grant this benefit to the name of fathers, for thereby you will honor him that begot you, and will grant it to yourself also, who enjoy already that denomination; you will then, by that denomination, be preserved of God, the Father of all—by showing a pious regard to which, in the case of our father, you will appear to honor him who is styled by the same name; I mean, if you will have this pity on our father, on this consideration, how miserable he will be if he is deprived of his sons! It is your part therefore to bestow on us what God has given us, when it is in your power to take it away, and so to resemble Him entirely in charity; for it is good to use that power, which can either give or take away, on the merciful side; and when it is in your power to destroy, to forget that you ever had that power, and to look on yourself as only allowed power for preservation; and that the more anyone extends this power, the greater reputation does he gain for himself. Now, by forgiving our brother what he has unhappily committed, you will preserve us all; for we cannot think of living if he is put to death, since we dare not show ourselves alive to our father without our brother, but here we must partake of one and the same catastrophe of his life. And so far, we beg of you, O governor, that if you condemn our brother to die, you will punish us together with him, as partners of his crime—for we will not think it reasonable to be reserved to kill ourselves for grief of our brother’s death, but so to die rather as equally guilty with him of this crime. I will only leave with you this one consideration, and then will say no more, namely, that our brother committed this fault when he was young, and not yet of confirmed wisdom in his conduct; and that men naturally forgive such young persons. I end here, without adding what more I have to say, that in case you condemn us, that omission may be supposed to have hurt us, and permitted you to take the more severe side. But in case you set us free, that this may be ascribed to your own goodness, of which you are inwardly conscious, that you free us from condemnation; and that not by barely preserving us, but by granting us such a favor as will make us appear more righteous than we really are, and by representing to yourself more motives for our deliverance than we are able to produce ourselves. If, therefore, you resolve to slay him, I desire you will slay me in his stead, and send him back to his father; or if you please to retain him with you as a slave, I am more fit for labor for your advantage in that capacity, and, as you see, am better prepared for either of those sufferings.” So Judah, being very willing to undergo anything whatsoever for the deliverance of his brother, cast himself down at Joseph’s feet, and earnestly labored to assuage and pacify his anger. All his brothers also fell down before him, weeping and delivering themselves up to destruction for the preservation of the life of Benjamin.

9. But Joseph, as overcome now with his affections, and no longer able to impersonate an angry man, commanded all that were present to depart, that he might make himself known to his brothers when they were alone; and when the rest had gone out, he made himself known to his brothers, and said, “I commend you for your virtue, and your kindness to our brother: I find you better men than I could have expected from what you contrived toward me. Indeed, I did all this to try your love for your brother; so I believe you were not wicked by nature in what you did in my case, but that all has happened according to God’s will, who has hereby procured our enjoyment of what good things we have; and, if He continues in a favorable disposition, of what we hope for hereafter. Since, therefore, I know that our father is safe and well, beyond expectation, and I see you so well-disposed toward your brother, I will no longer remember what guilt you seem to have had about me, but will cease to hate you for that wickedness of yours; and rather return you my thanks, that you have concurred with the intentions of God to bring things to their present state. I would have you also rather to forget the same, since that imprudence of yours has come to such a fortunate conclusion, than to be uneasy and blush at those offenses of yours. Do not, therefore, let your evil intentions, when you condemned me, and that bitter remorse which might follow, be a grief to you now, because those intentions were frustrated. Go, therefore, your way, rejoicing in what has happened by the Divine Providence, and inform your father of it, lest he should be spent with cares for you, and deprive me of the most agreeable part of my euphoria; I mean, lest he should die before he comes into my sight, and enjoys the good things that we now have. Bring, therefore, our father with you, and your wives and children, and all your relatives, and remove your habitations here; for it is not proper that the persons dearest to me should live far from me, now [that] my affairs are so prosperous, especially when they must endure five more years of famine.” When Joseph had said this, he embraced his brothers, who were in tears and sorrow; but the generous kindness of their brother seemed to leave among them no room for fear, lest they should be punished on account of what they had consulted and acted against him; and they were then feasting. Now the king, as soon as he heard that Joseph’s brothers had come to him, was exceedingly glad of it, as if it had been a part of his own good fortune; and he gave them wagons full of corn, and gold, and silver, to be conveyed to his father. Now when they had received more from their brother—part to be carried to their father and part as free gifts to every one of themselves, Benjamin having still more than the rest—they departed.

CHAPTER 7

The Removal of Joseph’s Father with All His Family to Him, on Account of the Famine.

1. As soon as Jacob came to know, by his sons returning home, in what state Joseph was, that he had not only escaped death, for which yet he lived all along in mourning, but that he lived in splendor and happiness, and ruled over Egypt, jointly with the king, and had entrusted to his care almost all his affairs, he did not think anything he was told to be incredible, considering the greatness of the works of God, and His kindness to him, although that kindness had, for some late times, been intermitted; so he immediately and zealously set out on his journey to him.

2. When he came to the Well of the Oath, [(Beersheba,)] he offered sacrifice to God; and being afraid that the happiness there was in Egypt might tempt his posterity to fall in love with it, and settle in it, and no longer think of removing into the land of Canaan, and possessing it, as God had promised them—as also being afraid, lest, if this descent into Egypt were made without the will of God, his family might be destroyed there, out of fear, additionally, lest he should depart this life before he came to the sight of Joseph—he fell asleep, spinning these doubts in his mind.

3. But God stood by him and called him twice by his name; and when he asked who He was, God said, “Surely not! It is not just that you, Jacob, should be unacquainted with that God who has always been a protector and a helper to your forefathers, and after them to yourself: for when your father would have deprived you of the dominion, I gave it [to] you; and by My kindness it was that, when you were sent into Mesopotamia all alone, you obtained good wives, and returned with many children, and much wealth. Your whole family has also been preserved by My providence; and it was I who led Joseph, your son, whom you gave up for lost, to the enjoyment of great prosperity. I also made him lord of Egypt, so that he differs but little from a king. Accordingly, I come now as a guide to you in this journey; and I foretell to you that you will die in the arms of Joseph; and I inform you that your posterity will be many ages in authority and glory, and that I will settle them in the land which I have promised them.”

4. Jacob, [greatly] encouraged by this dream, went on more cheerfully for Egypt with his sons, and all belonging to them. Now they were in all seventy. I once, indeed, thought it best not to set down the names of this family, especially because of their difficult pronunciation [by the Greeks]; but, on the whole, I think it necessary to mention those names, that I may disprove such as believe that we did not originally come from Mesopotamia, but are Egyptians. Now Jacob had twelve sons; of these Joseph had come there before. We will therefore set down the names of Jacob’s children and grandchildren. Reuben had four sons: Enoch, Phallu, Hezron, Carmi. Simeon had six: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, Shaul. Levi had three sons: Gershon, Kohath, Merari. Judah had three sons: Shelah, Perez, Zerah; and by Perez two grandchildren, Hezron and Hamul. Issachar had four sons: Tola, Phuvah, Job, Shimron. Zebulun had with him three sons: Sered, Elon, Jahleel. So far is the posterity of Leah; with whom went her daughter Dinah. These are thirty-three. Rachel had two sons, the one of whom, Joseph, had two sons also, Manasseh and Ephraim. The other, Benjamin, had ten sons: Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, Ard. These fourteen added to the thirty-three before enumerated, amount to the number forty-seven. And this was the legitimate posterity of Jacob. He also had by Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel, Dan and Naphtali; the latter of which had four sons that followed him: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. Dan had an only begotten son, Hushim. If these are added to those previously mentioned, they complete the number fifty-four. Gad and Asher were the sons of Zilpah, who was the handmaid of Leah. These had with them, Gad seven: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, Areli. Asher had a daughter, Serah, and six male children, whose names were Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui, Beriah, [and grandsons] Heber and Malchiel. If we add these, which are sixteen, to the fifty-four, the aforementioned number [(70)] is completed, Jacob not being himself included in that number.

5. When Joseph understood that his father was coming, for Judas his brother had come before him, and informed him of his approach, he went out to meet him; and they met together at Heroöpolis. But Jacob almost fainted away at this unexpected and great joy; however, Joseph revived him, being yet not himself able to contain from being affected in the same manner, at the pleasure he now had; yet he was not wholly overcome with his passion, as his father was. After this, he desired Jacob to travel on slowly; but he himself took five of his brothers with him, and made haste to the king, to tell him that Jacob and his family had come; which was a joyful hearing to him. He also commanded Joseph to tell him what sort of life his brothers loved to lead, that he might give them permission to follow the same, who told him they were good shepherds, and had been used to follow no other employment but this alone. Whereby he provided for them, that they should not be separated, but live in the same place, and take care of their father; as also hereby he provided, that they might be acceptable to the Egyptians, by doing nothing that would be common to them with the Egyptians; for the Egyptians are prohibited to meddle with [the] feeding of sheep.

6. When Jacob had come to the king, and saluted him, and wished all prosperity to his government, Pharaoh asked him how old he now was; on whose answer, that he was one hundred and thirty years old, he admired Jacob on account of the length of his life. And when he had added that he had still not lived as long as his forefathers, he gave him permission to live with his children in Heliopolis; for in that city the king’s shepherds had their pasturage.

7. However, the famine increased among the Egyptians, and this heavy judgment grew more oppressive to them, because neither did the river overflow the ground, for it did not rise to its former height, nor did God send rain on it; nor did they indeed make the least provision for themselves, so ignorant were they [of] what was to be done; but Joseph sold them corn for their money. But when their money failed them, they bought corn with their cattle and their slaves; and if any of them had a small piece of land, they gave up that to purchase them food, by which means the king became the owner of all their possessions; and they were removed, some to one place, and some to another, so that the possession of their country might be firmly assured to the king, excepting the lands of the priests, for their country continued still in their own possession. And indeed, this severe famine made their minds, as well as their bodies, slaves; and finally compelled them to procure a sufficiency of food by such dishonorable means. But when this misery ceased, and the river overflowed the ground, and the ground brought forth its fruits plentifully, Joseph came to every city, and gathered the people to that belonging together, and gave them back entirely the land which, by their own consent, the king might have possessed alone, and alone enjoyed the fruits of it. He also exhorted them to look on it as everyone’s own possession, and to fall to their farming with cheerfulness, and to pay as a tribute to the king, the fifth part of the fruits for the land which the king, when it was his own, restored to them. These men rejoiced on their becoming unexpectedly owners of their lands, and diligently observed what was enjoined them; and by this means Joseph procured to himself a greater authority among the Egyptians, and greater love to the king from them. Now this law, that they should pay the fifth part of their fruits as tribute, continued until their later kings.

CHAPTER 8

Of the Death of Jacob and Joseph.

1. Now when Jacob had lived seventeen years in Egypt, he fell into a disease, and died in the presence of his sons; but not until he made his prayers for their enjoying prosperity, and until he had foretold to them prophetically how every one of them was to dwell in the land of Canaan. But this happened many years afterward. He also enlarged on the praises of Joseph how he had not remembered the evil doings of his brothers to their disadvantage; no, on the contrary, was kind to them, bestowing on them so many benefits, as seldom are bestowed on men’s own benefactors. He then commanded his own sons that they should admit Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, into their number, and divide the land of Canaan in common with them; concerning whom we will deal with hereafter. However, he made it his request that he might be buried at Hebron. So he died, when he had fully lived one hundred and fifty years, three only abated, having not been behind any of his ancestors in piety toward God, and having such a recompense for it, as it was fit those should have who were as good as these were. But Joseph, by the king’s permission, carried his father’s dead body to Hebron, and buried it there, at a great expense. Now his brothers were at first unwilling to return back with him, because they were afraid lest, now [that] their father was dead, he should punish them for their secret practices against him, since he was now gone, for whose sake he had been so gracious to them. But he persuaded them to fear no harm, and to entertain no suspicions of him: so he brought them along with him, and gave them great possessions, and never abandoned his particular concern for them.

2. Joseph also died when he had lived one hundred and ten years, having been a man of admirable virtue, and conducting all his affairs by the rules of reason; and he used his authority with moderation, which was the cause of his such great felicity among the Egyptians, even when he came from another country, and that in such ill circumstances also, as we have already described. Finally, his brothers died, after they had lived happily in Egypt. Now the posterity and sons of these men, after some time, carried their bodies, and buried them at Hebron: but as for the bones of Joseph, they carried them into the land of Canaan afterward, when the Hebrews went out of Egypt, for so had Joseph made them promise him on oath. But what became of every one of these men, and by what toils they got the possession of the land of Canaan, will be shown hereafter, when I have first explained on what account it was that they left Egypt.

CHAPTER 9

Concerning the Afflictions That Befell the Hebrews in Egypt, during Four Hundred Years.

1. Now it happened that the Egyptians grew delicate and lazy, as to effort, and gave themselves up to other pleasures, and in particular to the love of gain. They also became very unfriendly toward the Hebrews, as touched with envy at their prosperity; for when they saw how the nation of the Israelites flourished, and had become eminent already in plenty of wealth, which they had acquired by their virtue and natural love of labor, they thought their increase was to their own detriment. And having, in length of time, forgotten the benefits they had received from Joseph, particularly the crown being now come into another family, they became very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them; for they enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities and ramparts, that they might restrain the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating, on its running over its own banks: they set them also to build pyramids, and by all this wore them out; and they forced them to learn all sorts of mechanical arts and to accustom themselves to hard labor. And four hundred years did they spend under these afflictions; for they strove against one another which should get the mastery—the Egyptians desiring to destroy the Israelites by these labors, and the Israelites desiring to hold out to the end under them.

2. While the affairs of the Hebrews were in this condition, there was this occasion [which] offered itself to the Egyptians, which made them more attentive for the extinction of our nation. One of those sacred scribes, who are very sage in foretelling future events truly, told the king that about this time a child would be born to the Israelites, who, if he were reared, would bring the Egyptian dominion low, and would raise the Israelites—that he would excel all men in virtue and obtain a glory that would be remembered through all ages. This thing was so feared by the king, that, according to this man’s opinion, he commanded that they should cast every male child, which was born to the Israelites, into the river, and destroy it; that besides this, the Egyptian midwives should watch the labors of the Hebrew women and observe what is born, for those were the women who were enjoined to do the office of midwives to them; and by reason of their relation to the king, would not transgress his commands. He enjoined also, that if any parents should disobey him, and venture to save their male children alive, they and their families should be destroyed. This was a severe affliction indeed to those that suffered it, not only as they were deprived of their sons, and while they were the parents themselves, they were compelled to be subservient to the destruction of their own children, but as it was to be supposed to tend to the extermination of their nation, while on the destruction of their children, and their own gradual dissolution, the calamity would become very hard and inconsolable to them. And this was the ill state they were in. But no one can be too hard for the purpose of God, though he might contrive ten thousand subtle devices for that end; for this child, whom the sacred scribe foretold, was brought up and concealed from the observers appointed by the king; and he that foretold him did not mistake in the consequences of his preservation, which were brought to pass in the following manner:

3. A man whose name was Amram, one of the nobler sort of the Hebrews, was afraid for his whole nation, lest it should fail by the lack of young men to be brought up hereafter, and was very troubled by it, his wife being then with child, and he did not know what to do. Hereon he committed himself to prayer to God, and he pleaded with Him to have compassion on those men who had [in] no way transgressed the laws of His worship, and to provide them deliverance from the miseries they at that time endured, and to render futile their enemies’ hopes of the destruction of their nation. Accordingly, God had mercy on him and was moved by his supplication. He stood by him in his sleep and exhorted him not to despair of his future favors. He said further that He did not forget their piety toward Him and would always reward them for it, as He had formerly granted His favor to their forefathers and made them increase from a few to such a great a multitude. He reminded him that when Abraham had come alone out of Mesopotamia into Canaan, he had been made blessed, not only in other respects, but that when his wife was at first barren, she was afterward by him enabled to conceive seed and bare him sons—that he left to Ishmael and to his posterity the country of Arabia, as also to his sons by Keturah, Troglodytis; and to Isaac, Canaan—that, “By My assistance,” He said, “he did great exploits in war, which, unless you are yourselves impious, you must still remember. As for Jacob, he became well known to strangers also, by the greatness of that prosperity in which he lived, and left to his sons, who came into Egypt with no more than seventy souls, while you have now become above six hundred thousand. Know, therefore, that I will provide for you all in common what is for your good, and particularly for yourself what will make you famous; for that child, out of dread of whose nativity the Egyptians have doomed the Israelite children to destruction, will be this child of yours, and will be concealed from those who watch to destroy him: and when he is brought up in a surprising way, he will deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they are under from the Egyptians. His memory will be famous while the world lasts; and this not only among the Hebrews, but foreigners also—all [of] which will be the effect of My favor to you and to your posterity. He will also have such a brother, that he will himself obtain My priesthood, and his posterity will have it after him to the end of the world.”

4. When the vision had informed him of these things, Amram awoke and told it to Jochebed who was his wife. And now the fear increased on them on account of the prediction in Amram’s dream; for they were under concern, not only for the child, but on account of the great happiness that was to come to him also. However, the mother’s labor was such as provided a confirmation to what was foretold by God; for it was not known to those that watched her, by the easiness of her pains, and because the pangs of her delivery did not fall on her with violence. And now they nourished the child at home privately for three months; but after that time Amram, fearing he should be discovered, and, by falling under the king’s displeasure, both he and his child should perish, and so he should make the promise of God of no effect, he determined rather to trust the safety and care of the child to God, than to depend on his own concealment of him, which he looked on as a thing uncertain, and whereby both the child, so privately to be nourished, and himself should be in imminent danger; but he believed that God would some way for certain procure the safety of the child, in order to secure the truth of His own predictions. When they had thus determined, they made an ark of bulrushes, after the manner of a cradle, and of a size sufficient for an infant to be laid in, without being too restricted: they then daubed it over with slime, which would naturally keep out the water from entering between the bulrushes, and put the infant into it, and setting it afloat on the river, they left its preservation to God; so the river received the child, and carried him along. But Miriam, the child’s sister, passed along on the bank near him, as her mother had commanded her, to see where the ark would be carried, where God demonstrated that human wisdom was nothing, but that the Supreme Being is able to do whatever He pleases: that those who, in order to their own security, condemn others to destruction, and use great endeavors about it, fail of their purpose; but that others are in a surprising manner preserved, and obtain a prosperous condition almost from the very midst of their calamities; those, I mean, whose dangers arise by the appointment of God. And, indeed, such a providence was exercised in the case of this child, as showed the power of God.

5. Thermuthis was the king’s daughter. She was now diverting herself by the banks of the river; and seeing a cradle borne along by the current, she sent some that could swim and commanded them to bring the cradle to her. When those that were sent on this errand came to her with the cradle, and she saw the little child, she was greatly in love with it, on account of its size and beauty; for God had taken such great care in the formation of Moses, that He caused him to be thought worthy of bringing up and providing for by all those that had taken the most fatal resolutions, on account of the dread of his nativity, for the destruction of the rest of the Hebrew nation. Thermuthis commanded them to bring her a woman that might provide her breast to the child; yet the child would not partake of her breast, but turned away from it, and did the like to many other women. Now Miriam was nearby when this happened, not to appear to be there on purpose, but only as staying to see the child; and she said, “It is in vain that you, O queen, call for these women for the nourishing of the child, who are [in] no way related to it; but still, if you will order one of the Hebrew women to be brought, perhaps it may admit the breast of one of its own nation.” Now since she seemed to speak well, Thermuthis commanded her to procure such a one, and to bring one of those Hebrew women that gave suck. So, when she had such authority given [to] her, she came back and brought the mother, who was known to nobody there. And now the child gladly admitted the breast, and seemed to stick close to it; and so it was, that, at the queen’s desire, the nursing of the child was entirely entrusted to the mother.

6. Hereon it was that Thermuthis imposed this name Mouses on him, from what had happened when he was put into the river; for the Egyptians call water by the name of Mo, and such as are saved out of it, by the name of Uses: so, by putting these two words together, they imposed this name on him. And he was, by the confession of all, according to God’s prediction, as well for his greatness of mind as for his contempt of difficulties, the best of all the Hebrews, for Abraham was his ancestor of the seventh generation. For Moses was the son of Amram, who was the son of Caath, whose father Levi was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. Now Moses’ understanding became superior to his age—indeed, far beyond that standard; and when he was taught, he discovered greater quickness of apprehension than was usual at his age, and his actions at that time promised greater, when he should come to the age of a man. God also gave him that stature, when he was but three years old, as was wonderful. And as for his beauty, there was nobody so unpolite as, when they saw Moses, they were not greatly surprised at the beauty of his countenance; indeed, it happened frequently that those that met him as he was carried along the road, were compelled to turn again on seeing the child; that they left what they were doing and stood still a great while to look on him; for the beauty of the child was so remarkable and natural to him on many accounts, that it detained the spectators and made them stay longer to look on him.

7. Thermuthis, therefore, perceiving him to be such a remarkable child, adopted him for her son, having no child of her own. And when she had one time carried Moses to her father, she showed him to him and said she thought to make him her successor, if it should please God [that] she should have no legitimate child of her own; and to him, “I have brought up a child who is of a divine form and of a generous mind; and as I have received him from the bounty of the river, I thought proper to adopt him [as] my son and the heir of your kingdom.” And [after] she had said this, she put the infant into her father’s hands: so he took him and hugged him to his breast; and on his daughter’s account, in a pleasant way, put his diadem on his head; but Moses threw it down to the ground, and, in an infantile mood, he wreathed it around, and trod [it] under his feet, which seemed to bring along with evil portent concerning the kingdom of Egypt. But when the sacred scribe saw this (he was the person who foretold that his nativity would bring the dominion of that kingdom low), he made a violent attempt to kill him; and crying out in a frightful manner, he said, “This, O king! this child is he of whom God foretold, that if we kill him, we will be in no danger; he himself provides an attestation to the prediction of the same thing, by his trampling on your government and treading on your diadem. Take him, therefore, out of the way, and deliver the Egyptians from the fear they are in about him; and deprive the Hebrews of the hope they have of being encouraged by him.” But Thermuthis prevented him and snatched the child away. And the king was not hasty to slay him—God Himself, whose providence protected Moses, inclining the king to spare him. He was, therefore, educated with great care. So the Hebrews depended on him and were of good hopes great things would be done by him; but the Egyptians were suspicious of what would follow such education of his. Yet because, if Moses had been slain, there was no one, either related or adopted, that had any oracle on his side for pretending to the crown of Egypt, and likely to be of greater advantage to them, they abstained from killing him.

CHAPTER 10

How Moses Made War with the Ethiopians.

1. Moses, therefore, when he was born, and brought up in the aforementioned manner, and came to the age of maturity, made his virtue manifest to the Egyptians, and showed that he was born for bringing them down and raising up the Israelites. And the occasion he laid hold of was this: the Ethiopians, who are next neighbors to the Egyptians, made an inroad into their country, which they seized, and carried off the effects of the Egyptians, who, in their rage, fought against them and avenged the offenses they had received from them; but being overcome in battle, some of them were slain, and the rest ran away in a shameful manner, and by that means saved themselves; whereon the Ethiopians followed after them in the pursuit, and thinking that it would be a mark of cowardice if they did not subdue all Egypt, they went on to subdue the rest with greater vehemence; and when they had tasted the sweets of the country, they never ceased the prosecution of the war: and as the nearest parts had not enough courage at first to fight with them, they proceeded as far as Memphis, and the sea itself, while not one of the cities was able to oppose them. The Egyptians, under this sad oppression, committed themselves to their oracles and prophecies; and when God had given them this counsel, to make use of Moses the Hebrew, and take his assistance, the king commanded his daughter to produce him, that he might be the general of their army. On which, when she had made him swear he would do him no harm, she delivered him to the king and supposed his assistance would be of great advantage to them. She additionally reproached the priest, who, when they had before admonished the Egyptians to kill him, was not ashamed now to own their need of his help.

2. So Moses, at the persuasion both of Thermuthis and the king himself, cheerfully undertook the business: and the sacred scribes of both nations were glad—those of the Egyptians, that they should at once overcome their enemies by his valor, and that by the same piece of management Moses would be slain; but those of the Hebrews, that they should escape from the Egyptians, because Moses was to be their general. But Moses prevented the enemies, and took and led his army before those enemies were apprised of his attacking them; for he did not march by the river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful demonstration of his shrewdness; for when the ground was difficult to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents (which it produces in vast numbers, and, indeed, is singular in some of those productions, which other countries do not breed, and yet such as are worse than others in power and mischief, and an unusual fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come on men unexpectedly, and do them [great] harm), Moses invented a wonderful strategy to preserve the army safe, and without hurt; for he made baskets, like to arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibes, and carried them along with them; which animal is the greatest enemy to serpents imaginable, for they fly from them when they come near them; and as they fly, they are caught and devoured by them, as if it were done by the harts; but the ibes are tame creatures, and only enemies to the serpentine kind: but about these ibes I say no more at present, since the Greeks themselves are not unacquainted with this sort of bird. As soon, therefore, as Moses had come to the land which was the breeder of these serpents, he let loose the ibes, and by their means repelled the serpentine kind and used them for his assistants before the army came on that ground. When he had therefore proceeded thus on his journey, he came on the Ethiopians before they expected him; and, joining battle with them, he beat them, and deprived them of the hopes they had of success against the Egyptians, and went on in overthrowing their cities, and indeed made a great slaughter of these Ethiopians. Now when the Egyptian army had once tasted of this prosperous success, by the means of Moses, they did not slacken their diligence, insomuch that the Ethiopians were in danger of being reduced to slavery and all sorts of destruction; and finally, they retired to Saba, which was a royal city of Ethiopia, which Cambyses afterward named Mero, after the name of his own sister. The place was to be besieged with very great difficulty, since it was both encompassed around by the Nile and the other rivers, Astapus and Astaboras, made it a very difficult thing for such as attempted to pass over them; for the city was situated in a retired place and was inhabited after the manner of an island, being encompassed with a strong wall, and having the rivers to guard them from their enemies, and having great ramparts between the wall and the rivers, insomuch, that when the waters come with the greatest violence, it can never be drowned; which ramparts make it next to impossible for even such as have gotten over the rivers to take the city. However, while Moses was troubled by the army’s lying idle (for the enemies dare not come to a battle), this accident happened: Tharbis was the daughter of the king of the Ethiopians; she happened to see Moses as he led the army near the walls and fought with great courage; and admiring the subtility of his undertakings, and believing him to be the author of the Egyptians’ success, when they had previously despaired of recovering their liberty, and to be the occasion of the great danger the Ethiopians were in, when they had before boasted of their great achievements, she fell deeply in love with him; and on the prevalence of that passion, sent to him the most faithful of all her servants to discourse with him about their marriage. He therefore accepted the offer, on condition she would procure the delivering up of the city; and he gave her the assurance of an oath to take her to [be] his wife; and that when he had once taken possession of the city, he would not break his oath to her. No sooner was the agreement made, but it took effect immediately; and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to God, and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land.

CHAPTER 11

How Moses Fled Out of Egypt into Midian.

1. Now the Egyptians, after they had been preserved by Moses, entertained a hatred to him, and were very eager in compassing their designs against him, as suspecting that he would take occasion, from his good success, to raise a sedition, and bring innovations into Egypt; and they told the king he ought to be slain. The king also had some intentions of himself to the same purpose, and this as well out of envy at his glorious expedition at the head of his army, as out of fear of being brought low by him and being instigated by the sacred scribes, he was ready to undertake to kill Moses: but when he had learned beforehand what plots there were against him, he went away privately; and because the public roads were watched, he took his flight through the deserts, and where his enemies could not suspect he would travel; and, though he was destitute of food, he went on, and despised that difficulty courageously; and when he came to the city [of] Midian, which lay on the Red Sea, and was so denominated from one of Abraham’s sons by Keturah, he sat on a certain well and rested himself there after his laborious journey and the affliction he had been in. It was not far from the city, and the time of the day was noon, where he had an occasion offered him by the custom of the country of doing what recommended his virtue and provided him an opportunity of bettering his circumstances.

2. For that country having but little water, the shepherds used to seize the wells before others came, lest their flocks should need water, and lest it should be spent by others before they came. There had now come, therefore, to this well seven sisters that were virgins, the daughters of Raguel, a priest, and one thought worthy by the people of the country of great honor. These virgins, who took care of their father’s flocks, which sort of work it was customary and very familiar for women to do in the country of the Troglodytes, they came first of all, and drew water out of the well in a quantity sufficient for their flocks, into troughs, which were made for the reception of that water; but when the shepherds came on the maidens and drove them away that they might have the command of the water themselves, Moses, thinking it would be a terrible reproach on him if he overlooked the young women under unjust oppression, and should allow the violence of the men to prevail over the right of the maidens, he drove away the men, who had intended to [take] more than their share, and provided proper assistance to the women; who, when they had received such a benefit from him, came to their father, and told him how they had been insulted by the shepherds, and assisted by a stranger, and implored that he would not let this generous action be done in vain, nor go without a reward. Now the father took it well from his daughters that they were so desirous to reward their benefactor; and he commanded them to bring Moses into his presence, that he might be rewarded as he deserved. And when Moses came, he told him what testimony his daughters bore to him, that he had assisted them; and that, as he admired him for his virtue, he said that Moses had bestowed such assistance of his on persons not insensible of benefits, but where they were both able and willing to return the kindness, and even to exceed the measure of his generosity. So he made him his son and gave him one of his daughters in marriage; and he appointed him to be the guardian and superintendent over his cattle; for of old, all the wealth of the barbarians was in those cattle.

CHAPTER 12

Concerning the Burning Bush and the Rod of Moses.

1. Now Moses, when he had obtained the favor of Jethro (for that was one of the names of Raguel), stayed there and fed his flock; but some time afterward, taking his station at the mountain called Sinai, he drove his flocks there to feed them. Now this is the highest of all the mountains around there, and the best for pasturage, the herbage there being good; and it had not been fed on before, because of the opinion men had that God dwelt there, the shepherds not daring to ascend up to it; and here it was that a wonderful phenomenon happened to Moses: for a fire fed on a thorn bush, yet the green leaves and the flowers continued unscathed, and the fire did not consume the fruit branches at all, although the flame was great and fierce. Moses was frightened at this strange sight, as it was to him—but he was still more astonished when the fire uttered a Voice, and called to him by name, and spoke words to him, by which it signified how bold he had been in venturing to come into a place where no man had ever come before, because the place was divine; and [the Voice] advised him to remove a great way off from the flame and to be satisfied with what he had seen; and though he were himself a good man, and the offspring of great men, yet that he should not meddle any further; and He foretold to him that he should have glory and honor among men, by the blessing of God on him. He also commanded him to go away from there with confidence to Egypt, in order for his being the commander and conductor of the body of the Hebrews, and for his delivering his own people from the injuries they suffered there: “For,” said God, “they will inhabit this blessed land which your forefather Abraham inhabited and will have the enjoyment of all good things.” But still He enjoined them, when he brought the Hebrews out of the land of Egypt, to come to that place, and to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving there. Such were the divine oracles which were delivered out of the fire.

2. But Moses was astonished at what he saw, and much more at what he heard; and he said, “I think it would be an instance of very great folly, O Lord, for one of that regard I bear to You, to distrust Your power, since I myself respect it, and know that it has been made manifest to my ancestors: but I am still in doubt how I, who am a private man, and one of no abilities, should either persuade my own countrymen to leave the country they now inhabit and to follow me to a land where I lead them; or, if they should be persuaded, how can I force Pharaoh to permit them to depart, since they increase their own wealth and prosperity by the labors and works they have placed on them?”

3. But God persuaded him to be courageous in all circumstances, and promised to be with him, and to assist him in his words, when he was to persuade men; and in his deeds, when he was to perform wonders. He also commanded him to take a sign of the truth of what He said, by throwing his rod on the ground, which, when he had done, it crept along, and had become a serpent, and rolled itself around in its folds, and lifted its head, as [if] ready to avenge itself on such as should attack it; after which it became a rod again as it was before. After this, God commanded Moses to put his right hand into his bosom: he obeyed, and when he took it out it was white, and in color similar to chalk, but afterward it returned to its usual color again. He also, on God’s command, took some of the water that was near him, and poured it on the ground, and saw the color was that of blood. On the wonder that Moses showed at these signs, God exhorted him to be of good courage, and to be assured that He would be the greatest support to him; and He commanded him to make use of those signs, in order to obtain belief among all men, that “you are sent by Me and do all things according to My commands. Accordingly, I command you to make no more delays, but to hurry to Egypt, and to travel night and day, and not to draw out the time, and so make the slavery of the Hebrews and their sufferings to last [any] longer.”

4. Moses having now seen and heard these wonders that assured him of the truth of these promises of God, had no room left [to] him to disbelieve them: he implored Him to grant him that power when he should be in Egypt; and he pleaded with Him to grant him the knowledge of His own Name; and since he had heard and seen Him, that He would also tell him His Name, that when he offered sacrifice he might invoke Him by such Name of His in his oblations. Whereon God declared to him His holy Name, which had never been revealed to men before; concerning which it is not lawful for me to say anything more. Now these signs accompanied Moses—not only then, but always when he prayed for them—of all which signs he attributed the firmest assent to the fire in the bush; and believing that God would be a gracious supporter to him, he hoped He should be able to deliver His own nation and bring calamities on the Egyptians.

CHAPTER 13

How Moses and Aaron Returned to Pharaoh in Egypt.

1. So Moses, when he understood that the Pharaoh, in whose reign he fled away, was dead, asked permission from Raguel to go into Egypt, for the benefit of his own people. And he took with him Zipporah, the daughter of Raguel, whom he had married, and the children he had by her, Gershom and Eleazer, and made haste into Egypt. Now the former of those names, Gershom, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies that he was in a strange land; and Eleazer, that, by the assistance of the God of his fathers, he had escaped from the Egyptians. Now when they were near the borders, his brother Aaron, by the command of God, met him, to whom he declared what had happened to him at the mountain, and the commands that God had given him. But as they were going forward, the chief men among the Hebrews, having learned that they were coming, met them, to whom Moses declared the signs he had seen; and while they could not believe them, he made them see them, so they took courage at these surprising and unexpected sights and had great hope in their entire deliverance, as believing that God now took care of their preservation.

2. Since then Moses found that the Hebrews would be obedient to whatever he should command, as they promised to be, and were in love with liberty, he came to the king, who had indeed only recently received the government, and told him how much he had done for the good of the Egyptians when they were despised by the Ethiopians and their country was laid waste by them, and how he had been the commander of their forces and had labored for them, as if they had been his own people; and he informed him in what danger he had been during that expedition, without having any proper returns made to him as he had deserved. He also informed him distinctly what things happened to him at Mount Sinai, and what God said to him, and the signs that were done by God, in order to assure him of the authority of those commands which He had given him. He also exhorted him not to disbelieve what he told him, nor to oppose the will of God.

3. But when the king disparaged Moses, he made him in earnest perceive the signs that were done at Mount Sinai. Yet the king was enraged with him and called him a bad man, who had formerly run away from his Egyptian slavery, and now returned with deceitful tricks, and wonders, and magical arts, to astonish him. And when he had said this, he commanded the priests to let him see the same wonderful sights, as knowing that the Egyptians were skillful in this kind of knowledge, and that he was not the only person who knew them and [merely] pretended them to be divine, as he also told him that when he brought such wonderful sights before him, he would only be believed by the uneducated. Now when the priests threw down their rods, they became serpents. But Moses was not intimidated by it; and he said, “O king, I do not myself despise the wisdom of the Egyptians, but I say that what I do is so much superior to what these do by magic arts and tricks, as Divine power exceeds the power of man: but I will demonstrate that what I do is not done by craft, or counterfeiting what is not really true, but that they appear by the providence and power of God.” And when he had said this, he cast his rod down on the ground and commanded it to turn itself into a serpent. It obeyed him, and went all around, and devoured the rods of the Egyptians, which seemed to be dragons, until it had consumed them all. It then returned to its own form, and Moses took it into his hand again.

4. However, the king was no more moved when [this] was done than before; and being very angry, he said that he should gain nothing by this cunning and shrewdness of his against the Egyptians; and he commanded him who was the chief taskmaster over the Hebrews, to give them no relaxation from their labors, but to compel them to submit to greater oppressions than before; and though he allowed them chaff before for making their bricks, he would no longer allow it for them, but he made them to work hard at brick-making in the daytime and to gather chaff in the night. Now when their labor was thus doubled on them, they laid the blame on Moses, because their labor and their misery had become more severe to them on his account. But Moses did not let his courage sink for the king’s threats; nor did his zeal cease on account of the Hebrews’ complaints; but he supported himself, and set his soul resolutely against them both, and used his own utmost diligence to procure liberty for his countrymen. So he went to the king and persuaded him to let the Hebrews go to Mount Sinai, and there to sacrifice to God, because God had commanded them to do so. He also persuaded him not to oppose the designs of God, but to regard His favor above all things, and to permit them to depart, lest, before he was aware, he [might] lay an obstruction in the way of the Divine commands, and so occasion his own suffering such punishments as it was probable anyone that opposed the Divine commands should undergo, since the most severe afflictions arise from every object to those that provoke the Divine wrath against them; for such as these have neither the earth nor the air for their friends; nor are the fruits of the womb according to nature, but everything is unfriendly and adverse toward them. He said further that the Egyptians should know this by sad experience; and that besides [this], the Hebrew people should go out of their country without their consent.

CHAPTER 14

Concerning the Ten Plagues Which Came on the Egyptians.

1. But when the king despised the words of Moses and had no regard for them at all, grievous plagues seized the Egyptians; every one of which I will describe, both because no such plagues ever happened to any other nation as the Egyptians now felt, and because I would demonstrate that Moses did not fail in any single thing that he foretold them, and because it is for the good of mankind, that they may learn this caution: not to do anything that may displease God, lest He be provoked to wrath and avenge their iniquities on them. For the Egyptian river ran with bloody water at the command of God, insomuch that it could not be drunk, and they had no other spring of water either; for the water was not only of the color of blood, but it brought on those that ventured to drink of it great pains and bitter torment. Such was the river to the Egyptians; but it was sweet and fit for drinking to the Hebrews and in no way different from what it naturally used to be. As the king therefore did not know what to do in these surprising circumstances, and was in fear for the Egyptians, he gave the Hebrews permission to go away; but when the plague ceased, he changed his mind again and would not permit them to go.

2. But when God saw that he was ungrateful, and on the ceasing of this calamity would not grow wiser, He sent another plague on the Egyptians: an innumerable multitude of frogs consumed the fruit of the ground; the river was also full of them, insomuch that those who drew water had it spoiled by the blood of these animals, as they died in, and were destroyed by, the water; and the country was full of filthy slime, as they were born, and as they died: they also spoiled their vessels in their houses which they used, and were found among what they ate and what they drank, and came in great numbers on their beds. There was also a terrible smell, and a stink arose from them, as they were born, and as they died therein. Now, when the Egyptians were under the oppression of these miseries, the king ordered Moses to take the Hebrews with him and be gone, on which [occasion] the whole multitude of the frogs vanished away; and both the land and the river returned to their former natures. But as soon as Pharaoh saw the land freed from this plague, he forgot the cause of it, and retained the Hebrews; and, as though he intended to try the nature of more such judgments, he would not yet permit Moses and his people to depart, having granted that liberty rather out of fear than out of any good consideration.

3. Accordingly, God punished his falseness with another plague, added to the former: for there arose out of the bodies of the Egyptians an innumerable quantity of lice, by which, wicked as they were, they miserably perished, as unable to destroy this sort of vermin either with washes or with ointments, at which terrible judgment the king of Egypt was in disorder, on the fear into which he reasoned himself, lest his people should be destroyed, and that the manner of this death was also reproachful, so that he was forced in part to recover himself from his wicked temper to a sounder mind, for he gave permission for the Hebrews themselves to depart. But when the plague therefore ceased, he thought it proper to require that they should leave their children and wives behind them, as pledges of their return, whereby he provoked God to be more vehemently angry at him, as if he thought to presume on His providence, and as if it were only Moses, and not God, who punished the Egyptians for the sake of the Hebrews: for He filled that country full of various sorts of pestilential creatures, with their various properties, such indeed as had never come into the sight of men before, by whose means the men themselves perished and the land was destitute of farmers for its cultivation; but if anything escaped destruction from them, it was killed by a disease which the men underwent also.

4. But when Pharaoh did not even then yield to the will of God, but, while he gave permission to the husbands to take their wives with them, yet insisted that the children should be left behind, God presently resolved to punish his wickedness with several sorts of calamities—and those worse than the preceding, which yet had so generally afflicted them: for their bodies had terrible boils, breaking forth with boils, while they were already inwardly consumed; and a great part of the Egyptians perished in this manner. But when the king was not brought to reason by this plague, hail was sent down from the sky; and such hail it was, as the climate of Egypt had never suffered before, nor was it like to that which falls in other climates in wintertime, but was larger than that which falls in the middle of spring to those that dwell in the northern and northwestern regions. This hail broke down their boughs laden with fruit. After this, a tribe of locusts consumed the seed which was not hurt by the hail, so that to the Egyptians all hopes of the future fruits of the ground were entirely lost.

5. One would think the aforementioned calamities might have been sufficient for one that was only foolish, without wickedness, to make him wise, and to make him sensible of what was for his advantage. But Pharaoh, led not so much by his folly as by his wickedness, even when he saw the cause of his miseries, he still fought with God, and willfully deserted the cause of virtue; so he commanded Moses to take the Hebrews away, with their wives and children, to leave their cattle behind, since their own cattle were destroyed. But when Moses said that what he desired was unjust, since they were obligated to offer sacrifices to God of those cattle, and the time being prolonged on this account, a thick darkness, without the least light, spread itself over the Egyptians, whereby their sight being obstructed, and their breathing hindered by the thickness of the air, they died miserably, and under a terror lest they should be swallowed up by the dark cloud. Besides this, when the darkness, after three days and as many nights, was dissipated, and when Pharaoh still did not convert and let the Hebrews go, Moses came to him and said, “How long will you be disobedient to the command of God? for He commands you to let the Hebrews go; nor is there any other way of being freed from the calamities [you] are under, unless you do so.” But the king was angry at what he said and threatened to cut off his head if he came to trouble him anymore in these matters. Hereon Moses said he would not speak to him anymore about them, for he himself, together with the principal men among the Egyptians, should desire the Hebrews [to go] away. So when Moses had said this, he went his way.

6. But when God had signified that with one plague He would compel the Egyptians to let the Hebrews go, He commanded Moses to tell the people that they should have a sacrifice ready, and they should prepare themselves on the tenth day of the month Xanthicus, against the fourteenth (which month is called by the Egyptians Pharmuth, Nisan by the Hebrews; but the Macedonians call it Xanthicus), and that he should carry the Hebrews with all they had. Accordingly, he having gotten the Hebrews ready for their departure, and having sorted the people into tribes, he kept them together in one place; but when the fourteenth day had come and all were ready to depart, they offered the sacrifice and purified their houses with the blood, using bunches of hyssop for that purpose; and when they had dined, they burnt the remainder of the flesh, as just ready to depart, from which [reason] it is that we still offer this sacrifice in like manner to this day, and call this festival Pascha which signifies the Celebration of the Passover, because on that day God passed us over and sent the plague on the Egyptians; for the destruction of the firstborn came on the Egyptians that night, so that many of the Egyptians who lived near the king’s palace persuaded Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. Accordingly, he called for Moses and commanded them to be gone, as supposing that if once the Hebrews were gone out of the country, Egypt should be freed from its miseries. They also honored the Hebrews with gifts; some, in order to get them to depart quickly, and others on account of their neighborhood and the friendship they had with them.

CHAPTER 15

How the Hebrews under the Conduct of Moses Left Egypt.

1. So the Hebrews went out of Egypt while the Egyptians wept and converted from how they had treated them so harshly. Now they took their journey by Letopolis, a place at that time deserted, but where Babylon was built afterward, when Cambyses laid Egypt waste; but as they went away hastily, on the third day they came to a place called Beelzephon, on the Red Sea; and when they had no food out of the land, because it was a desert, they ate of kneaded loaves of flour, only warmed by a gentle heat; and this food they made use of for thirty days—for what they brought with them out of Egypt would not suffice them any longer—and this only while they dispensed it to each person, to only use so much as would serve for necessity, but not for satiation. From which it is that, in memory of the need we were then in, we keep a celebration for eight days, which is called the Celebration of Unleavened Bread. Now the entire multitude of those that went out, including the women and children, was not easy to be numbered, but those that were of an age fit for war, were six hundred thousand.

2. They left Egypt in the month Xanthicus, on the fifteenth day of the lunar month, four hundred and thirty years after our forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but only two hundred and fifteen years after Jacob removed into Egypt. It was the eightieth year of the age of Moses, and of that of Aaron three more. They also carried out the bones of Joseph with them, as he had charged his sons to do.

3. But the Egyptians quickly reconsidered that the Hebrews had departed; and the king was also mightily concerned that this had been procured by the magic arts of Moses; so they resolved to go after them. Accordingly, they took their weapons and other military equipment, and pursued after them, in order to bring them back, if once they overtook them, because they would now have no pretense to pray to God against them, since they had already been permitted to go out; and they thought they should easily overcome them, as they had no armor, and would be weary with their journey; so they made haste in their pursuit, and asked of everyone they met which way they had gone. And indeed, that land was difficult to traverse, not only by armies, but [also] by individual persons. Now Moses led the Hebrews this way, that in case the Egyptians should reconsider and desire to pursue after them, they might undergo the punishment of their wickedness, and of the breach of those promises they had made to them. Likewise, he led them this way on account of the Philistines, who had quarreled with them, and hated them of old, that by all means they might not know of their departure, for their country is near to that of Egypt; and from there it was that Moses led them not along the road that inclined toward the land of the Philistines, but he desired that they should go through the desert, so that after a long journey, and after many afflictions, they might enter on the land of Canaan. Another reason of this was that God commanded him to bring the people to Mount Sinai, that there they might offer Him sacrifices. Now when the Egyptians had overtaken the Hebrews, they prepared to fight them, and by their multitude they drove them into a narrow place; for the number that pursued after them was six hundred chariots, with fifty thousand horsemen, and two hundred thousand footmen, all armed. They also seized the passages by which they imagined the Hebrews might flee, shutting them up between inaccessible precipices and the sea; for there was [on each side] a [ridge of] mountains that terminated at the sea, which were impassable by reason of their roughness, and obstructed their flight; therefore they pressed on the Hebrews there with their army, where [the ridges of] the mountains were closed with the sea, which army they placed at the tops of the mountains, so that they might deprive them of any passage into the plain.

4. When the Hebrews, therefore, were neither able to bear up, being thus, as it were, besieged, because they wanted provisions, nor saw any possible way of escaping—and if they should have thought of fighting, they had no weapons—they expected a universal destruction, unless they delivered themselves up to the Egyptians. So they laid the blame on Moses, and forgot all the signs that had been worked by God for the recovery of their freedom; and this so far, that their skepticism prompted them to throw stones at the prophet, while he encouraged them and promised them deliverance; and they resolved that they would deliver themselves up to the Egyptians. So there was sorrow and lamentation among the women and children, who had nothing but destruction before their eyes, while they were surrounded with mountains, the sea, and their enemies, and discerned no way of fleeing from them.

5. But Moses, though the multitude looked fiercely at him, did not, however, give over the care of them, but despised all dangers, out of his trust in God, who, as He had given them the several steps already taken for the recovery of their liberty, which He had foretold them, would not now permit them to be subdued by their enemies, to be either made slaves or be slain by them; and, standing in midst of them, he said, “It is not just of us to distrust even men, when they have thus far well managed our affairs, as if they would not be the same hereafter; but it is no better than madness, at this time to despair of the providence of God, by whose power all those things have been performed [which] He promised, when you expected no such things: I mean all that I have been concerned in for deliverance and escape from slavery. No, when we are in the utmost distress, as you see we ought rather to hope that God will aid us, by whose operation it is that we are now [in] this narrow place, that He may out of such difficulties as are otherwise insurmountable and out of which neither you nor your enemies expect you can be delivered, and may at once demonstrate His own power and His providence over us. Nor does God always give His help in small difficulties to those whom He favors, but in such cases where no one can [possibly] see how any hope in man can better their condition. Depend, therefore, on such a Protector as is able to make small things great, and to show that this mighty force against you is nothing but weakness, and do not be frightened at the Egyptian army, nor despair of being preserved, because the sea in front and the mountains behind give you no opportunity for fleeing, for even these mountains, if God so pleases, may be made plain ground for you, and the sea will become dry land.”

CHAPTER 16

How the Sea Was Divided Apart for the Hebrews, When They Were Pursued by the Egyptians, and So Gave Them an Opportunity of Escaping from Them.

1. When Moses had said this, he led them to the sea while the Egyptians looked on, for they were within sight. Now these were so distressed by the toil of their pursuit, that they thought proper to put off fighting until the next day. But when Moses had come to the seashore, he took his rod, and made supplication to God, and called on Him to be their helper and assistant, and said, “You are not ignorant, O Lord, that it is beyond human strength and human contrivance to avoid the difficulties we are now under; but it must be Your work altogether to procure deliverance to this army, which has left Egypt at Your appointment. We despair of any other assistance or contrivance and have recourse only to that hope we have in You; and if there might be any method that can promise us an escape by Your providence, we look up to You for it. And let it come quickly and manifest Your power to us; and may You raise up this people to good courage and hope of deliverance, who have sunk deeply into a despondent state of mind. We are in a helpless place, but still it is a place that You possess; still the sea is Yours [and] the mountains that enclose us are also Yours, so that these mountains will open themselves if You command them, and the sea also, if You command it, will become dry land. No, we might [even] escape by a flight through the air if You should determine we should have that way of salvation.”

2. When Moses had thus addressed himself to God, he struck the sea with his rod, which parted apart at the stroke, and receiving those waters into itself, left the ground dry, as a road and a place of escape for the Hebrews. Now when Moses saw this appearance of God, and that the sea went out of its own place, and left dry land, he went first of all into it, and commanded the Hebrews to follow him along that divine road, and to rejoice at the danger their enemies that followed them were in; and he gave thanks to God for this very surprising deliverance which appeared from Him.

3. Now, while these Hebrews made no hesitation, but went on earnestly, as led by God’s presence with them, the Egyptians first supposed that they were distracted and were going rashly into manifest destruction. But when they saw that they were going a great way without any harm, and that no obstacle or difficulty fell in their journey, they made haste to pursue them, hoping that the sea would be calm for them also. They put their cavalry forward and went down themselves into the sea. Now the Hebrews, while these were putting on their armor, and therein spending their time, were beforehand with them, and escaped them, and went first over to the land on the other side without any harm, from which the others were encouraged, and more courageously pursued them, as hoping no harm would come to them either: but the Egyptians were not aware that they went into a road made for the Hebrews and not for others—that this road was made for the deliverance of those in danger, but not for those that were earnest to make use of it for the others’ destruction. As soon, therefore, as ever the whole Egyptian army was within it, the sea flowed to its own place, and came down with a torrent raised by storms of wind, and surrounded the Egyptians. Showers of rain also came down from the sky, and dreadful thunders and lightning, with flashes of fire. Thunderbolts also darted on them. Nor was there anything which used to be sent by God on men, as indications of His wrath, which did not happen at this time, for a dark and dismal night oppressed them. And thus did all these men perish, so that there was not one man left to be a messenger of this calamity to the rest of the Egyptians.

4. But the Hebrews were unable to contain themselves for joy at their wonderful deliverance and destruction of their enemies—now indeed supposing themselves firmly delivered, when those that would have forced them into slavery were destroyed, and when they found they had God so evidently for their protector. And now these Hebrews having escaped the danger they were in after this manner, and also seeing their enemies punished in such a way as is never recorded of any other men whatsoever, were all the night occupied in [the] singing of hymns and in mirth. Moses also composed a song to God, containing His praises, and a thanksgiving for His kindness, in hexameter verse.

5. As for myself, I have delivered every part of this history as I found it in the sacred books; nor let anyone wonder at the strangeness of the narration if a way were discovered for those men of ancient time who were free from the wickedness of the modern ages, whether it happened by the will of God or whether it happened of its own accord, while, for the sake of those that accompanied Alexander, king of Macedonia, who yet lived, comparatively but a short time ago, the Pamphylian Sea retreated and provided them a passage through itself, had no other way to go—I mean, when it was the will of God to destroy the monarchy of the Persians: and this is confessed to be true by all that have written about the actions of Alexander. But as to these events, let everyone determine as he pleases.

6. On the next day, Moses gathered together the weapons of the Egyptians, which were brought to the camp of the Hebrews by the current of the sea, and the force of the winds resisting it; and he conjectured that this also happened by Divine Providence, so that they might not be destitute of weapons. So, when he had ordered the Hebrews to arm themselves with them, he led them to Mount Sinai, in order to offer sacrifice to God, and to render oblations for the salvation of the multitude, as he was charged to do beforehand.

BOOK III

Containing the Interval of Two Years. From the Exodus Out of Egypt, to the Rejection of That Generation.

CHAPTER 1

How Moses, When He Had Brought the People Out of Egypt, Led Them to Mount Sinai; But Not until They Had Suffered Much in Their Journey.

1. When the Hebrews had obtained such a wonderful deliverance, the country was a great trouble to them, for it was entirely a desert, and without sustenance for them; and [it] also had exceedingly little water, so that it not only was not at all sufficient for the men, but not enough to feed any of the cattle, for it was dried up, and had no moisture that might provide nourishment for the vegetables; so they were forced to travel over this country, as having no other country but this to travel in. They had indeed carried water along with them from the land over which they had traveled before, as their conductor had commanded them; but when that was spent, they were forced to draw water out of wells, with difficulty, by reason of the hardness of the soil. Moreover, what water they found was bitter, and not fit for drinking, and this also in small quantities; and as they thus traveled, they came late in the evening to a place called Marah, which had that name from the bitterness of its water, for Mar denotes bitterness. There they became afflicted both by the tediousness of their journey, and by their lack of food, for it entirely failed them at that time. Now here was a well, which made them choose to stay in the place, which, although it was not sufficient to satisfy such a great army, did yet provide them some comfort, as found in such desert places; for they heard from those who had been to search, that there was nothing to be found, if they traveled on farther. Yet this water was bitter and not fit for men to drink; and not only so, but it was even intolerable to the cattle themselves.

2. When Moses saw how much the people were downcast, and that the occasion of it could not be contradicted, for the people were not in the nature of a complete army of men who might form a courageous resilience against the necessity that distressed them—the multitude of the children, and of the women also, being of too weak capacities to be persuaded by reason, blunted the courage of the men themselves—he was therefore in great consternation and made everyone’s calamity his own; for all of them ran to him and begged of him; the women begged for their infants, and the men for the women, that he would not overlook them, but procure some way or other for their deliverance. He therefore committed himself to prayer to God, that He would change the water from its present bitterness and make it fit for drinking. And when God had granted him that favor, he took the top of a stick that lay down at his feet, and divided it in the middle, and made the section lengthways. He then let it down into the well and persuaded the Hebrews that God had listened to his prayers and had promised to render the water such as they desired it to be, as long as they would be subservient to Him in what He should command them to do, and this not in a careless or negligent manner. And when they asked what they were to do in order to have the water changed for the better, he commanded the strongest men among them that stood there to draw up water, and he told them that when the greatest part was drawn up, the remainder would be fit to drink. So they labored at it until the water was so agitated and purged as to be suitable to drink.

3. And now removing from there, they came to Elim, which place looked well at a distance, for there was a grove of palm-trees; but when they came near to it, it appeared to be a bad place, for the palm-trees were no more than seventy; and they were ill-grown and creeping trees, by the lack of water, for the country around was all parched, and no moisture sufficient to water them and make them hopeful and useful was derived to them from the fountains, which were twelve in number: they were rather a few damp places rather than springs, which not breaking out of the ground, nor running over, could not sufficiently water the trees. And when they dug into the sand, they met with no water; and if they took a few drops of it into their hands, they found it to be useless, on account of its mud. The trees were too weak to bear fruit, for lack of being sufficiently cultivated and restored by the water. So they laid the blame on their conductor, and made heavy complaints against him, and said that this miserable state of theirs, and the experience they had of adversity, were owing to him, for they had then journeyed an entire thirty days and had spent all the provisions they had brought with them; and meeting with no relief, they were in a very despondent condition. And by fixing their attention on nothing but their present misfortunes, they were hindered from remembering what deliverances they had received from God, and those by the virtue and wisdom of Moses also; so, they were very angry at their conductor and were zealous in their attempt to stone him, as the direct occasion of their present miseries.

4. But as for Moses himself, while the multitude were irritated and bitterly set against him, he cheerfully relied on God, and on his consciousness of the care He had taken of these His own people; and he came into the midst of them, even while they clamored against him, and had stones in their hands in order to dispatch him. Now he was of an agreeable presence, and very able to persuade the people by his speeches; accordingly, he began to mitigate their anger, and exhorted them not to be overly mindful of their present adversities, lest they should thereby suffer the benefits that had formerly been bestowed on them to slip out of their memories; and he desired them by no means, on account of their present uneasiness, to cast those great and wonderful favors and gifts, which they had obtained of God, out of their minds, but to expect deliverance out of those present troubles of theirs which they could not free themselves from, and this by the means of that Divine Providence which watched over them, seeing [that] it is probable that God tries their virtue and exercises their patience by these adversities so that it may appear what resolve they have, and what memory they retain of His former wonderful works in their favor, and whether they will not think of them on occasion of the miseries they now feel. He told them [that] it appeared they were not really good men, either in patience, or in remembering what had been successfully done for them, sometimes by despising God and His commands, when by those commands they left the land of Egypt; and sometimes by behaving themselves poorly toward him who was the servant of God, and this when he had never deceived them, either in what he said, or had ordered them to do by God’s command. He also reminded them of all that had passed: how the Egyptians were destroyed when they attempted to detain them, contrary to the command of God; and after what manner the very same river was to the others bloody and not fit for drinking, but was to them sweet and fit for drinking; and how they went [by] a new road through the sea, which fled a long way from them, by which very means they were themselves preserved, but saw their enemies destroyed; and that when they were in need of weapons, God gave them plenty of them; and so he recounted all the particular instances, how when they were, in appearance, just going to be destroyed, God had saved them in a surprising manner, and that He still had the same power, and that they should not even now despair of His providence over them; and accordingly, he exhorted them to continue patiently and to consider that help would not come too late, though it may not come immediately, if it be present with them before they suffer any great misfortune; that they ought to reason thus: that God delays to assist them, not because He has no regard for them, but because He will first try their resolve and the pleasure they take in their freedom, “that He may learn whether you have souls great enough to endure lack of food, and scarcity of water, on its account; or whether you rather love to be slaves, as cattle are slaves to such as own them, and feed them liberally, but only in order to make them more useful in their service.” That as for himself, he will not be so much concerned for his own preservation; for if he dies unjustly, he will not reckon it any affliction, but that he is concerned for them, lest, by casting stones at him, they should be thought to condemn God Himself.

5. By this means Moses pacified the people, and restrained them from stoning him, and brought them to relent from what they were going to do. And because he thought the necessity they were under made their passion less unjustifiable, he thought he ought to apply himself to God by prayer and supplication; and going up to a pinnacle, he requested of God for some aid for the people and some way of deliverance from the need they were in, because in Him, and in Him alone, was their hope of salvation; and he desired that He would forgive what necessity had forced the people to do, since such was the nature of mankind—hard to please and very complaining under adversities. Accordingly, God promised He would take care of them and provide them the aid they were desirous of. Now when Moses had heard this from God, he came down to the multitude. But as soon as they saw him joyful at the promises he had received from God, they changed their sad countenances into gladness. So he placed himself in the midst of them and told them he came to bring them from God a deliverance from their present distresses. Accordingly, a little later came a vast number of quails, which is a bird more plentiful in this Arabian Gulf than anywhere else, flying over the sea, and they hovered over them, until wearied with their laborious flight, and, indeed, as usual, flying very near to the earth, they fell down on the Hebrews, who caught them, and satisfied their hunger with them, and supposed that this was the method whereby God meant to supply them with food, on which Moses returned thanks to God for providing them His assistance so quickly, and sooner than He had promised them.

6. But presently after this first supply of food, He sent them a second; for as Moses was lifting up his hands in prayer, a dew fell down; and Moses, when he found it stick to his hands, supposed this also had come for food from God to them. He tasted it; and perceiving that the people did not know what it was, and thought it snowed, and that it was what usually fell at that time of the year, he informed them that this dew did not fall from the sky after the manner they imagined, but came for their preservation and sustenance. So he tasted it and gave them some of it, so that they might be satisfied about what he told them. They also imitated their conductor, and were pleased with the food, for it was like honey in sweetness and pleasant taste, but like in its body to bdellium, one of the sweet spices, and in size equal to coriander seed. And they were very earnest in gathering it; but they were commanded to gather it equally: the measure of an omer for each one every day, because this food should not come in too small a quantity, lest the weaker might not be able to get their share, by reason of the overbearing of the strong in collecting it. However, these strong men, when they had gathered more than the measure appointed for them, had no more than others, but only tired themselves more in gathering it, for they found no more than an omer apiece; and the advantage they got by what was superfluous was none at all, it corrupting, both by the worms breeding in it, and by its bitterness. So divine and wonderful a food was this! It also supplied the need of other sorts of food to those that fed on it. And even now, in all that place, this manna comes down in rain, according to what Moses then obtained of God, to send it to the people for their sustenance. Now the Hebrews call this food manna: for the particle man, in our language, is the asking of a question: “What is this?” So the Hebrews were very joyful at what was sent them from Heaven. Now they made use of this food for forty years, or as long as they were in the wilderness.

7. As soon as they were removed from there, they came to Rephidim, being distressed to the last degree by thirst; and while in the preceding days they had descended on a few small fountains, but now found the earth entirely destitute of water, they were in a calamitous situation. They again turned their anger against Moses; but he at first avoided the fury of the multitude, and then committed himself to prayer to God, imploring Him, that as He had given them food when they were in the greatest need of it, so He would give them drink, since the favor of giving them food was of no value to them while they had nothing to drink. And God did not long delay to give it [to] them, but promised Moses that He would procure them a fountain, and plenty of water, from a place they did not expect any. So He commanded him to strike the rock which they saw lying there, with his rod, and out of it to receive plenty of what they wanted; for He had taken care that drink should come to them without any labor or effort. When Moses had received this command from God, he came to the people, who waited for him, and looked on him, for they saw already that he was coming quickly from his pinnacle. As soon as he had come, he told them that God would deliver them from their present distress and had granted them an unexpected favor; and he informed them that a river should run for their sakes out of the rock. But they were amazed at hearing that, supposing they were of necessity to cut the rock in pieces, now [that] they were distressed by their thirst and by their journey, while Moses only striking the rock with his rod, opened a passage, and out of it burst water, and that in great abundance, and very clear. But they were astonished at this wonderful effect; and, as it were, quenched their thirst by the very sight of it. So they drank this pleasant, this sweet water; and such it seemed to be, as might well be expected where God was the giver. They were also in admiration of how Moses was honored by God; and they made grateful returns of sacrifices to God for His providence toward them. Now that Writing, which is laid up in the temple, informs us how God foretold to Moses that “water timid in this manner is derived out of the rock.”

CHAPTER 2

How the Amalekites and the Neighboring Nations Made War with the Hebrews and Were Beaten and Lost a Great Part of Their Army.

1. The name of the Hebrews already began to be renowned everywhere, and rumors about them ran abroad. This made the inhabitants of those countries to be in substantial fear. Accordingly, they sent ambassadors to one another, and they exhorted one another to defend themselves and to endeavor to destroy these men. Those that induced the rest to do so were such as inhabited Gobolitis and Petra. They were called Amalekites, and were the most warlike of the nations that lived around there, and whose kings exhorted one another, and their neighbors, to go to this war against the Hebrews, telling them that an army of strangers, and such a one as had run away from slavery under the Egyptians, lay in wait to ruin them, which army they were not, in common prudence and regard for their own safety, to overlook, but to crush them before they gather strength, and come to be in prosperity, and perhaps attack them first in a hostile manner, as presuming on our inaction in not attacking them beforehand; and that we ought to avenge ourselves of them for what they have done in the wilderness, but that this cannot be so done when they have once laid their hands on our cities and our goods: that those who endeavor to crush a power in its first rise are wiser than those that endeavor to put a stop to its progress when it has become formidable; for these last seem to be angry only at the flourishing of others, but the former do not leave any room for their enemies to become troublesome to them. After they had sent such envoys to the neighboring nations, and among one another, they resolved to attack the Hebrews in battle.

2. These proceedings of the people of those countries prompted perplexity and trouble to Moses, who did not expect such military preparations. And when these nations were ready to fight, and the multitude of the Hebrews were compelled to try the fortune of war, they were in a mighty disorder, and in need of all necessities, and yet were to make war with men who were thoroughly well prepared for it. Then therefore it was that Moses began to encourage them, and to exhort them to have a good heart, and rely on God’s assistance by which they had been [given their current] state of freedom, and to hope for victory over those who were ready to fight with them in order to deprive them of that blessing: that they were to suppose their own army to be numerous, lacking nothing—neither weapons, nor money, nor provisions, nor such other conveniences as, when men are in possession of, they fight enthusiastically; and that they are to judge themselves to have all these advantages by the Divine assistance. They are also to suppose the enemy’s army to be small, unarmed, weak, and such as want those conveniences which they know must be wanted, when it is God’s will that they will be beaten; and how valuable God’s assistance is, they had experienced in abundance of trials; and those such as were more terrible than war, for that is only against men; but these were against famine and thirst, things indeed that are in their own nature insurmountable; as also against mountains, and that sea which provided them no way for escaping; yet all these difficulties had been conquered by God’s gracious kindness to them. So he exhorted them to be courageous at this time and to look on their entire prosperity to depend on the present conquest of their enemies.

3. And with these words Moses encouraged the multitude, who then called together the princes of their tribes, and their chief men, both separately and conjointly. The young men he charged to obey their elders, and the elders to listen to their leader. So the people were elevated in their minds, and ready to try their fortune in battle, and hoped to be thereby finally delivered from all their miseries: no, they desired that Moses would immediately lead them against their enemies without the least delay, that no backwardness might be a hindrance to their present resolution. So Moses sorted all that were fit for war into different troops, and set Joshua, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, over them—one that was of great courage and patient to undergo labors; of great abilities to understand and to speak what was proper; and very serious in the worship of God; and indeed made like another Moses, a teacher of piety toward God. He also appointed a small party of the armed men to be near the water and to take care of the children, and the women, and of the entire camp. So that whole night they prepared themselves for the battle; they took their weapons, if any of them had such as were well made, and attended to their commanders as ready to rush forth to the battle as soon as Moses should give the word of command. Moses also kept awake, teaching Joshua after what manner he should order his camp. But when the day began, Moses called for Joshua again, and exhorted him to prove himself in deeds such as his reputation made men expect from him; and to gain glory by the present expedition, in the opinion of those under him, for his exploits in this battle. He also gave a particular exhortation to the principal men of the Hebrews and encouraged the whole army as it stood armed before him. And when he had thus animated the army, both by his words and works, and prepared everything, he retired to a mountain, and committed the army to God and to Joshua.

4. So the armies joined battle; and it came to a close fight—hand to hand—both sides showing great eagerness and encouraging one another. And indeed, while Moses stretched out his hand toward Heaven, the Hebrews were too difficult for the Amalekites: but Moses not being able to sustain his hands thus stretched out (for as often as he let down his hands, so often were his own people beaten), he commanded his brother Aaron, and Hur, their sister Miriam’s husband, to stand on each side of him, and take hold of his hands, and not permit his weariness to prevent it, but to assist him in the extension of his hands. When this was done, the Hebrews conquered the Amalekites by main force; and indeed, they had all perished, unless the approach of the night had compelled the Hebrews to desist from killing anymore. So our forefathers obtained a most significant and most seasonable victory; for they not only overcame those that fought against them, but also terrified the neighboring nations, and attained great and splendid advantages, which they obtained from their enemies by their hard pains in this battle: for when they had taken the enemy’s camp, they got ready spoil for the public, and for their own personal families, whereas until then they had not had any sort of abundance, of even necessary food. The aforementioned battle, when they had once won it, was also the occasion of their prosperity, not only for the present, but for the future ages also; for they not only made slaves of the bodies of their enemies, but subdued their minds also, and after this battle, became terrible to all that dwelt around them. Moreover, they acquired a vast quantity of riches; for a great deal of silver and gold was left in the enemy’s camp; as also brazen vessels, which they made common use of in their families; many utensils also that were embroidered there were of both sorts, that is, of what were weaved, and what were the ornaments of their armor, and other things that served for use in the family, and for the furniture of their rooms; they also obtained the prey of their cattle, and of whatsoever is used to follow camps, when they remove from one place to another. So the Hebrews now valued themselves on their courage and claimed great merit for their valor; and they perpetually trained themselves to take pains, by which they deemed every difficulty might be overcome. Such were the consequences of this battle.

5. On the next day, Moses stripped the dead bodies of their enemies, and gathered together the armor of those that had fled, and gave rewards to such as had distinguished themselves in the action; and he highly commended Joshua, their general, who was attested to by all the army, on account of the great actions he had done. Nor was any one of the Hebrews slain; but the slain of the enemy’s army were too many to be numbered. So Moses offered sacrifices of thanksgiving to God and built an altar, which he named “The Lord, the Conqueror.” He also foretold that the Amalekites should utterly be destroyed; and that hereafter none of them should remain, because they fought against the Hebrews, and this when they were in the wilderness, and also in their distress. Moreover, he refreshed the army with feasting. And thus, they fought this first battle with those that ventured to oppose them, after they had gone out of Egypt. But when Moses had celebrated this festival for the victory, he permitted the Hebrews to rest for a few days, and then he brought them out after the fight, in order of battle; for they had now many soldiers in light armor. And going gradually on, he came to Mount Sinai, in three months’ time after they had departed from Egypt; at which mountain, as we have before related, the vision of the bush, and the other wonderful appearances, had happened.

CHAPTER 3

That Moses Graciously Received His Father-in-Law, Jethro [(Raguel)], When He Came to Him at Mount Sinai.

Now when Raguel, Moses’ father-in-law, understood in what a prosperous condition his affairs were, he willingly came to meet him. And Moses took his wife Zipporah and his children and delighted himself with his coming. And when he had offered sacrifice, he made a feast for the multitude, near the bush he had formerly seen; which multitude, every one according to their families, partook of the feast. But Aaron and his family took Raguel and sung hymns to God, as to Him who had been the author [and] procurer of their deliverance and their freedom. They also praised their conductor, as him by whose virtue it was that all things had succeeded with them. Raguel also, in his thanksgiving oration to Moses, made great accolades on the whole multitude; and he could not but admire Moses for his fortitude and that humanity he had shown in the delivery of his friends.

CHAPTER 4

How Raguel Suggested to Moses to Set His People in Order, under Their Rulers of Thousands, and Rulers of Hundreds, Who Lived without Order Before; And How Moses Complied in All Things with His Father-in-Law’s Admonition.

1. The next day, Raguel saw Moses in the midst of a crowd of business, that he determined the differences of those that referred themselves to him—everyone still going to him—and supposing that they should only then obtain justice, if he were the arbitrator; and those that lost their causes thought it not wrong, because they thought they lost them justly and not by partiality. Raguel, however, said nothing to him at that time, as not desirous to be any hindrance to such as intended to make use of the virtue of their leader. But afterward he took him to himself, and when he was alone with him, he instructed him in what he ought to do; and he advised him to leave the trouble of lesser causes to others, but himself to take care of the greater, and of the people’s safety, because certain others of the Hebrews might be found that were suited to determine causes, but that nobody but Moses could handle the safety of so many myriads. “Be therefore,” he says, “oblivious of your own virtue, and what you have done by ministering under God to the people’s preservation. Permit, therefore, the determination of common causes to be done by others, but reserve yourself to the attendance on God only, and look out for methods of preserving the multitude from their present distress. Make use of the method I suggest to you, as to human affairs; and take a review of the army, and appoint chosen rulers over tens of thousands, and then over thousands; then divide them into five hundreds, and again into hundreds, and into fifties; and set rulers over each of them, who may distinguish them into thirties, and keep them in order; and at last number them by twenties and by tens: and let there be one commander over each number, to be denominated from the number of those over whom they are rulers, but such as the whole multitude have tried, and do approve of, as being good and righteous men; and let those rulers decide the controversies they have with one another. But if any great cause arises, let them bring awareness of it before the rulers of a higher authority; but if any great difficulty arises that is too hard for even their determination, let them send it to you. By these means two advantages will be gained: the Hebrews will have justice done to them, and you will be able to attend constantly on God, and procure Him to be more favorable to the people.”

2. This was the admonition of Raguel; and Moses received his advice very kindly, and acted according to his suggestion. Nor did he conceal the invention of this method, nor pretend to it himself, but informed the multitude who it was that invented it: indeed, he has named Raguel in the books he wrote, as the person who invented this ordering of the people, as thinking it right to give a true testimony to worthy persons, although he might have gotten reputation by ascribing to himself the inventions of other men, from which we may learn the virtuous disposition of Moses: but of such his disposition, we will have proper occasion to speak in other places of these books.

CHAPTER 5

How Moses Ascended up to Mount Sinai, and Received Laws from God, and Delivered Them to the Hebrews.

1. Now Moses called the multitude together, and told them that he was going from them to Mount Sinai to converse with God, to receive from Him, and to bring back with him, a certain oracle; but he instructed them to pitch their tents near the mountain, and prefer the habitation that was nearest to God, before one more remote. When he had said this, he ascended up to Mount Sinai, which is the highest of all the mountains that are in that country and is not only very difficult to be ascended by men, on account of its vast altitude, but because of the sharpness of its precipices also; no, indeed, it cannot be looked at without pain of the eyes: and besides this, it was terrible and inaccessible, on account of the rumor that passed around, that God dwelt there. But the Hebrews removed their tents as Moses had commanded them and took possession of the lowest parts of the mountain; and they were elevated in their minds, in expectation that Moses would return from God with promises of the good things He had proposed to them. So they feasted and waited for their leader, and they kept themselves pure as in other respects, and not accompanying with their wives for three days, as he had before ordered them to do. And they prayed to God that He would favorably receive Moses in his conversing with Him and bestow some such gift on them by which they might live well. They also lived more plentifully as to their diet and put on their wives and children more ornamental and decent clothing than they usually wore.

2. So they passed two days in this way of feasting; but on the third day, before the sun was up, a cloud spread itself over the whole camp of the Hebrews, such as had never been seen before, and encompassed the place where they had pitched their tents; and while all the rest of the air was clear, there came strong winds that raised up large showers of rain, which became a mighty tempest. There was also such lightning, as was terrible to those that saw it; and thunder, with its thunderbolts, were sent down, and declared God to be present there in a gracious way to such as Moses desired He should be gracious. Now, as to these matters, every one of my readers may think as he pleases, but I am under [the] necessity of relating this history as it is described in the sacred books. This sight, and the amazing sound that came to their ears, disturbed the Hebrews to an extraordinary degree, for they were not such as they were accustomed to; and then the rumor that was spread abroad, how God frequented that mountain, greatly astonished their minds, so they sorrowfully contained themselves within their tents, as both supposing Moses to be destroyed by the Divine wrath, and expecting the same destruction for themselves.

3. When they were under these apprehensions, Moses appeared as joyful and greatly exalted. When they saw him, they were freed from their fear, and admitted of more comfortable hopes as to what was to come. The air had also become clear and pure from its former disorders, on the appearance of Moses; whereon he called together the people to a congregation, in order for their hearing what God would say to them: and when they were gathered together, he stood on a high point from where they might all hear him, and said, “God has received me graciously, O Hebrews, as He has formerly done; and He has suggested a blessed method of living for you, and an order of political government, and is now present in the camp: I therefore charge you, for His sake and the sake of His works, and what we have done by His means, that you do not put a low value on what I am going to say, because the commands have been given by me that now deliver them to you, nor because it is the tongue of a man that delivers them to you; but if you have a due regard to the great importance of the things themselves, you will understand the greatness of Him whose institutions they are, and who has not disdained to communicate them to me for our common advantage; for it is not to be supposed that the author of these institutions is barely Moses, the son of Amram and Jochebed, but He who compelled the Nile to run bloody for your sakes, and tamed the haughtiness of the Egyptians by various sorts of judgments; He who provided a way through the sea for us; He who contrived a method of sending us food from Heaven when we were distressed for lack of it; He who made the water to flow out of a rock when we had very little of it before; He by whose means Adam was made to partake of the fruits both of the land and of the sea; He by whose means Noah escaped the Deluge; He by whose means our forefather Abraham, a wandering pilgrim, was made the heir of the land of Canaan; He by whose means Isaac was born of parents that were very old; He by whose means Jacob was adorned with twelve virtuous sons; He by whose means Joseph became a powerful lord over the Egyptians; He it is who conveys these instructions to you by me as His interpreter. And let them be to you venerable and contended for more earnestly by you than your own children and your own wives; for if you will follow them, you will lead a blessed life, you will enjoy the land fruitful, the sea calm, and the fruit of the womb born complete, as nature requires; you will also be terrible to your enemies, for I have been admitted into the presence of God and been made a hearer of His incorruptible voice; so great is His concern for your nation and its duration.”

4. When he had said this, he brought the people, with their wives and children, so near the mountain that they might hear God Himself speaking to them about the precepts which they were to practice, that the energy of what should be spoken might not be hurt by its utterance by that tongue of a man which could but imperfectly deliver it to their understanding. And they all heard a voice that came to all of them from above, insomuch that not one of these words escaped them, which Moses wrote on two tablets, which it is not lawful for us to set down directly, but their importance we will declare.

5. The first commandment teaches us that there is only one God, and that we ought to worship Him alone. The second commands us not to make the image of any living creature to worship it. The third, that we must not swear by God in a false matter. The fourth, that we must keep the seventh day, by resting from all sorts of work. The fifth, that we must honor our parents. The sixth that we must abstain from murder. The seventh that we must not commit adultery. The eighth, that we must not be guilty of theft. The ninth, that we must not bear false witness. The tenth, that we must not permit the desire of anything that is another’s.

6. Now when the multitude had heard God Himself giving those precepts which Moses had discoursed of, they rejoiced at what was said; and the congregation was dissolved: but on the following days they came to his tent and desired him to bring them, additionally, other laws from God. Accordingly, he appointed such laws, and afterward informed them in what manner they should act in all cases—which laws I will make mention of in their proper time; but I will reserve most of those laws for another work and make there a distinct explanation of them.

7. When matters were brought to this state, Moses went up again to Mount Sinai, of which he had told them beforehand. He made his ascent in their sight; and while he stayed there such a long time (for he was absent from them forty days), fear seized the Hebrews, lest Moses should have come to any harm; nor was there anything else so sad, and that so much troubled them, as this assumption that Moses had perished. Now there was a variety in their sentiments about it: some saying that he had fallen among wild beasts; and those that were of this opinion were chiefly such as were hostile toward him; but others said that he had departed and gone to God; but the wiser sort were led by their reason to embrace neither of those opinions with any satisfaction, thinking that as it was a thing that sometimes happens to men to fall among wild beasts and perish that way, so it was probable enough that he might depart and go to God on account of his virtue; they therefore were quiet, and expected the event: yet they were exceedingly sorry on the assumption that they were deprived of a governor and a protector, such a one indeed as they could never recover again; nor would this suspicion give them allowance to expect any comfortable event about this man, nor could they prevent their trouble and melancholy on this occasion. However, the camp dared not depart all this time, because Moses had commanded them before to stay there.

8. But when the forty days and as many nights were over, Moses came down, having tasted nothing of food usually appointed for the nourishment of men. His appearance filled the army with gladness, and he declared to them what care God had for them, and by what manner of conduct of their lives they might live happily, telling them that during these days of his absence He had also suggested to him that He would have a tabernacle built for Himself, into which He would descend when He came to them, and how we should carry it around with us when we depart from this place; and that there would be no longer any occasion for going up to Mount Sinai, but that He would Himself come and pitch His tabernacle among us, and be present at our prayers; as also, that the Tabernacle should be of such measures and construction as He had shown him, and that you are to undertake the work and accomplish it diligently. When he had said this, he showed them the two tablets, with the Ten Commandments engraved on them, five on each tablet; and the writing was by the hand of God.

CHAPTER 6

Concerning the Tabernacle Which Moses Built in the Wilderness for the Honor of God and Which Seemed to Be a Temple.

1. Hereon the Israelites rejoiced at what they had seen and heard from their leader and were not lacking in diligence according to their ability, for they brought silver, and gold, and brass, and of the best sorts of wood, and such as would not at all decay by decomposition; camels’ hair also, and sheep-skins, some of them dyed of a blue color, and some of a scarlet; some brought the flower for the purple color, and others for white, with wool dyed by the flowers aforementioned; and fine linen and precious stones, which those that use costly ornaments set in filigrees of gold; they also brought a great quantity of spices, for of these materials Moses built the Tabernacle, which did not differ at all from a movable and ambulatory temple. Now when these things were brought together with great diligence (for everyone was ambitious to further the work even beyond their ability), he set architects over the works, and this by the command of God; and indeed, the very same which the people themselves would have chosen, had the election been allowed to them. Now their names are set down in writing in the sacred books; and they were these: Besaleel, the son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah, the grandson of Miriam, the sister of their leader and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. Now the people went on with what they had undertaken with such great eagerness, that Moses was obligated to restrain them, by making proclamation, that what had been brought was sufficient, as the craftsmen had informed him; so they undertook to work on the building of the Tabernacle. Moses also informed them, according to the direction of God, both what the measures were to be, and its scale, and how many vessels it ought to contain for the use of the sacrifices. The women were also ambitious to do their parts, about the garments of the priests, and about other things that would be needed in this work, both for ornament and for the divine service itself.

2. Now when all things were prepared—the gold, and the silver, and the brass, and what was woven—Moses, when he had appointed beforehand that there should be a festival, and that sacrifices should be offered according to everyone’s ability, reared up the Tabernacle, and when he had measured the open court—fifty cubits broad and one hundred long—he set up brazen pillars [of] five cubits high, twenty on each of the longer sides, and ten pillars for the breadth behind; every one of the pillars also had a ring. Their chapiters were of silver, but their bases were of brass: they resembled the sharp ends of spears, and were of brass, fixed into the ground. Cords were also put through the rings, and were tied at their farthest ends to brass nails of a cubit long, which, at every pillar, were driven into the floor, and would keep the Tabernacle from being shaken by the violence of winds; but a curtain of fine soft linen went around all the pillars, and hung down in a flowing and loose manner from their chapiters, and enclosed the whole space, and seemed not at all dissimilar to a wall around it. And this was the structure of three of the sides of this enclosure; but as for the fourth side, which was fifty cubits in extent, and was the front of the whole, twenty cubits of it were for the opening of the gates, wherein stood two pillars on each side, after the resemblance of open gates. These were made entirely of silver, and polished, and that all over, excepting the bases, which were of brass. Now on each side of the gates there stood three pillars, which were inserted into the concave bases of the gates, and were suited to them; and around them was drawn a curtain of fine linen; but to the gates themselves, which were twenty cubits in extent, and five in height, the curtain was composed of purple, and scarlet, and blue, and fine linen, and embroidered with many and various sorts of figures, excepting the figures of animals. Within these gates was the brazen laver for purification, having a basin beneath of the same material, where the priests might wash their hands and sprinkle their feet; and this was the ornamental construction of the enclosure around the court of the Tabernacle, which was exposed to the open air.

3. As for the Tabernacle itself, Moses placed it in the middle of that court, with its front to the east, that, when the sun arose, it might send its first rays on it. Its length, when it was set up, was thirty cubits, and its breadth was twelve [[or ten]] cubits. The one of its walls was on the south, and the other was exposed to the north, and on the back part of it remained the west. It was necessary that its height should be equal to its breadth [(ten cubits)]. There were also pillars made of wood, twenty on each side; they were wrought into a quadrangular figure, in breadth a cubit and a half, but the thickness was four fingers: they had thin plates of gold affixed to them on both sides, inwardly and outwardly; each of them had two tenons belonging to them, inserted into their bases, and these were of silver, in each of which bases there was a socket to receive the tenon; but the pillars on the west wall were six. Now all these tenons and sockets accurately fitted one another, insomuch that the joints were invisible and both seemed to be one entire and united wall. It was also covered with gold, both inside and outside. The number of pillars was equal on the opposite sides, and there were on each part twenty, and every one of them had the third part of a span in thickness, so that the number of thirty cubits were fully made up between them; but as for the wall behind, where the six pillars made up together only nine cubits, they made two other pillars, and cut them out of one cubit, which they placed in the corners, and made them equally fine with the other. Now every one of the pillars had rings of gold affixed to their fronts outwardly, as if they had taken root in the pillars, and stood one row opposite another around, through which were inserted bars gilt over with gold, each of them five cubits long, and these bound the pillars together, the head of one bar running into another, after the nature of one tenon inserted into another; but for the wall behind, there was only one row of bars that went through all the pillars, into which row ran the ends of the bars on each side of the longer walls—the male with its female being so fastened in their joints, that they held the whole firmly together; and for this reason was all this joined so firmly together that the Tabernacle might not be shaken, either by the winds, or by any other means, but that it might preserve itself quiet and immovable continually.

4. As for the inside, Moses parted its length into three partitions. At the distance of ten cubits from the most secret end, Moses placed four pillars, the workmanship of which was the very same with that of the rest; and they stood on identical bases with them, each a small matter distant from his fellow. Now the room within those pillars was the Holy of Holies; but the rest of the room was the Tabernacle, which was open for the priests. However, this proportion of the measures of the Tabernacle proved to be an imitation of the system of the world; for that third part thereof which was within the four pillars, to which the priests were not admitted, is, as it were, a heaven peculiar to God. But the space of the twenty cubits, is, as it were, sea and land, on which men live, and so this part is peculiar to the priests only. But at the front, where the entrance was made, they placed pillars of gold, that stood on bases of brass, in number seven; but then they spread over the Tabernacle veils of fine linen and purple, and blue, and scarlet colors, embroidered. The first veil was ten cubits every way, and this they spread over the pillars which parted the temple and kept the Holy of Holies concealed within; and this veil was that which made this part not visible to any. Now the whole temple was called the Holy Place, but that part which was within the four pillars, and to which none were admitted, was called the Holy of Holies. This veil was very ornamental, and embroidered with all sorts of flowers which the earth produces; and there were interwoven into it all sorts of variety that might be an ornament, excepting the forms of animals. Another veil there was which covered the five pillars that were at the entrance. It was like the former in its magnitude, and texture, and color; and at the corner of every pillar a ring retained it from the top downwards half the depth of the pillars, the other half providing an entrance for the priests, who crept under it. Over this there was a veil of linen, of the same size with the former: it was to be drawn this way or that way by cords, the rings of which, fixed to the texture of the veil, and to the cords also, were subservient to the drawing and undrawing of the veil, and to the fastening it at the corner, that then it might be no hindrance to the view of the sanctuary, especially on solemn days; but that on other days, and especially when the weather was inclined to snow, it might be expanded, and provide a covering to the veil of various colors, from which that custom of ours is derived, of having a fine linen veil, after the temple has been built, to be drawn over the entrances. But the ten other curtains were four cubits in breadth and twenty-eight in length, and they had golden clasps in order to join the one curtain to the other, which was done so precisely that they seemed to be one entire curtain. These were spread over the temple, and covered all the top and parts of the walls, on the sides and behind, so far as within one cubit of the ground. There were other curtains of the same breadth with these, but one more in number, and longer, for they were thirty cubits long; but these were woven of hair, with the same subtlety as those of wool were made, and were extended loosely down to the ground, appearing like a triangular front and elevation at the gates—the eleventh curtain being used for this very purpose. There were also other curtains made of skins above these, which provided covering and protection to those that were woven both in hot weather and when it rained. And great was the surprise of those who viewed these curtains at a distance, for they seemed not at all to differ from the color of the sky. But those that were made of hair and of skins, reached down in the same manner as did the veil at the gates, and kept off the heat of the sun, and what harm the rains might cause. And after this manner the Tabernacle was reared.

5. An ark was also made, sacred to God, of wood that was naturally strong and could not be corrupted. This was called Eron in our own language. Its construction was thus: its length was five spans, but its breadth and height was each of them three spans. It was covered all over with gold, both inside and outside, so that the wooden part was not seen. It also had a cover united to it, by golden hinges, in a wonderful manner; which cover was [in] every way evenly fitted to it and had no eminences to hinder its exact conjunction. There were also two golden rings belonging to each of the longer boards, and passing through the entire wood, and through them gilt bars passed along each board, that it might thereby be moved and carried around as occasion should require; for it was not drawn in a cart by beasts of burden, but borne on the shoulders of the priests. On this cover of it were two images, which the Hebrews call Cherubim; they are flying creatures, but their form is not like to that of any of the creatures which men have seen, though Moses said he had seen such beings near the throne of God. In this ark he put the two tablets whereon the Ten Commandments were written—five on each tablet, and two and a half on each side of them; and he placed this ark in the Holy of Holies.

6. But in the holy place he placed a table, like those at Delphi. Its length was two cubits, and its breadth one cubit, and its height three spans. It had feet also, the lower half of which were complete feet, resembling those which the Dorians put to their bedsteads; but the upper parts toward the table were wrought into a square form. The table had a hollow toward every side, having a ledge of four fingers’ depth, that went around like a spiral, both on the upper and lower part of the body of the work. On every one of the feet a ring was also inserted, not far from the cover, through which went bars of wood beneath, but gilded, to be taken out on occasion, there being a cavity where it was joined to the rings; for they were not entire rings; but before they came quite around they ended in acute points, the one of which was inserted into the prominent part of the table, and the other into the foot; and by these it was carried when they journeyed: on this table, which was placed on the north side of the temple, not far from the Holy of Holies, were laid twelve unleavened loaves of bread, six on each heap, one above another; they were made of two tenth-deals of the purest flour, which tenth-deal [(an omer)] is a measure of the Hebrews, containing seven Athenian cotyles; and above those loaves were put two vials full of frankincense. Now after seven days other loaves were brought in their place, on the day which is by us called the Sabbath; for we call the seventh day the Sabbath. But for the occasion of this intention of placing loaves here, we will speak to it in another place.

7. Opposite this table, near the southern wall, was set a candlestick of cast gold, hollow within, being of the weight of one hundred pounds, which the Hebrews call Chinchares; if it is translated into the Greek language, it denotes a talent. It was made with its knops, and lilies, and pomegranates, and bowls (which ornaments amounted to seventy in all); by which means the shaft elevated itself on high from a single base and spread itself into as many branches as there are planets, including the sun among them. It terminated in seven heads, in one row, all standing parallel to one another; and these branches carried seven lamps, one by one, in imitation of the number of the planets. These lamps looked to the east and to the south, the candlestick being situated obliquely.

8. Now between this candlestick and the table, which, as we said, were within the sanctuary, was the altar of incense, indeed made of wood, but of the same wood of which the aforementioned vessels were made, such as was not liable to corruption; it was entirely crusted over with a golden plate. Its breadth on each side was a cubit, but the altitude double. On it was a grate of gold, that was extant above the altar, which had a golden crown encompassing it around, to which belonged rings and bars, by which the priests carried it when they journeyed. Before this tabernacle there was reared a brazen altar, but it was internally made of wood, five cubits by measure on each side, but its height was only three, in like manner adorned with brass plates as bright as gold. It also had a brazen hearth of network; for the ground underneath received the fire from the hearth, because it had no basis to receive it. Nearby this altar lay the basins, and the vials, and the censers, and the cauldrons, made of gold; but the other vessels, made for the use of the sacrifices, were all of brass. And such was the construction of the Tabernacle; and these were the vessels belonging to that.

CHAPTER 7

Concerning the Garments of the Priests, and of the High Priest.

1. There were peculiar garments appointed for the priests, and for all the rest, which they call Cohanoeoe [(priestly)] garments, as also for the high priests, which they call Cahanoeoe Rabbae, and denote the high priest’s garments. Such was therefore the attire of the rest. But when the priest approaches the sacrifices, he purifies himself with the purification which the Law prescribes; and, in the first place, he puts on that which is called Machanase, which means something that is firmly tied. It is a girdle, composed of fine-twined linen, and is put around the private parts; the feet are to be inserted into them in the nature of breeches, but above half of it is cut off, and it ends at the thighs, and is there tied firmly.

2. Over this he wore a linen vestment, made of fine flax doubled: it is called Chethone, and denotes linen, for we call linen by the name of Chethone. This vestment reaches down to the feet, and sits close to the body, and has sleeves that are tied firmly to the arms: it is girded to the breast a little above the elbows by a girdle often going around, four fingers broad, but so loosely woven that you would think it were the skin of a serpent. It is embroidered with flowers of scarlet, and purple, and blue, and fine-twined linen, but the warp was nothing but fine linen. The beginning of its circumvolution is at the breast; and when it has gone often around, it is there tied, and hangs loosely there down to the ankles: I mean this, all the time the priest is not about any laborious service, for in this position it appears in the most agreeable manner to the spectators; but when he is obligated to assist at the offering sacrifices, and to do the appointed service, that he may not be hindered in his operations by its motion, he throws it to the left, and bears it on his shoulder. Moses indeed calls this belt Albaneth; but we have learned from the Babylonians to call it Emia, for so it is called by them. This vestment has no loose or hollow parts anywhere in it, but only a narrow aperture around the neck; and it is tied with certain strings hanging down from the edge over the breast and back, and is fastened above each shoulder: it is called Massabazanes.

3. On his head he wears a cap, not brought to a conic form nor encircling the whole head, but still covering more than the half of it, which is called Masnaemphthes; and its make is such that it seems to be a crown, being made of thick swathes, but the contexture is of linen; and it is doubled around many times, and sewed together; besides which, a piece of fine linen covers the whole cap from the upper part, and reaches down to the forehead, and hides the seams of the swathes, which would otherwise appear indecently: this adheres closely on the solid part of the head, and is to that so firmly fixed, that it may not fall off during the sacred service about the sacrifices. So we have now shown you what is the attire of the general priests.

4. The high priest is indeed adorned with the same garments that we have [thus] described, without lacking one; only, over these he puts on a vestment of a blue color. This also is a long robe, reaching to his feet, [which] in our language is called Meeir, and is tied around with a girdle, embroidered with the same colors and flowers as the former, with a mixture of gold interwoven; to the bottom of which garment are hung fringes, in color like pomegranates, with golden bells by a curious and beautiful design, so that between two bells hangs a pomegranate, and between two pomegranates a bell. Now this vesture was not composed of two pieces, nor was it sewed together on the shoulders and the sides, but it was one long vestment so woven as to have an aperture for the neck; not an oblique one, but parted all along the breast and the back. A border was also sewed to it, lest the aperture should look too indecent: it was also parted where the hands were to come out.

5. Besides these, the high priest put on a third garment, which was called the Ephod, which resembles the Epomis of the Greeks. Its make was after this manner: it was woven to the depth of a cubit, of several colors, with gold intermixed, and embroidered, but it left the middle of the breast uncovered; it was also made with sleeves; nor did it appear to be at all differently made from a short coat. But in the void place of this garment there was inserted a piece of the size of a span, embroidered with gold, and the other colors of the ephod, and was called Essen [(the breastplate)], which in the Greek language signifies the Oracle. This piece exactly filled up the void space in the ephod. It was united to it by golden rings at every corner, the like rings being annexed to the ephod, and a blue ribbon was made use of to tie them together by those rings; and that the space between the rings might not appear empty, they contrived to fill it up with stitches of blue ribbons. There were also two sardonyxes on the ephod, at the shoulders, to fasten it in the nature of buttons, having each end running to the sardonyxes of gold, that they might be buttoned by them. On these were engraved the names of the sons of Jacob, in our own country letters, and in our own tongue, six on each of the stones, on either side; and the elder sons’ names were on the right shoulder. There were also twelve stones on the breastplate, extraordinary in size and beauty; and they were an ornament not to be purchased by men, because of their immense value. These stones, however, stood in three rows, by four in a row, and were inserted into the breastplate itself, and they were set in filigrees of gold that were themselves inserted in the breastplate, and were so made that they might not fall out. Now the first three stones were a sardonyx, a topaz, and an emerald. The second row contained a carbuncle, a jasper, and a sapphire. The first of the third row was a ligure, then an amethyst, and the third an agate, being the ninth of the whole number. The first of the fourth row was a chrysolite, the next was an onyx, and then a beryl, which was the last of all. Now the names of all those sons of Jacob were engraved in these stones, whom we esteem the heads of our tribes, each stone having the honor of a name, in the order according to which they were born. And whereas the rings were too weak of themselves to bear the weight of the stones, they made two other rings of a larger size, at the edge of that part of the breastplate which reached to the neck, and inserted into the very texture of the breastplate, to receive chains finely wrought, which connected them with golden bands to the tops of the shoulders, whose extremity turned backward, and went into the ring, on the prominent back part of the ephod; and this was for the security of the breastplate, that it might not fall out of its place. There was also a girdle sewed to the breastplate, which was of the aforementioned colors, with gold intermixed, which, when it had gone around once, was tied again on the seam, and hung down. There were also golden loops that admitted its fringes at each extremity of the girdle, and included them entirely.

6. The high priest’s turban was the same that we described before, and was wrought like that of all the other priests; above which there was another, with swathes of blue embroidered, and around it was a polished golden crown, of three rows, one above another, out of which arose a cup of gold which resembled the herb which we call Saccharus; but those Greeks that are skillful in botany call it Hyoscyamus. Now, lest anyone that has seen this herb, but has not been taught its name, and is unacquainted with its nature, or, having known its name, does not know the herb when he sees it, I will give such as these are a description of it. This herb is oftentimes in height above three spans, but its root is like that of a turnip (for he that should compare it to that would not be mistaken); but its leaves are like the leaves of mint. Out of its branches it sends out a calyx, cleaving to the branch; and a coat encompasses it, which it naturally puts off when it is changing, in order to produce its fruit. This calyx is of the size of the bone of the little finger, but in the compass of its aperture is like a cup. This I will further describe, for the use of those that are unacquainted with it. Suppose a sphere is divided into two parts, around at the bottom, but having another segment that grows up to a circumference from that bottom; suppose it becomes narrower by degrees, and that the cavity of that part grows decently smaller, and then gradually grows wider again at the brim, such as we see in the navel of a pomegranate, with its notches. And indeed, such a coat grows over this plant as renders it a hemisphere, and that, as one may say, turned accurately in a lathe, and having its notches extant above it, which, as I said, grow like a pomegranate, only that they are sharp, and end in nothing but prickles. Now the fruit is preserved by this coat of the calyx, which fruit is like the seed of the herb Sideritis: it sends out a flower that may seem to resemble that of poppy. Of this was a crown made, as far from the rear part of the head to each of the temples; but this Ephielis—for so this calyx may be called—did not cover the forehead, but it was covered with a golden plate, which had inscribed on it the Name of God in sacred characters. And such were the ornaments of the high priest.

7. Now here one may wonder at the animosity which men bear to us, and which they profess to bear on account of our despising that Deity which they pretend to honor; for if anyone would but consider the fabric of the Tabernacle, and take a view of the garments of the high priest, and of those vessels which we make use of in our sacred ministration, he will find that our legislator was a divine man, and that we are unjustly reproached by others; for if anyone, without prejudice and with [right] judgment, looks on these things, he will find each one was made in way of imitation and representation of the universe. When Moses distinguished the Tabernacle into three parts, and permitted two of them for the priests as a place accessible and common, he denoted the land and the sea, these being of general access to all; but he set apart the third division for God, because Heaven is inaccessible to men. And when he ordered twelve loaves to be set on the table, he denoted the year, as distinguished into so many months. By branching out the candlestick into seventy parts, he secretly intimated the Decani, or seventy divisions of the planets; and as to the seven lamps on the candlesticks, they referred to the course of the planets, of which that is the number. The veils, too, which were composed of four things, they declared the four elements; for the fine linen was proper to signify the earth, because the flax grows out of the earth; the purple signified the sea, because that color is dyed by the blood of a seashell-fish; the blue is fit to signify the air; and the scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire. Now the vestment of the high priest being made of linen, signified the earth; the blue denoted the sky, being like lightning in its pomegranates, and in the noise of the bells resembling thunder. And for the ephod, it showed that God had made the universe of four elements; and as for the gold interwoven, I suppose it related to the splendor by which all things are enlightened. He also appointed the breastplate to be placed in the middle of the ephod, to resemble the earth, for that has the very middle place of the world. And the girdle which encompassed the high priest around, signified the ocean, for that goes around and includes the universe. Each of the sardonyxes declares to us the sun and the moon; those, I mean, that were in the nature of buttons on the high priest’s shoulders. And for the twelve stones, whether we understand by them the months, or whether we understand the like number of the signs of that circle which the Greeks call the Zodiac, we will not be mistaken in their meaning. And for the turban, which was of a blue color, it seems to me to mean Heaven, for how otherwise could the Name of God be inscribed on it? That it was also illustrated with a crown, and that of gold also, is because of that splendor with which God is pleased. Let this explanation suffice at present, since the course of my narration will often, and on many occasions, provide me the opportunity of enlarging on the virtue of our legislator.

CHAPTER 8

Of the Priesthood of Aaron.

1. When what has been described was brought to an end, gifts not being yet presented, God appeared to Moses and commanded him to bestow the high priesthood on his brother Aaron, as on him that best of them all deserved to obtain that honor, on account of his virtue. And when he had gathered the multitude together, he gave them an account of Aaron’s virtue, and of his goodwill to them, and of the dangers he had undergone for their sakes. On which, when they had given testimony to him in all respects, and showed their readiness to receive him, Moses said to them, “O you Israelites, this work is already brought to an end, in a manner most acceptable to God, and according to our abilities. And now since you see that he is received into this tabernacle, we will first of all stand in need of one that may officiate for us, and may minister with the sacrifices, and with the prayers that are to be offered for us. And indeed, had the inquiry after such a person been left to me, I should have thought myself worthy of this honor, both because all men are naturally fond of themselves, and because I am conscious to myself that I have taken a great deal of pains for your deliverance; but now God Himself has determined that Aaron is worthy of this honor, and has chosen him for his priest, as knowing him to be the most righteous person among you. So he is to put on the vestments which are consecrated to God; he is to have the care of the altars, and to make provision for the sacrifices; and it is he that must offer prayers for you to God, who will readily hear them, not only because He is Himself attentive for your nation, but also because He will receive them as offered by one that He has Himself chosen for this office.” The Hebrews were pleased with what was said, and they gave their approval to him whom God had ordained; for Aaron was of them all the most deserving of this honor, on account of his own stock and gift of prophecy, and his brother’s virtue. He had at that time four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

2. Now Moses commanded them to make use of all the utensils which were more than were necessary for the structure of the Tabernacle, for covering the Tabernacle itself, the candlestick, and altar of incense, and the other vessels, that they might not be at all harmed when they journeyed, either by the rain, or by the rising of the dust. And when he had gathered the multitude together again, he ordained that they should offer half a shekel for every man, as an oblation to God; which shekel is a piece among the Hebrews, and is equal to four Athenian drachmas. Whereon they readily obeyed what Moses had commanded; and the number of the offerers was six hundred and five thousand five hundred and fifty. Now this money that was brought by the men that were free, was given by such as were about twenty years old, but under fifty; and what was collected was spent in the uses of the Tabernacle.

3. Moses now purified the Tabernacle and the priests; which purification was performed after the following manner: he commanded them to take five hundred shekels of choice myrrh, an equal quantity of cassia, and half the aforementioned weight of cinnamon and calamus (this last is a sort of sweet spice); to beat them small, and wet them with a hin of oil of olives (a hin is our own country measure, and contains two Athenian choas, or congiuses); then mix them together, and boil them, and prepare them after the art of the apothecary, and make them into a very sweet ointment; and afterward, to take it to anoint and to purify the priests themselves, and all the Tabernacle, as also the sacrifices. There were also many, and those of various kinds, of sweet spices, that belonged to the Tabernacle, and such as were of very great price, and were brought to the golden altar of incense; the nature of which I do not now describe, lest it should be troublesome to my readers; but incense was to be offered twice daily, both before sunrise and at sunset. They were also to keep oil already purified for the lamps; three of which were to give light all day long, on the sacred candlestick, before God, and the rest were to be lighted in the evening.

4. Now all was finished. Besaleel and Aholiab appeared to be the most skillful of the workmen, for they invented finer works than what others had done before them and were of great abilities to gain notions of what they were formerly ignorant of; and of these, Besaleel was judged to be the best. Now the whole time they were about this work was the interval of seven months; and after this, the first year since their departure out of Egypt was ended. But at the beginning of the second year, on the month Xanthicus, as the Macedonians call it, but on the month Nisan, as the Hebrews call it, on the new moon, they consecrated the Tabernacle, and all its vessels, which I have already described.

5. Now God showed Himself pleased with the work of the Hebrews and did not permit their labors to be in vain; nor did He disdain to make use of what they had made, but He came and sojourned with them, and pitched His tabernacle in the holy house. And in the following manner He came to it: the sky was clear, but there was a mist over the Tabernacle only, encompassing it, but not with such a very deep and thick cloud as is seen in the winter season, nor yet in so thin a one as men might be able to discern anything through it, but from it there dropped a sweet dew, and such a one as showed the presence of God to those that desired and believed it.

6. Now when Moses had bestowed such honorary presents on the workmen as it was fitting [that] they should receive, who had worked so well, he offered sacrifices in the open court of the Tabernacle, as God commanded him: a bull, a ram, and a kid of the goats for a sin-offering. Now I will speak of what we do in our sacred offices in my discourse about sacrifices; and therein will inform men in what cases Moses commanded us to offer a whole burnt-offering, and in what cases the Law permits us to partake of them as of food. And when Moses had sprinkled Aaron’s vestments, himself, and his sons, with the blood of the beasts that were slain, and had purified them with spring waters and ointment, they became God’s priests. After this manner he consecrated them and their garments for seven days together. The same he did to the Tabernacle, and the vessels belonging to that, both with oil first incensed, as I said, and with the blood of bulls and of rams, slain day by day, according to its kind. But on the eighth day he appointed a feast for the people and commanded them to offer sacrifice according to their ability. Accordingly, they contended with one another, and were ambitious to exceed each other in the sacrifices which they brought, and so fulfilled Moses’ injunctions. But as the sacrifices lay on the altar, a sudden fire was kindled from among them of its own accord and appeared in the sight like fire from a flash of lightning, and it consumed everything that was on the altar.

7. Hereon an affliction befell Aaron, considered as a man and a father, but was undergone by him with true fortitude; for he had indeed a firmness of soul in such accidents, and he thought this calamity came on him according to God’s will: for whereas he had four sons, as I said before, the two elder of them, Nadab and Abihu, did not bring those sacrifices which Moses commanded them to bring, but which they used to offer formerly, and were burnt to death. Now when the fire rushed on them, and began to burn them, nobody could quench it. Accordingly, they died in this manner. And Moses commanded their father and their brothers to take up their bodies, to carry them out of the camp, and to bury them magnificently. Now the multitude lamented them and were deeply affected at this death of theirs, which so unexpectedly happened to them. But Moses implored their brothers and their father not to be troubled for them, and to prefer the honor of God before their grief about them; for Aaron had already put on his sacred garments.

8. But Moses refused all that honor which he saw the multitude ready to bestow on him and attended to nothing else but the service of God. He no longer went up to Mount Sinai, but he went into the Tabernacle and brought back answers from God for what he prayed for. His attire was also that of a private man, and in all other circumstances he behaved himself like one of the common people and desired to appear without distinguishing himself from the multitude but would have it known that he did nothing else but take care of them. He also set down in writing the form of their government and those laws by obedience to which they would lead their lives so as to please God and so as to have no quarrels among one another. However, the laws he ordained were such as God suggested to him; so, I will now discourse concerning that form of government and those laws.

9. I will now handle what I omitted before—the garment of the high priest: for he [(Moses)] left no room for the evil practices of [false] prophets, but if some of that sort should attempt to abuse the Divine authority, he left it to God to be present at His sacrifices when He pleased, and when He pleased to be absent. And he was willing [that] this should be known, not to the Hebrews only, but to those foreigners who were also there. For as to those stones, of which we told you before, the high priest bore on his shoulders, which were sardonyxes (and I think it needless to describe their nature, they being known to everybody): one of them shined out when God was present at their sacrifices; I mean that which was in the nature of a button on his right shoulder—bright rays darting out from there and being seen even by those that were most distant, which splendor was not previously natural to the stone. This has appeared a wonderful thing to such as have not so far indulged themselves in philosophy, as to despise Divine revelation. Yet will I mention what is still more wonderful than this: for God declared beforehand, by those twelve stones which the high priest bore on his breast and which were inserted into his breastplate, when they should be victorious in battle; for such a great splendor shone forth from them before the army began to march, that all the people were made aware of God’s being present for their assistance, from which it came to pass that those Greeks, who had a veneration for our laws, because they could not possibly contradict this, called that breastplate the Oracle. Now this breastplate, and this sardonyx, stopped shining two hundred years before I composed this book, God having been displeased at the transgressions of His laws, of which things we will further discourse on at a better opportunity; but I will now go on with my proposed narration.

10. The tabernacle being now consecrated, and a regular order being settled for the priests, the multitude judged that God now dwelt among them, and committed themselves to sacrifices and praises to God as being now delivered from all expectation of evils and as entertaining a hopeful prospect of better times hereafter. They also offered gifts to God—some as common to the whole nation, and others as peculiar to themselves, and these tribe by tribe; for the heads of the tribes combined together, two by two, and brought a wagon and a yoke of oxen. These amounted to six, and they carried the Tabernacle when they journeyed. Besides which, each head of a tribe brought a bowl, and a charger, and a spoon, of ten darics, full of incense. Now the charger and the bowl were of silver, and together they weighed two hundred shekels, but the bowl cost no more than seventy shekels; and these were full of fine flour mingled with oil, such as they used on the altar for the sacrifices. They also brought a young bullock, and a ram, with a lamb of a year old, for a whole burnt-offering, as also a goat for the forgiveness of sins. Every one of the heads of the tribes also brought other sacrifices, called peace-offerings, every day: two bulls and five rams, with lambs of a year old, and kids of the goats. These heads of tribes were twelve days in sacrificing, one sacrificing every day. Now Moses no longer went up to Mount Sinai, but went into the Tabernacle, and learned of God what they were to do, and what laws should be made; which laws were preferable to what have been devised by human understanding, and proved to be firmly observed for all time to come, as being believed to be the gift of God, insomuch that the Hebrews did not transgress any of those laws, either as tempted in times of peace by luxury, or in times of war by distress of affairs. But I say nothing more here concerning them, because I have resolved to compose another work concerning our laws.

CHAPTER 9

The Manner of Our Offering Sacrifices.

1. I will now, however, make mention of a few of our laws which belong to purifications, and the related sacred offices, since I have circumstantially come to this matter of sacrifices. These sacrifices were of two sorts; of those sorts one was offered for private persons and the other for the people in general; and they are done in two different ways. In one case, what is slain is burnt, as a whole burnt-offering, from which that name is given to it; but the other is a thank-offering and is designed for feasting those that sacrifice. I will speak of the former. Suppose a private man offers a burnt-offering, he must slay either a bull, a lamb, or a kid of the goats, and the latter two of the first year, though of bulls he is permitted to sacrifice those of a greater age; but all burnt-offerings are to be of males. When they are slain, the priests sprinkle the blood around the altar; they then cleanse the bodies, and divide them into parts, and salt them with salt, and lay them on the altar while the pieces of wood are piled on one another and the fire is burning; they next cleanse the feet of the sacrifices, and the innards, in an accurate manner and so lay them to the rest to be purged by the fire, while the priests receive the hides. This is the way of offering a burnt-offering.

2. But those that offer thank-offerings do indeed sacrifice the same creatures, but such as are unblemished, and above a year old; however, they may take either males or females. They also sprinkle the altar with their blood; but they lay on the altar the kidneys and the caul, and all the fat, and the lobe of the liver, together with the rump of the lamb; then, giving the breast and the right shoulder to the priests, the offerers feast on the remainder of the flesh for two days; and what remains they burn.

3. The sacrifices for sins are offered in the same manner as is the thank-offering. But those who are unable to purchase complete sacrifices, offer two pigeons or turtle-doves; one of which is made a burnt-offering to God, the other they give as food to the priests. But we will discuss more accurately about the oblation of these creatures in our discourse concerning sacrifices. But if a person falls into sin by ignorance, he offers a ewe lamb or a female kid of the goats of the same age; and the priests sprinkle the blood at the altar, not after the former manner, but at the corners of it. They also bring the kidneys and the rest of the fat, together with the lobe of the liver, to the altar, while the priests carry away the hides and the flesh, and spend it in the holy place, on the same day; for the Law does not permit them to leave of it until the morning. But if anyone sins, and is conscious of it himself, but has nobody that can prove it on him, he offers a ram, the Law enjoining him to do so; the flesh of which the priests eat, as before, in the holy place, on the same day. And if the rulers offer sacrifices for their sins, they bring the same oblations that private men do; only they so far differ, that they are to bring for sacrifices a bull or a kid of the goats, both males.

4. Now the Law requires, both in private and public sacrifices, that the finest flour also be brought: for a lamb the measure of one tenth deal, for a ram two, and for a bull three. This they consecrate on the altar, when it is mingled with oil; for oil is also brought by those that sacrifice; for a bull the half of a hin, and for a ram the third part of the same measure, and one quarter of it for a lamb. This hin is an ancient Hebrew measure and is equivalent to two Athenian choas (or congiuses). They bring the same quantity of oil which they do of wine, and they pour the wine around the altar; but if anyone does not offer a complete sacrifice of animals, but brings fine flour only for a vow, he throws a handful on the altar as its first-fruits, while the priests take the rest for their food, either boiled or mingled with oil, but made into cakes of bread. But whatsoever it is that a priest himself offers, it must of necessity be all burnt. Now the Law forbids us to sacrifice any animal at the same time with its mother; and, in other cases, not until the eighth day after its birth. There are also other sacrifices appointed for escaping diseases, or for other occasions, in which meat-offerings are consumed, together with the animals that are sacrificed; of which it is not lawful to leave any part until the next day, only the priests are to take their own share.

CHAPTER 10

Concerning the Festivals; And How Each Day of Such Festival Is to Be Observed.

1. The law requires that out of the public expenses a lamb of the first year be killed every day, at the beginning and at the ending of the day; but on the seventh day, which is called the Sabbath, they kill two, and sacrifice them in the same manner. At the new moon, they both perform the daily sacrifices, and slay two bulls, with seven lambs of the first year, and a kid of the goats also, for the expiation of sins; that is, if they have sinned through ignorance.

2. But on the seventh month, which the Macedonians call Hyperberetaeus, they make an addition to those already mentioned, and sacrifice a bull, a ram, and seven lambs, and a kid of the goats, for sins.

3. On the tenth day of the same lunar month, they fast until the evening; and this day they sacrifice a bull, and two rams, and seven lambs, and a kid of the goats, for sins. And, besides these, they bring two kids of the goats: one of which is sent alive out of the limits of the camp into the wilderness for the scapegoat and to be an expiation for the sins of the whole multitude; but the other is brought into a place of great cleanness, within the limits of the camp, and is there burnt, with its skin, without any sort of cleansing. With this goat was burnt a bull, not brought by the people, but by the high priest, at his own charges; which, when it was slain, he brought of the blood into the holy place, together with the blood of the kid of the goats, and sprinkled the ceiling with his finger seven times, as also its pavement, and again as often toward the Holy of Holies, and around the golden altar; he also at last brings it into the open court, and sprinkles it around the great altar. Besides this, they set the extremities, and the kidneys, and the fat, with the lobe of the liver, on the altar. The high priest likewise presents a ram to God as a burnt-offering.

4. On the fifteenth day of the same month, when the season of the year is changing toward winter, the Law commands us to pitch tabernacles in every one of our houses, so that we preserve ourselves from the cold of that time of the year; as also that when we should arrive at our own country, and come to that city which we should have then for our metropolis, because of the temple therein to be built, and keep a festival for eight days, and offer burnt-offerings, and sacrifice thank-offerings, that we should then carry in our hands a branch of myrtle, and willow, and a bough of the palm-tree, with the addition of the citron; the burnt-offering on the first of those days was to be a sacrifice of thirteen bulls, and fourteen lambs, and fifteen rams, with the addition of a kid of the goats, as an expiation for sins; and on the following days the same number of lambs, and of rams, with the kids of the goats, but abating one of the bulls every day until they amounted to seven only. On the eighth day all work was laid aside, and then, as we said before, they sacrificed to God a bullock, a ram, and seven lambs, with a kid of the goats, for an expiation of sins. And this is the accustomed solemnity of the Hebrews when they pitch their tabernacles.

5. In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries (for it was in this month that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians), the Law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we celebrate this Passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice until the day following. The Celebration of Unleavened Bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread; on every one of which days two bulls are killed, and one ram, and seven lambs. Now these lambs are entirely burnt, besides the kid of the goats which is added to all the rest, for sins; for it is intended as a feast for the priest on every one of those days. But on the second day of Unleavened Bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they do not touch them. And while they suppose it proper to honor God, from whom they obtain this plentiful provision, in the first place, they offer the first-fruits of their barley, and that in the following manner: they take a handful of the ears, and dry them, then beat them small, and purge the barley from the bran; then they bring one tenth deal to the altar, to God; and, casting one handful of it on the fire, they leave the rest for the use of the priest. And after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest. They also, at this participation of the first-fruits of the earth, sacrifice a lamb as a burnt-offering to God.

6. When seven weeks have passed over after this sacrifice (which weeks contain forty and nine days), on the fiftieth day, which is Pentecost, but is called by the Hebrews Asartha, which signifies Pentecost, they bring to God a loaf made of wheat flour, of two tenth deals, with leaven; and for sacrifices they bring two lambs; and when they have only presented them to God, they are made ready for supper for the priests; nor is it permitted to leave anything of them until the following day. They also slay three bullocks for a burnt-offering, and two rams; and fourteen lambs, with two kids of the goats, for sins; nor is there any one of the festivals wherein they do not offer burnt-offerings; they also allow themselves to rest on every one of them. Accordingly, the Law prescribes in them all what kinds they are to sacrifice, and how they are to rest entirely, and must slay sacrifices, in order to feast on them.

7. However, out of the common charges, baked bread [was set on the table of the Bread of the Presentation], without leaven, of twenty-four tenth deals of flour, for so much is spent on this bread; two heaps of these were baked; they were baked the day before the Sabbath, but were brought into the holy place on the morning of the Sabbath, and set on the holy table, six on a heap, one loaf still standing opposite another; where two golden cups full of frankincense were also set on them, and there they remained until another Sabbath, and then other loaves were brought in their place, while the loaves were given to the priests for their food, and the frankincense was burnt in that sacred fire wherein all their offerings were also burnt; and so other frankincense was set on the loaves instead of what was there before. The high priest also, of his own charges, offered a sacrifice, and that twice every day. It was made of flour mingled with oil, and gently baked by the fire; the quantity was one tenth deal of flour; he brought the half of it to the fire in the morning, and the other half at night. The account of these sacrifices I will give more accurately hereafter; but I think I have explained what for the present may be sufficient concerning them.

CHAPTER 11

Of the Purifications.

1. Moses separated out the tribe of Levi from communicating with the rest of the people and set them apart to be a holy tribe; and he purified them by water taken from perpetual springs, and with such sacrifices as were usually offered to God on similar occasions. He also delivered to them the Tabernacle, and the sacred vessels, and the other curtains, which were made for covering the Tabernacle, that they might minister under the conduct of the priests, who had already been consecrated to God.

2. He also determined concerning animals which of them might be used for food, and which they were obligated to abstain from; which matters, when this work will give me occasion, will be further explained; and the causes will be added by which he was moved to allot some of them to be our food, and instructed us to abstain from others. However, he entirely forbade us the use of blood for food and considered it to contain the soul and spirit. He also forbade us to eat the flesh of an animal that died of itself, as also the caul, and the fat of goats, and sheep, and bulls.

3. He also ordered that those whose bodies were afflicted with leprosy, and that had a gonorrhea, should not come into the city; indeed, he removed the women, when they had their menstruations, until the seventh day; after which he looked on them as pure, and permitted them to come in again. The law also permits those who have taken care of funerals to come in after the same manner, when this number of days is over; but if any continued longer than that number of days in a state of pollution, the Law appointed the offering of two lambs for a sacrifice; the one of which they are to purge by fire, and for the other, the priests take it for themselves. In the same manner do those sacrifice who have had gonorrhea. But he that discharges his seed in his sleep, if he goes down into cold water, has the same privilege with those that have lawfully accompanied with their wives. And for the lepers, he did not permit them to come into the city at all, nor to live with any others, as if they were in effect dead persons; but if anyone had obtained by prayer to God, the recovery from that disease, and had gained a healthy complexion again, such a one returned thanks to God, with several kinds of sacrifices; concerning which we will speak hereafter.

4. From which one cannot but smile at those who say that Moses was himself afflicted with the leprosy when he fled out of Egypt, and that he became the leader of those who on that account left that country, and led them into the land of Canaan; for had this been true, Moses would not have made these laws to his own dishonor, which indeed it was more likely he would have opposed, if others had endeavored to introduce them; and this to the contrary, because there are lepers in many nations, who yet are in honor, and not only free from reproach and avoidance, but who have been great captains of armies, and been entrusted with high offices in the commonwealth, and have had the privilege of entering into holy places and temples; so that nothing hindered, but if either Moses himself, or the multitude that was with him, had been liable to such a misfortune in the color of his skin, he might have made laws about them for their credit and advantage, and have laid no manner of difficulty on them. Accordingly, it is evident that it is only out of violent prejudice that they report these things about us. But Moses was pure from any such disease, and lived with countrymen who were pure of it also, and there made the laws which concerned others that had the disease. He did this for the honor of God. But as for these matters, let everyone consider them after what manner he pleases.

5. As to the women, when they have born a child, Moses forbade them to come into the temple, or touch the sacrifices, before forty days were over, supposing it to be a boy; but if she has born a girl, the law is that she cannot be admitted before twice that number of days is over. And after the aforementioned time appointed for them, they perform their sacrifices [and] the priests distribute them before God.

6. But if anyone suspects that his wife has been guilty of adultery, he was to bring a tenth deal of barley flour; they then cast one handful to God and gave the rest of it to the priests for food. One of the priests set the woman at the gates that are turned toward the temple, and took the veil from her head, and wrote the Name of God on parchment, and commanded her to swear that she had not at all wronged her husband; and to wish that, if she had violated her chastity, her right thigh might be put out of joint, that her belly might swell, and that she might die thus; but that if her husband, by the violence of his affection, and of the jealousy which arose from it, had been rashly moved to this suspicion, that she might bear a male child in the tenth month. Now when these oaths were over, the priest wiped the Name of God out of the parchment and wrung the water into a vial. He also took some dust out of the temple, if any happened to be there, and put a little of it into the vial, and gave it to her to drink; whereon the woman, if she were unjustly accused, conceived with child, and brought it to perfection in her womb: but if she had broken her faith of wedlock to her husband, and had sworn falsely before God, she died in a reproachful manner—her thigh fell off from her, and her belly swelled with a dropsy. And these are the ceremonies about sacrifices, and about the purifications belonging to that, which Moses provided for his countrymen. He also prescribed the following laws to them:

CHAPTER 12

Several Laws.

1. As for adultery, Moses forbade it entirely, as esteeming it a happy thing that men should be wise in the affairs of wedlock; and that it was profitable both to cities and families that children should be known to be genuine. He also abhorred men’s lying with their mothers, as one of the greatest crimes; and the like for lying with the father’s wife, and with aunts, and sisters, and sons’ wives, as all instances of abominable wickedness. He also forbade a man to lie with his wife when she was defiled by her menstruation, and not to come near brute beasts; nor to approve of the lying with a male, which was to hunt after unlawful pleasures on account of beauty. To those who were guilty of such insolent behavior, he ordained death for their punishment.

2. As for the priests, he prescribed to them a double degree of purity for he restrained them in the instances above, and moreover forbade them to marry harlots. He also forbade them to marry a slave, or a captive, and such as got their living by cheating trades, and by keeping inns; as also a woman parted from her husband, on any account whatsoever. No, he did not think it proper for the high priest to marry even the widow of one that was dead, though he allowed that to the priests; but he permitted him only to marry a virgin, and to retain her—from which it is that the high priest is not to come near to one that is dead, although the rest are not prohibited from coming near to their brothers, or parents, or children, when they are dead; but they are to be unblemished in all respects. He ordered that the priest who had any blemish should have his portion indeed among the priests, but he forbade him to ascend the altar, or to enter into the holy house. He also instructed them, not only to observe purity in their sacred ministrations, but in their daily conversation, that it might be unblameable also. And on this account it is that those who wear the priestly garments are without spot, and eminent for their purity and sobriety; nor are they permitted to drink wine so long as they wear those garments. Moreover, they offer sacrifices that are whole, and have no defect whatsoever.

3. And truly Moses gave them all these precepts, being such as were observed during his own lifetime; but though he lived now in the wilderness, yet he made provision [for] how they might observe the same laws when they should have taken the land of Canaan. He gave them rest to the land from plowing and planting every seventh year, as he had prescribed to them to rest from working every seventh day; and he ordered that then what grew of its own accord out of the earth should in common belong to all that pleased to use it, making no distinction in that respect between their own countrymen and foreigners; and he ordained that they should do the same after seven times seven years, which in all are fifty years; and that fiftieth year is called by the Hebrews the Jubilee, wherein debtors are freed from their debts, and slaves are set free; which slaves became such, though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws the punishment of which was not capital, but they were punished by this method of slavery. This year also restores the land to its former possessors in the following manner: when the Jubilee has come, which name denotes liberty, he that sold the land, and he that bought it, meet together, and make an estimate, on one hand, of the fruits gathered; and, on the other hand, of the expenses laid out on it. If the fruits gathered come to more than the expenses laid out, he that sold it takes the land again; but if the expenses prove more than the fruits, the present possessor receives of the former owner the difference that was lacking and leaves the land to him; and if the fruits received, and the expenses laid out, prove equal to one another, the present possessor relinquishes it to the former owners. Moses would have the same law obtain as to those houses also which were sold in villages; but he made a different law for such as were sold in a city; for if he that sold it tendered the purchaser his money again within a year, he was forced to restore it; but in case a whole year had intervened, the purchaser was to enjoy what he had bought. This was the constitution of the laws which Moses learned of God when the camp lay under Mount Sinai, and this he delivered in writing to the Hebrews.

4. Now when this settlement of laws seemed to be well over, Moses thought fit to finally take a review of the host, as thinking it proper to settle the affairs of war. So he charged the heads of the tribes, excepting the tribe of Levi, to take an exact account of the number of those that were able to go to war; for as to the Levites, they were holy, and free from all such burdens. Now when the people had been numbered, there were found six hundred thousand that were able to go to war, from twenty to fifty years of age, besides three thousand six hundred and fifty. Instead of Levi, Moses took Manasseh, the son of Joseph, among the heads of tribes; and Ephraim instead of Joseph. It was indeed the desire of Jacob himself to Joseph, that he would give him his sons to be his own by adoption, as I have related before.

5. When they set up the Tabernacle, they received it into the midst of their camp, three of the tribes pitching their tents on each side of it; and roads were cut through the midst of these tents. It was like a well-appointed market; and everything was there ready for sale in due order; and all sorts of craftsmen were in the shops; and it resembled nothing so much as a city that sometimes was movable, and sometimes fixed. The priests had the first places around the Tabernacle; then the Levites, who, because their whole multitude was reckoned from thirty days old, were twenty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty males; and during the time that the cloud stood over the Tabernacle, they thought proper to stay in the same place, as supposing that God inhabited among them there; but when [the Tabernacle] departed, they also journeyed.

6. Moreover, Moses was the inventor of the form of their trumpet, which was made of silver. Its description is this: in length it was little less than a cubit. It was composed of a narrow tube, somewhat thicker than a flute, but with so much breadth as was sufficient for admission of the breath of a man’s mouth: it ended in the form of a bell, like common trumpets. Its sound was called in the Hebrew tongue Asosra. Two of these being made, one of them was sounded when they required the multitude to come together to congregations. When the first of them gave a signal, the heads of the tribes were to assemble, and consult about the affairs properly belonging to them; but when they gave the signal by both of them, they called the multitude together. Whenever the Tabernacle departed, it was done in this solemn order: at the first alarm of the trumpet, those whose tents were on the east quarter prepared to depart; when the second signal was given, those that were on the south quarter did the same; in the next place, the Tabernacle was disassembled in pieces, and was carried in the midst of six tribes that went before, and of six that followed, all the Levites assisting around the Tabernacle; when the third signal was given, that part which had their tents toward the west put themselves in motion; and at the fourth signal those on the north did so likewise. They also made use of these trumpets in their sacred ministrations, when they were bringing their sacrifices to the altar, as well on the Sabbaths as on the rest of the [festival] days; and it was now that Moses offered that sacrifice which was called the Passover in the Wilderness, as the first he had offered after the departure out of Egypt.

CHAPTER 13

Moses Departed from Mount Sinai and Lead the People to the Borders of the Canaanites.

A little while afterward, he rose up and went from Mount Sinai; and, having passed through several dwelling places of which we will speak, he came to a place called Hazeroth, where the multitude again began to be rebellious, and toward Moses for the misfortunes they had suffered [during] their travels; and that when he had persuaded [them] to leave a good land, they at once had lost land, and instead of that blessed state he had promised them, they were still wandering in their miserable condition, being already in need of water; and if the manna should happen to fail, they must then utterly perish. Yet while they spoke many and grievous things against the man, there was one of them who exhorted them not to be unmindful of Moses and of what great burdens he had endured concerning their common safety, nor to despair of assistance from God. The multitude therefore became even more unruly and seditious against Moses than before. Hereon Moses, although he was so basely abused by them, encouraged them in their despairing condition and promised that he would procure them a quantity of meat—and that not for a few days only, but for many days. This they were not to believe; and when one of them asked from where he could obtain such vast supply of what he promised, he replied, “Neither God nor I, although we hear such contemptuous language from you, will abandon our labors for you; and this will soon appear also.” As soon as he had said this, the whole camp was filled with quails; and they stood around them and gathered great numbers. However, it was not long before God punished the Hebrews for their insolence and those reproaches they had used toward Him, for no small number of them died; and still to this day the place retains the memory of this destruction and is named Kibroth-Hattaavah, which is, “Graves of Lust.”

CHAPTER 14

How Moses Sent Some Persons to Search Out the Land of the Canaanites and the Size of Their Cities; And Further, That When Those Who Were Sent Had Returned after Forty Days, and Reported That They Should Not Be a Match for Them, and Extolled the Strength of the Canaanites, the Multitude Were Disturbed and Fell into Despair, And Were Resolved to Stone Moses, and to Return Back Again into Egypt and Serve the Egyptians.

1. When Moses had led the Hebrews away from there to a place called Paran, which was near to the borders of the Canaanites, and a place difficult to continue in, he gathered the multitude together into a congregation; and standing in the midst of them, he said, “Of the two things that God determined to bestow on us—liberty and the possession of a blessed country—the one of them you already are partakers of, by the gift of God, and the other you will quickly obtain; for we now have our abode near the borders of the Canaanites, and nothing can hinder the acquisition of it, when we now at last have descended on it: I say, not only no king nor city, but neither the whole race of mankind, if they were all gathered together, could do it. Let us therefore prepare ourselves for the work, for the Canaanites will not surrender their land to us without fighting, but it must be wrested from them by great struggles in war. Let us then send spies, who may take a view of the goodness of the land, and what strength it is of; but, above all things, let us be of one mind, and let us honor God, who above all is our helper and assister.”

2. When Moses had said this, the multitude repaid him with marks of respect and chose twelve spies, of the most eminent men, one out of each tribe, who, passing over all the land of Canaan, from the borders of Egypt, came to the city [of] Hamath, and to Mount Lebanon; and having learned the nature of the land, and of its inhabitants, they came home, having spent forty days in the whole work. They also brought with them from the fruits which the land bore; they also showed them the excellency of those fruits and gave an account of the great quantity of the good things that land provided, which were motives to the multitude to go to war. But then they terrified them again with the great difficulty there was in obtaining it—that the rivers were so large and deep that they could not be passed over, and that the hills were so high that they could not travel along them; that the cities were strong with walls, and their firm fortifications around them. They also told them that they found the posterity of the giants at Hebron. Accordingly, these spies, who had seen the land of Canaan, when they perceived that all these difficulties were greater there than they had met with since they came out of Egypt, they were frightened at them themselves, and endeavored to frighten the multitude also.

3. So they supposed, from what they had heard, that it was impossible to obtain possession of the country. And when the congregation was dissolved, they, their wives and children, continued their lamentation, as if God would not indeed assist them, but only promised them fair. They also blamed Moses again and made a clamor against him and his brother Aaron, the high priest. Accordingly, they passed that night very badly and with scornful language against them; but in the morning they quickly assembled, intending to stone Moses and Aaron, and so to return back into Egypt.

4. But of the spies, there were Joshua the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, and Caleb of the tribe of Judah, that were afraid of the consequence, and came into the midst of them, and calmed the multitude, and desired them to be of good courage; and neither to condemn God, as having told them lies, nor to listen to those who had frightened them by telling them what was not true concerning the Canaanites, but to those that encouraged them to hope for good success; and that they should gain possession of the happiness promised them, because neither the height of mountains, nor the depth of rivers, could hinder men of true courage from attempting them, especially while God would take care of them beforehand, and be assistant to them. “Let us then go,” they said, “against our enemies, and have no suspicion of failure, trusting in God to lead us, and following those that are to be our leaders.” Thus these two exhorted them and endeavored to pacify the rage they were in. But Moses and Aaron fell on the ground, and pleaded with God, not for their own deliverance, but that He would put a stop to what the people were impulsively doing, and would bring their minds to a quiet temper, which were now disordered by their present passion. The cloud also now appeared, and stood over the Tabernacle, and declared to them the presence of God to be there.

CHAPTER 15

How Moses Was Displeased at This, and Foretold That God Was Angry and That They Should Continue in the Wilderness for Forty Years and Not, during That Time, Either Return into Egypt or Take Possession of Canaan.

1. Moses now came boldly to the multitude, and informed them that God was moved at their abuse of Him, and would inflict punishment on them, not indeed such as they deserved for their sins, but such as parents inflict on their children for the purpose of their correction. For, he said, that when he was in the Tabernacle, and was lamenting with tears that destruction which was coming on them, God reminded him of what things He had done for them, and what benefits they had received from Him, and yet how ungrateful they had been to Him that just now they had been induced through the fearfulness of the spies, to think that their words were truer than His own promise to them; and that on this account, though He would not indeed destroy them all, nor utterly exterminate their nation, which He had honored more than any other part of mankind, yet He would not permit them to take possession of the land of Canaan, nor enjoy its happiness, but would make them wander in the wilderness, and live without a fixed habitation, and without a city, for forty years together, as a punishment for this transgression of theirs; but that He had promised to give that land to our children, and that He would make them the possessors of those good things which, by your ungoverned passions, you have deprived yourselves of.

2. When Moses had discoursed thus to them according to the direction of God, the multitude grieved and were in affliction; and they begged Moses to secure their reconciliation to God, and to permit them no longer to wander in the wilderness but bestow cities on them. But he replied that God would not admit of any such trial, for God was not moved to this determination from any human flippancy or anger, but that He had judicially condemned them to that punishment. Now we are not to disbelieve that Moses, who was but a single person, pacified so many myriads when they were in anger and converted them to a mild temper, for God was with him, and prepared the way for his persuasions of the multitude; and as they had often been disobedient, they were now sensible that such disobedience was disadvantageous to them and that they had still thereby fallen into calamities.

3. But this man was admirable for his virtue and powerful in making men give credit to what he delivered, not only during the time of his natural life, but there is still no one of the Hebrews who does not act even now as if Moses were present and ready to punish him if he should do anything that is indecent; no, there is no one who is not [outwardly] obedient to what laws he ordained, although they might be concealed in their transgressions. There are also many other demonstrations that his power was more than human, for there have still been some who have come from the parts beyond Euphrates, a journey of four months, through many dangers, and at great expenses, in honor of our temple; and yet, when they had offered their oblations, they could not partake of their own sacrifices, because Moses had forbidden it, by something in the Law that did not permit them, or something that had happened to them, which our ancient customs made inconsistent with; some of these did not sacrifice at all, and others left their sacrifices in an imperfect condition; many were unable, even at first, so much as to enter the temple, but went their ways in this as preferring a submission to the laws of Moses before the fulfilling of their own inclinations; they had no fear on them that anybody could convict them, but only out of a reverence to their own conscience. Thus, this legislation, which appeared to be divine, made this man to be esteemed as one superior to his own nature. No, further, a little before the beginning of this war, when Claudius was emperor of the Romans, and Ishmael was our high priest, and when such a great famine had come on us, that one tenth deal [of wheat] was sold for four drachmas, and when no less than seventy cori of flour were brought into the temple at the Celebration of Unleavened Bread (these cori are thirty-one Sicilian, but forty-one Athenian medimni), not one of the priests was so hardy as to eat one crumb of it, even while such a great distress was on the land; and this out of a dread of the Law, and of that wrath which God retains against acts of wickedness, even when no one can accuse the actors, from which we are not to wonder at what was then done, while to this very day the writings left by Moses have such great force, that even those that hate us confess that he who established this settlement was God, and that it was by the means of Moses, and of his virtue; but as to these matters, let everyone take them as he thinks fit.

BOOK IV

Containing the Interval of Thirty-Eight Years. From the Rejection of That Generation to the Death of Moses.

CHAPTER 1

Fight of the Hebrews with the Canaanites without the Consent of Moses; And Their Defeat.

1. Now this life of the Hebrews in the wilderness was so disagreeable and troublesome to them, and they were so uneasy with it, that although God had forbidden them to meddle with the Canaanites, yet they could not be persuaded to be obedient to the words of Moses and to be quiet; but supposing they should be able to beat their enemies without his consent, they accused him and suspected that he made it his business to keep them in a distressed condition, that they might always stand in need of his assistance. Accordingly, they resolved to fight with the Canaanites and said that God gave them His assistance, not out of regard to Moses’ intercessions, but because He took care of their entire nation, on account of their forefathers, whose affairs He took under His own conduct; as also, that it was on account of their own virtue that He had formerly procured them their liberty, and would be assisting them now that they were willing to make efforts for it. They also said that they were in possession of abilities sufficient for the conquest of their enemies, although Moses should intend to alienate God from them; that, however, it was for their advantage to be their own masters, and not so far to rejoice in their deliverance from the indignities they endured under the Egyptians, as to bear the tyranny of Moses over them, and to allow themselves to be deluded, and live according to his pleasure, as though God only foretold what concerns us out of His kindness to him, as if they were not all the posterity of Abraham; that God made him alone the author of all the knowledge we have, and we must still learn it from him; that it would be a piece of prudence to oppose his arrogant pretenses, and to put their confidence in God, and to resolve to take possession of that land which He had promised them, and not to give ear to him, who on this account, and under the pretense of Divine authority, forbade them to do so. Considering, therefore, the distressed state they were in at present, and that in those desert places they were still to expect [that] things would be worse with them, they resolved to fight with the Canaanites, as submitting only to God, their supreme commander, and not waiting for any assistance from their legislator.

2. When, therefore, they had come to this resolution, as being best for them, they went against their enemies; but those enemies were not dismayed either at the attack itself, or at the great multitude that made it, and received them with great courage. Many of the Hebrews were slain; and the remainder of the army, on the disorder of their troops, were pursued, and fled, in a shameful manner, to their camp. Whereon this unexpected misfortune made them quite despondent; and they hoped for nothing that was good; as gathering from it, that this affliction came from the wrath of God, because they rashly went out to war without His approval.

3. But when Moses saw how deeply they were affected with this defeat, and being afraid lest the enemies should grow insolent on this victory, and should be desirous of gaining still greater glory, and should attack them, he resolved that it was proper to withdraw the army into the wilderness to a further distance from the Canaanites: so the multitude gave themselves up again to his leading, for they were sensible that, without his care for them, their affairs could not be in a good condition; and he caused the host to depart, and he went further into the wilderness, as intending there to let them rest, and not to permit them to fight the Canaanites before God should offer them a more favorable opportunity.

CHAPTER 2

The Sedition of Korah and of the Multitude against Moses, and against His Brother, Concerning the Priesthood.

1. That which is usually the case of great armies, and especially on failure, to be hard to be pleased, and governed with difficulty, now happened to the Jews; for they being in number six hundred thousand, and by reason of their great multitude not readily subject to their governors, even in prosperity, they at this time were more than usually angry, both against one another and against their leader, because of the distress they were in, and the calamities they then endured. Such a sedition overtook them, as we have no comparable example either among the Greeks or the barbarians, by which they were in danger of being all destroyed, but were notwithstanding saved by Moses, who would not remember that he had been almost stoned to death by them. Nor did God neglect to prevent their ruin; but, notwithstanding the indignities they had offered their legislator and the laws, and disobedience to the commandments which He had sent them by Moses, He delivered them from those terrible calamities which, without His providential care, had been brought on them by this sedition. So I will first explain the cause from which this sedition arose, and then will give an account of the sedition itself; as also of what settlements were made for their government after it was over.

2. Korah, a Hebrew of principal account, both by his family and by his wealth, one that was also able to speak well, and one that could easily persuade the people by his speeches, saw that Moses was in an exceedingly great dignity, and was troubled by it, and envied him on that account (he [was] of the same tribe with Moses, and related to him). He was particularly grieved, because he thought he better deserved that honorable post on account of great riches, and not inferior to him in his birth. So he raised a clamor against him among the Levites, who were of the same tribe, and among his relatives, saying, “It was a very sad thing that they should overlook Moses, while he hunted after and paved the way to [obtain] glory for himself, and by deception should obtain it under the pretense of God’s command, while, contrary to the laws, he had given the priesthood to Aaron; not by the common vote of the multitude, but by his own vote, as bestowing dignities in a way on whom he pleased.” He added, “This concealed way of imposing on them was harder to be borne than if it had been done by open force against them, because he now not only took their power without their consent, but even they were ignorant of his contrivances against them; for whosoever is conscious to himself that he deserves any dignity, aims to get it by persuasion, and not by an arrogant method of violence; those that believe it impossible to obtain honors justly, make a show of goodness, and do not introduce force, but by cunning tricks grow wickedly powerful.” That it was proper for the multitude to punish such men, even while they think themselves concealed in their designs, and not permit them to gain strength until they have them for their open enemies. “For what account,” he added, “is Moses able to give [for] why he has bestowed the priesthood on Aaron and his sons? for if God had determined to bestow that honor on one of the tribe of Levi, I am more worthy of it than he is—I myself being equal to Moses by my family, and superior to him both in riches and in age—but if God had determined to bestow it on the eldest tribe, that of Reuben might have it most justly; and then Dathan, and Abiram, and [the son of] Peleth, would have it; for these are the oldest men of that tribe, and also potent on account of their great wealth.”

3. Now Korah, when he said this, wanted to appear to take care of the public welfare, but in reality, he was endeavoring to procure to have that dignity transferred by the multitude to himself. Thus he, out of a malicious plan, discoursed with those of his own tribe. When these words gradually spread to more people, and when the hearers still added to what tended to the scandals that were cast on Aaron, the whole army was full of them. Now of those that conspired with Korah, there were two hundred and fifty, and those of the principal men also, who were eager to have the priesthood taken away from Moses’ brother, and to bring him into disgrace: indeed, the multitude themselves were provoked to sedition, and attempted to stone Moses, and gathered themselves together in an indecent manner, with confusion and disorder. And now all were, in a tumultuous manner, causing commotion before the Tabernacle of God, to prosecute the tyrant, and to relieve the multitude from their slavery under him who, under pretext of the Divine, brought violent injunctions on them; for had it been God who chose one that was to perform the office of a priest, he would have raised a worthy person to that dignity, and would not have produced such a one as was inferior to many others nor have given him that office; and that if He had judged it suitable to bestow it on Aaron, He would have permitted it to the multitude to bestow it, and not have left it to be bestowed by his own brother.

4. Now although Moses had a great while ago foreseen this defamation of Korah, and had seen [that] the people were irritated, yet he was not frightened by it; but being of good courage, because he had given them right advice about their affairs, and knowing that his brother had been made partaker of the priesthood at the command of God, and not by his own favor to him, he came to the assembly; and as for the multitude, he said not a word to them, but spoke as loud to Korah as he could; and being very skillful in making speeches, and having this natural talent, among others, that he could greatly move the multitude with his discourses, he said, “O Korah, both you and all these with you (pointing to the two hundred and fifty men) seem to be worthy of this honor; nor do I pretend but that this whole company may be worthy of the same dignity, although they may not be so rich or so great as you are: nor have I taken and given this office to my brother because he excelled others in riches, for you exceed us both in the greatness of your wealth; nor indeed because he was of an eminent family, for God, by giving us the same common ancestor, has made our families equal: no, nor was it out of brotherly affection, which another might yet have justly done; for certainly, unless I had bestowed this honor out of regard for God and His laws, I had not passed by myself, and given it to another, as being nearer of relation to myself than to my brother, and having a closer intimacy with myself than I have with him; for surely it would not be a wise thing for me to expose myself to the dangers of offending, and to bestow the blessed employment on this account on another. But I am above such base practices: nor would God have overlooked this matter and seen Himself thus despised; nor would He have allowed you to be ignorant of what you were to do, in order to please Him; but He has Himself chosen one that is to perform that sacred office to Him, and thereby freed us from that care, so that it was not a thing that I pretend to give, but only according to the determination of God; I therefore propose it still to be contended for by such as please to put in for it, only desiring that he who has already been preferred, and has already obtained it, may be allowed now also to offer himself for a candidate. He prefers your peace, and your living without sedition, to this honorable employment, although in truth it was with your consent that he obtained it; for though God were the donor, yet we do not offend when we think it right to accept it with your goodwill; yet would it have been an instance of impiety not to have taken that honorable employment when He offered it; no, it had been exceedingly unreasonable, when God had thought fit [that] anyone should have it for all time to come, and had made it secure and firm to him, to have refused it. However, He Himself will judge again who it will be whom He would have to offer sacrifices to Him, and to have the direction of matters of religion; for it is absurd that Korah, who is ambitious of this honor, should deprive God of the power of giving it to whom He pleases. Put an end, therefore, to your sedition and disturbance on this account; and tomorrow morning, every one of you that desires the priesthood bring a censer from home, and come here with incense and fire: and you, O Korah, leave the judgment to God, and wait to see on which side He will give His determination on this occasion, but do not make yourself greater than God. You also come, that this contest about this honorable employment may receive determination. And I suppose we may admit Aaron without offense, to offer himself to this scrutiny, since he is of the same lineage with yourself, and has done nothing in his priesthood that can be liable to exception. Therefore, come together, and offer your incense in public before all the people; and when you offer it, he whose sacrifice God will accept will be ordained to the priesthood, and will be clear of the present defamation on Aaron, as if I had granted him that favor because he was my brother.”

CHAPTER 3

How Those That Stirred up This Sedition Were Destroyed, According to the Will of God; And How Aaron, Moses’ Brother—Both He and His Posterity—Retained the Priesthood.

1. When Moses had said this, the multitude ceased the turbulent behavior they had indulged, and the suspicion they had of Moses, and commended what he had said; for those proposals were good and were so esteemed by the people. At that time, they therefore dissolved the assembly. But on the next day they came to the congregation, in order to be present at the sacrifice, and at the determination that was to be made between the candidates for the priesthood. Now this congregation proved a turbulent one, and the multitude were in great suspense in expectation of what was to be done; for some of them would have been pleased if Moses had been convicted of evil practices, but the wiser sort desired that they might be delivered from the present disorder and disturbance; for they were afraid that if this sedition went on, the good order of their settlement would rather be destroyed; but the whole body of the people naturally delight in clamors against their governors, and, by changing their opinions at the tirades of every speaker, disturb the public tranquility. And now Moses sent messengers for Abiram and Dathan, and ordered them to come to the assembly, and wait there for the holy offices that were to be performed. But they answered the messenger that they would not obey his summons—indeed, would not overlook Moses’ behavior, who was growing too great for them by evil practices. Now when Moses heard of this answer of theirs, he desired the heads of the people to follow him, and he went to the faction of Dathan, not thinking it any frightful thing at all to go to these insolent people; so they made no opposition, but went along with him. But Dathan and his associates, when they understood that Moses and the foremost of the people were coming to them, came out, with their wives and children, and stood before their tents, and looked to see what Moses would do. They also had their servants around them to defend themselves, in case Moses should use force against them.

2. But he came near, and lifted up his hands to Heaven, and cried out with a loud voice, in order to be heard by the whole multitude, and said, “O Lord of the creatures that are in the heavens, in the earth, and in the sea; for You are the most authentic witness to what I have done, that it has all been done by Your appointment, and that it was You that offered us assistance when we attempted anything, and showed mercy on the Hebrews in all their distresses; come now, and hear all that I say, for no action or thought escapes Your knowledge; so that You will not disdain to speak what is true, for my vindication, without any regard to the ungrateful imputations of these men. As for what was done before I was born, You know best, as not learning them by report, but seeing them, and being present with them when they were done; but for what has been done of late, and which these men, although they know them well enough, unjustly pretend to suspect, be my witness. When I lived a private, quiet life, I left those good things which, by my own diligence, and by Your counsel, I enjoyed with my father-in-law Raguel; and I gave myself up to this people, and underwent many miseries on their account. I also bore great labors at first, in order to obtain liberty for them, and now for their preservation; and have always showed myself ready to assist them in every distress of theirs. Now, therefore, since I am suspected by those very men whose being is owing to my labors, come, as it is reasonable to hope You will; You, I say, who showed me that fire at Mount Sinai, and made me to hear its voice, and to see the various wonders which that place provided; You who commanded me to go to Egypt and declare Your will to this people; You who disturb the happy estate of the Egyptians, and gave us the opportunity of fleeing away from our slavery under them, and made the dominion of Pharaoh inferior to my dominion; You who made the sea dry land for us, when we did not know where to go, and overwhelmed the Egyptians with those destructive waves which had been divided for us; You who bestowed on us the security of weapons when we were naked; You who made the fountains that were corrupted to flow, so as to be suitable for drinking, and furnished us with water that came out of the rocks, when we were in need of it; You who preserved our lives with [quails, which were] food from the sea, when the fruits of the ground failed us; You sent us such food from Heaven as had never been seen before; You who suggested to us the knowledge of Your laws, and appointed to us a government—come, I say, O Lord of the whole world, and that as such a Judge and a Witness to me as cannot be bribed, and show how I never admitted of any gift against justice from any of the Hebrews, and have never condemned a man that ought to have been acquitted on account of one that was rich, and have never attempted to hurt this commonwealth. I am now here present, and am suspected of a thing that [could not be] furthest from my intentions, as if I had given the priesthood to Aaron, not at Your command, but out of favor to him; at this time demonstrate that all things are administered by Your providence and that nothing happens by chance, but is governed by Your will, and thereby attains its end: as also demonstrate that You take care of those that have done good to the Hebrews; demonstrate this, I say, by the punishment of Abiram and Dathan, who condemn You as an insensible Being, and one overcome by my contrivances. Do this by inflicting such an open punishment on these men who so madly fly in the face of Your glory, as will take them out of the world, not in an ordinary manner, but so that it may appear they do not die after the manner of other men: let that ground which they tread on open around them and consume them, with their families and goods. This will be a demonstration of Your power to all and this method of their sufferings will be an instruction of wisdom for those that entertain profane sentiments of You. By this means I will be a good servant, in the precepts You have given by me. But if the defamations they have raised against me are true, may You preserve these men from every calamitous accident, and bring all that destruction on me which I have imprecated on them. And when You have inflicted punishment on those that have endeavored to deal unjustly with this people, bestow on them concord and peace. Save this multitude that follow Your commandments, and preserve them free from harm, and let them not partake of the punishment of those that have sinned, for You Yourself know it is not just, that for the wickedness of those men the whole body of the Israelites should suffer punishment.”

3. When Moses had said this with tears in his eyes, the ground was suddenly moved; and the agitation that set it in motion was like that which the wind produces in waves of the sea. The people were all frightened, and the ground that was around their tents sunk down at the great noise, with a terrible sound, and carried whatsoever was dear to the seditious into itself, who so entirely perished, that there was not the least appearance that any man had ever been seen there, the earth that had opened itself around them, closing again, and becoming whole as it was before, insomuch that such as saw it afterward did not perceive that any such accident had happened to it. Thus, these men perished and became a demonstration of the power of God. And truly, anyone would lament them, not only on account of this calamity that happened to them, which yet deserves our sympathy, but also because their relatives were pleased with their sufferings; for they forgot the relation they bore to them, and at the sight of this sad fortune approved of the judgment given against them; and because they looked on the people around Dathan as bothersome men, they thought they perished as such, and did not grieve for them.

4. And now Moses called for those that contended about the priesthood, that trial might be made who should be priest, and that he whose sacrifice God was best pleased with might be ordained to that function. There attended two hundred and fifty men, who indeed were honored by the people, not only on account of the power of their ancestors, but also on account of their own, in which they excelled the others; Aaron also and Korah came forth, and they all offered incense in those censers of theirs which they brought with them, before the Tabernacle. Hereon such a great fire shone out as no one ever saw in any that is made by the hand of man, neither in those eruptions out of the earth that are caused by subterranean bursts, nor in such fires as arise of their own accord in the woods, when the agitation is caused by the trees rubbing against one another: but this fire was very bright, and had a terrible flame, such as is kindled at the command of God, by whose incursion on them, all the company, and Korah himself, were destroyed, and this so entirely, that their very bodies left no remains behind them. Aaron alone was preserved, and [was] not at all hurt by the fire, because it was God that sent the fire to burn only those who ought to be burned. Hereon Moses, after these men were destroyed, desired that the memory of this judgment might be delivered down to posterity and that future ages might be acquainted with it; and so he commanded Eleazar, the son of Aaron, to put their censers near the brazen altar, that they might be a memorial to posterity of what these men suffered, for supposing that the power of God might be avoided. And thus, Aaron was now no longer esteemed to have the priesthood by the favor of Moses, but by the public judgment of God; and thus, he and his children peaceably enjoyed that honor afterward.

CHAPTER 4

What Happened to the Hebrews during Thirty-Eight Years in the Wilderness.

1. However, this sedition was so far from ceasing at this destruction that it grew much stronger and became more intolerable. And the occasion of its growing worse was of that nature, as made it likely the calamity would never cease, but last for a long time; for the men, already believing that nothing is done without the providence of God, would have it that these things came thus to pass not without God’s favor to Moses; they therefore laid the blame on him that God was so angry, and that this happened not so much because of the wickedness of those that were punished, as because Moses procured the punishment; and that these men had been destroyed without any sin of theirs, only because they were zealous regarding the Divine worship; as also, that he who had been the cause of this reduction of the people, by destroying so many men—and those the most excellent of them all, besides his escaping any punishment himself—had now given the priesthood to his brother so firmly, that nobody could any longer dispute it with him; for no one else, to be sure, could now apply for it, since he must have seen those that first did so to have miserably perished. No, besides this, the relatives of those that were destroyed made great pleadings to the multitude to abate the arrogance of Moses, because it would be safest for them to do so.

2. Now Moses, on his hearing for a good while that the people were tumultuous, was afraid that they would attempt some other innovation, and that some great and sad calamity would be the consequence. He called the multitude to a congregation and patiently heard what apology they had to make for themselves without opposing them, and this lest he should embitter the multitude: he only desired the heads of the tribes to bring their rods, with the names of their tribes inscribed on them, and that he should receive the priesthood in whose rod God should give a sign. This was agreed to. So the rest brought their rods, as did Aaron also, who had written the tribe of Levi on his rod. These rods Moses laid up in the Tabernacle of God. On the next day he brought out the rods, which were known from one another by those who brought them, they having distinctly noted them, as had the multitude also; and as for the rest, in the same form Moses had received them, in that they saw them still; but they also saw buds and branches grown out of Aaron’s rod, with ripe fruits on them—they were almonds, the rod having been cut out of that tree. The people were so amazed at this strange sight, that though Moses and Aaron were before under some degree of hatred, they now laid that hatred aside and began to admire the judgment of God concerning them; so that hereafter they applauded what God had decreed and permitted Aaron to enjoy the priesthood peaceably. And thus, God ordained him priest three times over, and he retained that honor without further disturbance. And hereby this sedition of the Hebrews, which had been a great one, and had lasted a great while, was at last settled.

3. And now Moses, because the tribe of Levi was made free from war and military expeditions, and was set apart for the Divine worship, lest they should lack and seek after the necessities of life, and so neglect the temple, commanded the Hebrews, according to the will of God, that when they should gain the possession of the land of Canaan, they should assign forty-eight good and fair cities to the Levites and permit them to enjoy their suburbs, as far as the limit of two thousand cubits would extend from the walls of the city. And besides this, he appointed that the people should pay the tithe of their annual fruits of the earth, both to the Levites and to the priests. And this is what that tribe receives of the multitude; but I think it necessary to set down what is paid by all, particularly to the priests.

4. Accordingly, he commanded the Levites to yield up to the priests thirteen of their forty-eight cities, and to set apart for them the tenth part of the tithes which they receive from the people every year; as also, that it was but just to offer to God the first-fruits of the entire product of the ground; and that they should offer the firstborn of those four-footed beasts that are appointed for sacrifices, if it be a male, to the priests, to be slain, that they and their entire families may eat them in the holy city; but that the owners of those firstborn which are not appointed for sacrifices in the laws of our country, should bring a shekel and a half in their place: but for the firstborn of a man, five shekels; that they should also have the first-fruits out of the shearing of the sheep; and that when any baked bread-corn, and made loaves of it, they should give something of what they had baked to them. Moreover, when any have made a sacred vow—I mean those that are called Nazarites, that allow their hair to grow long, and use no wine—when they consecrate their hair, and offer it for a sacrifice, they are to allot that hair for the priests [to be thrown into the fire]. Such also as dedicate themselves to God, as a corban (which denotes what the Greeks call a gift), when they are desirous of being freed from that ministration, are to lay down money for the priests: thirty shekels if it is a woman, and fifty if it is a man; but if any be too poor to pay the appointed sum, it will be lawful for the priests to determine that sum as they think fit. And if any slay beasts at home for a private festival, but not for a religious one, they are obligated to bring the maw and the cheek [[or breast]], and the right shoulder of the sacrifice, to the priests. With these Moses contrived that the priests should be abundantly maintained, besides what they had out of those offerings for sins which the people gave them, as I have set it down in the aforementioned book. He also ordered that out of everything allotted for the priests, their servants, [their sons,] their daughters, and their wives, should partake, as well as themselves, excepting what came to them out of the sacrifices that were offered for sins; for of those none but the males of the family of the priests might eat, and this in the temple also, and that the same day they were offered.

5. When Moses had made these constitutions, after the sedition was over, he departed, together with the whole army, and came to the borders of Idumea. He then sent ambassadors to the king of the Idumeans, and desired him to give him a passage through his country, and agreed to send him what hostages he should desire, to secure him from an injury. He desired him also, that he would allow his army liberty to buy provisions; and, if he insisted on it, he would pay a price for the very water they should drink. But the king was not pleased with this envoy from Moses, nor did he allow a passage for the army, but brought his people armed to meet Moses, and to hinder them, in case they should endeavor to force their passage, at which Moses consulted God by the oracle, who would not have him begin the war first; and so he withdrew his forces and traveled around through the wilderness.

6. Then it was that Miriam, the sister of Moses, came to her end, having completed her fortieth year since she left Egypt, on the first day of the lunar month Xanthicus. They then had a public funeral for her (at great expense). She was buried on a certain mountain, which they call Sin; and when they had mourned for her thirty days, Moses purified the people after this manner: he brought a heifer that had never been used for the plow or for farming, that was whole in all its parts, and entirely of a red color, at a little distance from the camp, into a place perfectly clean. This heifer was slain by the high priest, and her blood was sprinkled with his finger seven times before the Tabernacle of God; after this, the entire heifer was burnt in that state, together with its skin and entrails; and they threw cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet wool, into the midst of the fire; then a clean man gathered all her ashes together, and laid them in a perfectly clean place. Therefore, when any persons were defiled by a dead body, they put a little of these ashes into spring water, with hyssop, and, dipping part of these ashes in it, they sprinkled them with it, both on the third day, and on the seventh, and after that they were clean. This he instructed them to do also when the tribes should come into their own land.

7. Now when this purification, which their leader made at the mourning for his sister, as it has been now described, was over, he caused the army to depart and to march through the wilderness and through Arabia; and when he came to a place which the Arabians consider their metropolis, which was formerly called Arce, but has now the name of Petra, at this place, which was encompassed with high mountains, Aaron went up one of them in the sight of the whole army, Moses having previously told him that he was to die, for this place was opposite them. He took off his high-priestly garments and delivered them to Eleazar his son, to whom the high priesthood belonged, because he was the elder brother; and he died while the multitude looked on him. He died in the same year wherein he lost his sister, having lived in all one hundred twenty and three years. He died on the first day of that lunar month which is called by the Athenians Hecatombaeon, by the Macedonians Lous, but by the Hebrews Abba.

CHAPTER 5

How Moses Conquered Sihon and Og, Kings of the Amorites, and Destroyed Their Whole Army and Then Divided Their Land by Lot to Two Tribes and a Half of the Hebrews.

1. The people mourned for Aaron thirty days, and when this mourning was over, Moses removed the army from that place and came to the river Arnon, which, flowing out of the mountains of Arabia, and running through all that wilderness, falls into the Salt Sea, and becomes the limit between the land of the Moabites and the land of the Amorites. This land is fruitful and sufficient to maintain a great number of men with the good things it produces. Moses therefore sent messengers to Sihon, the king of this country, desiring that he would grant his army passage on whatever security he should please to require; he promised that he should be in no way harmed, neither as to that country which Sihon governed, nor as to its inhabitants; and that he would buy his provisions at such a price as should be to their advantage, even though he should desire to sell them their very water. But Sihon refused his offer, and put his army into array for battle, and was preparing everything in order to hinder their passing over Arnon.

2. When Moses saw that the Amorite king was inclined toward hostility with them, he thought he ought not endure that insult; and, determining to wean the Hebrews from their slothful temper and prevent the disorders which arose there, which had been the occasion of their former sedition (nor indeed were they now thoroughly easy in their minds), he inquired of God, whether He would give him permission to fight—which when he had done, and God also promised him the victory, he was himself very courageous and ready to proceed to fighting. Accordingly, he encouraged the soldiers; and he desired of them that they would take the pleasure of fighting now that God gave them permission to do so. They then, on the receipt of this permission, which they so much longed for, put on their whole armor and set about the work without delay. But the Amorite king was not now like to himself when the Hebrews were ready to attack him; but both he himself was frightened at the Hebrews, and his army, which before had showed themselves to be of good courage, were then found to be timid: so they could not sustain the first onset, nor bear up against the Hebrews, but fled away, as thinking this would provide them a more likely way for their escape than fighting, for they depended on their cities, which were strong, from which yet they reaped no advantage when they were forced to flee to them; for as soon as the Hebrews saw them giving ground, they immediately pursued them close; and when they had broken their ranks, they greatly terrified them, and some of them broke off from the rest and ran away to the cities. Now the Hebrews rapidly pursued them and obstinately persevered in the labors they had already undergone; and being very skillful in slinging, and very agile in dart throwing (or anything else of that kind), and also having nothing but light armor, which made them quick in the pursuit, they overtook their enemies; and for those that were most remote and could not be overtaken, they reached them by their slings and their bows, so that many were slain; and those that escaped the slaughter were severely wounded, and these were more distressed with thirst than with any of those that fought against them, for it was the summer season; and when the greatest number of them were brought down to the river out of a desire to drink, as also when others fled away by troops, the Hebrews came around them and shot at them, so that with darts and with arrows they made a slaughter of them all. Sihon, their king, was also slain. So the Hebrews spoiled the dead bodies and took their prey. The land also which they took was full of abundance of fruits, and the army went all over it without fear and fed their cattle on it; and they took the enemies prisoners, for they could in no way put a stop to them, since all the fighting men were destroyed. Such was the destruction which overtook the Amorites, who were neither wise in counsel, nor courageous in action. Hereon the Hebrews took possession of their land, which is a country situated between three rivers and naturally resembled an island: the river Arnon being its southern, the river Jabbok determining its northern side, which running into Jordan loses its own name, and takes the other, while Jordan itself runs along by it, on its western coast.

3. When matters had come to this state, Og, the king of Gilead and Gaulonitis, fell on the Israelites. He brought an army with him, and in haste to the assistance of his friend Sihon: but though he found him already slain, yet he still resolved to come and fight the Hebrews, supposing he should be too hard for them, and being desirous to try their valor; but failing of his hope, he was both himself slain in the battle, and all his army was destroyed. So Moses passed over the river Jabbok and overran the kingdom of Og. He overthrew their cities, and slew all their inhabitants, who yet exceeded in riches all the men in that part of the continent, on account of the goodness of the soil and the great quantity of their wealth. Now Og had very few equals, either in the size of his body, or handsomeness of his appearance. He was also a man of great activity in the use of his hands, so that his actions were not unequal to the vast size and handsome appearance of his body. And men could easily guess at his strength and magnitude when they took his bed at Rabbath, the royal city of the Ammonites; its structure was of iron, its breadth four cubits, and its length a cubit more than double that. However, his fall not only improved the circumstances of the Hebrews for the present, but by his death he was the occasion of further good success to them, for they presently took those sixty cities which were encompassed with excellent walls and had been subject to him, and all obtained both in general and in particular a great prey.

CHAPTER 6

Concerning Balaam the Prophet and What Kind of Man He Was.

1. Now Moses, when he had brought his army to Jordan, pitched his camp in the great plain near Jericho. This city is a very fortunate situation, and very fit for producing palm-trees and balsam. And now the Israelites began to be very proud of themselves and were very eager to fight. Moses then, after he had offered for a few days sacrifices of thanksgiving to God, and feasted the people, sent a party of armed men to lay waste the country of the Midianites and to take their cities. Now the occasion which he took for making war on them was this that follows:

2. When Balak, the king of the Moabites, who had from his ancestors a friendship and alliance with the Midianites, saw how great the Israelites had become, he was very frightened on account of his own and his kingdom’s danger, for he was not acquainted with this, that the Hebrews would not meddle with any other country, but were to be satisfied with possession of the land of Canaan [alone], God having forbidden them to go any farther. So he, with more haste than wisdom, resolved to make an attempt on them by words; but he did not judge it prudent to fight against them, after they had such prosperous successes, and even became out of [their] failures more successful than before, but he thought to hinder them, if he could, from growing greater, and so he resolved to send ambassadors to the Midianites concerning them. Now these Midianites, knowing there was a certain Balaam, who lived by Euphrates, and was the greatest of the prophets at that time, and one that was in friendship with them, sent some of their honorable princes along with the ambassadors of Balak, to implore the prophet to come to them, that he might imprecate curses to the destruction of the Israelites. So Balsam received the ambassadors and treated them very kindly; and when he had dined, he inquired what God’s will was and what this matter was for which the Midianites implored him to come to them. But when God opposed his going, he came to the ambassadors and told them that he was himself very willing and desirous to comply with their request, but informed them that God was opposed to his intentions—even that God who had raised him to [such] great reputation on account of the truth of his predictions; for this army, which they implored him to come and curse, was in the favor of God; on which account he advised them to go home again and not to persist in their enmity against the Israelites; and when he had given them that answer, he dismissed the ambassadors.

3. Now the Midianites, at the earnest request and fervent pleadings of Balak, sent other ambassadors to Balaam, who, desiring to gratify the men, inquired again of God; but He was displeased at [the second] trial and commanded him by no means to contradict the ambassadors. Now Balsam did not imagine that God gave this injunction in order to deceive him, so he went along with the ambassadors; but when the divine messenger met him in the way, when he was in a narrow passage and hedged in with a wall on both sides, the donkey on which Balaam rode understood that it was a divine spirit that met him and thrust Balaam to one of the walls, without regard to the stripes which Balaam, when he was hurt by the wall, gave her; but when the donkey, on the messenger’s continuing to distress her, and on the stripes which were given her, fell down by the will of God, she made use of the voice of a man and complained of Balaam as acting unjustly to her; that whereas he had no fault find with her in her former service to him, he now inflicted stripes on her, as not understanding that she was hindered from serving him in what he was now going about by the providence of God. And when he was disturbed by reason of the voice of the donkey, which was that of a man, the messenger plainly appeared to him and blamed him for the stripes he had given his donkey; and he informed him that the brute creature was not in fault, but that he himself had come to obstruct his journey, as being contrary to the will of God. At this, Balaam was afraid and was preparing to return again: yet God excited him to go on his intended journey, but added this injunction, that he should declare nothing but what He Himself should suggest to his mind.

4. When God had given him this charge, he came to Balak; and when the king had entertained him in a magnificent manner, he desired him to go to one of the mountains to take a view of the state of the camp of the Hebrews. Balak himself also came to the mountain and brought the prophet along with him, with a royal attendance. This mountain lay over their heads and was sixty stadia away from the camp. Now when he saw them, he desired the king to build him seven altars and to bring him as many bulls and rams, to which desire the king presently conformed. He then slew the sacrifices and offered them as burnt-offerings that he might observe some signal of the retreat of the Hebrews. Then he said, “Blessed is this people, on whom God bestows the possession of innumerable good things, and grants them His own providence to be their assistant and their guide, so that there is not any nation among mankind but you which will be esteemed superior in virtue, and in the earnest prosecution of the best rules of life, and of such as are pure from wickedness, and will leave those rules to your excellent children; and this out of the regard that God bears to you, and the provision of such things for you as may render you happier than any other people under the sun. You will retain that land to which He has sent you, and it will always be under the command of your children; and both all the earth, as well as the seas, will be filled with your glory: and you will be sufficiently numerous to supply the world in general, and every region of it in particular, with inhabitants out of your stock. However, O blessed army, [it is] a wonder that you have become so many from one father: and truly, the land of Canaan can now hold you, as being yet comparatively few, but know that the whole world is proposed to be your place of habitation forever. The multitude of your posterity also will live as well in the islands as on the continent, and that more in number than are the stars of the heavens. And when you have become so many, God will not relinquish the care of you, but will provide you an abundance of all good things in times of peace, with victory and dominion in times of war. May the children of your enemies have an inclination to fight against you; and may they be so hardy as to come to arms, and to assault you in battle, for they will not return with victory, nor will their return be agreeable to their children and wives. To such a great degree of valor will you be raised by the providence of God, who is able to diminish the prosperity of some, and to supply the needs of others.”

5. Thus, Balaam spoke by inspiration, as not being in his own power, but moved to say what he did by the Divine Spirit. But then Balak was displeased and said he had broken the contract he had made, whereby he was to come, as he and his associates had invited him, by the promise of great gifts: for whereas he came to curse their enemies, he had laid honor on them, and had declared that they were the most blessed of men. To this Balaam replied, “O Balak, if you rightly consider this whole matter, can you suppose that it is in our power to be silent, or to say anything, when the Spirit of God seizes us? For He puts such words as He pleases in our mouths and such discourses as we are not ourselves conscious of. I well remember by what pleadings both you and the Midianites so joyfully brought me here, and on that account, I took this journey. It was my prayer that I might not put any offense on you, as to what you desired of me; but God is more powerful than the purposes I had made to serve you; for those that take on them to foretell the affairs of mankind, as from their own abilities, are entirely unable to do it, or to refrain from uttering what God suggests to them, or to offer violence to His will; for when He prevents us and enters into us, nothing that we say is our own. I then did not intend to praise this army, nor to go over the several good things which God intended to do to their race; but since He was so favorable to them and so ready to bestow on them a blessed life and continuous glory, He suggested the declaration of those things to me: but now, because it is my desire to please you yourself, as well as the Midianites, whose pleadings it is not decent for me to reject, go on—let us again rear other altars and offer the same sacrifices that we did before, that I may see whether I can persuade God to permit me to bind these men with curses.” Which, when Balak had agreed, God would not, even on second sacrifices, consent to his cursing the Israelites. Then Balaam fell on his face and foretold what calamities would happen to the several kings of the nations and the most eminent cities, some of which were not so much as inhabited in ancient times—which events have come to pass among the several people concerned, both in the preceding ages, and in this, until my own memory, both by sea and by land. From which completion of all these predictions that he made, one may easily guess that the rest will have their completion in a time to come.

6. But Balak, being very angry that the Israelites were not cursed, sent Balaam away without thinking him worthy of any honor. Whereon, just when he was on his journey, in order to pass the Euphrates, he sent for Balak, and for the princes of the Midianites, and spoke thus to them: “O Balak, and you Midianites that are here present (for I am obligated even without the will of God to gratify you), it is true [that] no complete destruction can fall on the nation of the Hebrews, neither by war, nor by plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits of the earth, nor can any other unexpected accident be their entire ruin; for the providence of God is concerned to preserve them from such a misfortune; nor will it permit any such calamity to come on them whereby they may all perish; but some small misfortunes, and those for a short time, whereby they may appear to be brought low, may still happen to them; but after that they will flourish again, to the terror of those that brought those mischiefs on them. So that if you intend to gain a victory over them for a short space of time, you will obtain it by following my directions: therefore, set out the most attractive of such of your daughters as are most distinguished in beauty and suitable to force and conquer the modesty of those that behold them—and these adorned and trimmed to the highest degree possible. Then send them to be near the Israelite camp, and give them instruction that when the young men of the Hebrews desire their company, allow it to them; and when they see [that] they are enamored with them, let them depart; and if they implore them to stay, let them not give their consent until they have persuaded them to abandon their obedience to their own laws—the worship of that God who established them—to worship the gods of the Midianites, and by this means God will be angry at them. Accordingly, when Balaam had suggested counsel to them, he went his way.

7. So when the Midianites had sent their daughters as Balaam had exhorted them, the Hebrew men were allured by their beauty, and came with them, and pleaded with them not to disallow them the enjoyment of their beauty, nor to deny them their conversation. These daughters of Midianites received their words gladly, and consented to it, and stayed with them; but when they brought them to be enamored with them, and their inclinations toward them had grown to ripeness, they began to think of departing from them: then it was that these men became greatly disheartened at the women’s departure, and they were urgent with them not to leave them, but begged [that] they would continue there and become their wives; and they promised them they should own as mistresses all [that] they had. This they said with an oath and called God for the arbitrator of what they promised; and this with tears in their eyes, and all such marks of concern, as might show how miserable they thought themselves without them, and so might move their compassion for them. So the women, as soon as they perceived [that] they had made them their slaves and had entrapped them with their conservation, began to speak thus to them:

8. “O you distinguished young men! we have of our own at home, and great plenty of good things there, together with the natural, affectionate parents and friends; nor is it out of our lack of any such things that we came to discourse with you; nor did we allow your invitation with design to prostitute the beauty of our bodies for gain; but taking you for brave and worthy men, we agreed to your request, that we might treat you with such honors as hospitality required: and now seeing [that] you say that you have a great affection for us, and are troubled when you think we are departing, we are not opposed to your pleadings; and if we may receive such assurance of your goodwill as we think can be alone sufficient, we will be glad to lead our lives with you as your wives; but we are afraid that you will in time be weary of our company, and will then abuse us, and send us back to our parents in a disgraceful manner.” And they desired that they would excuse them in their guarding against that danger. But the young men professed they would give them any assurance they should desire; nor did they at all contradict what they requested, so great was the passion they had for them. “If then,” they said, “this is your resolution, since you make use of such customs and conduct of life as are entirely different from all other men, insomuch that your kinds of food are peculiar to yourselves, and your kinds of drink not common to others, it will be absolutely necessary, if you would have us for your wives, that you additionally worship our gods. Nor can there be any other demonstration of the kindness which you say you already have, and promise to have hereafter to us, than this—that you worship the same gods that we do. For does anyone have a reason to complain, that now you have come into this country, you should worship the proper gods of the same country—especially while our gods are common to all men, and yours such as belong to nobody else but yourselves?” So they said they must either come into such methods of divine worship as all others came into, or else they must look out for another world, wherein they may live by themselves, according to their own laws.

9. Now the young men were induced by the fondness they had for these women to think they spoke very well; so they gave themselves up to what they persuaded them, and they transgressed their own laws; and supposing there were many gods, and resolving that they would sacrifice to them according to the laws of that country which ordained them, they both were delighted with their strange food and went on to do everything that the women would have them do, though in contradiction to their own laws; this transgression had already gone through the whole army of the young men to a great extent, and they fell into a sedition that was much worse than the former, and into danger of the entire abolition of their own institutions; for when once the youth had tasted of these strange customs, they went with insatiable inclinations into them; and even where some of the principal men were renowned on account of the virtues of their fathers, they were also corrupted together with the rest.

10. Even Zimri, the head of the tribe of Simeon, accompanied with Cozbi, a Midianite women, who was the daughter of Sur, a man of authority in that country; and being desired by his wife to disregard the laws of Moses and to follow those she was accustomed to, he complied with her, and this both by sacrificing in a manner different from his own, and by taking a stranger as a wife. When things were thus, Moses was afraid that matters should grow worse and called the people to a congregation, but then accused nobody by name, as unwilling to drive those into despair who, by lying concealed, might come to conversion; but he said that they did not do what was either worthy of themselves, or of their fathers, by preferring pleasure to God and to the living according to His will; that it was fitting they should change their courses while their affairs were still in a good state; and not to think that true fortitude [is that] which offers violence to their laws, but that which resists their lusts. And besides that, he said it was not a reasonable thing, when they had lived soberly in the wilderness, to act madly now when they were in prosperity; and that they ought not to lose, now [that] they have abundance, what they had gained when they had little: and so he endeavored, by saying this, to correct the young men, and to bring them to conversion for what they had done.

11. But Zimri rose up after him, and he said, “Yes, indeed, Moses, you have freedom to make use of such laws as you are so fond of, and have, by accustoming yourself to them, made them firm; otherwise, if things had not been thus, you had often been punished before now, and had known that the Hebrews are not easily burdened; but you will not have me [as] one of your followers in your tyrannical commands, for you do nothing else thus far, but, under [the] pretense of laws and of God, wickedly impose on us slavery, and gain dominion for yourself, while you deprive us of the sweetness of life, which consists in acting according to our own wills, and is the right of freemen, and of those that have no lord over them. No, indeed, this man is harder on the Hebrews than were the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to punish, according to his laws, each one’s acting what is most agreeable to himself; but you yourself are more deserving to suffer punishment, who presume to abolish what everyone acknowledges to be what is good for him, and aim to make your single opinion to have more force than that of all the rest; and what I now do, and think to be right, I will not hereafter deny to be according to my own sentiments. I have married, as you say rightly, a strange woman, and you hear what I do from myself as from one that is free, for I truly did not intend to conceal myself. I also acknowledge that I sacrificed to those gods to whom you do not think it appropriate to sacrifice; and I think it [is] correct to come at truth by inquiring of many people, and not like one that lives under tyranny, to allow the whole hope of my life to depend on one man; nor will anyone find cause to rejoice who declares himself to have more authority over my actions than myself.”

12. Now when Zimri had said these things regarding what he and some others had wickedly done, the people held their peace, both out of fear of what might come on them, and because they saw that their legislator was not willing to bring his insolence before the public any further, or openly to contend with him; for he avoided that, lest many should imitate the impudence of his language, and thereby disturb the multitude. On this the assembly was dissolved. However, the mischievous attempt would have proceeded further, if Zimri had not been first slain, which came to pass on the following occasion: Phinehas, a man in other respects better than the rest of the young men, and also one that surpassed his contemporaries in the dignity of his father (for he was the son of Eleazar the high priest, and the grandson of [Aaron], Moses’ brother), who was greatly troubled at what was done by Zimri, he resolved in earnest to inflict punishment on him, before his unworthy behavior should grow stronger by impunity, and in order to prevent this transgression from proceeding further, which would happen if the ringleaders were not punished. He was of such great magnanimity, both in strength of mind and body, that when he undertook any very dangerous attempt, he did not cease until he overcame it and obtained a complete victory. So he came into Zimri’s tent and slew him with his javelin, and with it he slew Cozbi also; at this, all those young men that had a regard for virtue, and aimed to do a glorious action, imitated Phinehas’ boldness, and slew those that were found to be guilty of the same crime with Zimri. Accordingly, many of those that had transgressed perished by the abundant valor of these young men; and the rest all perished by a plague, which disease God Himself inflicted on them, so that all those relatives of theirs who, instead of hindering them from such wicked actions as they ought to have done, had persuaded them to go on, were esteemed by God as partners in their wickedness, and died. Accordingly, there perished out of the army no fewer than fourteen [[or twenty-four]] thousand at this time.

13. This was the reason why Moses was provoked to send an army to destroy the Midianites, concerning which expedition we will speak presently, when we have first related what we have omitted; for it is but just not to pass over our legislator’s due accolade, on account of his conduct here, because, although this Balaam, who was sent for by the Midianites to curse the Hebrews, and when he was hindered from doing it by Divine Providence, did still suggest that advice to them, by making use of which our enemies had nearly corrupted the whole multitude of the Hebrews with their schemes, until some of them were deeply infected with their opinions; yet he did Him great honor by setting down His prophecies in writing. And while it was in his power to claim this glory for himself and make men believe they were his own predictions—there being no one that could be a witness against him and accuse him for doing so—he still gave his attestation to Him and did Him the honor to make mention of Him on this account. But let everyone think of these matters as he pleases.

CHAPTER 7

How the Hebrews Fought with the Midianites and Overcame Them.

1. Now Moses sent an army against the land of Midian for the aforementioned reasons—twelve thousand in all, taking an equal number out of every tribe, and he appointed Phinehas for their commander; of which Phinehas we made mention shortly before, as he that had guarded the laws of the Hebrews and had inflicted punishment on Zimri when he had transgressed them. Now the Midianites perceived beforehand how the Hebrews were coming and would suddenly be on them, so they assembled their army together, and fortified the entrances into their country, and there awaited the enemy’s arrival. When they had come, and they had joined battle with them, an immense multitude of the Midianites fell; nor could they be numbered, [for] they were so very many. And among them fell all their kings, five in number, namely: Evi, Zur, Reba, Hur, and Rekem, who was of the same name with a city, the chief and capital of all Arabia, which is still now so called by the whole Arabian nation, Arecem, from the name of the king that built it, but is called Petra by the Greeks. Now when the enemies were defeated, the Hebrews spoiled their country, and took a great prey, and destroyed the men that were its inhabitants, together with the women; only they left the virgins alone, as Moses had commanded Phinehas to do, who indeed came back, bringing with him an army that had received no harm, and a great deal of prey: fifty-two thousand cattle, seventy-five thousand six hundred sheep, sixty thousand donkeys, with an immense quantity of gold and silver furniture, which the Midianites made use of in their houses, for they were so wealthy that they were very luxurious. There were also led captive about thirty-two thousand virgins. So Moses parted the prey into parts, and gave one fiftieth part to Eleazar and the two priests, and another fiftieth part to the Levites; and he distributed the rest of the prey among the people. After which they lived happily, as having obtained an abundance of good things by their valor, and there being no misfortune that attended them or hindered their enjoyment of that happiness.

2. But Moses had now grown old, and he appointed Joshua for his successor, both to receive directions from God as a prophet, and for a commander of the army, if they should at any time stand in need of such a one; and this was done by the command of God, that to him the care of the public should be committed. Now Joshua had been instructed in all those kinds of learning which concerned the laws and God Himself, and Moses had been his instructor.

3. At this time it was that the two tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh, abounded in a multitude of cattle, as well as in all other kinds of prosperity; from which they had a meeting and collectively came and pleaded with Moses to give them, as their particular portion, that land of the Amorites which they had taken by right of war, because it was fruitful and good for feeding [their] cattle; but Moses, supposing that they were afraid of fighting with the Canaanites and had invented this provision for their cattle as a good excuse for avoiding that war, called them utter cowards, and he said they had only devised a decent excuse for that cowardice; and that they intended to live in luxury and ease while all the rest were laboring with great difficulty to obtain the land they were desirous to have; and that they were not willing to march along and undergo the remaining hard service, whereby they were, under the Divine promise, to pass over Jordan and overcome those enemies of ours which God had shown them, and so obtain their land. But these tribes, when they saw that Moses was angry with them, and when they could not deny that he had a just cause to be displeased at their petition, made an apology for themselves; and they said that it was not on account of their fear of dangers, nor on account of their laziness, that they made this request to him, but that they might leave the prey they had gotten in places of safety, and thereby might be more prepared and ready to undergo difficulties and to fight battles. They added this also, that when they had built cities wherein they might preserve their children, and wives, and possessions, if he would bestow them on them, they would go along with the rest of the army. Hereon Moses was pleased with what they said, so he called for Eleazar the high priest, and Joshua, and the chief of the tribes, and permitted these tribes to possess the land of the Amorites; but on this condition: that they should join with their countrymen in the war until all things were settled. On which condition they took possession of the country, and built themselves strong cities, and put into them their children, and their wives, and whatever else they had that might be an impediment to the labors of their future marches.

4. Moses also now built those ten cities which were to be of the number of the forty-eight [for the Levites], three of which he allotted to those that slew any person accidentally and fled to them; and he assigned the same length of time for their banishment as that of the life of that high priest under whom the slaughter and exile occurred; after which death of the high priest he permitted the slayer to return home. During the time of his exile, the relatives of him that was slain may, by this law, kill the manslayer, if they caught him outside the bounds of the city to which he fled, though this permission was not granted to any other person. Now the cities which were set apart for this exile were these: Bezer, at the borders of Arabia; Ramoth, of the land of Gilead; and Golan, in the land of Bashan. There were to be also, by Moses’ command, three other cities allotted for the habitation of these fugitives out of the cities of the Levites, but not until after they should be in possession of the land of Canaan.

5. At this time the chief men of the tribe of Manasseh came to Moses and informed him that there was an eminent man of their tribe dead, whose name was Zelophehad, who left no male children, but left daughters; and they asked him whether these daughters might inherit his land or not. He made this answer: “If they will marry into their own tribe, they will carry their estate along with them; but if they dispose of themselves in marriage to men of another tribe, they will leave their inheritance in their father’s tribe.” And then it was that Moses ordained that everyone’s inheritance should continue in his own tribe.

CHAPTER 8

The Government Settled by Moses; And How He Disappeared from among Mankind.

1. When forty years were completed, short thirty days, Moses gathered the congregation together near Jordan, where the city [of] Abila now stands, a place full of palm-trees; and all the people having come together, he spoke thus to them:

2. “O you Israelites and fellow soldiers who have been partners with me in this long and uneasy journey: since it is now the will of God, and the course of old age, at one hundred and twenty, it is necessary that I should depart out of this life; and since God has forbidden me to be a supporter or an assistant to you in what remains to be done beyond Jordan, I thought it reasonable not to cease my endeavors even now for your happiness, but to do my utmost to obtain for you the continuous enjoyment of good things, and a memorial for myself, when you will be in the fruition of great plenty and prosperity. Come, therefore, let me suggest to you by what means you may be blessed, and may leave a perpetual [and] prosperous possession thereof to your children after you, and then let me thus depart from the world; and I cannot but deserve to be believed by you, both on account of the great things I have already done for you, and because, when souls are about to leave the body, they speak with the sincerest freedom. O children of Israel! there is but one source of happiness for all mankind: the favor of God; for He alone is able to give good things to those that deserve them, and to deprive those of them that sin against Him; toward Whom, if you yourselves act according to His will, and according to what I, who well understand His mind, do exhort you to do, you will both be esteemed blessed, and will be admired by all men; and you will never come into misfortunes, nor cease to be blessed; you will then preserve the possession of the good things you already have and will quickly obtain those that you are at present in need of—only be obedient to those whom God would have you to follow; nor prefer any other constitution of government before the laws now given to you; neither disregard that way of Divine worship which you now have, nor change it for any other form: and if you do this, you will be the most courageous of all men, in undergoing the fatigues of war, and will not be easily conquered by any of your enemies; for while God is present with you to assist you, it is to be expected that you will be able to despise the opposition of all mankind; and great rewards of virtue are proposed for you, if you preserve that virtue through your whole lives. Virtue itself is indeed the principal and the first reward, and after that, it bestows abundance on others, so that your exercise of virtue toward other men will make your own lives blessed, and render you more glorious than foreigners can be, and procure you an undisputed reputation with posterity. You will be able to obtain these blessings if you listen to and observe those laws which, by Divine revelation, I have ordained for you; that is, if you additionally meditate on the wisdom that is in them. I myself am departing from you, rejoicing in the good things you enjoy; and I counsel you toward the wise conduct of your law, to the appropriate order of your government, and to the virtues of your commanders, who will take care of what is for your advantage. And that God, who has been until now your Leader, and by whose goodwill I have myself been useful to you, will not now put an end to His providence over you, but as long as you desire to have Him [as] your Protector in your pursuits after virtue, so long will you enjoy His care over you. Your high priest also, Eleazar, as well as Joshua, with the senate, and chief of your tribes, will go before you, and suggest the best advice for you; by following which advice you will continue to be blessed: to whom you listen without reluctance, as sensible that all such as know well how to be governed, will also know how to govern, if they are promoted to that authority themselves. And do not esteem liberty to consist in opposing such directions as your governors think fit to give you for your practice—as at present indeed you place your liberty in nothing else but abusing your benefactors, which error if you can avoid for the time to come, your affairs will be in a better condition than they have thus far been. Nor ever indulge such a degree of passion in these matters, as you have oftentimes done when you have been very angry at me; for you know that I have more often been in danger of death from you than from our enemies. What I now remind you of, is not done in order to reproach you; for I do not think it proper, now [that] I am going out of the world, to bring this to your remembrance in order to leave you offended at me, since, at the time when I underwent those hardships from you, I was not angry at you; but I do it in order to make you wiser hereafter, and to teach you that this will be for your security; I mean—that you never be harmful toward those that preside over you, even when you have become rich, as you will be to a great degree when you have passed over Jordan and are in possession of the land of Canaan. Since, when you will have once proceeded so far by your wealth, as to a contempt and disregard of virtue, you will also forfeit the favor of God; and when you have made Him your enemy, you will be beaten in war and will have the land which you possess taken away again from you by your enemies, and this with great reproaches regarding your conduct. You will be scattered over the whole world, and will, as slaves, entirely fill both sea and land; and when you have finally had the experience of what I now say, you will convert, and remember the laws you have broken, when it is too late. From which I would advise you, if you intend to preserve these laws, to leave none of your enemies alive when you have conquered them, but to look on it as for your advantage to destroy them all, lest, if you permit them to live, you taste of their manners, and thereby corrupt your own proper institutions. I also further exhort you to overthrow their altars, and their groves, and whatsoever temples they have among them, and to burn all such, their nation, and their very memory with fire; for by this means alone the safety of your own blessed constitution can be firmly secured for you. And in order to prevent your ignorance of virtue, and the degeneracy of your nature into vice, I have also ordained your laws, by Divine suggestion, and a form of government, which are so good, that if you regularly observe them, you will be admired among all men [as] the most blessed.”

3. When he had spoken thus, he gave them the laws and the constitution of government written in a book. At this, the people fell into tears, and appeared already touched with the sense that they should have a great need of their leader, because they remembered what a number of dangers he had passed through, and what care he had taken of their preservation: they desponded about what would come on them after he was dead, and thought they should never have another governor like him; and they feared that God would then take less care of them when Moses was gone, who used to intercede for them. They also converted of what they had said to him in the wilderness when they were angry and were in grief on those accounts, insomuch that the whole body of the people fell into tears with such bitterness that it was past the power of words to comfort them in their affliction. However, Moses gave them some consolation; and by calling them off the thought of how worthy he was of their weeping for him, he exhorted them to keep to that form of government he had given them; and then the congregation was dissolved at that time.

4. Accordingly, I will now first describe this form of government which was agreeable to the dignity and virtue of Moses; and will thereby inform those that read these Antiquities what our original settlements were and will then proceed to the remaining histories. Now those settlements are all still in writing, as he left them; and we will add nothing by way of embellishment, nor anything besides what Moses left us; only we will so far innovate, as to digest the several kinds of laws into a regular system; for they were left in writing by him as they were accidentally scattered in their delivery, and as he on inquiry had learned them from God. On which account I have thought it necessary to premise this observation beforehand, lest any of my own countrymen should blame me, as having been guilty of an offense herein. Now part of our constitution will include the laws that belong to our political state. As for those laws which Moses left concerning our common conversation and interaction with one another, I have reserved that for a discourse concerning our manner of life and the occasions of those laws, which I propose to myself, with God’s assistance, to write after I have finished the work I am now on.

5. When you have possessed yourselves of the land of Canaan and have leisure to enjoy the good things of it, and when you have afterward determined to build cities, if you will do what is pleasing to God, you will have a secure state of blessedness. Let there then be one city of the land of Canaan, and this situated in the most agreeable place for its goodness, and very eminent in itself, and let it be that which God will choose for Himself by prophetic revelation. Let there also be one temple therein, and one altar, not reared of hewn stones, but of such as you gather together at random; which stones, when they are whitened with mortar, will have a handsome appearance, and be beautiful to the sight. Let the ascent to it not be by steps but by a slope of raised earth. And let there be neither an altar nor a temple in any other city; for God is but one, and the nation of the Hebrews is but one.

6. He that blasphemes God, let him be stoned; and let him hang on a tree all that day, and then let him be buried in a shameful and obscure manner.

7. Let those that live as remote as the bounds of the land which the Hebrews will possess, come to that city where the temple will be, and this three times in a year, that they may give thanks to God for His former benefits, and may request from Him those they will want hereafter; and let them, by this means, maintain a friendly correspondence with one another by such meetings and feastings together, for it is a good thing for those that are of the same stock, and under the same institution of laws, not to be unacquainted with each other; which acquaintance will be maintained by thus conversing together, and by seeing and talking with one another, and so renewing the memorials of this union; for if they do not thus converse together continually, they will appear like mere strangers to one another.

8. Let there be taken out of your fruits a tenth, besides that which you have allotted to give to the priests and Levites. This you may indeed sell in the country, but it is to be used in those feasts and sacrifices that are to be celebrated in the holy city; for it is fitting that you should enjoy those fruits of the earth which God gives you to possess, so as may be to the honor of the donor.

9. You are not to offer sacrifices out of the hire of a woman who is a harlot, for the Deity is not pleased with anything that arises from such abuses of nature; of which sort none can be worse than this prostitution of the body. In like manner, no one may take the price of the covering of a female dog, either of one that is used in hunting, or in keeping of sheep, and there sacrifice to God.

10. Let no one blaspheme those gods which other cities esteem such; nor may anyone steal what belongs to strange temples, nor take away the gifts that are dedicated to any god.

11. Do not let any one of you wear a garment made of [both] wool and linen, for that is appointed to be for the priests alone.

12. When the multitude are assembled together at the holy city for sacrificing every seventh year, at the Celebration of Tabernacles, let the high priest stand on a high desk, from where he may be heard, and let him read the laws to all the people; and let neither the women nor the children be hindered from hearing—no, nor the servants either; for it is a good thing that those laws should be engraved in their souls and preserved in their memories, so that it may not be possible to blot them out; for by this means they will not be guilty of sin, when they cannot plead ignorance of what the laws have commanded them. The laws will also have a greater authority among them, as foretelling what they will suffer if they break them; and imprinting in their souls by this hearing what they command them to do, so that there may always be within their minds that intention of the laws which they have despised and broken and have thereby been the causes of their own mischief. Let the children also learn the laws, as the first thing they are taught, which will be the best thing they can be taught and will be the cause of their future bliss.

13. Let everyone commemorate before God the benefits which He bestowed on them at their deliverance out of the land of Egypt, and this twice every day, both when the day begins and when the hour of sleep comes on, gratitude being in its own nature a just thing, and serving not only by way of return for past, but also by way of invitation of future favors. They are also to inscribe the principal blessings they have received from God on their doors and show the same remembrance of them on their arms; they are also to bear on their forehead and their arm those wonders which declare the power of God and His goodwill toward them, that God’s readiness to bless them may appear obvious everywhere around them.

14. Let there be seven men to judge in every city, and these such as have been previously most zealous in the exercise of virtue and righteousness. Let every judge have two officers allotted to him out of the tribe of Levi. Let those that are chosen to judge in the various cities be held in great honor; and let none be permitted to revile any others when these are present, nor to carry themselves in an insolent manner to them, it being natural that reverence toward those in high offices among men should procure men’s fear and reverence toward God. Let those that judge be permitted to determine according as they think to be right, unless anyone can show that they have taken bribes, to the perversion of justice, or can allege any other accusation against them, whereby it may appear that they have passed an unjust sentence; for it is not appropriate that causes should be openly determined out of regard to gain, or to the dignity of the suitors, but that the judges should esteem what is right before all other things, otherwise God will by that means be despised, and esteemed inferior to those, the dread of whose power has occasioned the unjust sentence; for justice is the power of God. He therefore that gratifies those in great dignity, supposes them more potent than God Himself. But if these judges are unable to give a just sentence regarding the causes that come before them (which situation is not infrequent in human affairs), let them send the cause undetermined to the holy city, and there let the high priest, the prophet, and the Sanhedrin, determine as it will seem good to them.

15. But do not let a single witness be credited, but three, or two at the least, and those whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives. But do not let the testimony of women be admitted on account of the levity and boldness of their sex; nor let servants be admitted to give testimony on account of the ignobility of their soul, since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, or fear of punishment. But if anyone is believed to have borne false witness, let him, when he is convicted, suffer all the very same punishments which he against whom he bore witness was to have suffered.

16. If a murder is committed in any place and he that did it is not found, nor is there any suspicion on one as if he had hated the man, and so had killed him, let there be a very diligent inquiry made after the man, and rewards proposed to anyone who will discover him; but if still no information can be procured, let the magistrates and senate of those cities that lie near the place in which the murder was committed, assemble together, and measure the distance from the place where the dead body lies; then let the magistrates of the nearest city to it purchase a heifer, and bring it to a valley, and to a place therein where there is no land plowed or trees planted, and let them cut the sinews of the heifer; then the priests, and Levites, and the senate of that city will take water and wash their hands over the head of the heifer; and they will openly declare that their hands are innocent of this murder, and that they have neither done it themselves, nor been assisting to any that did it. They will also implore God to be merciful to them, that no such horrid act may be done again in that land.

17. Aristocracy, and the way of living under it, is the best constitution: and may you never have any inclination to any other form of government; and may you always love that form, and have the laws for your governors, and govern all your actions according to them; for you need no supreme governor but God. But if you will desire a king, let him be one of your own nation; let him be always careful of justice and other virtues perpetually; let him submit to the laws, and esteem God’s commands to be his highest wisdom; but let him do nothing without the high priest and the votes of the senators: let him not have a great number of wives, nor pursue after abundance of riches, nor a multitude of horses, whereby he may grow too proud to submit to the laws. And if he affects any such things, let him be restrained, lest he becomes so powerful that his state is inconsistent with your welfare.

18. Let it not be esteemed lawful to remove boundaries, neither our own, nor of those with whom we are at peace. Be careful [that] you do not take those landmarks away which are, as it were, a divine and unshaken limitation of rights made by God Himself, to last forever; since this going beyond limits, and gaining ground on others, is the occasion of wars and seditions; for those that remove boundaries are not far off from an attempt to subvert the laws.

19. He that plants a piece of land, the trees of which produce fruits before the fourth year, is not to bring from there any first-fruits to God, nor is he to make use of that fruit himself, for it is not produced in its proper season; for when nature has a force put on her at an unseasonable time, the fruit is not proper for God, nor for the master’s use; but let the owner gather all that is grown in the fourth year, for then it is in its proper season. And let him that has gathered it carry it to the holy city, and spend that, together with the tithe of his other fruits, in feasting with his friends, with the orphans, and the widows. But in the fifth year the fruit is his own, and he may use it as he pleases.

20. You are not to sow with seed a piece of land which is planted with vines, for it is enough that it supplies nourishment to that plant and is also not harassed by plowing. You are to plow your land with oxen, and not to force other animals to come under the same yoke with them, but to till your land with those beasts that are of the same kind with each other. The seeds are also to be pure, and without mixture, and not to be compounded of two or three sorts, since nature does not rejoice in the union of things that are not in their own nature alike; nor are you to permit beasts of different kinds to gender together, for there is reason to fear that this unnatural abuse may extend from beasts of different kinds to men, though it takes its first rise from evil practices about such smaller things. Nor is anything to be allowed, by imitation whereof any degree of subversion may creep into the constitution. Nor do the laws neglect small matters but provide that even those may be managed in an unblameable manner.

21. Do not let those that reap, and gather in the corn that is reaped, gather in the gleanings also; but let them rather leave some handfuls for those that are in need of the necessities of life, that it may be a support and a supply to them, in order to [provide] their sustenance. In like manner, when they gather their grapes, let them leave some smaller bunches for the poor, and let them pass over some of the fruits of the olive-trees, when they gather them, and leave them to be partaken of by those that have none of their own; for the advantage arising from the exact collection of all, will not be so considerable to the owners as will arise from the gratitude of the poor. And God will provide that the land will more willingly produce what will be for the nourishment of its fruits, in the event that you do not merely take care of your own advantage but have regard for the support of others also. Nor are you to muzzle the mouths of the oxen when they tread the ears of corn in the threshing-floor—for it is not just to restrain our fellow-laboring animals, and those that work for its production—from this fruit of their labors. Nor are you to prohibit those that pass by at the time when your fruits are ripe to touch them, but to give them permission to fill themselves full of what you have; and this whether they are of your own country or strangers—as being glad of the opportunity of giving them some part of your fruits when they are ripe; but let it not be considered lawful for them to carry any away. Nor let those that gather the grapes, and carry them to the winepresses, restrain those whom they meet from eating of them; for it is unjust, out of envy, to hinder those that desire it, to partake of the good things that come into the world according to God’s will, and this while the season is at the height, and is hastening away as it pleases God. No, if some, out of bashfulness, are unwilling to touch these fruits, let them be encouraged to take of them (I mean, those that are Israelites) as if they were themselves the owners and lords, on account of the relation there is between them. Indeed, let them desire men that come from other countries to partake of these tokens of friendship which God has given in their proper season; for that is not to be deemed as idly spent, which anyone out of kindness communicates to another, since God bestows plenty of good things on men, not only for themselves to reap the advantage, but also to give to others in a way of generosity; and He is desirous, by this means, to make known to others His special kindness toward the people of Israel, and how freely He communicates happiness to them, while they abundantly communicate out of their great surplus to even these foreigners also. But for him that acts contrary to this law, let him be beaten with forty stripes minus one by the public executioner; let him undergo this punishment, which is a most disgraceful one for a freeman, and this because he was such a slave to gain as to lay a blot on his dignity; for it is proper for you who have had the experience of the afflictions in Egypt, and of those in the wilderness, to make provision for those that are in the like circumstances; and while you have now obtained plenty yourselves, through the mercy and providence of God, to distribute of the same plenty, by the same sympathy, to such as stand in need of it.

22. Besides those two tithes which I have already said you are to pay every year, the one for the Levites, the other for the festivals, you are to bring every third year a third tithe to be distributed to those that have need: to women also that are widows, and to children that are orphans. But as for the ripe fruits, let them carry that which is ripe first of all into the temple; and when they have blessed God for that land which bore them, and which He had given them for a possession, when they have also offered those sacrifices which the Law has commanded them to bring, let them give the first-fruits to the priests. But when anyone has done this, and has brought the tithe of all that he has, together with those first-fruits that are for the Levites, and for the festivals, and when he is about to go home, let him stand before the holy house, and return thanks to God, that He has delivered them from the harmful treatment they had in Egypt, and has given them a good and large land, and lets them enjoy the fruits thereof; and when he has openly testified that he has fully paid the tithes according to the laws of Moses, let him request that God will be ever merciful and gracious to him, and continue to be so to all the Hebrews, both by preserving the good things which He has already given them, and by adding what it is still in His power to bestow on them.

23. Let the Hebrews marry, at the age right for it, virgins that are free and born of good parents. And he that does not marry a virgin, let him not corrupt another man’s wife, and marry her, nor grieve her former husband. Nor let free men marry slaves, although their affections should strongly bias any of them to do so; for it is decent, and for the dignity of the persons themselves, to govern those affections of theirs. And further, no one ought to marry a harlot, whose matrimonial oblations, arising from the prostitution of her body, God will not receive; for by these means the dispositions of the children will be liberal and virtuous; I mean, when they are not born of base parents, and of the lustful conjunction of such as marry women that are not free. If anyone has been espoused to a woman as to a virgin, and does not afterward find her to be so, let him bring his action, and accuse her, and let him make use of such indications to prove his accusation as he is furnished additionally; and let the father or the brother of the girl, or someone that is after them nearest of relation to her, defend her. If the girl obtains a sentence in her favor, that she had not been guilty, let her live with her husband that accused her; and let him not have any further power at all to put her away, unless she gives him very great occasions of suspicion, and such as can be in no way contradicted. But for him that brings an accusation and defamation against his wife in an impudent and rash manner, let him be punished by receiving forty stripes minus one, and let him pay fifty shekels to her father: but if the girl is convicted, as having been corrupted, and is one of the common people, let her be stoned, because she did not preserve her virginity until she was lawfully married; but if she was the daughter of a priest, let her be burnt alive. If anyone has two wives, and if he greatly respects and is kind to one of them, either out of his affection for her, or for her beauty, or for some other reason, while the other is of less esteem with him; and if the son of her that is beloved is the younger by birth than another born of the other wife, but endeavors to obtain the right of firstborn from his father’s kindness to his mother, and would thereby obtain a double portion of his father’s possessions, for that double portion is what I have allotted him in the laws—do not let this be permitted; for it is unjust that he who is the elder by birth should be deprived of what is due to him, on the father’s disposition of his estate, because his mother was not equally regarded by him. He that has corrupted a girl espoused to another man, if he had her consent, let both him and her be put to death, for they are both equally guilty; the man, because he persuaded the woman willingly to submit to a most impure action, and to prefer it to lawful wedlock; the woman, because she was persuaded to yield herself to be corrupted, either for pleasure or for gain. However, if a man comes to a woman when she is alone and forces her where nobody was present to come to her assistance, let him be put to death alone. Let him that has corrupted a virgin not yet espoused marry her; but if the father of the girl is not willing that she should be his wife, let him pay fifty shekels as the price of her prostitution. He that desires to be divorced from his wife for any cause whatsoever (and many such causes happen among men), let him give assurance in writing that he will never use her as his wife anymore; for by this means she may be at liberty to marry another husband, although before this bill of divorce is given, she is not to be permitted to do so: but if she is misused by him also, or if, when he is dead, her first husband would marry her again, it will not be lawful for her to return to him. If a woman’s husband dies and leaves her without children, let his brother marry her, and let him call the son that is born to him by his brother’s name and educate him as the heir of his inheritance, for this procedure will be for the benefit of the public, because thereby families will not fail, and the estate will continue among the relatives; and this will be for the solace of wives under their affliction, that they are to be married to the next relation of their former husbands. But if the brother will not marry her, let the woman come before the senate and protest openly that this brother will not admit her for his wife, but will injure the memory of his deceased brother while she is willing to continue in the family and to bear him children. And when the senate has inquired of him for what reason it is that he is averse to this marriage, whether he gives a bad or a good reason, the matter must come to this: that the woman will untie the sandals of the brother, and will spit in his face, and say, “He deserves this reproachful treatment from her, as having injured the memory of the deceased.” And then let him go away out of the senate and bear this reproach on him all his life long; and let her marry to whomever she pleases, of such as seek her in marriage. But now, if any man takes captive either a virgin or one that has been married, and has a mind to marry her, let him not be allowed to bring her to bed with him, or to live with her as his wife, before she has her head shaven, and has put on her mourning attire, and lamented her relations and friends that were slain in the battle, that by this means she may vent her sorrow for them, and after that may commit herself to feasting and matrimony; for it is good for him that takes a woman, in order to have children by her, to be agreeable to her inclinations, and not merely to pursue his own pleasure while he has no regard for what is agreeable to her. But when thirty days are past as the time of mourning—for so many are sufficient for prudent persons for lamenting the dearest friends—then let them proceed to the marriage; but if when he has satisfied his lust, he is too proud to retain her for his wife, let him not have it in his power to make her a slave, but let her go away where she pleases and have that privilege of a free woman.

24. As for those young men that despise their parents, and do not pay them honor, but offer them insults, either because they are ashamed of them or think themselves wiser than they—in the first place, let their parents admonish them in words (for they are by nature of authority sufficient for becoming their judges), and let them say thus to them: that they lived together, not for the sake of pleasure, nor for the increase of their riches, by joining both their stocks together, but that they might have children to take care of them in their old age and might by them have what they then should need. And say further to him, “When you were born, we took you up with gladness, and gave God the greatest thanks for you, and brought you up with great care, and spared nothing that appeared useful for your preservation and for your instruction in what was most excellent. And now, since it is reasonable to forgive the sins of those that are young, let it be sufficient to you to have [already] given so many indications of your contempt of us; reform yourself and act more wisely for the time to come, considering that God is displeased with those that are insolent toward their parents, because He is Himself the Father of the whole race of mankind and seems to bear part of that dishonor which falls on those that have the same name when they do not meet with due returns from their children. And on such the Law inflicts inescapable punishment; of which punishment may you never have the experience.” Now if the insolence of young men is thus cured, let them escape the reproach which their former errors deserved; for by this means the lawgiver will appear to be good, and parents blessed, while they never behold either a son or a daughter brought to punishment. But if it happens that these words and instructions, conveyed by them in order to reclaim the man, appear to be useless, then the offender renders the laws implacable enemies to the insolence he has offered his parents; let him therefore be brought forth by these very parents out of the city, with a multitude following him, and let him be stoned there; and when he has continued there for one whole day, that all the people may see him, let him be buried in the night. And thus, it is that we bury all whom the laws condemn to die, on any account whatsoever. Let our enemies that fall in battle also be buried, nor let any dead body lie above the ground, or suffer a punishment beyond what justice requires.

25. Let no one lend to any one of the Hebrews on usury, neither usury of what is eaten nor what is drunken, for it is not just to take advantage of the misfortunes of one of your own countrymen; but when you have been assistant to his necessities, think it your gain if you obtain their gratitude to you, and additionally that reward which will come to you from God for your humanity toward him.

26. Those who have borrowed either silver or any sort of fruits, whether dry or wet (I mean this, when the Jewish affairs will, by the blessing of God, be to their own mind), let the borrowers bring them again, and restore them with pleasure to those who lent them, laying them up, as it were, in their own treasuries, and justly expecting to receive them from there, if they will want them again. But if they are without shame, and do not restore it, do not let the lender go to the borrower’s house and take a pledge himself before judgment is given concerning it; but let him require the pledge, and let the debtor bring it of himself, without the least opposition to him that comes to him under the protection of the Law. And if he that gave the pledge is rich, let the creditor retain it until what he lent is paid to him again; but if he is poor, let him that takes it return it before the sun goes down, especially if the pledge is a garment, that the debtor may have it for a covering in his sleep, God Himself naturally showing mercy to the poor. It is also not lawful to take a millstone, nor any utensil belonging to that, for a pledge, so that the debtor may not be deprived of instruments to get their food, and lest they are undone by their necessity.

27. Let death be the punishment for stealing a man; but he that has stolen gold or silver, let him pay double. If anyone kills a man that is stealing something out of his house, let him be considered guiltless, although the man was only breaking in at the wall. Let him that has stolen cattle pay fourfold what is lost, excepting the case of an ox, for which let the thief pay fivefold. Let him that is so poor that he cannot pay what fine is laid on him be [the] servant of him to whom he was judged to pay it.

28. If anyone is sold to one of his own nation, let him serve him six years, and in the seventh let him go free. But if he has a son by a female servant in his purchaser’s house, and if, on account of his goodwill to his master, and his natural affection to his wife and children, he will remain his servant still, let him be set free only at the coming of the year of jubilee, which is the fiftieth year, and let him then take away with him his children and wife, and let them also be free.

29. If anyone finds gold or silver on the road, let him inquire after him that lost it, and make proclamation of the place where he found it, and then restore it to him again, as not thinking it right to make his own profit by the loss of another. And the same rule is to be observed in cattle found to have wandered away into a lonely place. If the owner is not presently discovered, let him that is the finder keep it with himself and appeal to God that he has not stolen what belongs to another.

30. It is not lawful to ignore any beast that is in distress, when in a storm it has fallen down in the mire, but [rather he must] endeavor to preserve it, as having sympathy with it in its pain.

31. It is also a duty to show the roads to those who do not know them, and not to consider it a matter for sport, when we hinder others’ advantages by setting them on [the] wrong way.

32. In like manner, let no one revile a person [who is] blind or dumb.

33. If men strive together, and there is no instrument of iron, let him that is stricken be avenged immediately by inflicting the same punishment on him that struck him: but if when he is carried home he lies sick many days and then dies, let him that struck him not escape punishment; but if he that is stricken escapes death, and yet is at great expense for his cure, the striker will pay for all that has been expended during the time of his sickness, and for all that he has paid the physician. He that kicks a woman with child, so that the woman miscarries, let him pay a fine in money, as the judges will determine, as having diminished the multitude by the destruction of what was in her womb; and let money also be given [to] the woman’s husband by him that kicked her; but if she dies of the stroke, let him also be put to death, the Law judging it equitable that life should go for life.

34. Let no one of the Israelites keep any poison that may cause death, or any other harm; but if he is caught with it, let him be put to death and suffer the very same mischief that he would have brought on them for whom the poison was prepared.

35. He that maims anyone, let him undergo the same himself and be deprived of the same member of which he has deprived the other, unless he that is maimed will accept money instead of it, for the Law makes the sufferer the judge of the value of what he has suffered and permits him to estimate it, unless he will be more severe.

36. Let him that is the owner of an ox which pushes with his horn, kill him: but if he pushes and gores anyone in the threshing-floor, let him be put to death by stoning, and let him not be thought fit for food; but if his owner is convicted as having known what his nature was, and has not confined him, let him also be put to death, as being the cause of the ox’s having killed a man. But if the ox has killed a manservant or a maidservant, let him be stoned; and let the owner of the ox pay thirty shekels to the master of him that was slain; but if it is an ox that is thus stricken and killed, let both the oxen—that which struck the other and that which was killed—be sold, and let the owners of them divide their price between them.

37. Let those that dig a well or a pit be careful to lay planks over them, and so keep them shut up, not in order to hinder any persons from drawing water, but that there may be no danger of falling into them. But if anyone’s beast falls into such a well or pit thus dug and not closed up, and perishes, let the owner pay its price to the owner of the beast. Let there be a parapet around the tops of your houses instead of [merely] a wall, so that [you] may prevent any persons from rolling down and perishing.

38. Let him that has received anything in trust for another, take care to keep it as a sacred and divine thing; and let no one invent any contrivance whereby to deprive him that has entrusted it with him of the same, and this whether he is a man or a woman; indeed, not though he or she were to gain an immense sum of gold, and this where he cannot be convicted of it by anybody; for it is right that a man’s own conscience, which knows what he has, should in all cases compel him to do well. Let this conscience be his witness, and make him always act so as may procure him commendation from others; but let him chiefly have regard for God, from whom no wicked man can hide: but if he in whom the trust was reposed, without any deceit of his own, loses what he was entrusted additionally, let him come before the seven judges, and swear by God that nothing has been lost willingly or with a wicked intention, and that he has not made use of any part thereof, and so let him depart without blame; but if he has made use of the least part of what was committed to him, and it is lost, let him be condemned to repay all that he had received. It is to be in the same manner as in these trusts if anyone defrauds those that undergo bodily labor for him. And let it always be remembered that we are not to defraud a poor man of his wages, as being sensible that God has allotted these wages to him instead of land and other possessions; no, this payment is not at all to be delayed, but to be made that very day, since God is not willing to deprive the laborer of the immediate use of what he has labored for.

39. You are not to punish children for the faults of their parents, but rather on account of their own virtue to grant them consolation, because they were born of wicked parents, rather than hatred, because they were born of bad ones. Nor indeed ought we to impute the sin of children to their fathers, while young persons indulge themselves in many practices different from what they have been instructed in, and this by their proud refusal of such instruction.

40. Let those that have [willingly] made themselves eunuchs be thought detestable; and avoid any conversation with them who have deprived themselves of their manhood, and of that fruit of generation which God has given to men for the increase of their kind: let such be driven away, as if they had killed their children, since they beforehand have lost what should procure them; for it is evident that while their soul has become effeminate, they have additionally transfused that effeminacy to their body also. You treat all that is of a monstrous nature in like manner when it is looked on; nor is it lawful to castrate men or any other animals.

41. Let this be the constitution of your political laws in time of peace, and God will be so merciful as to preserve this excellent settlement free from disturbance: and may that time never come which may innovate anything and change it for the contrary. But since it must necessarily happen that mankind falls into troubles and dangers, either inadvertently or intentionally, come let us make a few constitutions concerning them, that being so apprised beforehand of what ought to be done, you may have useful counsels ready when you want them, and may not then be obligated to go to seek what is to be done, and so be unprovided for, and fall into dangerous circumstances. May you be a laborious people, and exercise your souls in virtuous actions, and thereby possess and inherit the land without wars; while neither any foreigners make war on it, and so afflict you, nor any internal sedition seize it, whereby you may do things that are contrary to your fathers, and so lose the laws which they have established. And may you continue in the observation of those laws which God has approved of and has delivered to you. Let all sort of military operations—whether they happen to you now in your own time, or hereafter in the times of your posterity—be done out of your own borders: but when you are about to go to war, send envoys and heralds to those who are your voluntary enemies, for it is a right thing to make use of words to them before you come to your weapons of war; and assure them thereby, that although you have a numerous army, with horses and weapons, and, above these, a God merciful to you and ready to assist you, you do however desire them not to compel you to fight against them, nor to take from them what they have, which will indeed be our gain, but what they will have no reason to wish we should take to ourselves. And if they listen to you, it will be proper for you to keep peace with them; but if they trust in their own strength, as superior to yours, and will not do you justice, lead your army against them, making use of God as your supreme Commander, but ordaining for a lieutenant under Him one that is of the greatest courage among you; for these different commanders, besides their being an obstacle to actions that are to be done expeditiously, are a disadvantage to those that make use of them. Lead an army pure, and of chosen men, composed of all such as have extraordinary strength of body and hardiness of soul; but send away the timid part, lest they run away in the time of action and so provide an advantage to your enemies. You also give permission to those that have recently built themselves houses and have not yet lived in them a year’s time, and to those that have planted themselves vineyards and have not yet been partakers of their fruits, to continue in their own country, as well as those also who have betrothed or recently married themselves wives, lest they have such an affection for these things that they may be too sparing of their lives, and, by reserving themselves for these enjoyments, they become voluntary cowards on account of their wives.

42. When you have pitched your camp, take care that you do nothing that is cruel. And when you are engaged in a siege and need timber for the making of siege engines, do not render the land naked by cutting down trees that bear fruit, but spare them, as considering that they were made for the benefit of men; and that if they could speak, they would have a just plea against you, because, though they are not occasions of the war, they are unjustly treated, and suffer in it, and would, if they were able, remove themselves into another land. When you have beaten your enemies in battle, slay those that have fought against you, but preserve the others alive, so that they may pay you tribute, excepting the nation of the Canaanites; for as to that people, you must entirely destroy them.

43. Take care, especially in your battles, that no woman uses the attire of a man, nor man the garment of a woman.

44. This was the form of political government which was left to us by Moses. Moreover, he had already delivered laws in writing in the fortieth year [after they came out of Egypt], concerning which we will discourse in another book. But now on the following days (for he called them to assemble continually), he delivered blessings to them, and curses on those that should not live according to the laws, but should transgress the duties that were determined for them to observe. After this, he read to them a poetic song, which was composed in hexameter verse, and left it to them in the holy book: it contained a prediction of what was to come to pass afterward; agreeably to which all things have happened all along and do still happen to us; and wherein he has not at all deviated from the truth. Accordingly, he delivered these books to the priest, with the Ark; into which he also put the Ten Commandments, written on two tablets. He delivered to them the Tabernacle also, and exhorted the people, that when they had conquered the land and were settled in it, they should not forget the wrongs of the Amalekites, but make war against them, and inflict punishment on them for what mischief they did to them when they were in the wilderness; and that when they had obtained possession of the land of the Canaanites, and when they had destroyed the whole multitude of its inhabitants, as they ought to do, they should erect an altar that should face the rising sun, not far from the city of Shechem, between the two mountains—that of Gerizim, situated on the right hand, and that called Ebal, on the left—and that the army should be so divided, that six tribes should stand on each of the two mountains, and with them the Levites and the priests. And that first, those that were on Mount Gerizim should pray for the best blessings on those who were diligent about the worship of God and the observation of His laws, and who did not reject what Moses had said to them; while the other wished them all manner of happiness also; and when these last put up the same prayers, the former praised them. After this, curses were pronounced on those that should transgress those laws, they, answering one another alternately, by way of confirmation of what had been said. Moses also wrote their blessings and their curses, that they might learn them so thoroughly, that they might never be forgotten by length of time. And when he was ready to die, he wrote these blessings and curses on the altar, on each side of it, where he says the people also stood, and then sacrificed and offered burnt-offerings, though after that day they never offered on it any other sacrifice, for it was not lawful to do so. These are the constitutions of Moses; and the Hebrew nation still lives according to them.

45. On the next day, Moses called the people together, with the women and children, to a congregation, so as the very slaves were present also, that they might engage themselves to the observation of these laws by oath; and that, duly considering the meaning of God in them, they might not, either for favor of their relatives, or out of fear of anyone, or indeed for any motive whatsoever, think anything ought to be preferred to these laws, and so might transgress them. That in case anyone of their own blood, or any city, should attempt to confound or dissolve their constitution of government, they should take vengeance on them, both all in general, and each person in particular; and when they had conquered them, should overturn their city to the very foundations, and, if possible, should not leave the least footsteps of such madness: but that if they were unable to take such vengeance, they should still demonstrate that what was done was contrary to their wills. So the multitude bound themselves by oath to do so.

46. Moses also taught them by what means their sacrifices might be most acceptable to God; and how they should go forth to war, making use of the stones (in the high priest’s breastplate) for their direction, as I have previously signified. Joshua also prophesied while Moses was present. And when Moses had reiterated whatsoever he had done for the preservation of the people, both in their wars and in peace, and had composed them a body of laws, and procured them an excellent form of government, he foretold, as God had declared to him, that if they transgressed that institution for the worship of God, they should experience the following miseries: their land should be full of weapons of war from their enemies, and their cities should be overthrown, and their temple should be burnt that they should be sold for slaves, to such men as would have no pity on them in their afflictions; that they would then convert when that conversion would in no way profit them under their sufferings. “Yet,” he said, “will that God who founded your nation, restore your cities to your citizens, with their temple also; and you will lose these advantages not once only, but often.”

47. Now when Moses had encouraged Joshua to lead out the army against the Canaanites, by telling him that God would assist him in all his undertakings, and had blessed the whole multitude, he said, “Since I am going to my forefathers, and God has determined that this should be the day of my departure to them, I return Him thanks while I am still alive and present with you for that providence He has exercised over you, which has not only delivered us from the miseries we lay under, but has bestowed a state of prosperity on us; as also, that He has assisted me in the burdens I carried, and in all the contrivances I had in my care about you, in order to better your condition, and has on all occasions showed Himself favorable to us; or rather, it was He who first led our affairs, and brought them to a glad conclusion, by making use of me as a vicarious general under Him, and as a minister in those matters wherein He was willing to do you good: on which account I think it proper to bless that Divine Power which will take care of you for the time to come, and this in order to repay that debt which I owe Him, and to leave behind me a memorial that we are obligated to worship and honor Him, and to keep those laws which are the most excellent gift of all those He has already bestowed on us, or which, if He continues favorable toward us, He will bestow on us hereafter. Certainly, a human legislator is a terrible enemy when his laws are offended and are made to no purpose. And may you never experience that displeasure of God which will be the consequence of the neglect of these laws of His, which He, who is your Creator, has given you.”

48. When Moses had spoken this at the end of his life and had foretold what would happen to every one of their tribes afterward, with the addition of a blessing to them, the multitude fell into tears, insomuch that even the women, by beating their breasts, made manifest the deep concern they had when he was about to die. The children also lamented still more, as unable to contain their grief, and thereby they declared that even at their age they were sensible of his virtue and mighty deeds; and there truly seemed to be a contention between the young and the old [regarding] who should most grieve for him. The old grieved because they knew what a careful protector they were to be deprived of, and so lamented their future state; but the young grieved, not only for that, but also because it so happened that they were to be left by him before they had well tasted of his virtue. Now one may make a guess at the excess of this sorrow and lamentation of the multitude, from what happened to the legislator himself; for although he was always persuaded that he ought not to be downcast at the approach of death (since the undergoing was agreeable to the will of God and the law of nature), yet what the people did so weighed on him that he wept himself. Now as he went from there to the place where he was to vanish out of their sight, they all followed after him weeping; but Moses beckoned with his hand to those that were distant from him, and commanded them to stay behind in quiet, while he exhorted those that were near to him that they would not render his departure so lamentable; whereon, they thought they ought to grant him that favor, to let him depart according as he himself desired; so they restrained themselves, though weeping still toward one another. All those who accompanied him were the senate, and Eleazar the high priest, and Joshua their commander. Now as soon as they had come to the mountain called Abarim (which is a very high mountain situated near Jericho, and one that provides to such as are on it a prospect of the greatest part of the excellent land of Canaan), he dismissed the senate; and as he was going to embrace Eleazar and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud suddenly stood over him, and he disappeared in a certain valley, although he wrote in the holy books that he died, which was done out of fear, lest they should venture to say that, because of his extraordinary virtue, he went to God.

49. Now Moses lived in all one hundred and twenty years; a third part of which time, less one month, he was the people’s ruler; and he died on the last month of the year, which is called by the Macedonians Dystrus, but by us Adar, on the first day of the month. He was one that exceeded all men that ever were in understanding and made the best use of what that understanding suggested to him. He had a very graceful way of speaking and addressing himself to the multitude; and as to his other qualifications, he had such a full command of his passions, as if he hardly had any such in his soul, and only knew them by their names, as rather perceiving them in other men than in himself. He was also such a general of an army as is seldom seen, as well as such a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree, that whatsoever he pronounced, you would think you heard the voice of God Himself. So the people mourned for him thirty days: nor did any grief ever so deeply affect the Hebrews as did this on the death of Moses; nor were those that had experienced his conduct the only persons that desired him, but also those that perused the laws he left behind him had a strong desire after him, and by them gathered the extraordinary virtue he was master of. And this will suffice for the declaration of the manner of the death of Moses.

BOOK V

Containing the Interval of Four Hundred and Seventy-Six Years. From the Death of Moses to the Death of Eli.

CHAPTER 1

How Joshua, the Commander of the Hebrews, Made War with the Canaanites, and Overcame Them, and Destroyed Them, and Divided Their Land by Lot to the Tribes of Israel.

1. When Moses was taken away from among men in the manner already described, and when all the ceremonies of mourning for him were finished, and the sorrow for him was over, Joshua commanded the multitude to get themselves ready for an expedition. He also sent spies to Jericho to discover what forces they had and what their intentions were; but he put his camp in order, as intending soon to pass over Jordan at a proper season. And calling to himself the rulers of the tribe of Reuben, and the governors of the tribe of Gad, and [the half tribe of] Manasseh (for half of this tribe had been permitted to have their habitation in the country of the Amorites, which was the seventh part of the land of Canaan), he reminded them of what they had promised Moses; and he exhorted them that, for the sake of the care that Moses had taken of them, who had never been weary of bearing burdens for them—no, not [even] when he was dying, and for the sake of the public welfare, they should prepare themselves and readily perform what they had promised; so he took fifty thousand of them who followed him, and he marched from Abila to Jordan—sixty stadia.

2. Now when he had pitched his camp, the spies immediately came to him, well-acquainted with the whole state of the Canaanites; for at first, before they were at all discovered, they took a full view of the city of Jericho without disturbance, and they saw which parts of the walls were strong and which parts were otherwise, and indeed insecure, and which of the gates were so weak as might provide an entrance to their army. Now those that met them took no notice of them when they saw them, and they supposed they were only strangers who used to be very curious in observing everything in the city, and did not take them for enemies; but in [the] evening they retired to a certain inn that was near to the wall, where they went to eat their supper; which supper, when they had finished and were considering how to get away, information was given to the king as he [himself] was at supper, that there were some persons having come from the Hebrews’ camp to view the city as spies, and that they were in the inn kept by Rahab, and were very attentive that they might not be discovered. So he immediately sent some to them and commanded [them] to catch them and bring them to him so that he might examine them by torture and learn what their business was there. As soon as Rahab understood that these messengers were coming, she hid the spies under stalks of flax, which were laid to dry on the top of her house; and she said to the messengers that were sent by the king that certain unknown strangers had dined with her shortly before sunset and had gone away, who might easily be taken, if they were any terror to the city, or likely to bring any danger to the king. So these messengers being thus deceived by the woman and suspecting no imposition, went their ways, without so much as searching the inn; but they immediately pursued them along those roads which they most probably supposed them to have gone, and those particularly which led to the river, but could hear no reports of them; so they abandoned the labor of any further pursuit. But when the tumult was over, Rahab brought the men down, and desired them as soon as they should have obtained possession of the land of Canaan, when it would be in their power to make her amends for her preservation of them, to remember what danger she had undergone for their sakes; for if she had been caught concealing them, she could not have escaped a terrible destruction—she and all her family with her—and so commanded them to go home; and she desired them to swear to her to preserve her and her family when they should take the city and destroy all its inhabitants as they had decreed to do; for so far she said she had been assured [of this] by those Divine miracles of which she had been informed. So these spies acknowledged that they owed her thanks for what she had already done and additionally swore to repay her kindness, not only in words, but in deeds. But they gave her this advice: that when she should perceive that the city was about to be taken, she should put her goods, and all her family, by way of security, in her inn, and to hang out scarlet threads before her doors [[or windows]], that the commander of the Hebrews might know her house and take care to do her no harm; “for,” they said, “we will inform him of this matter, because of the concern you have had to preserve us: but if anyone of your family falls in the battle, do not blame us; and we implore that God, by whom we have sworn, not then to be displeased with us, as though we had broken our oaths.” So these men, when they had made this agreement, went away, letting themselves down by a rope from the wall, and escaped, and came and told their own people whatever they had done in their journey to this city. Joshua also told Eleazar the high priest and the senate what the spies had sworn to Rahab, who continued what had been sworn.

3. Now while Joshua, the commander, was in fear about their passing over Jordan—for the river ran with a strong current and could not be passed over with bridges, for there never had been bridges laid over it thus far, and while he suspected that if he should attempt to make a bridge that their enemies would not provide him time to perfect it, and for ferry-boats they had none—God promised to so dispose of the river that they might pass over it by taking away the main part of its waters. So Joshua, after two days, caused the army and the whole multitude to pass over in the following manner: the priests went first of all, having the Ark with them; then went the Levites bearing the Tabernacle and the vessels which belonged to the sacrifices; after which the entire multitude followed, according to their tribes, having their children and their wives in the midst of them, as being afraid for them, lest they should be carried away by the stream. But as soon as the priests had entered the river first, it appeared fordable—the depth of the water being restrained and the sand appearing at the bottom, because the current was neither so strong nor so swift as to carry it away by its force; so they all passed over the river without fear, finding it to be in the very same state as God had foretold He would put it in; but the priests stood still in the midst of the river until the multitude should have passed over and should get to the shore in safety; and when all had gone over, the priests came out also and permitted the current to run freely as it used to do before. Accordingly, the river, as soon as the Hebrews had come out of it, arose again presently and came to its own proper magnitude as before.

4. So the Hebrews went on a further fifty stadia and pitched their camp at the distance of ten stadia from Jericho; but Joshua built an altar of those stones which all the heads of the tribes, at the command of the prophets, had taken out of the deep, to be a memorial of the division of the stream of this river afterward, and he offered a sacrifice to God on it; and in that place they celebrated the Passover and had great abundance of all the things which they wanted thus far, for they reaped the corn of the Canaanites, which was now ripe, and took other things as prey; for it was then that their former food, which was manna, and of which they had eaten forty years, failed them.

5. Now while the Israelites did this, and the Canaanites did not attack them but kept themselves quiet within their own walls, Joshua resolved to besiege them; so on the first day of the feast [of the Passover], the priests carried the Ark around, with some part of the armed men to be a guard to it. These priests went forward, blowing with their seven trumpets; and they exhorted the army to be of good courage and went around the city, with the senate following them; and when the priests had only blown with the trumpets, for they did nothing more at all, they returned to the camp. And when they had done this for six days, on the seventh [day] Joshua gathered the armed men and all the people together, and he told them these good tidings, that the city should now be taken, since God would on that day give it them by the falling down of the walls, and this of their own accord, and without their labor. However, he commanded them to kill everyone they should capture and not to abstain from the slaughter of their enemies, either for weariness or for pity, and not to fall on the spoil, and be thereby diverted from pursuing their enemies as they ran away, but to destroy all the animals, and to take nothing for their own particular advantage. He also commanded them to bring together all the silver and gold, that it might be set apart as first-fruits to God out of this glorious exploit, as having gotten them from the city they first took; only that they should save Rahab and her relatives alive, because of the oath which the spies had sworn to her.

6. When he had said this and had set his army in order, he brought it against the city: so they went around the city again, the Ark going before them, and the priests encouraging the people to be zealous in the work; and when they had gone around it seven times and had stood still a little while, the wall fell down, while no instruments of war, nor any other force, was applied to it by the Hebrews.

7. So they entered into Jericho and slew all the men that were therein while they were frightened at the surprising overthrow of the walls, and their courage had become useless, and they were unable to defend themselves; so they were slain and their throats cut, some in the streets, and others when caught in their houses; nothing provided them assistance, but they all perished—even the women and the children; and the city was filled with dead bodies, and not one person escaped. They also burnt the whole city and the country around it; but they saved alive Rahab, with her family, who had fled to her inn. And when she was brought to him, Joshua acknowledged to her that they owed her thanks for her preservation of the spies: so, he said he would not appear to be behind her in his support for her; whereon he immediately gave her certain lands and held her in high regard forever afterward.

8. And if any part of the city escaped the fire, he overthrew it from the foundation; and he pronounced a curse against its inhabitants, if anyone should desire to rebuild it—how, on his laying the foundation of the walls, he should be deprived of his eldest son; and on finishing it, he should lose his youngest son. But what happened hereon we will speak of hereafter.

9. Now there was an immense quantity of silver and gold, and besides those, of brass also, that was heaped together outside of the city when it was taken—no one transgressing the decree, nor pocketing [anything] for their own particular advantage—which spoils Joshua delivered to the priests, to be laid up among their treasures. And thus, Jericho perished.

10. But there was one Achar, the son [of Carmi, the son] of Zebediah, of the tribe of Judah, who finding a royal garment woven entirely of gold and a piece of gold that weighed two hundred shekels, and thinking it [to be] a very difficult situation that what spoils he, by enduring some danger, had found, he must give away and offer it to God who stood in no need of it, while he that wanted it must go without it, made a deep ditch in his own tent and laid them up therein, as supposing he should not only be concealed from his fellow soldiers, but from God Himself also.

11. Now the place where Joshua pitched his camp was called Gilgal, which denotes liberty; for since they had now passed over Jordan, they looked on themselves as freed from the miseries which they had undergone from the Egyptians and in the wilderness.

12. Now, a few days after the calamity that happened to Jericho, Joshua sent three thousand armed men to take Ai, a city situated above Jericho; but, on the sight of the people of Ai, with them they were driven back, and lost thirty-six of their men. When this was reported [to] the Israelites, it made them very discouraged and exceedingly disconsolate, not so much because of the relation the men that were destroyed bore to them—though those that were destroyed were all good men and deserved their respect, as by the despair it occasioned—but while they believed that they were already, in effect, in possession of the land and should bring back the army out of the battles without loss, as God had promised beforehand, they now saw their enemies unexpectedly bold with success; so they put sackcloth over their garments, and they continued in tears and lamentation all day long, without the least inquiry after food, but greatly laid what had happened to heart.

13. When Joshua saw the army so greatly afflicted and possessed with forebodings of calamity as to their whole expedition, he used freedom with God, and said, “We have not come this far out of any rashness of our own, as though we thought ourselves able to subdue this land with our own weapons, but at the instigation of Your servant Moses for this purpose, because You have promised us, by many signs, that You would give us this land for a possession, and that You would always make our army superior in war to our enemies, and accordingly, some success has already come to us in agreement with Your promises; but because we have now been unexpectedly thwarted and have lost some men out of our army, we are grieved at it, as fearing what You have promised us, and what Moses foretold us, cannot be depended on by us; and our future expectation troubles us even more, because we have met with such a disaster in this first attempt of ours. But, O Lord, [please] free us from these suspicions, for You are able to find a cure for these disorders, by giving us victory, which will both take away the grief we are in at present and prevent our distrust as to what is to come.”

14. Joshua placed these intercessions before God as he lay prostrate on his face: whereon God answered him, that he should rise up and purify his host from the corruption that had come into it; that “things consecrated to Me have been brazenly stolen from Me”; and that this has been the occasion why this defeat had happened to them; and that when they should search out and punish the offender, He would always take care [that] they should have the victory over their enemies. This Joshua told the people; and calling for Eleazar the high priest and the men in authority, he cast lots, tribe by tribe; and when the lot showed that this wicked action was done by one from the tribe of Judah, he then again proposed the lot to the various families belonging to that [tribe]; so the truth of this wicked action was found to belong to the family of Zachar; and when the inquiry was made man by man, they took Achar, who, on God’s reducing him to a terrible extremity, could not deny the fact: so he confessed the theft, and produced what he had taken in the midst of them, whereon he was immediately put to death; and he attained no more than to be buried in the night in a disgraceful manner, and such as was suitable to a condemned criminal.

15. When Joshua had thus purified the host, he led them against Ai: and having laid an ambush around the city by night, he attacked the enemies as soon as it was day; but as they advanced boldly against the Israelites, because of their former victory, he made them believe he retreated, and by that means drew them a great distance from the city—they still supposing that they were pursuing their enemies, and despised them, as though the case had been the same with that in the former battle—after which Joshua ordered his forces to turn around, and he placed them against their front. He then made the signals agreed on to those that lay in ambush, and so excited them to fight; so, they ran suddenly into the city, the inhabitants being on the walls, indeed, [with] others of them being in perplexity, and coming to see those that were outside the gates. Accordingly, these men took the city and slew all that they met with; but Joshua forced those that came against him to come to a close fight, and defeated them, and made them flee away; and when they were driven toward the city and thought it had not been touched, as soon as they saw it was taken, and perceived [that] it was burnt with their wives and children, they wandered around in the fields in a scattered condition and were unable to defend themselves, because they had none to support them. Now when this calamity had come on the men of Ai, there were a great number of children, and women, and servants, and an immense quantity of other furniture. The Hebrews also took herds of cattle, and a great deal of money, for this was a rich country. So when Joshua came to Gilgal, he divided all these spoils among the soldiers.

16. But the Gibeonites, who inhabited very near to Jerusalem, when they saw what miseries had happened to the inhabitants of Jericho and to those of Ai, and suspected that the same grievous calamity would come as far as themselves, they did not think [it] expedient to ask for mercy from Joshua, for they supposed they should find little mercy from him who made war that he might entirely destroy the nation of the Canaanites; but they invited the people of Chephirah and Kirjath-Jearim, who were their neighbors, to join in alliance with them; and they told them that neither could they themselves avoid the danger they were all in, if the Israelites should prevent them, and seize them: so when they had persuaded them, they resolved to endeavor to escape the forces of the Israelites. Accordingly, on their agreement to what they proposed, they sent ambassadors to Joshua to make a covenant of friendship with him, and those such of the citizens as were best approved of and most capable of doing what was most advantageous to the multitude. Now these ambassadors thought it dangerous to confess themselves to be Canaanites, but thought they might by this contrivance avoid the danger, namely, by saying that they bore no relation to the Canaanites at all, but dwelt at a very great distance from them; and they further said that they came a long way on account of the reputation he had gained for his virtue; and as a mark of the truth of what they said, they showed him the attire they were in, for their clothes were new when they came out, but were greatly worn by the length of time they had undergone [during] their journey; for indeed they took torn garments, on purpose that they might make him believe so. So they stood in the midst of the people and said that they were sent by the people of Gibeon and of the surrounding cities, which were very remote from the land where they now were, to make such a covenant of friendship with them, and this on such conditions as were customary among their forefathers; for when [the Israelites] understood that, by the favor of God and His gift to them, they were to have the possession of the land of Canaan bestowed on them, they said that they were very glad to hear it; and [the Gibeonites] desired to be admitted into the number of their citizens. Thus, these ambassadors spoke; and showing them the marks of their long journey, they implored the Hebrews to make a covenant of friendship with them. Accordingly, Joshua, believing what they said, that they were not of the nation of the Canaanites, entered into friendship with them; and Eleazar the high priest, with the senate, swore to them that they would regard them [as] their friends and associates and would attempt nothing that should be unfair against them, the multitude also assenting to the oaths that were made to them. So these men, having obtained what they desired, by deceiving the Israelites, went home; but when Joshua led his army to the country at the bottom of the mountains of this part of Canaan, he understood that the Gibeonites dwelt not far from Jerusalem and that they were of the stock of the Canaanites; so he sent for their governors and reproached them for the deception they had put on him; but they alleged, on their own behalf, that they had no other way to save themselves but that; and they were therefore forced to have recourse to it. So he called for Eleazar the high priest, and for the senate, who thought it right to make them public servants, that they might not break the oath they had made to them; and they ordained them to be so. And this was the method by which these men found safety and security under the calamity that was ready to overtake them.

17. But the king of Jerusalem took it to heart that the Gibeonites had gone over to Joshua, so he called on the kings of the neighboring nations to join together and make war against them. Now when the Gibeonites saw these kings, which were four, besides the king of Jerusalem, and perceived that they had pitched their camp at a certain fountain not far from their city and were getting ready for the siege of it, they called on Joshua to assist them; for such was their case, as to expect to be destroyed by these Canaanites, but to suppose they should be saved by those that came for the destruction of the Canaanites, because of the covenant of friendship that was between them. Accordingly, Joshua made haste with his whole army to assist them, and marching day and night, in the morning he fell on the enemies as they were going up to the siege; and when he had defeated them, he followed them, and pursued them down the descent of the hills. The place is called Beth-Horon, where he also understood that God assisted him, which He declared by thunder and thunderbolts, as also by the falling of hail larger than usual. Moreover, it happened that the day was lengthened such that the night might not come on too soon and be an obstruction to the zeal of the Hebrews in pursuing their enemies; insomuch that Joshua took the kings, who were hidden in a certain cave at Makkedah, and put them to death. Now, that the day was lengthened at this time and was longer than ordinary is expressed in the books laid up in the temple.

18. These kings which made war with and were ready to fight the Gibeonites, being thus overthrown, Joshua returned again to the mountainous parts of Canaan; and when he had made a great slaughter of the people there and took their prey, he came to the camp at Gilgal. And now there went a great fame abroad among the neighboring people of the courage of the Hebrews; and those that heard what a number of men were destroyed, were greatly frightened at it: so the kings that lived around Mount Lebanon, who were Canaanites, and those Canaanites that dwelt in the plain country, with auxiliaries out of the land of the Philistines, pitched their camp at Beroth, a city of the Upper Galilee, not far from Kedesh, which is itself also a place in Galilee. Now the number of the whole army was three hundred thousand armed footmen, and ten thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand chariots, so that the multitude of the enemies frightened both Joshua himself and the Israelites; and they, instead of being full of hopes of good success, were superstitiously fearful with the great terror with which they were stricken, whereon God reproached them with the fear they were in and asked them whether they desired a greater help than He could provide them; and He promised them that they should overcome their enemies; and He additionally commanded them to make their enemies’ horses useless and to burn their chariots. So Joshua became full of courage on these promises of God and went out suddenly against the enemies; and after five days’ march, he came on them and joined battle with them, and there was a terrible fight, and such a number were slain as could not be believed by those that heard it. He also went on in the pursuit a great distance and destroyed the entire army of the enemies, few only excepted, and all the kings fell in the battle, insomuch that when there lacked men to be killed, Joshua slew their horses, and burnt their chariots, and passed all over their country without opposition, no one daring to meet him in battle; but he still went on, taking their cities by siege and again killing whatever he took.

19. The fifth year was now past, and there was not one of the Canaanites [who] remained any longer, excepting some that had retreated to places of great strength. So Joshua moved his camp to the mountainous country, and placed the Tabernacle in the city of Shiloh, for that seemed a suitable place for it, because of the beauty of its situation, until such time as their affairs would permit them to build a temple; and from there he went to Shechem, together with all the people, and raised an altar where Moses had beforehand directed; then he divided the army, and he placed one half of them on Mount Gerizim and the other half on Mount Ebal, on which mountain the altar was; he also placed the tribe of Levi and the priests there. And when they had sacrificed and pronounced the [blessings and the] curses, and had left them engraved on the altar, they returned to Shiloh.

20. And now Joshua was old, and he saw that the cities of the Canaanites were not to be taken easily, not only because they were situated in such strong places, but because of the strength of the walls themselves, which being built around, the natural strength of the places on which the cities stood seemed capable of repelling their enemies from besieging them and of making those enemies despair of taking them; for when the Canaanites had learned that the Israelites came out of Egypt in order to destroy them, they were busy all that time in making their cities strong. So he gathered the people together to a congregation at Shiloh; and when they, with great zeal and haste, had come there, he showed to them what prosperous successes they had already had and what glorious things had been done—and those such as were worthy of that God who enabled them to do those things, and worthy of the virtue of those laws which they followed. He also took notice that thirty-one of those kings that ventured to battle with them were overcome, and every army, however great it was, that confided in its own power and fought with them, was utterly destroyed, so that not so much as any of their posterity remained. And as for the cities, since some of them were taken, but the others must be taken in length of time by long sieges, both on account of the strength of their walls and of the confidence the inhabitants had in them thereby, he thought it reasonable that those tribes that came along with them from beyond Jordan and had partaken of the dangers they had undergone, being their own relatives, should now be dismissed and sent home, and should have thanks for the pains they had taken together with them. As also, he thought it reasonable that they should send one man out of every tribe, and he such as had the testimony of extraordinary virtue, who should measure the land faithfully, and without any fallacy or deceit should inform them of its real magnitude.

21. Now Joshua, when he had thus spoken to them, found that the multitude approved of his proposal. So he sent men to measure their country, and sent with them some geometricians, who could not easily fail of knowing the truth on account of their skill in that art. He also gave them a charge to estimate the measure of that part of the land that was most fruitful and what was not so good, for such is the nature of the land of Canaan, that one may see large plains, and such as are exceedingly suited to produce fruit, which yet, if they were compared to other parts of the country, might be reckoned exceedingly fruitful; yet, if it is compared with the fields around Jericho, and to those that belong to Jerusalem, will appear to be of no account at all; and although it so happens that these people have but a very little of this sort of land, and that it is, for the main part, also mountainous, yet it does not come behind other parts on account of its exceeding goodness and beauty; for which reason Joshua thought the land for the tribes should be divided by estimation of its goodness, rather than the size of its measure, it often happening that one acre of some sort of land was equivalent to one thousand other acres. Now the men that were sent, which were in number ten, traveled all around, and made an estimation of the land, and in the seventh month came to him to the city of Shiloh, where they had set up the Tabernacle.

22. So, Joshua took both Eleazar and the senate, and with them the heads of the tribes, and distributed the land to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, appointing the dimensions to be according to the size of each tribe. So when he had cast lots, Judah had assigned him by lot the upper part of Judea, reaching as far as Jerusalem, and its breadth extended to the Lake of Sodom. Now in the lot of this tribe there were the cities of Ashkelon and Gaza. The lot of Simeon, which was the second, included that part of Idumea which bordered on Egypt and Arabia. As for the Benjamites, their lot fell such that its length reached from the Jordan River to the sea, but in breadth it was bounded by Jerusalem and Bethel; and this lot was the narrowest of all, by reason of the goodness of the land, for it included Jericho and the city of Jerusalem. The tribe of Ephraim had by lot the land that extended in length from the Jordan River to Gezer; but in breadth as far as from Bethel, until it ended at the Great Plain. The half-tribe of Manasseh had the land from Jordan to the city of Dora; but its breadth was at Beth-Shean, which is now called Scythopolis. And after these was Issachar, which had its limits in length, Mount Carmel and the river, but its limit in breadth was Mount Tabor. The tribe of Zebulon’s lot included the land which lay as far as the Lake of Gennesaret, and that which belonged to Carmel and the sea. The tribe of Asher had that part which was called the Valley, for such it was, and all that part which lays near Sidon. The city [of] Arce belonged to their share, which is also named Actipus. The Naphtalites received the eastern parts, as far as the city of Damascus and the Upper Galilee, to Mount Lebanon, and the fountains of Jordan, which rise out of that mountain; that is, out of that part of it whose limits belong to the neighboring city of Arce. The Danites’ lot included all that part of the valley which respects the sun-setting and was bounded by Azotus and Dora; as also, they had all Jamnia and Gath, from Ekron to that mountain where the tribe of Judah begins.

23. After this manner Joshua divided the six nations that bear the name of the sons of Canaan, with their land, to be possessed by the nine tribes and a half; for Moses had prevented him, and had already distributed the land of the Amorites—which itself was also so called from one of the sons of Canaan—to the two tribes and a half, as we have shown already. But the parts around Sidon, as also those that belonged to the Arkites, and the Amathites, and the Aradians, were not yet regularly disposed of.

24. But now Joshua was hindered by his age from executing what he intended to do (as also those that succeeded him in the government, taking little care of what was for the advantage of the public); so he gave it in charge to every tribe to leave no remainder of the race of the Canaanites in the land that had been divided to them by lot, that Moses had assured them beforehand, that they might rest fully satisfied concerning it, that their own security and their observation of their own laws depended wholly on it. Moreover, he commanded them to give thirty-eight cities to the Levites, for they had already received ten in the country of the Amorites; and three of these he assigned to those that fled from the manslayers, who were to inhabit there; for he was very attentive that nothing should be neglected which Moses had ordained. These cities were, of the tribe of Judah, Hebron; of that of Ephraim, Shechem; and of that of Naphtali, Kedesh, which is a place of the Upper Galilee. He also distributed among them the rest of the spoil not yet distributed, which was very great; whereby they had an affluence of great riches, both all in general, and everyone in particular—and this of gold, and of vestments, and of other furniture, besides a multitude of cattle, whose number could not be told.

25. After this was over, he gathered the army together to a congregation and spoke thus to those tribes that had their settlement in the land of the Amorites beyond Jordan, for fifty thousand of them had armed themselves and had gone to the war along with them: “Since that God, who is the Father and Lord of the Hebrew nation, has now given us this land for a possession and promised to preserve us in the enjoyment of it as our own forever; and since you have with eagerness offered yourselves to assist us when we needed that assistance on all occasions; according to His command, it is but just, now [that] all our difficulties are over, that you should be permitted to enjoy rest, and that we should trespass on your eagerness to help us no longer; so that, if we should again stand in need of it, we may readily have it on any future emergency, and not tire you out so much now as may make you slower in assisting us another time. We, therefore, return you our thanks for the dangers you have undergone with us, and we do it not at this time only, but we will always be thus inclined; and be so good as to remember our friends, and to preserve in mind what advantages we have had from them; and how you have put off the enjoyments of your own happiness for our sakes, and have labored for what we have now, by the goodwill of God, obtained, and resolved not to enjoy your own prosperity until you had provided us that assistance. However, you have, by joining your labor with ours, obtained great plenty of riches, and will carry home with you much spoil, with gold and silver, and, what is more than all these—our goodwill toward you, and a mind willingly inclined to make a payment for your kindness to us, in whatever circumstance you will desire it, for you have not omitted anything which Moses beforehand required of you, nor have you despised him because he was dead and gone from you, so that there is nothing to diminish that gratitude which we owe to you. We therefore dismiss you joyful to your own inheritances; and we implore you to suppose that there is no limit to be set to the intimate relation that is between us; and that you will not imagine, because this river is interposed between us, that you are of a different race from us, and not Hebrews; for we are all the posterity of Abraham, both we that inhabit here, and you that inhabit there; and it is the same God that brought our forefathers and yours into the world, whose worship and form of government we are to take care of, which He has ordained, and are most carefully to observe; because while you continue in those laws, God will also show Himself merciful and assisting toward you; but if you imitate the other nations, and forsake those laws, He will reject your nation.” When Joshua had spoken thus, and saluted them all, both those in authority one by one, and the whole multitude in common, he himself stayed where he was; but the people lead those tribes on their journey, and that not without tears in their eyes; and indeed, they hardly knew how to part from one another.

26. Now when the tribe of Reuben, and that of Gad, and as many of the Manassites as followed them, had passed over the river, they built an altar on the banks of Jordan, as a monument to posterity, and a sign of their relation to those that should inhabit on the other side. But when those on the other side heard that those who had been dismissed had built an altar, but did not hear with what intention they built it, but supposed it to be by way of innovation, and for the introduction of strange gods, they did not incline to disbelieve it; but thinking this defamatory report, as if it were built for divine worship, was credible, they appeared in arms, as though they would avenge themselves on those that built the altar; and they were about to pass over the river and to punish them for their subversion of the laws of their country, for they did not think it right to regard them on account of their relations or the dignity of those that had given the occasion, but to regard the will of God, and the manner wherein He desired to be worshiped; so these men put themselves in array for war. But Joshua, and Eleazar the high priest, and the senate, restrained them; and they persuaded them to first make trial by words of their intention, and afterward, if they found that their intention was evil, only then to proceed to make war on them. Accordingly, they sent as ambassadors to them Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, and ten more persons that were approved among the Hebrews, to learn of them what was in their mind, when, on passing over the river, they had built an altar on its banks. And as soon as these ambassadors had passed over, and had come to them, and a congregation was assembled, Phinehas stood up and said that the offense they had been guilty of was of too heinous a nature to be punished by mere words, or by them only to be amended for the future; yet that they did not so look at the heinousness of their transgression as to have recourse to arms, and to a battle for their punishment immediately, but that, on account of their relations, and the probability there was that they might be reclaimed, they took this method of sending an envoy to them: “That when we have learned the true reasons by which you have been moved to build this altar, we may neither seem to have been too rash in assaulting you by our weapons of war, if it is proved that you made the altar for justifiable reasons, and may then justly punish you if the accusation proves true; for we can hardly suppose that you who have been acquainted with the will of God and have been hearers of those laws which He Himself has given us, now [that] you are separated from us and have gone to that birthright of yours, which you, through the grace of God, and that providence which He exercises over you, have obtained by lot, can forget Him, and can leave that ark and that altar which is unique to us, and can introduce strange gods, and imitate the wicked practices of the Canaanites. Now this will appear to have been a small crime if you convert now and proceed no further in your madness, but pay a due reverence to, and keep in mind the laws of your country; but if you persist in your sins, we will not grudge our pains to preserve our laws; but we will pass over Jordan and defend them, and defend God also, and will regard you as men [in] no way differing from the Canaanites, but will destroy you in the same manner as we destroyed them; for do not imagine that, because you have gotten over the river, you have gotten out of the reach of God’s power; you are everywhere in places that belong to Him, and it is impossible to outrun His power and the punishment He will bring on men thereby: but if you think that your settlement here will be any obstruction to your conversion to what is good, nothing need hinder us from dividing the land anew, and leaving this old land to be for the feeding of sheep; but you will do well to return to your duty and to abandon these new crimes; and we implore you, by your children and wives, not to force us to punish you. Therefore, take such measures in this assembly as supposing your own safety, and the safety of those that are dearest to you, is therein concerned, and believe that it is better for you to be conquered by words, than to continue in your purpose and to therefore experience deeds and war.”

27. When Phinehas had discoursed thus, the governors of the assembly and the whole multitude began to make an apology for themselves, concerning what they were accused of; and they said that they neither would depart from the relation they bore to them, nor had they built the altar by way of innovation; that they owned one and the same common God with all the Hebrews, and that brazen altar which was before the Tabernacle, on which they would offer their sacrifices; that as to the altar they had raised, on account of which they were thus suspected, it was not built for worship, “but that it might be a sign and a monument of our relation to you forever, and a necessary caution to us to act wisely, and to continue in the laws of our country, but not a handle for transgressing them, as you suspect: and let God be our authentic witness, that this was the occasion of our building this altar, from which we beg [that] you will have a better opinion of us and not impute such a thing to us as would render any of the posterity of Abraham well worthy of perdition, in case they attempt to bring in new rites, and such as are different from our usual practices.”

28. When they had made this answer, and Phinehas had commended them for it, he came to Joshua and explained before the people what answer they had received. Now Joshua was glad that he was under no necessity of setting them in array, or of leading them to shed blood and make war against men of their own relations; and accordingly, he offered sacrifices of thanksgiving to God for the same. So after that, Joshua dissolved this great assembly of the people and sent them to their own inheritances while he himself lived in Shechem. But in the twentieth year after this, when he was very old, he sent for those of the greatest dignity in the various cities, with those in authority, and the senate, and as many of the common people as could be present; and when they had come, he reminded them of all the benefits God had bestowed on them, which could not but be a great many, since from a low estate they were advanced to such a great degree of glory and plenty; and he exhorted them to take notice of the intentions of God, which had been so gracious toward them; and he told them that the Deity would continue [as] their friend by nothing else but their piety; and that it was proper for him, now that he was about to depart out of this life, to leave such an admonition to them; and he desired that they would keep in memory this exhortation of his to them.

29. So Joshua, when he had thus discoursed to them, died, having lived one hundred and ten years; forty of which he lived with Moses, in order to learn what might be for his advantage afterward. He also became their commander after his death for twenty-five years. He was a man that lacked neither wisdom nor eloquence to declare his intentions to the people, but [was] very eminent on both accounts. He was of great courage and magnanimity in action and in dangers, and very wise in procuring the peace of the people, and of great virtue at all proper seasons. He was buried in the city of Timnath, of the tribe of Ephraim. About the same time, Eleazar the high priest died, leaving the high priesthood to his son Phinehas. His monument also, and tomb, are in the city of Gabatha.

CHAPTER 2

How, after the Death of Their Commander Joshua, the Israelites Transgressed the Laws of Their Country and Experienced Great Afflictions; And When a Sedition Had Arisen, the Tribe of Benjamin Was Destroyed Excepting Only Six Hundred Men.

1. After the death of Joshua and Eleazar, Phinehas prophesied that according to God’s will they should commit the government to the tribe of Judah, and that this tribe should destroy the race of the Canaanites; for then the people were concerned to learn what the will of God was. They also took to their assistance the tribe of Simeon, but on this condition: that when those that had been tributary to the tribe of Judah should be slain, they should do the same for the tribe of Simeon.

2. But the affairs of the Canaanites were at this time in a flourishing condition, and they expected the Israelites with a great army at the city [of] Bezek, having put the government into the hands of Adonibezek, which name denotes the Lord of Bezek, for Adoni in the Hebrew tongue signifies Lord. Now they hoped to have been too difficult for the Israelites, because Joshua was dead; but when the Israelites had joined battle with them—I mean the two aforementioned tribes—they fought gloriously, and slew above ten thousand of them, and put the rest to flight; and in the pursuit they took Adonibezek, who, when his fingers and toes were cut off by them, said, “No, indeed, I was not always to lie concealed from God, as I find by what I now endure, while I have not been ashamed to do the same to seventy-two kings.” So they carried him alive as far as Jerusalem; and when he was dead, they buried him in the earth and continued capturing the cities: and when they had taken the greatest part of them, they besieged Jerusalem; and when they had taken the lower city, which was not a short time, they slew all the inhabitants; but the upper city was not to be taken without great difficulty, through the strength of its walls and the nature of the place.

3. For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were until then left the race of giants who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, different from any credible relations of other men. Now they gave this city to the Levites as an extraordinary reward, with the suburbs of two thousand cubits; but the land belonging to that they gave as a free gift to Caleb, according to the commands of Moses. This Caleb was one of the spies which Moses sent into the land of Canaan. They also gave land for habitation to the posterity of Jethro, the Midianite, who was the father-in-law to Moses, for they had left their own country, and followed them, and accompanied them in the wilderness.

4. Now the tribes of Judah and Simeon took the cities which were in the mountainous part of Canaan, as also Ashkelon and Ashdod, of those that lay near the sea; but Gaza and Ekron escaped them, for they, lying in a flat country, and having a great number of chariots, greatly vexed those that attacked them. So these tribes, when they had grown very rich by this war, retired to their own cities and laid aside their weapons of war.

5. But the Benjamites, to whom belonged Jerusalem, permitted its inhabitants to pay tribute. So they all ceased, the one to kill, and the other to expose themselves to danger, and had time to cultivate the ground. The rest of the tribes imitated that of Benjamin and did the same; and, contenting themselves with the tributes that were paid them, permitted the Canaanites to live in peace.

6. However, the tribe of Ephraim, when they besieged Bethel, made no advance, nor performed anything worthy of the time they spent, and of the pains they took about that siege; yet they persisted in it, still sitting down before the city, though they endured great trouble thereby: but, after some time, they caught one of the citizens that came to them to get necessities, and they gave him some assurances that, if he would deliver up the city to them, they would preserve him and his relatives; so he swore that, on those terms, he would put the city into their hands. Accordingly, he that thus betrayed the city was preserved with his family; and the Israelites slew all the inhabitants and retained the city for themselves.

7. After this, the Israelites grew effeminate regarding fighting any longer against their enemies, but applied themselves to the cultivation of the land, which producing them great plenty and riches, they neglected the regular disposition of their settlement and indulged themselves in luxury and pleasures; nor were they careful any longer to hear the laws that belonged to their political government: whereon God was provoked to anger and reminded them, first, how contrary to His directions, they had spared the Canaanites; and, after that, how those Canaanites, as opportunity served, abused them very cruelly. But the Israelites, though they were in heaviness at these admonitions from God, yet were they still very unwilling to go to war; and since they obtained large tributes from the Canaanites, and were indisposed by their luxury for undergoing difficulties, they allowed their aristocracy to be corrupted also, and did not ordain themselves a senate, nor any other such magistrates as their laws had formerly required, but they were very much given to cultivating their fields in order to get wealth—which great idleness of theirs brought a terrible sedition on them, and they proceeded so far as to fight against one another, from the following occasion:

8. There was a Levite, a man from a vulgar family that belonged to the tribe of Ephraim and dwelt therein: this man married a wife from Beth-Lehem, which is a place belonging to the tribe of Judah. Now he was very fond of his wife and overcome with her beauty; but he was unhappy in this, that he did not receive the same return of affection from her, for she was averse to him, which inflamed his passion for her even more, so that they perpetually quarreled with one another; and at last, the woman was so disgusted at these quarrels, that she left her husband and went to her parents in the fourth month. The husband being very troubled by this departure of hers—and that out of his fondness for her—came to his father and mother-in-law, and resolved their quarrels, and was reconciled to her, and lived with them there four days, as being kindly treated by her parents. On the fifth day he resolved to go home and went away in the evening, for his wife’s parents were reluctant to part with their daughter and delayed the time until the day was gone. Now they had one servant that followed them, and a donkey on which the woman rode; and when they were near Jerusalem, having already gone thirty stadia, the servant advised them to take up their lodgings somewhere, lest some misfortune should happen to them if they traveled in the night, especially since they were not far from enemies—that season often giving reason for suspicion of dangers from even such as are friends; but the husband was not pleased with this advice, nor was he willing to take up his lodging among strangers, for the city belonged to the Canaanites, but desired rather to go twenty stadia farther, and so to take their lodgings in some Israelite city. Accordingly, he obtained his purpose, and came to Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, just when it was dark; and while no one that lived in the marketplace invited him to lodge with him, there came an old man out of the field, one that was indeed of the tribe of Ephraim, but resided in Gibeah, and met him, and asked him who he was, and for what reason he came there so late, and why he was looking out for provisions for supper when it was dark. To this he replied that he was a Levite, and was bringing his wife from her parents, and was going home; but he told him his habitation was in the tribe of Ephraim: so the old man, as well because of their relation as because they lived in the same tribe, and also because they had thus accidentally met together, took him in to lodge with him. Now certain young men of the inhabitants of Gibeah, having seen the woman in the marketplace, and admiring her beauty, when they understood that she lodged with the old man, came to the doors, as despising the weakness and fewness of the old man’s family; and when the old man desired them to go away, and not to offer any violence or abuse there, they desired him to yield them up the strange woman, and then he should have no harm done to him: and when the old man alleged that the Levite was of his relatives, and that they would be guilty of horrid wickedness if they allowed themselves to be overcome by their pleasures, and so offend against their laws, they despised his righteous admonition and laughed him to scorn. They also threatened to kill him if he became an obstacle to their inclinations; whereon, when he found himself in great distress, and yet was not willing to overlook his guests and see them abused, he produced his own daughter to them and told them that it was a smaller breach of the Law to satisfy their lust on her, than to abuse his guests, supposing that he himself should by this means prevent any injury to be done to those guests. When they no way abated of their earnestness for the strange woman, but insisted absolutely on their desires to have her, he pleaded with them not to perpetrate any such act of injustice; but they proceeded to take her away by force, and indulging still more the violence of their inclinations, they took the woman away to their house, and when they had satisfied their lust on her the whole night, they let her go about dawn. So she came to the place where she had been entertained, under great affliction at what had happened; and she was very sorrowful because of what she had suffered and dared not look her husband in the face for shame, for she concluded that he would never forgive her for what she had done; so she fell down and gave up [her] spirit: but her husband supposed that his wife was only fast asleep, and, thinking nothing of a more melancholy nature had happened, endeavored to raise her up, resolving to speak comfortably to her, since she did not voluntarily expose herself to these men’s lust, but was forced away to their house; but as soon as he perceived she was dead, he acted as prudently as the greatness of his misfortunes would admit, and laid his dead wife on the beast, and carried her home; and cutting her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, he sent them to every tribe, and gave it in charge to those that carried them, to inform the tribes of those that were the causes of his wife’s death, and of the violence they had offered to her.

9. On this the people were greatly disturbed at what they saw, and at what they heard, as never having had the experience of such a thing before; so they gathered themselves to Shiloh, out of a prodigious and just anger, and assembling in a great congregation before the Tabernacle, they immediately resolved to take arms and to treat the inhabitants of Gibeah as enemies; but the senate restrained them from doing so, and they persuaded them that they ought not so hastily make war on people of the same nation with them before they discoursed them by words concerning the accusation laid against them—it being a part of their law that they should not bring an army against foreigners themselves when they appear to have been injurious without first sending an envoy and trying [them] thereby whether they will relent or not; and accordingly, they exhorted them to do what they ought to do in obedience to their laws, that is, to send to the inhabitants of Gibeah, to know whether they would deliver up the offenders to them; and if they deliver them up, to rest satisfied with the punishment of those offenders; but if they despised the message that was sent them, to punish them by taking up arms against them. Accordingly, they sent to the inhabitants of Gibeah, and accused the young men of the crimes committed in the affair of the Levite’s wife, and required of them those that had done what was contrary to the Law, that they might be punished as having justly deserved to die for what they had done; but the inhabitants of Gibeah would not deliver up the young men and thought it too reproachful to them, out of fear of war, to submit to other men’s demands on them, vaunting themselves to be no way inferior to any in war, neither in their number nor in courage. The rest of their tribe were also making great preparation for war, for they were so insolently mad as also to resolve to repel force with force.

10. When it was related to the Israelites what the inhabitants of Gibeah had decided, they took their oath that no one among them would give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite, but [rather] make war with greater fury against them than we have learned our forefathers made war against the Canaanites; and they sent out presently an army of four hundred thousand against them, while the Benjamites’ army-was twenty-five thousand and six hundred; five hundred of whom were excellent at slinging stones with their left hands, insomuch that when the battle was joined at Gibeah the Benjamites beat the Israelites, and of them there fell two thousand men; and probably more would have been destroyed had not the night arrived, and prevented it, and broken off the fight; so the Benjamites returned to the city with joy, and the Israelites returned to their camp in great shock at what had happened. On the next day, when they fought again, the Benjamites beat them; and eighteen thousand of the Israelites were slain, and the rest deserted their camp out of fear of a greater slaughter. So they came to Bethel, a city that was near their camp, and fasted on the next day; and they pleaded with God, by Phinehas the high priest, that His wrath against them might cease, and that He would be satisfied with these two defeats and give them the victory and power over their enemies. Accordingly, God promised them to do so, by the prophesying of Phinehas.

11. Therefore, when they had divided the army into two parts, they laid the one half of them in ambush around the city of Gibeah by night, while the other half attacked the Benjamites, who retreating from the assault, the Benjamites pursued them, while the Hebrews retreated by slow degrees as very desirous to draw them entirely from the city; and the others followed them as they retreated, until both the old men and the young men that were left in the city, as too weak to fight, came running out together with them, as [if] willing to bring their enemies under. However, when they were a great distance from the city, the Hebrews no longer ran away, but turned back to fight them and lifted up the signal they had agreed on to those that lay in ambush, who rose up, and with a great noise fell on the enemy. Now, as soon as they perceived themselves to be deceived, they did not know what to do; and when they were driven into a certain hollow place which was in a valley, they were shot at by those that encompassed them, until they were all destroyed, excepting six hundred, which formed themselves into a close body of men, and forced their passage through the midst of their enemies, and fled to the neighboring mountains, and, seizing them, remained there; but the rest of them, being about twenty-five thousand, were slain. Then the Israelites burned Gibeah and slew the women and the males that were underage; and they also did the same to the other cities of the Benjamites; and, indeed, they were enraged to that degree, that they sent twelve thousand men out of the army and gave them orders to destroy Jabesh-Gilead, because it did not join with them in fighting against the Benjamites. Accordingly, those that were sent slew the men of war, with their children and wives, excepting four hundred virgins. To such a degree had they proceeded in their anger, because they not only had the suffering of the Levite’s wife to avenge, but the slaughter of their own soldiers.

12. Afterward, however, they were sorry for the calamity they had brought on the Benjamites and appointed a fast on that account, although they supposed those men had suffered justly for their offense against the laws; so, they recalled by their ambassadors those six hundred which had escaped. These had seated themselves on a certain rock called Rimmon, which was in the wilderness. So the ambassadors lamented not only the disaster that had happened to the Benjamites, but themselves also, by this destruction of their countrymen; and they persuaded them to handle it patiently and to come and unite with them, and not, so far as in them lay, to give their support to the utter destruction of the tribe of Benjamin; and they said to them, “We give you permission to take the whole land of Benjamin for yourselves, and as much spoil as you are able to carry away with you.” So these men, with [great] sorrow, confessed that what had been done [to them] was according to the decree of God and had happened for their own wickedness; and they assented to those that invited them and came down to their own tribe. The Israelites also gave them the four hundred virgins of Jabesh-Gilead for wives; but as for the remaining two hundred, they deliberated about how they might obtain enough wives for them, so that they might have children by them; and whereas they had, before the war began, taken an oath that no one would give his daughter as a wife to a Benjamite, some advised them to have no regard for what they had sworn, because the oath had not been taken advisedly and judiciously, but in passion, and they thought that they should do nothing against God if they were able to save a whole tribe which was in danger of perishing; and that perjury was then a sad and dangerous thing, not when it is done out of necessity, but when it is done with a wicked intention. But when the senate was frightened at the very thought of perjury, a certain person told them that he could show them a way whereby they might procure the Benjamites enough wives and yet keep their oath. They asked him what his proposal was. He said, that, “Three times in a year, when we meet at Shiloh, our wives and our daughters accompany us: let then the Benjamites be allowed to snatch away and marry such women as they can catch, while we will neither incite them nor forbid them; and when their parents take it badly and desire us to inflict punishment on them, we will tell them that they were themselves the cause of what had happened, by neglecting to guard their daughters, and that they ought not to be overly angry at the Benjamites, since that anger was permitted to rise too high already.” So the Israelites were persuaded to follow this advice and decreed that the Benjamites should be allowed thus to steal themselves wives. So, when the festival was coming on, these two hundred Benjamites lay in ambush before the city, by two and three together, and waited for the coming of the virgins in the vineyards and other places where they could lie concealed. Accordingly, the virgins came along playing and suspected nothing of what was coming on them, and they walked in an unguarded manner, so those that laid scattered in the road rose up and caught hold of them. By this means these Benjamites obtained themselves wives, and fell to agriculture, and took good care to recover their former blessed state. And thus was this tribe of the Benjamites, after they had been in danger of entirely perishing, saved in the aforementioned manner, by the wisdom of the Israelites; and accordingly, it presently flourished, and soon increased to be a multitude, and came to enjoy all other degrees of happiness. And such was the conclusion of this war.

CHAPTER 3

How after This Misfortune the Israelites Grew Wicked and Served the Assyrians; And How God Delivered Them by Othniel, Who Ruled over Them Forty Years.

1. Now it happened that the tribe of Dan suffered in [the] same manner with the tribe of Benjamin; and it came to do so on the following occasion: When the Israelites had already ceased from the exercise of their arms for war and were intent on their farming, the Canaanites despised them and brought together an army, not because they expected to suffer by them, but because they intended to have a sure prospect of treating the Hebrews severely when they pleased, and might thereby for the time to come dwell in their own cities more securely; therefore they prepared their chariots, and gathered their troops together, their cities also combined together, and drew over to them Ashkelon and Ekron, which were within the tribe of Judah, and many more of those that lay in the plain. They also forced the Danites to flee into the mountainous country and left them not the least portion of the plain country to set their foot on. Since then these Danites were unable to fight them and did not have enough land to sustain them, they sent five of their men into the midland country, to seek for a land to which they might move their habitation. So these men went as far as the neighborhood of Mount Lebanon, and the fountains of the Lesser Jordan, at the great plain of Sidon, a day’s journey from the city; and when they had taken a view of the land and found it to be good and exceedingly fruitful, they acquainted their tribe with it, whereon they made an expedition with the army, and built there the city [of] Dan, of the same name with the son of Jacob, and of the same name with their own tribe.

2. The Israelites grew so slothful and unready for making efforts that misfortunes came heavier on them, which also proceeded in part from their contempt of the Divine worship; for when they had once desisted from the regularity of their political government, they indulged themselves further in living according to their own pleasure and according to their own will, until they were full of the evil doings that were common among the Canaanites. God therefore was angry with them, and they lost that blessed state of theirs which they had obtained by innumerable labors, by their luxury; for when Chushan, king of the Assyrians, had made war against them, they lost many of their soldiers in the battle, and when they were besieged, they were taken by force; indeed, there were some who, out of fear, voluntarily submitted to him, and though the tribute laid on them was more than they could bear, yet they paid it and underwent all sorts of oppression for eight years; after which time they were freed from them in the following manner:

3. There was one whose name was Othniel, the son of Kenaz, of the tribe of Judah, an active man and of great courage. He had an admonition from God not to overlook the Israelites in such a distress as they were now in, but to endeavor boldly to gain them their liberty; so when he had procured some to assist him in this dangerous undertaking (and few they were, who, either out of shame at their present circumstances, or out of a desire of changing them, could be persuaded to assist him), he first of all destroyed that garrison which Chushan had set over them; but when it was perceived that he had not failed in his first attempt, more of the people came to his assistance; so they joined battle with the Assyrians and drove them entirely from before them, and they compelled them to pass over [the] Euphrates. Hereon Othniel, who had given such proofs of his valor, received from the multitude authority to judge the people; and when he had ruled over them forty years, he died.

CHAPTER 4

How Our People Served the Moabites Eighteen Years and Were Then Delivered from Slavery by One Ehud Who Retained the Dominion Eighty Years.

1. When Othniel was dead, the affairs of the Israelites descended into disorder: and while they neither paid to God the honor due to Him, nor were obedient to the laws, their afflictions increased, until Eglon, king of the Moabites, so greatly despised them on account of the disorders of their political government, that he made war on them, and overcame them in several battles, and made the most courageous [among them] submit, and entirely subdued their army, and ordered them to pay him tribute. And when he had built himself a royal palace at Jericho, he omitted no method whereby he might distress them; and indeed, he reduced them to poverty for eighteen years. But when God had once taken pity of the Israelites, on account of their afflictions, and was moved to compassion by their supplications put before Him, He freed them from the hard usage they had met with under the Moabites. He procured this liberty for them in the following manner:

2. There was a young man of the tribe of Benjamin, whose name was Ehud, the son of Gera, a man of very great courage in bold undertakings, and of a very strong body, fit for hard labor, but best skilled in using his left hand, in which was his whole strength; and he also dwelt at Jericho. Now this man became familiar with Eglon, and that by means of gifts, with which he obtained his favor and ingratiated himself into his good opinion; whereby he was also beloved of those that were around the king. Now, when a time came [that] he was bringing gifts to the king and had two servants with him, he put a dagger on his right thigh secretly and went in to him: it was then summertime and the middle of the day when the guards were not strictly on their watch, both because of the heat, and because they had gone to dinner. So the young man, when he had offered his gifts to the king, who then resided in a small parlor that stood conveniently to avoid the heat, fell into discourse with him, for they were now alone—the king having commanded his servants that attended him to go their ways, because he intended to talk with Ehud. He was now sitting on his throne; and fear seized Ehud lest he should miss his opportunity and not give him a deadly wound; so he raised himself up and said he had a dream to impart to him by the command of God; on which the king leaped out of his throne for joy of the dream; so Ehud struck him to the heart, and leaving his dagger in his body, he went out and shut the door behind him. Now the king’s servants were very still, supposing that the king had relaxed himself to sleep.

3. Hereon Ehud informed the people of Jericho privately of what he had done and exhorted them to recover their liberty—who heard him gladly, and went to their arms, and sent messengers over the country that should sound trumpets of rams’ horns; for it was our custom to call the people together by them. Now the attendants of Eglon were ignorant of what misfortune had happened to him for a great while; but, toward the evening, fearing some uncommon accident had happened, they entered into his parlor, and when they found him dead, they were in great disorder and did not know what to do; and before the guards could be gathered together, the multitude of the Israelites came on them, so that some of them were slain immediately, and some were put to flight and fled away toward the country of Moab in order to save themselves. Their number was above ten thousand. The Israelites seized the ford of Jordan, and pursued them, and slew them, and many of them they killed at the ford, nor did one of them escape out of their hands; and it was by this means that the Hebrews freed themselves from slavery under the Moabites. Ehud was also on this account dignified with the government over all the multitude; and he died after he had held the government eighty years. He was a man worthy of commendation, even besides what he deserved for the aforementioned act of his. After him Shamgat, the son of Anath, was elected for their governor, but died in the first year of his government.

CHAPTER 5

How the Canaanites Brought the Israelites under Slavery for Twenty Years; After Which They Were Delivered by Barak and Deborah, Who Ruled over Them for Forty Years.

1. And it was now that the Israelites, taking no warning by their former misfortunes to amend their manners, and neither worshiping God nor submitting to the laws, were brought under slavery by Jabin, the king of the Canaanites, and that before they had a short breathing time after the slavery under the Moabites; for this Jabin out of Hazor, a city that was situated over the Semechonitis, had in paid [service] three hundred footmen and ten thousand horsemen, with fewer than three thousand chariots. Sisera was commander of all his army and was the principal person in the king’s favor. He so gravely beat the Israelites when they fought with him, that he ordered them to pay tribute.

2. So, they continued in that hardship for twenty years, as not good enough of themselves to grow wise by their misfortunes. God was also willing hereby [all] the more to subdue their stubbornness and ingratitude toward Himself: so when they had finally become penitent and were so wise as to learn that their calamities arose from their contempt of the laws, they pleaded with Deborah, a certain prophetess among them (which name in the Hebrew tongue signifies a Bee), to pray to God to take pity on them and not to overlook them, now [that] they were ruined by the Canaanites. So God granted them deliverance and chose them a general, Barak—one that was of the tribe of Naphtali. Now Barak, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies Lightning.

3. So, Deborah sent for Barak and commanded him to choose out ten thousand young men to go against the enemy, because God had said that that number was sufficient and promised them victory. But when Barak said that he would not be the general unless she would also go as a general with him, she had indignation at what he said: “You, O Barak, deliver up contemptibly that authority which God has given you into the hand of a woman, and I do not reject it!” So they collected ten thousand men and pitched their camp at Mount Tabor, where, at the king’s command, Sisera met them and pitched his camp not far from the enemy; whereon the Israelites, and Barak himself, were so frightened at the multitude of those enemies that they had resolved to march off had Deborah not restrained them and commanded them to fight the enemy that very day, for they should conquer them and God would be their support.

4. So the battle began; and when they had come to a close fight, there came down from [the] sky a great storm, with a vast quantity of rain and hail, and the wind blew the rain in the face of the Canaanites, and it so darkened their eyes that their arrows and slings were of no advantage to them, nor would the coldness of the air permit the soldiers to make use of their swords, while this storm did not so much [as even] inconvenience the Israelites, because it came at their backs. They also took such [great] courage at the cognizance that God was assisting them, that they pounced in the very midst of their enemies and slew a great number of them, so that some of them fell by the Israelites, some fell by their own horses, which were put into disorder, and not a few were killed by their own chariots. At last Sisera, as soon as he saw himself beaten, fled away and came to a woman whose name was Jael, a Kenite, who received him when he desired to be concealed; and when he asked for something to drink, she gave him sour milk, of which he drank so unmeasurably that he fell asleep; but when he was asleep, Jael took an iron nail, and with a hammer drove it through his temples into the floor; and when Barak came a little while later, she showed Sisera nailed to the ground: and thus this victory was gained by a woman, as Deborah had foretold. Barak also fought with Jabin at Hazor; and when he met with him, he slew him: and when the general had fallen, Barak overthrew the city to the foundation; and he was the commander of the Israelites for forty years.

CHAPTER 6

How the Midianites and Other Nations Fought against the Israelites, and Beat Them, and Afflicted Their Country for Seven Years; How They Were Delivered by Gideon, Who Ruled over the Multitude for Forty Years.

1. Now when Barak and Deborah were dead, whose deaths happened about the same time, afterward the Midianites called the Amalekites and Arabians for their assistance, and made war against the Israelites, and were too difficult for those that fought against them; and when they had burnt the fruits of the earth, they carried off the prey. Now after they had done this for three years, the multitude of the Israelites retreated to the mountains and abandoned the open country. They also made themselves hollows underground, and caverns, and preserved therein whatsoever had escaped their enemies; for the Midianites made expeditions in harvest-time, but permitted them to plow the land in winter, so that, when the others had made the effort, they might have fruits for them to carry away. Indeed, there ensued a famine and a scarcity of food, on which they committed themselves to their prayers to God and pleaded with Him to save them.

2. Gideon also, the son of Joash, one of the principal persons of the tribe of Manasseh, brought his sheaves of corn privately and threshed them at the winepress, for he was too fearful of their enemies to thresh them openly in the threshing-floor. At this time something appeared to him in the shape of a young man and told him that he was a blessed man and beloved of God. To this he immediately replied, “A mighty indication of God’s favor to me, that I am forced to use this winepress instead of a threshing-floor!” But the appearance exhorted him to be of good courage and to make an attempt for the recovery of their liberty. He answered that it was impossible for him to recover it, because the tribe to which he belonged was by no means numerous; and because he was but young himself, and too insignificant to think of such great actions. But the other promised him that God would supply what he was defective in and would provide the Israelites victory under his lead.

3. Now, therefore, as Gideon was relating this to some young men, they believed him, and immediately there was an army of ten thousand men ready for fighting. But God stood by Gideon in his sleep and told him that men were too fond of themselves and were enemies to such as excelled in virtue. Now that they might not pass God over, but ascribe the victory to Him, and might not regard it [as] obtained by their own power, because they were a great many and able of themselves to fight their enemies, but might confess that it was owing to His assistance, He advised him to bring his army about noon, in the violence of the heat, to the river, and to consider those that bent down on their knees, and so drank, to be men of courage; but for all those that drank tumultuously, that he should consider them to do it out of fear, and as in dread of their enemies. And when Gideon had done as God had suggested to him, there were found three hundred men that took water with their hands tumultuously; so God commanded him to take these men and attack the enemy. Accordingly, they pitched their camp at the Jordan River, as ready the next day to pass over it.

4. But Gideon was greatly afraid, for God had told him beforehand that he should set on his enemies in the nighttime; but God, being willing to free him from his fear, commanded him to take one of his soldiers, and go near to the Midianites’ tents, for he should from that very place have his courage raised and grow bold. So he obeyed, and went and took his servant Phurah with him; and as he came near to one of the tents, he discovered that those that were in it were awake, and that one of them was recounting to his fellow soldier a dream of his own—and that so plainly that Gideon could hear him. The dream was this: he thought he saw a barley-cake, such a one as could hardly be eaten by men, it was so vile, rolling through the camp, and overthrowing the royal tent, and the tents of all the soldiers. Now the other soldier explained this vision to mean the destruction of the army; and he told him what his reason was which made him so conjecture, namely, that the seed called barley was all of it allowed to be of the vilest sort of seed, and that the Israelites were known to be the vilest of all the people of Asia, agreeably to the seed of barley, and that what seemed to look big among the Israelites was this Gideon and the army that was with him, “and since you say you see the cake overturning our tents, I am afraid lest God has granted the victory over us to Gideon.”

5. When Gideon had heard this dream, good hope and courage came over him, and he commanded his soldiers to arm themselves and told them of this vision of their enemies. They also took courage at what was told them and were ready to perform what he should command them. So Gideon divided his army into three parts and brought it out about the fourth watch of the night, each part containing one hundred men: they all bore empty pitchers and lighted lamps in their hands, that their onset might not be discovered by their enemies. Each of them also had a ram’s horn in his right hand, which he used instead of a trumpet. The enemy’s camp took up a large space of ground, for it happened that they had a great many camels; and as they were divided into different nations, so they were all contained in one circle. Now when the Hebrews did as they were ordered [to do] beforehand, on their approach to their enemies, and, on the signal given, [when they] sounded with their rams’ horns, and broke their pitchers, and set on their enemies with their lamps and a great shout, and cried, “Victory to Gideon, by God’s assistance!” a disorder and fright seized the other men while they were half asleep (for it was nighttime, as God would have it), so that a few of them were slain by their enemies, but the greatest part by their own soldiers, on account of the diversity of their language; and when they were once put into disorder, they killed all that they met with, as thinking them to be enemies also. Thus, a great slaughter was made. And as the report of Gideon’s victory came to the Israelites, they took their weapons, and pursued their enemies, and overtook them in a certain valley surrounded with torrents, a place which these could not get over; so they surrounded them and slew them all, with their kings, Oreb and Zeeb. But the remaining captains led those soldiers that were left, which were about eighteen thousand, and pitched their camp a great distance from the Israelites. However, Gideon did not grudge his efforts, but pursued them with all his army, and joining battle with them, cut off the whole enemies’ army, and took the other leaders, Zeba and Zalmuna, and made them captives. Now there were slain in this battle of the Midianites, and of their auxiliaries the Arabians, about one hundred and twenty thousand; and the Hebrews took a great spoil: gold, and silver, and garments, and camels, and donkeys. And when Gideon had come to his own country of Ophrah, he slew the kings of the Midianites.

6. However, the tribe of Ephraim was so displeased at the good success of Gideon, that they resolved to make war against him, accusing him because he did not tell them of his expedition against their enemies. But Gideon, as a man of temperance, and who excelled in every virtue, pleaded that it was not the result of his own authority or reasoning that made him attack the enemy without them, but that it was the command of God, and still the victory belonged to them as well as those in the army. And by this method of cooling their passions, he brought more advantage to the Hebrews than by the success he had against these enemies, for he thereby delivered them from a sedition which was arising among them; yet this tribe afterward suffered the punishment of their injurious treatment of Gideon, of which we will give an account in due time.

7. Hereon Gideon would have laid down the government, but was overly persuaded to take it, which he enjoyed forty years; and he distributed justice to them, as the people came to him in their differences; and what he determined was regarded [as] valid by all. And when he died, he was buried in his own country of Ophrah.

CHAPTER 7

That the Judges Who Succeeded Gideon Made War with the Adjoining Nations for a Long Time.

1. Now Gideon had seventy sons that were legitimate, for he had many wives; but he also had one that was spurious, by his concubine Drumah, whose name was Abimelech, who, after his father’s death, retired to Shechem to his mother’s relations, for they were from that place: and when he had obtained money from such of them as were eminent for many instances of injustice, he came with them to his father’s house and slew all his brothers, except Jotham, for he had the good fortune to escape and be preserved; but Abimelech made the government tyrannical, and constituted himself a lord, to do what he pleased, instead of obeying the laws; and he acted most rigidly against those that were the patrons of justice.

2. Now when, at a certain time, there was a public festival at Shechem and all the multitude was gathered together there, his brother Jotham, whose escape we previously related, went up to Mount Gerizim, which hangs over the city [of] Shechem, and cried out so as to be heard by the multitude, who were attentive to him. He desired [that] they would consider what he was going to say to them: so when silence was made, he said that when the trees had a human voice, and there was an assembly of them gathered together, they desired that the fig-tree would rule over them; but when that tree refused to do so, because it was satisfied to enjoy that honor which belonged peculiarly to the fruit it bore, and not that which should be derived to it from abroad, the trees did not abandon their intentions to have a ruler, so they thought proper to make the offer of that honor to the vine; but when the vine was chosen, it made use of the same words which the fig-tree had used before and excused itself from accepting the government; and when the olive-tree had done the same, the brier, whom the trees had desired to take the kingdom (it is a sort of wood good for burning), it promised to take the government and to be zealous in the exercise of it, but that they then must sit down under its shadow, and if they should plot against it to destroy it, the principle of fire that was in it should destroy them. He told them that what he had said was no laughing matter; for when they had experienced many blessings from Gideon, they overlooked Abimelech, when he domineered over all, and had joined with him in slaying his brothers; and that he was no better than a fire himself. So when he had said this, he went away and lived privately in the mountains for three years, out of fear of Abimelech.

3. A little while after this festival, the Shechemites, who had now themselves regretted having slain the sons of Gideon, drove Abimelech away, both from their city and their tribe; whereon he contrived how he might distress their city. Now at the season of vintage, the people were afraid to go out and gather their fruits, for fear Abimelech should do them some mischief. Now it happened that there had come to them a man of authority, one Gaal, that sojourned with them, having his armed men and his relatives with him; so the Shechemites desired that he would allow them a guard during their vintage, whereon he accepted their desires, and so the people went out, and Gaal with them at the head of his troops. So they gathered their fruit with safety; and when they were at supper in several companies, they then ventured to curse Abimelech openly; and the magistrates laid ambushes in places around the city, and caught many of Abimelech’s followers, and destroyed them.

4. Now there was one Zebul, a magistrate of the Shechemites, that had entertained Abimelech. He sent messengers, and informed him how much Gaal had irritated the people against him, and excited him to lay ambushes before the city, for he would persuade Gaal to go out against him, which would leave it in his power to be avenged on him; and when that was once done, he would bring him to be reconciled to the city. So Abimelech laid ambushes and laid [in wait] himself with them. Now Gaal dwelt in the suburbs, taking little care of himself; and Zebul was with him. Now as Gaal saw the armed men coming on, he said to Zebul that some armed men were coming; but the other replied, “They are only shadows of huge stones”: and when they had come nearer, Gaal perceived what the reality was, and he said, “They are not shadows, but men lying in ambush.” Then Zebul said, “Did you not reproach Abimelech for cowardice? why do you not then show how very courageous you are yourself, and go and fight him?” So Gaal, being in disorder, joined battle with Abimelech, and some of his men fell; whereon he fled into the city and took his men with him. But Zebul managed his matters so in the city, that he procured them to expel Gaal out of the city, and this by accusing him of cowardice in this action with the soldiers of Abimelech. But Abimelech, when he had learned that the Shechemites were again coming out to gather their grapes, placed ambushes before the city, and when they were coming out, the third part of his army took possession of the gates, to hinder the citizens from returning in again, while the rest pursued those that were scattered abroad, and so there was slaughter everywhere; and when he had overthrown the city to the very foundations—for it was unable to bear a siege—and had sown its ruins with salt, he proceeded on with his army until all the Shechemites were slain. As for those that were scattered around the country and so escaped the danger, they were gathered together to a certain strong rock, and settled themselves on it, and prepared to build a wall around it: and when Abimelech knew their intentions, he prevented them, and came on them with his forces, and laid bundles of dry wood around the place—he himself bringing some of them, and by his example encouraging the soldiers to do the same. And when the rock was encompassed around with these bundles, they set them on fire and threw in whatsoever by nature caught fire the most easily: so a mighty flame was raised, and nobody could flee away from the rock, but every man perished, with their wives and children—in all about fifteen hundred men, and the rest were a great number also. And such was the calamity which fell on the Shechemites; and men’s grief on their account would have been greater than it was, had they not brought so much mischief on a person who had so well deserved of them, and had they not themselves considered this as a punishment for the same.

5. Now Abimelech, when he had frightened the Israelites with the miseries he had brought on the Shechemites, seemed to openly affect greater authority than he [even] now had, and he appeared to set no limit to his violence, unless it was with the destruction of all. Accordingly, he marched to Thebes and immediately took the city; and there being a great tower therein, whereunto the whole multitude fled, he made preparation to besiege it. Now as he was rushing with violence near the gates, a woman threw a piece of a millstone on his head, at which Abimelech fell down, and he desired his armor-bearer to kill him—lest his death should be thought to be the work of a woman—who did what he was commanded to do. So he underwent this death as a punishment for the wickedness he had perpetrated against his brothers, and his insolent barbarity to the Shechemites. Now the calamity that happened to those Shechemites was according to the prediction of Jotham. However, the army that was with Abimelech, on his fall, was scattered abroad, and they went to their own homes.

6. It was now that Jair the Gileadite, of the tribe of Manasseh, took the government. He was a man blessed in other respects also, but particularly in his children, who were of a good character. They were thirty in number, and very skillful in riding on horses, and were entrusted with the government of the cities of Gilead. He kept the government twenty-two years and died an old man; and he was buried in Camon, a city of Gilead.

7. And now all the affairs of the Hebrews were managed chaotically and tended to disorder and to the contempt of God and of the laws. So the Ammonites and Philistines held them in contempt and laid waste [to] the country with a great army; and when they had taken all Perea, they were so insolent as to attempt to gain the possession of all the rest. But the Hebrews, being now amended by the calamities they had undergone, committed themselves to supplications to God; and they brought sacrifices to Him, imploring Him not to be too severe on them, but to be moved by their prayers to cease His anger against them. So God became more merciful to them and was ready to assist them.

8. When the Ammonites had made an expedition into the land of Gilead, the inhabitants of the country met them at a certain mountain, but lacked a commander. Now there was one whose name was Jephtha, who, both on account of his father’s virtue, and on account of that army which he maintained at his own expenses, was a potent man: therefore, the Israelites sent to him, and implored him to come to their assistance, and promised him the dominion over them all his lifetime. But he did not acquiesce to their request; and he accused them, that they did not come to his assistance when he was unjustly treated—and this in an open manner by his brothers; for they cast him off, as not having the same mother with the rest, but born of a strange mother, that was introduced among them by his father’s fondness; and this they did out of a contempt of his inability [to vindicate himself]. So he dwelt in the country of Gilead, as it is called, and received all that came to him [and] let them come from whatsoever place, and he paid them wages. However, when they pressed him to accept the dominion and swore they would grant him the government over them all his life, he led them to the war.

9. And when Jephtha had taken immediate care of their affairs, he placed his army at the city [of] Mizpeh and sent a message to the Ammonite [king], complaining of his unjust possession of their land. But that king sent a contrary message, and complained of the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt, and desired him to go out of the land of the Amorites, and yield it up to him, as at first his paternal inheritance. But Jephtha returned this answer: that he did not justly complain of his ancestors regarding the land of the Amorites, and ought rather to thank them that they left the land of the Ammonites to them, since Moses could have taken it also; and that neither would he retreat from that land of their own [possession]—which God had obtained for them, and they had now inhabited [for more than] three hundred years—but would fight with them about it.

10. And when he had given them this answer, he sent the ambassadors away. And when he had prayed for victory, and had vowed to perform sacred offices, and if he came home in safety, to offer in sacrifice whatever living creature should first meet him, he joined battle with the enemy, and gained a great victory, and in his pursuit slew the enemies all along as far as the city of Minnith. He then passed over to the land of the Ammonites, and overthrew many of their cities, and took their prey, and freed his own people from that slavery which they had undergone for eighteen years. But as he came back, he fell into a calamity no way correspondent to the great actions he had done; for it was his daughter that came to meet him; she was also an only child and a virgin: on this Jephtha heavily lamented the greatness of his affliction and blamed his daughter for being so forward in meeting him, for he had vowed to sacrifice her to God. However, this action that was to happen to her was not ungrateful to her, since she should die on occasion of her father’s victory and the liberty of her fellow citizens: she only desired her father to give her permission, for two months, to lament her youth with her fellow citizens; and then she agreed, that at the aforementioned time he might do with her according to his vow. Accordingly, when that time was over, he sacrificed his daughter as a burnt-offering, offering such an oblation as was neither conformable to the Law nor acceptable to God, not weighing with himself what opinion the hearers would have of such a practice.

11. Now the tribe of Ephraim fought against him, because he did not take them along with him in his expedition against the Ammonites, but because he alone had the spoil and the glory of what was done by himself. As to which he said, first, that they were not ignorant of how his countrymen had fought against him, and that when they were invited, they did not come to his assistance, whereas they ought to have come quickly, even before they were invited. And in the next place, that they were going to act unjustly; for while they did not have enough courage to fight their enemies, they came hastily against their own relatives: and he threatened them that, with God’s assistance, he would inflict a punishment on them, unless they would grow wiser. But when he could not persuade them, he fought with them with those forces which he sent for out of Gilead, and he made a great slaughter among them; and when they were beaten, he pursued them, and seized the passages of Jordan by a part of his army which he had sent before, and slew about forty-two thousand of them.

12. So when Jephtha had ruled six years, he died and was buried in his own country, Sebee, which is a place in the land of Gilead.

13. Now when Jephtha was dead, Ibzan took the government, being of the tribe of Judah, and of the city of Beth-Lehem. He had sixty children, thirty of them sons, and the rest daughters—all of whom he left alive behind him, giving the daughters in marriage to husbands, and taking wives for his sons. He did nothing in the seven years of his administration that was worth recording or deserving of a memorial. So he died an old man, and he was buried in his own country.

14. When Ibzan was dead after this manner, neither did Helon, who succeeded him in the government and kept it ten years, do anything remarkable: he was of the tribe of Zebulon.

15. Abdon also, the son of Hilel, of the tribe of Ephraim, and born at the city [of] Pyrathon, was ordained their supreme governor after Helon. He is only recorded to have been blessed in his children; for the public affairs were then so peaceable, and in such security, that neither did he perform any glorious action. He had forty sons, and by them left thirty grandchildren; and he marched in state with these seventy, who were all very skillful in riding horses; and he left them all alive after him. He died an old man and obtained a magnificent burial in Pyrathon.

CHAPTER 8

Concerning the Fortitude of Samson, and What Troubles He Brought against the Philistines.

1. After Abdon was dead, the Philistines overcame the Israelites and received tribute from them for forty years; from which distress they were delivered after this manner:

2. There was one Manoah, a person of such great virtue that he had few men his equals, and [was] without dispute the principal person of his country. He had a wife celebrated for her beauty and excelling her contemporaries. He had no children; and, being troubled by his lack of posterity, he begged God to give them seed of their own bodies to succeed them; and with that intent, he constantly came into the suburbs together with his wife; which suburbs were in the Great Plain. Now he was fond of his wife to a degree of madness, and on that account was unmeasurably jealous for her. Now, when his wife was once alone, an apparition was seen by her—it was [the] Messenger of God and resembled a young Man, [both] beautiful and tall—and brought her the good news that she should have a son, born by God’s providence, that should be an excellent child, of great strength; by whom, when he was grown up to man’s estate, the Philistines should be afflicted. He also exhorted her not to trim his hair, and that he should avoid all other kinds of drink (for so God had commanded) and be entirely satisfied with water. So the Messenger, when He had delivered that message, went His way, His coming having been by the will of God.

3. Now the wife informed her husband when he came home of what the Messenger had said, who showed such great an admiration of the beauty and height of the young Man that had appeared to her, that her husband was astonished and beside himself for jealousy and such suspicions as are excited by that passion: but she was desirous of having her husband’s unreasonable distress taken away; accordingly, she begged God to send the Messenger again, that He might [also] be seen by her husband. So the Messenger came again by the favor of God, while they were in the suburbs, and appeared to her when she was alone without her husband. She desired the Messenger to stay so long until she might bring her husband; and that request being granted, she went to call Manoah. When he saw the Messenger, he was not yet free from suspicion, and he desired Him to inform him of all that He had told his wife; but when He said it was sufficient that she alone knew what He had said, he then requested of Him to tell who He was, that when the child was born they might return Him thanks and give Him a present. He replied that He did not want any present because He did not bring them the good news of the birth of a son out of the lack of anything. And when Manoah had implored Him to stay and partake of his hospitality, He did not give His consent. However, He was persuaded, at the earnest request of Manoah, to stay so long as he brought Him one mark of his hospitality; so he slew a kid of the goats and commanded his wife to boil it. When all was ready, the Messenger commanded him to set the loaves and the flesh, but without the vessels, on the rock; which when they had done [it], He touched the flesh with the rod which He had in His hand, which, on the breaking out of a flame, was consumed, together with the loaves; and the Messenger visibly ascended, in their sight, up to Heaven, by means of the smoke, as by a vehicle. Now Manoah was afraid that some danger would come to them from this sight of God; but his wife commanded him to be of good courage because God appeared to them for their benefit.

4. So the woman proved with child and was careful to observe the injunctions that were given her; and they called the child, when he was born, Samson, which name signifies one that is strong. So the child grew quickly; and it appeared evident that he would be a prophet, both by the moderation of his diet and the permission of his hair to grow.

5. Now once, when he came with his parents to Timnath, a city of the Philistines, when there was a great festival, he fell in love with a maiden of that country, and he desired of his parents that they would procure him the girl for his wife: but they refused to do so, because she was not of the stock of Israel; yet because this marriage was of God, who intended to convert it to the benefit of the Hebrews, he over-persuaded them to procure her to be espoused to him. And as he was continually coming to her parents, he met a lion, and though he was naked, he received his attack, and strangled him with his hands, and cast the wild beast into a wooded piece of ground on the inside of the road.

6. And when he was going another time to the girl, he came across a swarm of bees making their combs in the breast of that lion; and taking three honeycombs away, he gave them, together with the rest of his presents, to the girl. Now the people of Timnath, out of a dread of the young man’s strength, gave him during the time of the wedding-feast (for he then feasted them all) thirty of the strongest of their youth, in pretense to be his companions, but in reality to be a guard on him, that he might not attempt to cause them any disturbance. Now as they were drinking merrily and playing, Samson said, as was usual at such times, “Come, I will propose you a riddle, and if you can expound it [to me] in these seven days’ time, I will give everyone a linen shirt and a garment, as the reward of your wisdom.” So they being very ambitious to obtain the glory of wisdom, together with the rewards, desired him to propose his riddle. He said, “A devourer produced sweet food out of itself, though was itself very disagreeable.” And when they were unable, in three days’ time, to find out the meaning of the riddle, they desired the girl to discover it by the means of her husband and tell it [to] them; and they threatened to burn her if she did not tell it [to] them. So when the girl begged Samson to tell it [to] her, he at first refused to do it; but when she pressed him hard, and fell into tears, and made his refusal to tell it a sign of his unkindness to her, he informed her of his slaughter of a lion, and how he found bees in his breast, and carried away three honeycombs, and brought them to her. Thus he, suspecting nothing of deceit, informed her of all, and she revealed it to those that desired to know it. Then on the seventh day, whereon they were to expound the riddle proposed to them, they met together before sunset and said, “Nothing is more disagreeable than a lion to those that come to it, and nothing is sweeter than honey to those that make use of it.” To which Samson made this response: “Nothing is more deceitful than a woman, for such was the person that revealed my interpretation to you.” Accordingly, he gave them the presents he had promised them, making such Ashkelonites as met him on the road his prey, who were themselves Philistines also. But he divorced this wife of his; and the girl despised his anger and was married to his companion who made the former match between them.

7. At this detrimental treatment, Samson was so provoked, that he resolved to punish all the Philistines, as well as her: so it being then summer-time, and the fruits of the land being almost ripe enough for reaping, he caught three hundred foxes, and joining lighted torches to their tails, he sent them into the fields of the Philistines, by which means the fruits of the fields perished. Now when the Philistines knew that this was Samson’s doing and also knew for what reason he did it, they sent their rulers to Timnath and burnt his former wife, and her relations, who had been the cause for their misfortunes.

8. Now when Samson had slain many of the Philistines in the plain country, he dwelt at Etam, which is a strong rock of the tribe of Judah; for the Philistines at that time made an expedition against that tribe, but the people of Judah said that they did not act justly with them, in inflicting punishments on them while they paid their tribute, and this only on account of Samson’s offenses. They answered that in case they would not be blamed themselves, they must deliver up Samson and hand him over to their authority. So they being desirous not to be blamed themselves, came to the rock with three thousand armed men and complained to Samson of the bold insults he had made on the Philistines, who were men able to bring calamity on the whole nation of the Hebrews; and they told him [that] they had come to take him, and to deliver him up to them, and hand him over to their authority; so they desired him to bear this willingly. Accordingly, when he had received assurance from them on oath that they would do him no other harm than only to deliver him into his enemies’ hands, he came down from the rock and handed himself over to the authority of his countrymen. Then they bound him with two cords, and lead him on, in order to deliver him to the Philistines; and when they came to a certain place, which is now called the Jawbone, on account of the great action performed there by Samson (though of old it had no particular name at all), the Philistines, who had pitched their camp not far off, came to meet them with joy and shouting, as having done a great thing and gained what they desired; but Samson broke his bonds apart, and catching up the jawbone of a donkey that lay down at his feet, fell on his enemies, and smiting them with his jawbone, slew one thousand of them, and he put the rest to flight and into great disorder.

9. On this slaughter, Samson was too proud of what he had performed and said that this did not come to pass by the assistance of God, but that his success was to be ascribed to his own courage; and he vaunted himself, that it was out of a dread of him that some of his enemies fell and the rest ran away on his use of the jawbone; but when a great thirst came on him, he considered that human courage is nothing, and bore his testimony that all is to be ascribed to God, and pleaded with Him that He would not be angry at anything he had said, nor give him up into the hands of his enemies, but provide him help under his affliction, and deliver him from the misfortune he was under. Accordingly, God was moved with his pleadings and raised him up an abundant fountain of sweet water at a certain rock from which it was that Samson called the place the Jawbone, and so it is called to this day.

10. After this fight, Samson held the Philistines in contempt, and came to Gaza, and took up his lodgings in a certain inn. When the rulers of Gaza were informed of his coming there, they seized the gates and placed men in ambush around them, that he might not escape without being seen; but Samson, who was acquainted with their contrivances against him, arose about midnight, and ran by force on the gates, with their posts and beams, and the rest of their wooden furniture, and carried them away on his shoulders, and bore them to the mountain that is over Hebron, and there laid them down.

11. However, he eventually transgressed the laws of his country, and altered his own regular way of living, and imitated the strange customs of foreigners, which thing was the beginning of his miseries; for he fell in love with a woman that was a harlot among the Philistines: her name was Delilah, and he lived with her. So those that administered the public affairs of the Philistines came to her, and, with promises, induced her to get out of Samson what was the cause of that strength of his, by which he became unconquerable to his enemies. Accordingly, when they were drinking and had the like conversation together, she pretended to admire the actions he had done and contrived to get out of him by subtlety by what means he so much excelled others in strength. Samson, in order to fool Delilah—for he had not yet lost his senses—replied that if he were bound with seven such green cords of a vine as might still be wreathed, he should be weaker than any other man. The woman said nothing more then, but told this to the rulers of the Philistines and hid certain of the soldiers in ambush within the house; and when he was disordered in drink and asleep, she bound him as fast as possible with the cords; and then on her awakening him, she told him some of the people were on him, but he broke the cords and endeavored to defend himself, as though some of the people were on him. Now this woman, in the constant conversation Samson had with her, pretended that she took it very poorly that he had such little confidence in her affections to him that he would not tell her what she desired, as if she would not conceal what she knew was for his interest to have concealed. However, he fooled her again and told her that if they bound him with seven [new] bands, he should lose his strength. And when, on doing this, she gained nothing, he told her the third time that his hair should be woven into a web; but when, on doing this, the truth was not yet discovered, finally Samson, on Delilah’s prayer (for he was doomed to fall into some affliction), desired to please her and told her that God took care of him, and that he was born by His providence, and that “from there it is that I allow my hair to grow—God having commanded me never to trim my head, and from there my strength is according to the increase and continuance of my hair.” When she had learned thus much and had deprived him of his hair, she delivered him up to his enemies when he was not strong enough to defend himself from their attempts on him; so they put out his eyes, and bound him, and had him led around among them.

12. But in the process of time, Samson’s hair grew again. And there was a public festival among the Philistines, when the rulers, and those of the most eminent character, were feasting together (now the room wherein they were had its roof supported by two pillars); so they sent for Samson, and he was brought to their feast that they might insult him during their drinking. Hereon he, thinking it one of the greatest misfortunes if he should not be able to avenge himself when he was thus insulted, persuaded the boy that led him by the hand that he was weary and wanted to rest himself and desired he would bring him near the pillars; and as soon as he came to them, he rushed with force against them and overthrew the house by overthrowing its pillars, with three thousand men in it, who were all slain—and Samson with them. And such was the end of this man, when he had ruled over the Israelites twenty years. And indeed, this man deserves to be admired for his courage and strength, and nobility at his death, and that his wrath against his enemies went so far as to die with them himself. But as for his being ensnared by a woman, that is to be ascribed to human nature, which is too weak to resist the temptations to that sin; but we ought to bear him witness that in all other respects he was one of extraordinary virtue. But his relatives took away his body and buried it in Sarasat, his own country, with the rest of his family.

CHAPTER 9

How under Eli’s Government of the Israelites, Boaz Married Ruth, from Whom Came Obed the Grandfather of David.

1. Now after the death of Samson, Eli the high priest was governor of the Israelites. Under him, when the country was afflicted with a famine, Elimelech of Beth-Lehem, which is a city of the tribe of Judah, being unable to support his family under such severe distress, took with him his wife Naomi and the children that were born to him by her, Chillon and Mahlon, and moved his habitation into the land of Moab; and on the blessed prosperity of his affairs there, he took for his sons wives of the Moabites, Orpah for Chillon, and Ruth for Mahlon. But in the span of ten years, both Elimelech, and a little while after him, the sons, died; and Naomi being very troubled by these misfortunes, and not being able to bear her lonesome condition now [that] those that were dearest to her were dead, on whose account it was that she had gone away from her own country, she returned to it again, for she had been informed it was now in a flourishing condition. However, her daughters-in-law were unable to think of parting with her; and when they intended to go out of the country with her, she could not dissuade them from it; but when they insisted on it, she wished them a more blessed wedlock than they had with her sons, and that they might have prosperity in other respects also; and seeing [that] her own affairs were so low, she exhorted them to stay where they were and not to think of leaving their own country and partaking with her of that uncertainty under which she must return. Accordingly, Orpah stayed behind; but she took Ruth along with her, as [she was] not to be persuaded to stay behind her, but would take her fortune with her, whatever it should prove.

2. When Ruth had come with her mother-in-law to Beth-Lehem, Boaz, who was near of relation to Elimelech, entertained her; and when Naomi was so called by her fellow citizens, according to her true name, she said, “You might more truly call me Mara.” Now Naomi signifies in the Hebrew tongue happiness, and Mara, sorrow. It was now reaping time; and Ruth, by the leave of her mother-in-law, went out to glean, so that they might obtain a supply of corn for their food. Now it happened that she came into Boaz’s field; and after some time, Boaz came there, and when he saw the girl, he inquired of his servant that was set over the reapers concerning the girl. The servant had shortly before inquired about all her circumstances and told them to his master, who kindly embraced her, both on account of her affection to her mother-in-law, and her remembrance of that son of hers to whom she had been married, and wished that she might experience a prosperous condition; so he desired her not to glean, but to reap what she was able, and gave her permission to carry it home. He also commanded that servant who was over the reapers not to hinder her when she took it away, and he commanded him to give her her dinner and make her drink when he did the same for the reapers. Now what corn Ruth received of him she kept for her mother-in-law, and came to her in the evening, and brought the ears of corn with her; and Naomi had kept for her a part of such food as her neighbors had abundantly bestowed on her. Ruth also told her mother-in-law what Boaz had said to her; and when the other had informed her that he was near of relation to them, and perhaps was so pious a man as to make some provision for them, she went out again on the following days to gather the gleanings with Boaz’s maidservants.

3. It was not many days before Boaz, after the barley was winnowed, slept in his threshing-floor. When Naomi was informed of this circumstance, she contrived it so that Ruth should lie down by him, for she thought it might be for their advantage that he should discourse with the girl. Accordingly, she sent the girl to sleep at his feet, who went as she commanded her, for she did not think it consistent with her duty to contradict any command of her mother-in-law. And at first she lay concealed from Boaz, as he was fast asleep; but when he awoke about midnight and perceived a woman lying by him, he asked who she was; and when she told him her name and desired that he whom she owned for her lord would excuse her, he then said no more; but in the morning, before the servants began to set about their work, he awoke her, and commanded her to take as much barley as she was able to carry, and go to her mother-in-law before anybody there should see that she had lain down by him, because it was only prudent to avoid any reproach that might arise on that account, especially when there had been nothing done that was wrong. But as for the main point she aimed at, the matter should rest here—“He that is nearer of relation than I am, will be asked whether he wants to take you for a wife: if he says he does, you will follow him; but if he refuses it, I will marry you, according to the Law.”

4. When she had informed her mother-in-law of this, they were very glad about it, out of the hope they had that Boaz would make provision for them. Now about noon Boaz went down into the city, and gathered the senate together, and when he had sent for Ruth, he called for her relative also; and when he had come, he said, “Do you not retain the inheritance of Elimelech and his sons?” He confessed that he did retain it, and that he did as he was permitted to do by the laws, because he was their nearest relative. Then Boaz said, “You must not remember the laws by halves, but do everything according to them; for the wife of Mahlon has come here, whom you must marry, according to the Law, in case you will retain their fields.” So the man yielded up both the field and the wife to Boaz, who was himself of relation to those that were dead, as alleging that he had a wife already, and children also; so Boaz called the senate to witness, and he commanded the woman to untie his shoe and spit in his face, according to the Law; and when this was done, Boaz married Ruth, and they had a son within a year’s time. Naomi was herself a nurse to this child; and by the advice of the women, called him Obed, as [he was] to be brought up in order to be subservient to her in her old age, for Obed in the Hebrew dialect signifies a servant. The son of Obed was Jesse, and David was his son, who was king, and left his dominions to his sons for twenty-one generations. I was therefore obligated to relate this history of Ruth, because I intended to demonstrate the power of God, who, without difficulty, can raise those that are of ordinary parentage to dignity and splendor, to which He advanced David, though he was born of such humble parents.

CHAPTER 10

Concerning the Birth of Samuel; And How He Foretold the Calamity That Happened to the Sons of Eli.

1. And now on the poor state of affairs of the Hebrews, they made war again on the Philistines. The occasion was this: Eli, the high priest, had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. These sons of Eli were guilty of injustice toward men, and of impiety toward God, and abstained from no sort of wickedness. Some of their gifts they carried off, as belonging to the honorable employment they had; others of them they took away by violence. They were also guilty of impurity with the women that came to worship God at the Tabernacle, obliging some to submit to their lust by force and enticing others by bribes; indeed, the whole course of their lives was no better than tyranny. Therefore, their father was angry at them for such wickedness of theirs and expected that God would suddenly inflict His punishments on them for what they had done. The multitude took it heinously also. And as soon as God had foretold what calamity would happen to Eli’s sons, which He [told] both to Eli himself and to Samuel the prophet, who was yet but a child, he openly showed his sorrow for his sons’ destruction.

2. I will first communicate what I have to say about the prophet Samuel, and after that will proceed to speak of the sons of Eli and the miseries they brought on the whole people of the Hebrews. Elcanah, a Levite, one of an average condition among his fellow citizens, and one that dwelt at Ramathaim, a city of the tribe of Ephraim, married two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. He had children by the latter; but he loved the other best, although she was barren. Now Elcanah came with his wives to the city [of] Shiloh to sacrifice, for it was there that the Tabernacle of God was fixed, as we have formerly stated. Now when, after he had sacrificed, he distributed at that festival portions of the flesh to his wives and children, and when Hannah saw the other wife’s children sitting around their mother, she fell into tears and lamented herself on account of her barrenness and lonesomeness; and allowing her grief to prevail over her husband’s consolations to her, she went to the Tabernacle to implore God to give her seed and to make her a mother; and [she] vowed to consecrate the first son she should bear to the service of God, and this in such a way, that his manner of living should not be like that of ordinary men. And as she continued at her prayers a long time, Eli, the high priest—for he sat there before the Tabernacle—commanded her to go away, thinking she had been disordered with wine; but when she said she had drank [only] water, but was in sorrow for lack of children and was imploring God for them, he commanded her to be of good cheer, and he told her that God would send her children.

3. So she came to her husband full of hope and ate her meal with gladness. And when they had returned to their own country, she found herself with child, and they had a son born to them, to whom they gave the name of Samuel, which may be styled one that was asked of God. Therefore, they came to the Tabernacle to offer sacrifice for the birth of the child and brought their tithes with them; but the woman remembered the vows she had made concerning her son and delivered him to Eli, dedicating him to God, that he might become a prophet. Accordingly, his hair was permitted to grow long, and his drink was water. So Samuel dwelt and was brought up in the temple. But Elcanah had other sons by Hannah, and three daughters.

4. Now when Samuel was twelve years old, he began to prophesy: and once when he was asleep, God called to him by his name; and he, supposing he had been called by the high priest, came to him: but when the high priest said he did not call him, God did so thrice. Eli was then so far illuminated, that he said to him, “Indeed, Samuel, I was silent now as well as before: it is God that calls you; therefore, signify it to Him and say, I am here [and] ready.” So when he heard God speak again, he desired Him to speak and to deliver what oracles He pleased to him, for he would not fail to perform any ministration whatsoever He should make use of him in; to which God replied, “Since you are here [and] ready, learn what miseries are coming on the Israelites—such indeed as words cannot declare, nor faith believe; for the sons of Eli will die on one day, and the priesthood will be transferred into the family of Eleazar; for Eli has loved his sons more than he has loved My worship, and to such a degree as is not for their advantage.” Which message Eli compelled the prophet by oath to tell him, for otherwise he had no inclination to afflict him by telling it. And now Eli had a far surer expectation of the perdition of his sons; but the glory of Samuel increased more and more, it being found by experience that whatsoever he prophesied came to pass accordingly.

CHAPTER 11

Herein Is Declared What Happened to the Sons of Eli, the Ark, and the People and How Eli Himself Died Miserably.

1. It was about this time that the Philistines made war against the Israelites and pitched their camp at the city [of] Aphek. Now when the Israelites had expected them a little while, the very next day they joined battle, and the Philistines were conquerors, and slew above four thousand of the Hebrews, and pursued the rest of their multitude to their camp.

2. So the Hebrews being afraid of the worst, sent to the senate and to the high priest and desired that they would bring the Ark of God, that by putting themselves in array, when it was present with them, they might be too difficult for their enemies, as not reflecting that He who had condemned them to endure these calamities was greater than the Ark, and for whose sake it was that this ark came to be honored. So the Ark came, and the sons of the high priest with it, having received a charge from their father that if they pretended to survive the taking of the Ark, they should no longer come into his presence, for Phinehas already officiated as high priest, his father having resigned his office to him, by reason of his great age. So the Hebrews were full of courage, as supposing that, by the coming of the Ark, they should be too difficult for their enemies; their enemies were also greatly concerned and were afraid of the Ark’s coming to the Israelites: however, the result did not prove agreeable to the expectation of both sides, but when the battle was joined, that victory which the Hebrews expected was gained by the Philistines, and that defeat the Philistines were afraid of fell to the lot of the Israelites, and thereby they found that they had put their trust in the Ark in vain, for they were presently beaten as soon as they came to a close fight with their enemies and lost about thirty thousand men, among whom were the sons of the high priest; but the Ark was carried away by the enemies.

3. When the news of this defeat came to Shiloh, with that of the captivity of the Ark (for a certain young man, a Benjamite, who was in the action, came as a messenger there), the whole city was full of lamentations. And Eli, the high priest, who sat on a high throne at one of the gates, heard their mournful cries and supposed that some strange thing had happened to his family. So he sent for the young man; and when he understood what had happened in the battle, he was not very uneasy regarding his sons or what was told him additionally about the army, as having known beforehand by Divine revelation that those things would happen, and having himself declared them beforehand—for what sad things come unexpectedly they distress men the most; but as soon as [he heard] the Ark was carried captive by their enemies, he was very greatly grieved about it, because it happened quite differently from what he expected; so he fell down from his throne and died, having in all lived ninety-eight years, and of them retained the government forty.

4. On the same day, his son Phinehas’ wife also died, as unable to survive the misfortune of her husband; for they told her of her husband’s death as she was in labor. However, she bore a son at seven months, who lived, and to whom they gave the name of Ichabod, which name signifies disgrace—and this because the army received a disgrace at this time.

5. Now Eli was the first of the family of Ithamar, the other son of Aaron, that had the government; for the family of Eleazar officiated as high priest at first, the son still receiving that honor from the father which Eleazar bequeathed to his son Phinehas; after whom his son Abiezer took the honor and delivered it to his son, whose name was Bukki, from whom his son Ozi received it; after whom Eli, of whom we have been speaking, had the priesthood, and so he and his posterity until the time of Solomon’s reign; but then the posterity of Eleazar reassumed it.

BOOK VI

Containing the Interval of Thirty-Two Years. From the Death of Eli to the Death of Saul.

CHAPTER 1

The Destruction That Came on the Philistines and on Their Land, by the Wrath of God, on Account of Their Having Carried the Ark Away Captive; And after What Manner They Sent It Back to the Hebrews.

1. When the Philistines had taken the Ark of the Hebrews captive, as I stated shortly before, they carried it to the city of Ashdod, and put it by their own god, who was called Dagon, as one of their spoils; but when they went into his temple the next morning to worship their god, they found him paying the same worship to the Ark, for he lay along, as having fallen down from the base whereon he had stood: so they picked him up, and set him on his base again, and were very troubled at what had happened; and as they frequently came to Dagon and found him still lying along, in a posture of adoration toward the Ark, they were in very great distress and confusion. Eventually, God sent a very destructive disease on the city and country of Ashdod, for they died of the dysentery or flux, a severe disease that brought death on them very suddenly; for before the soul could, as usual in easy deaths, be easily loosed from the body, they brought up their entrails and vomited up what they had eaten and what was entirely corrupted by the disease. And as for the fruits of their country, a great multitude of mice arose out of the earth and damaged them and spared neither the plants nor the fruits. Now while the people of Ashdod were under these misfortunes and were unable to support themselves under their calamities, they perceived that they suffered thus because of the Ark, and that the victory they had obtained, and their having taken the Ark captive, had not happened for their good; they therefore sent to the people of Ashkelon and desired that they would receive the Ark among them. This desire of the people of Ashdod was not disagreeable to those of Ashkelon, so they granted them that favor. But when they had gotten the Ark, they were in the same miserable condition, for the Ark carried along with it the disasters that the people of Ashdod had suffered, to those who received it from them. Those of Ashkelon also sent it away from themselves to others: nor did it stay among those others either, for since they were pursued by the same disasters, they still sent it to the neighboring cities, so that the Ark went around, after this manner, to the five cities of the Philistines, as though it exacted these disasters as a tribute to be paid it for its coming among them.

2. When those that had experienced these miseries were tired out with them, and when those that heard of them were taught thereby not to admit the Ark among them, since they paid so dear a tribute for it, they finally sought for some contrivance and method how they might get free from it: so the governors of the five cities—Gath, and Ekron, and Ashkelon, as also of Gaza, and Ashdod—met together and considered what was suitable to be done; and at first they thought proper to send the Ark back to its own people, as allowing that God had avenged its cause—that the miseries they had undergone came along with it, and that these were sent on their cities on its account, and together with it. However, there were those that said they should not do so, nor allow themselves to be deluded, as ascribing the cause of their miseries to it, because it could not have such power and force on them; for, had God had such a regard for it, it would not have been delivered into the hands of men. So they exhorted them to be quiet, and to patiently endure what had happened to them, and to suppose there was no other cause of it but nature, which, at certain revolutions of time, produces such mutations in the bodies of men, in the earth, in plants, and in all things that grow out of the earth. But the counsel that prevailed, over those already described, was that of certain men, who were believed to have distinguished themselves in former times for their understanding and prudence, and who, in their present circumstances, seemed above all the rest to speak properly. These men said it was not right either to send the Ark away, or to retain it, but to dedicate five golden images, one for every city, as a thank-offering to God, on account of His having taken care of their preservation and having kept them alive when their lives were likely to be taken away by such disorders as they were unable to bear up against. They also would have them make five golden mice like to those that devoured and destroyed their country, to put them in a bag and lay them on the Ark; to also make themselves a new cart for it and to yoke milk cows to it, but to pen up their calves and keep them from them, lest, by following after them, they should prove a hindrance to their cows, and that the cows might return faster out of a desire for those calves; then [they would have them] to drive these milk cows that carried the Ark and leave it at a place where three ways met, and so leave it to the cows to go along which of those ways they pleased, so that in case they went the way to the Hebrews, and ascended to their country, they should suppose that the Ark was the cause of their misfortunes; but if they turned onto another road, they said, “We will pursue after it and conclude that it has no such force in it.”

3. So they determined that these men spoke well; and they immediately confirmed their opinion by doing accordingly. And when they had done as has already been described, they brought the cart to a place where three ways met, and left it there, and went their ways; but the cows went the right way, as if some persons had [actually] driven them, while the rulers of the Philistines followed after them, as desirous to know where they would stand still and to whom they would go. Now there was a certain village of the tribe of Judah, the name of which was Beth-Shemesh, and to that village the cows went; and though there was a great and good plain before them to proceed in, they went no farther, but stopped the cart there. This was a sight to those of that village, and they were very glad; for it being then summer-time, and all the inhabitants being then in the fields gathering in their fruits, they ceased the labors of their hands for joy as soon as they saw the Ark, and ran to the cart, and taking the Ark down, and the vessel that had the images in it, and the mice, they set them on a certain rock which was in the plain; and when they had offered a splendid sacrifice to God and feasted, they offered the cart and the cows as a burnt-offering: and when the lords of the Philistines saw this, they returned back.

4. But it was now that the wrath of God overtook them and struck seventy persons of the village of Beth-Shemesh dead, who, not being priests, and so not worthy to touch the Ark, had approached toward it. Those of that village wept for these that had thus suffered and made such a lamentation as was naturally to be expected on such a great misfortune that was sent from God; and every one mourned for his own relative. And since they acknowledged themselves unworthy of the Ark’s abode with them, they sent to the public senate of the Israelites and informed them that the Ark was restored by the Philistines, which when they knew [it], they carried it away to Kirjath-Jearim, a city in the neighborhood of Beth-Shemesh. In this city lived one Abinadab, by birth a Levite, and who was greatly commended for his righteous and religious course of life; so they brought the Ark to his house, as to a place fit for God Himself to abide in, since a righteous man dwelt therein. His sons also ministered to the Divine service at the Ark and were the principal curators of it for twenty years—for so many years it continued in Kirjath-Jearim, having been but four months with the Philistines.

CHAPTER 2

The Expedition of the Philistines against the Hebrews, and the Hebrews’ Victory under the Conduct of the Prophet Samuel, Who Was Their General.

1. Now while the city of Kirjath-Jearim had the Ark with them, the whole body of the people committed themselves all that time to offer prayers and sacrifices to God and appeared greatly concerned and zealous regarding His worship. So Samuel the prophet, seeing how ready they were to do their duty, thought this an opportune time to speak to them, while they were in this good disposition, about the recovery of their liberty and of the blessings that accompanied the same. Accordingly, he used such words to them as he thought were most likely to excite that inclination and to persuade them to attempt it: “O you Israelites,” he said, “to whom the Philistines are still grievous enemies, but to whom God begins to be gracious, it befits you not only to be desirous of liberty, but to take the proper methods to obtain it. Nor are you to be satisfied with an inclination to get clear of your lords and masters, while you still do what will procure your continuance under them. Be righteous then, and cast wickedness out of your souls, and by your worship supplicate the Divine Majesty with all your hearts, and persevere in the honor you pay to Him; for if you act thus, you will enjoy prosperity; you will be freed from your slavery and will get the victory over your enemies: which blessings it is not possible you should attain, either by weapons of war, or by the strength of your bodies, or by the multitude of your supporters, for God has not promised to grant these blessings by those means, but by being good and righteous men; and if you will be such, I will be security to you for the performance of God’s promises.” When Samuel had said this, the multitude applauded his discourse, and were pleased with his exhortation to them, and gave their consent to resign themselves up to do what was pleasing to God. So Samuel gathered them together to a certain city called Mizpeh, which, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies a watchtower; there they drew water, and poured it out to God, and fasted all day, and committed themselves to their prayers.

2. This assembly of theirs did not escape the notice of the Philistines: so when they had learned that such a large company had met together, they fell on the Hebrews with a great army and mighty forces, as hoping to assault them when they did not expect it, nor were prepared for it. This thing frightened the Hebrews and put them into disorder and terror; so they came running to Samuel, and said that their souls were sunk by their fears and by the former defeat they had received, and that, “from there it was that we lay still, lest we should excite the power of our enemies against us. Now while you have brought us here to offer up our prayers and sacrifices, and take oaths [to be obedient], our enemies are making an expedition against us, while we are naked and unarmed; therefore, we have no other hope of deliverance but that by your means; and by the assistance God will provide us on your prayers to Him, we will obtain deliverance from the Philistines.” Hereon Samuel commanded them to be of good cheer and promised them that God would assist them; and taking a suckling lamb, he sacrificed it for the multitude, and pleaded with God to maintain His protecting hand over them when they should fight with the Philistines, and not to overlook them, nor allow them to come under a second misfortune. Accordingly, God listened to his prayers, and accepting their sacrifice with a gracious intention, and such as was inclined to assist them, He granted them victory and power over their enemies. Now while the altar had the sacrifice of God on it, and had not yet consumed it wholly by its sacred fire, the enemy’s army marched out of their camp and was put in array for battle—and this in hope that they should be conquerors, since the Jews were caught in distressed circumstances, as neither having their weapons with them, nor being assembled there in order to fight. But things so happened that they would hardly have been credited though they had been foretold by anybody: for, in the first place, God disturbed their enemies with an earthquake, and He moved the ground under them to such a degree that He caused it to tremble and made them to shake, insomuch that by its trembling, He made some unable to keep their footing, and made them fall down, and by opening its chasms, He caused that others should be rushed down into them; after which He caused such a noise of thunder to come among them, and made fiery lightning shine so terribly around them, that it was ready to burn their faces; and He so suddenly shook their weapons out of their hands, that He made them fly and return home naked. So Samuel with the multitude pursued them to Beth-Car, a place so called; and there he set up a stone as a boundary of their victory and their enemies’ flight, and called it the Stone of Power, as a signal of that power God had given them against their enemies.

3. So the Philistines, after this blow, made no more expeditions against the Israelites, but lay still out of fear, and out of remembrance of what had happened to them; and whatever courage the Philistines formerly had against the Hebrews was after this victory transferred to the Hebrews. Samuel also made an expedition against the Philistines, and slew many of them, and entirely humbled their proud hearts, and took from them that country, which, when they were formerly conquerors in battle, they had cut off from the Jews, which was the country that extended from the borders of Gath to the city of Ekron: but the remains of the Canaanites were at this time in friendship with the Israelites.

CHAPTER 3

How Samuel, When He Was So Frail with Old Age That He Could Not Take Care of the Public Affairs, Entrusted Them to His Sons; And How on the Evil Administration of the Government by Them, the Multitude Were So Angry That They Required to Have a King to Govern Them, Although Samuel Was Much Displeased with That.

1. But Samuel the prophet, when he had ordered the affairs of the people in an efficient manner and had appointed a city for every district of them, commanded them to come to such cities, to have the controversies that they had with one another determined in them, he himself going over those cities twice in a year, and doing them justice; and by that means he kept them in very good order for a long time.

2. But afterward he found himself oppressed with old age and unable to do what he used to do, so he committed the government and the care of the multitude to his sons—the elder of whom was called Joel, and the name of the younger was Abiah. He also directed them to reside and judge the people, the one at the city of Bethel, and the other at Beersheba, and divided the people into districts that should be under the jurisdiction of each of them. Now these men provide us an evident example and demonstration how some children are not of the same dispositions with their parents; but sometimes perhaps good and moderate, though born of wicked parents; and sometimes showing themselves to be wicked, though born of good parents: for these men turning aside from their father’s good courses, and taking a course that was contrary to them, perverted justice for the illicit gain of gifts and bribes, and made their determinations not according to truth, but according to bribery, and turned aside to luxury and a costly way of living; so that as, in the first place, they practiced what was contrary to the will of God, so they, in the second place, did what was contrary to the will of their father the prophet, who had taken a great deal of care and made very careful provision so that the multitude should be righteous.

3. But the people, on these injuries offered to their former constitution and government by the prophet’s sons, were very troubled by their actions and came running to the prophet, who then lived at the city [of] Ramah, and informed him of the transgressions of his sons; and they said that as he was himself old already, and too frail by that age of his to oversee their affairs in the manner he used to do, so they begged of him and implored him to appoint some person to be king over them, who might rule over the nation, and avenge them of the Philistines, who ought to be punished for their former oppressions. These words greatly afflicted Samuel, on account of his innate love of justice, and his hatred toward royal government, for he was very fond of an aristocracy, as what made the men that used it of a divine and happy disposition; nor could he think either of eating or sleeping because of his concern and torment of mind at what they had said, but all night long he continued awake and revolved these notions in his mind.

4. While he was thus disposed, God appeared to him and comforted him, saying that he ought not to be troubled by what the multitude desired, because it was not he, but Himself whom they so insolently despised, and would not have to be their king alone; that, “they had been devising these things from the very day that they came out of Egypt; that however in a short time they would deeply regret what they did, which conversion could not yet undo what was thus done hereafter; that they would be sufficiently rebuked for their contempt, and the ungrateful conduct they have used toward Me, and toward your prophetic office. So I command you to ordain them such a one as I will name beforehand to be their king, when you have first described what troubles royal government will bring on them and openly testified before them into what a great change of affairs they are hastening.”

5. When Samuel had heard this, he called the Jews early in the morning and confessed to them that he was to ordain them a king; but he said that he was first to describe to them what would follow, what treatment they would receive from their kings, and with how many troubles they must struggle. “For know,” he said, “that, in the first place, they will take your sons away from you, and they will command some of them to be drivers of their chariots, and some to be their horsemen, and their bodyguards, and others of them to be runners before them, and captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds; they will also make them their craftsmen, makers of armor, and of chariots, and of instruments; they will also make them their farmers, and the curators of their own fields, and the diggers of their own vineyards; nor will there be anything which they will not do at their commands, as if they were slaves bought with money. They will also appoint your daughters to be confectioners, and cooks, and bakers; and these will be obligated to do all sorts of work which women slaves, that are in fear of stripes and torments, submit to. They will, besides this, take away your possessions, and bestow them on their eunuchs and their bodyguards, and will give the herds of your cattle to their own servants; and to state briefly all at once: you, and all that is yours, will be servants to your king and will become [in] no way superior to his slaves; and when you suffer this, you will thereby be reminded of what I now say. And when you convert of what you have done, you will implore God to have mercy on you and to grant you a quick deliverance from your kings; but He will not accept your prayers, but will neglect you and permit you to suffer the punishment your evil conduct has deserved.”

6. But the multitude was still so foolish as to be deaf to these predictions of what would happen to them and too petulant to allow a determination which they had foolishly once made to be taken out of their mind; for they could not be turned from their purpose, nor did they regard the words of Samuel, but stubbornly insisted on their resolution and desired him to ordain them a king immediately and not trouble himself with fears of what would happen hereafter, for it was necessary they should have with them one to fight their battles, and to avenge them of their enemies, and that it was [in] no way absurd, when their neighbors were under royal government, that they should have the same form of government also. So when Samuel saw that what he had said had not diverted them from their purpose, but that they remained resolute, he said, “Everyone go home for now; when it is suitable, I will send for you—as soon as I will have learned from God who it is that He will give you for your king.”

CHAPTER 4

The Appointment of a King over the Israelites, Whose Name Was Saul; And This by the Command of God.

1. There was one from the tribe of Benjamin, a man of a good family, and of a virtuous disposition; his name was Kish. He had a son, a young man of a handsome appearance and of a tall body, but his understanding and his mind were preferable to what was visible in him: they called him Saul. Now this Kish had some fine female donkeys that had wandered out of the pasture wherein they fed, for he was more delighted with these than with any other cattle he had; so he sent out his son, and one servant with him, to search for the beasts; but when he had gone over his own tribe in search after the donkeys, he went to other tribes, and when he found them not there either, he determined to go his way home, lest he should cause any concern to his father about himself. But when they were near the city of Ramah, his servant that followed him told him that there was a true prophet in that city and advised him to go to him, for by him they should know the outcome of the matter of their donkeys; he replied that if they should go to him they had nothing to give him as a reward for his prophecy, for their subsistence money was spent. The servant answered that he had still the fourth part of a shekel, and he would present him with that; for they were mistaken out of ignorance, as not knowing that the prophet received no such reward. So they went to him; and when they were before the gates, they came across certain maidens that were going to fetch water, and they asked them which [house] was the prophet’s house. They showed them which it was and instructed them to hurry before he sat down for supper, for he had invited many guests to a feast, and that he used to sit down before those that were invited. Now Samuel had then gathered many together to feast with him on this very account; for while he prayed to God every day to tell him beforehand whom He would make king, He had informed him of this man the day before, for He would send him a certain young man out of the tribe of Benjamin about this hour of the day; and he sat on the top of the house in expectation of that time’s arrival. And when the time was completed, he came down and went to supper; so he met with Saul, and God revealed to him that this was he who should rule over them. Then Saul went up to Samuel, and saluted him, and desired him to inform him which was the prophet’s house; for he said he was a stranger and did not know it. When Samuel had told him that he himself was the person, he led him in to supper, and assured him that the donkeys were found which he had been seeking, and that the greatest of good things were assured to him: he replied, “I am too inconsiderable to hope for any such thing, and of a tribe too small to have kings made out of it, and of a family smaller than several other families; but you tell me this in jest, and make me an object of laughter, when you discourse with me of greater matters than what I stand in need of.” However, the prophet led him into the feast and made him sit down—him and his servant that followed him—above the other guests that were invited, which were seventy in number; and he gave orders to the servants to set the royal portion before Saul. And when the time of going to bed had come, the rest rose up, and every one of them went home; but Saul stayed with the prophet, he and his servant, and slept with him.

2. Now as soon as it was day, Samuel raised Saul up out of his bed and led him homeward; and when he was out of the city, he desired him to cause his servant to go before [him], but to stay behind himself, because he had something to say to him when nobody else was present. Accordingly, Saul sent away his servant that followed him; then the prophet took a vessel of oil, and poured it on the head of the young man, and kissed him, and said, “Be a king, by the ordination of God, against the Philistines, and for avenging the Hebrews for what they have suffered by them; of this you will have a sign, which I would have you take notice of: as soon as you have departed from here, you will find three men on the road, going to worship God at Bethel; the first of whom you will see carrying three loaves of bread, the second carrying a kid of the goats, and the third will follow them carrying a bottle of wine. These three men will salute you, and speak kindly to you, and will give you two of their loaves, which you will accept. And from there you will come to a place called Rachel’s Monument, where you will meet with those that will tell you your donkeys are found; after this, when you come to Gabatha, you will overtake a company of prophets, and you will be seized with the Divine Spirit, and prophesy along with them, until everyone that sees you will be astonished, and wonder, and say, From where is it that the son of Kish has arrived at this degree of blessedness? And when these signs have happened to you, know that God is with you; then you will salute your father and your relatives. You will also come when I send for you to Gilgal, that we may offer thank-offerings to God for these blessings.” When Samuel had said this and foretold these things, he sent the young man away. Now all things happened to Saul according to the prophecy of Samuel.

3. But as soon as Saul came into the house of his relative Abner, whom indeed he loved better than the rest of his relatives, he was asked by him concerning his journey and what fates happened to him therein; and he concealed none of the other things from him—no, not his coming to Samuel the prophet, nor how he told him the donkeys were found; but he said nothing to him about the kingdom and what belonged to it, which he thought would procure him envy, and when such things are heard, they are not easily believed; nor did he think it prudent to tell those things to him, although he appeared very friendly to him, and one whom he loved above the rest of his relations, considering, I suppose, what human nature really is, that no one is a firm friend, neither among our intimates, nor of our relatives; nor do they preserve that kind disposition when God advances men to great prosperity, but they are still bad-natured and envious at those that are in eminent stations.

4. Then Samuel called the people together to the city [of] Mizpeh and spoke to them in the following words, which he said he was to speak by the command of God: that when He had granted them a state of liberty and brought their enemies into subjection, they had become unmindful of His benefits and rejected God, that He should not be their King, as not considering that it would be most for their advantage to be presided over by the best of beings, for God is the best of beings, and they chose to have a man for their king; while kings will use their subjects as beasts, according to the violence of their own wills and inclinations, and other passions, as wholly carried away with the lust of power, but will not endeavor so to preserve the race of mankind as His own workmanship and creation, which, for that very reason, God would take care of. “But since you have come to a firm decision, and this injurious treatment of God has quite prevailed over you, dispose yourselves by your tribes and scepters, and cast lots.”

5. When the Hebrews had done so, the lot fell on the tribe of Benjamin; and when the lot was cast for the families of this tribe, that which was called Matri was taken; and when the lot was cast for the individual persons of that family, Saul, the son of Kish, was taken for their king. When the young man knew this, he prevented [their sending for him], and he immediately went away and hid himself. I suppose that it was because he would not have it thought that he willingly took the government on him; no, he showed such a degree of command over himself, and of modesty, that while the greatest part are unable to contain their joy, even in the gaining of small advantages, but presently show themselves publicly to all men, this man did not only show nothing of that nature, when he was appointed to be the lord of so many and such great tribes, but crept away, and concealed himself out of the sight of those he was to reign over, and made them seek him—and that with a good deal of trouble. So when the people were at a loss, and attentive, because Saul disappeared, the prophet pleaded with God to show where the young man was and to produce him before them. So when they had learned from God the place where Saul was hidden, they sent men to bring him; and when he had come, they set him in the midst of the multitude. Now he was taller than any of them, and his stature was very majestic.

6. Then the prophet said, “God gives you this man to be your king: see how he is higher than any of the people and worthy of this dominion.” So as soon as the people had exclaimed, “God save the king,” the prophet wrote down what would come to pass in a book, and read it in the hearing of the king, and laid up the book in the Tabernacle of God, to be a witness to future generations of what he had foretold. So when Samuel had finished this matter, he dismissed the multitude, and came to the city [of] Rainah himself, for it was his own country. Saul also went away to Gibeah, where he was born; and there were many good men who paid him the respect that was due to him; but the greater part were hostile men who despised him and derided the others, who neither brought him presents, nor did they in affection, or even in words, regard to please him.

CHAPTER 5

Saul’s Expedition against the Nation of the Ammonites and [His] Victory over Them and the Spoils He Took from Them.

1. After one month, the war which Saul had with Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, obtained him respect from all the people; for this Nahash had caused a great deal of trouble for the Jews that lived beyond Jordan by the expedition he had made against them with a great and well-armed army. He also reduced their cities into slavery, and that not only by subduing them for the present, which he did by force and violence, but by weakening them by subtlety and cunning, that they might not be able afterward to get clear of the slavery they were under to him; for he put out the right eyes of those that either delivered themselves to him on terms, or were taken by him in war; and this he did, that when their left eyes were covered by their shields, they might be wholly useless in war. Now when the king of the Ammonites had served those beyond Jordan in this manner, he led his army against those that were called Gileadites, and having pitched his camp at the metropolis of his enemies, which was the city of Jabesh, he sent ambassadors to them, commanding them either to deliver themselves up, on condition to have their right eyes plucked out, or to undergo a siege, and to have their cities overthrown. He gave them their choice, whether they would cut off a small member of their body, or universally perish. However, the Gileadites were so frightened at these offers that they did not have courage to say anything to either of them, neither that they would deliver themselves up, nor that they would fight him. But they desired that he would give them seven days’ respite, that they might send ambassadors to their countrymen and beg for their assistance; and if they came to assist them, they would fight; but if that assistance were impossible to be obtained from them, they said they would deliver themselves up to suffer whatever he pleased to inflict on them.

2. So Nahash, despising the multitude of the Gileadites and the answer they gave, allowed them a respite and gave them permission to send to whomsoever they pleased for assistance. So they immediately sent to the Israelites, city by city, and informed them what Nahash had threatened to do to them and what great distress they were in. Now the people fell into tears and grief at the hearing of what the ambassadors from Jabesh said; and the terror they were in permitted them to do nothing more. But when the messengers had come to the city of King Saul and declared the dangers in which the inhabitants of Jabesh were [in], the people were in the same affliction as those in the other cities, for they lamented the calamity of those related to them. And when Saul had returned from his farming into the city, he found his fellow citizens weeping; and when, on inquiry, he had learned the cause of the confusion and sadness they were in, he was seized with a divine fury, and sent away the ambassadors from the inhabitants of Jabesh, and promised them to come to their assistance on the third day and to beat their enemies before sunrise, that the sun on its rising might see that they had already conquered and were freed from the fears they were under: but he commanded some of them to stay to lead them [on] the right way to Jabesh.

3. So being desirous to turn the people to this war against the Ammonites by fear of the losses they should otherwise undergo, and that they might more suddenly be gathered together, he cut the sinews of his oxen and threatened to do the same to all such as did not come with their armor to Jordan the next day and follow him and Samuel the prophet wheresoever they should lead them. So they came together, out of fear of the losses they were threatened with, at the appointed time. And the multitude were numbered at the city [of] Bezek. And he found the number of those that were gathered together, besides that of the tribe of Judah, to be seven hundred thousand, while those of that tribe were seventy thousand. So he passed over Jordan, and proceeded in marching all that night, thirty stadia, and came to Jabesh before sunrise. So he divided the army into three companies and suddenly fell on their enemies on every side, and when they expected no such thing; and joining battle with them, they slew a great many of the Ammonites, as also their king Nahash. This glorious action was done by Saul, and was related with great commendation of him to all the Hebrews; and he gained a wonderful reputation for his valor there: for although there were some of them that despised him before, they now changed their minds, and honored him, and esteemed him as the best of men: for he did not satisfy himself with having saved the inhabitants of Jabesh only, but he made an expedition into the country of the Ammonites, and laid it all waste, and took a large spoil, and so returned to his own country most gloriously. So the people were greatly pleased at these excellent performances of Saul and rejoiced that they had constituted him their king. They also made a clamor against those that pretended he would be of no advantage to their affairs; and they said, “Where are these men now? Let them be brought to punishment, with all the same things that multitudes usually say when they are elevated with prosperity, against those that had recently despised the authors of it. But Saul, although he took the goodwill and affection of these men very kindly, yet swore that he would not see any of his countrymen slain that day, since it was absurd to mix this victory, which God had given them, with the blood and slaughter of those that were of the same lineage with themselves; and that it was more agreeable to be men of a friendly disposition, and so to commit themselves to feasting.

4. And when Samuel had told them that he ought to confirm the kingdom to Saul by a second ordination of him, they all came together to the city of Gilgal, for there he commanded them to come. So the prophet anointed Saul with the holy oil in the sight of the multitude and declared him to be king the second time. And so the government of the Hebrews was changed into a royal government; for in the days of Moses and his disciple Joshua, who was their general, they continued under an aristocracy; but after the death of Joshua, for eighteen years in all, the multitude had no settled form of government, but were in an anarchy; after which they returned to their former government, they then permitting themselves to be judged by him who appeared to be the best warrior and most courageous, from which it was that they called this interval of their government the Judges.

5. Then Samuel the prophet called another assembly also, and he said to them, “I solemnly adjure you by God Almighty, who brought those excellent brothers—I mean Moses and Aaron—into the world, and [who] delivered our fathers from the Egyptians and from the slavery they endured under them, that you will not speak what you say to gratify me, nor suppress anything out of fear of me, nor be overborne by any other passion, but say, What have I ever done that was cruel or unjust? or what have I done out of illicit gain or covetousness, or to gratify others? Bear witness against me, if I have taken an ox or a sheep, or any such thing, which yet when they are taken to support men, it is considered blameless; or have I taken a donkey for my own use of anyone to his grief? Lay some such crime to my charge, now [that] we are in your king’s presence.” But they cried out that no such thing had been done by him, but that he had presided over the nation in a holy and righteous manner.

6. Hereon Samuel, when such a testimony had been given him by them all, said, “Since you grant that you are unable to lay any wicked thing to my charge thus far, come on now, and listen while I speak with great freedom to you. You have been guilty of great impiety against God, in asking for a king. It befits you to remember that our grandfather Jacob came down into Egypt, by reason of a famine, with seventy souls of our family alone, and that their posterity multiplied there to many myriads, whom the Egyptians brought into slavery and hard oppression; that God Himself, on the prayers of our fathers, sent Moses and Aaron, who were brothers, and gave them power to deliver the multitude out of their distress—and this without a king. These brought us into this very land which you now possess: and when you enjoyed these advantages from God, you betrayed His worship and religion; indeed, moreover, when you were brought under the hands of your enemies, He delivered you: first by rendering you superior to the Assyrians and their forces; then He made you to overcome the Ammonites, and the Moabites, and last of all the Philistines; and these things have been achieved under the leadership of Jephtha and Gideon. What madness therefore possessed you to flee from God and to desire to be under a king? Yet I have ordained him for king whom He chose for you. However, that I may make it plain to you that God is angry and displeased at your choice of a royal government, I will so dispose Him that He will declare this very plainly to you by strange signals; for what none of you ever saw here before—I mean a winter storm in the midst of harvest—I will implore of God and will make it visible to you.” Now, as soon as he had said this, God gave such great signals by thunder and lightning, and the descent of hail, as attested the truth of all that the prophet had said, insomuch that they were amazed and terrified, and they confessed they had sinned and had fallen into that sin through ignorance; and they pleaded with the prophet, as one that was a tender and gentle father to them, to render God so merciful as to forgive this sin of theirs, which they had added to those other offenses whereby they had insulted Him and transgressed against Him. So he promised them that he would implore God and persuade Him to forgive them of these sins of theirs. However, he advised them to be righteous, and to be good, and always to remember the miseries that had happened to them on account of their departure from virtue: as also to remember the strange signs God had shown them, and the body of laws that Moses had given them, if they had any desire of being preserved and made blessed with their king. But he said that if they should grow careless of these things, great judgments would come from God on them and on their king. And when Samuel had thus prophesied to the Hebrews, he dismissed them to their own homes, having confirmed the kingdom to Saul the second time.

CHAPTER 6

How the Philistines Made Another Expedition against the Hebrews and Were Beaten.

1. Now Saul chose out of the multitude about three thousand men, and he took two thousand of them to be his bodyguards and abide in the city [of] Bethel, but he gave the rest of them to his son Jonathan, to be his bodyguards; and he sent him to Gibeah, where he besieged and took a certain garrison of the Philistines, not far from Gilgal, for the Philistines of Gibeah had beaten the Jews, and taken their weapons away, and had put garrisons into the strongest places of the country, and had forbidden them to carry any instrument of iron or to make use of any iron in any case whatsoever. And on account of this prohibition, it was that the farmers, if they had occasion to sharpen any of their tools, whether it was the coulter or the spade, or any instrument of farming, they came to the Philistines to do it. Now as soon as the Philistines heard of this slaughter of their garrison, they were in a rage about it, and, looking on this contempt as a terrible outrage against them, they made war against the Jews, with three hundred thousand footmen, and thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horses; and they pitched their camp at the city [of] Michmash. When Saul, the king of the Hebrews, was informed of this, he went down to the city [of] Gilgal and made proclamation over all the country that they should try to regain their liberty; and he called them to the war against the Philistines, diminishing their forces, and despising them as not very considerable and as not so great but [that] they might risk a battle with them. But when the people around Saul observed how numerous the Philistines were, they were under a great consternation; and some of them hid themselves in caves and in dens underground, but the greater part fled into the land beyond Jordan, which belonged to Gad and Reuben.

2. But Saul sent to the prophet and called him to consult with him about the war and the public affairs; so he commanded him to stay there, [and to wait] for him, and to prepare sacrifices, for he would come to him within seven days, that they might offer sacrifices on the seventh day and might then join battle with their enemies. So he waited as the prophet had sent to him to do; yet he did not, however, observe the command that was given him, but when he saw that the prophet tarried longer than he expected, and that he was deserted by the soldiers, he took the sacrifices and offered them; and when he heard that Samuel had come, he went out to meet him. But the prophet said he had not done well in disobeying the injunctions he had sent to him, and had not stayed until his coming, which being appointed according to the will of God, he had prevented him in offering up those prayers and those sacrifices that he should have made for the multitude, and that he therefore had performed Divine offices in a wrong manner and had been rash in performing them. Hereon Saul made an apology for himself and said that he had waited as many days as Samuel had appointed him; that he had been so quick in offering his sacrifices, on account of the necessity he was in, and because his soldiers were departing from him, out of their fear of the enemy’s camp at Michmash, the report having gone abroad that they were coming down on him at Gilgal. To which Samuel replied, “No, certainly, if you had been a righteous man and had not disobeyed me, nor slighted the commands which God suggested to me concerning the present state of affairs, and had not acted more hastily than the present circumstances required, you would have been permitted to reign a long time, and your posterity after you.” So Samuel, being grieved at what happened, returned home; but Saul came to the city [of] Gibeah, with his son Jonathan, having only six hundred men with him; and of these the greater part had no weapons, because of the scarcity of iron in that country, as well as of those that could make such weapons; for, as we showed shortly before, the Philistines had not permitted them to have such iron or such workmen. Now the Philistines divided their army into three companies, and took as many roads, and laid waste the country of the Hebrews, while King Saul and his son Jonathan saw what was done, but were unable to defend the land, having no more than six hundred men with them. But as he, and his son, and Abiah the high priest, who was of the posterity of Eli the high priest, were sitting on a pretty high hill, and seeing the land laid waste, they were mightily disturbed by it. Now Saul’s son agreed with his armor-bearer, that they would go privately to the enemy’s camp and make a tumult and a disturbance among them. And when the armor-bearer had readily promised to follow him wheresoever he should lead him, even if he should be obligated to die in the attempt, Jonathan made use of the young man’s assistance, and descended from the hill, and went to their enemies. Now the enemy’s camp was on a precipice which had three tops that ended in a small but sharp and long extremity, while there was a rock that surrounded them, like lines made to prevent the attacks of an enemy. There it so happened that the out-guards of the camp were neglected because of the security that here arose from the situation of the place, and because they thought it altogether impossible, not only to ascend up to the camp on that quarter, but so much as to come near it. As soon, therefore, as they came to the camp, Jonathan encouraged his armor-bearer and said to him, “Let us attack our enemies; and if, when they see us, they command us to come up to them, take that for a signal of victory; but if they say nothing, as not intending to invite us to come up, let us return back again.” So when they were approaching to the enemy’s camp just after dawn, and the Philistines saw them, they said to one another, “The Hebrews come out of their dens and caves”: and they said to Jonathan and to his armor-bearer, “Come on, ascend up to us, that we may inflict a just punishment on you, for your rash attempt on us.” So Saul’s son accepted that invitation, as what signified to him victory, and he immediately came out of the place from where they were seen by their enemies: so he changed his place and came to the rock, which had none to guard it, because of its own strength; from there they crept up with great labor and difficulty, and so far overcame by force the nature of the place, until they were able to fight with their enemies. So they fell on them as they were asleep, and slew about twenty of them, and thereby filled them with disorder and surprise, insomuch that some of them threw away their entire armor and fled; but the greatest part, not knowing one another, because they were of different nations, suspected one another to be enemies (for they did not imagine there were only two of the Hebrews that came up), and so they fought against one another; and some of them died in the battle, and some, as they were fleeing away, were thrown down from the rock headlong.

3. Now Saul’s watchmen told the king that the camp of the Philistines was in confusion; then he inquired whether anybody had gone away from the army; and when he heard that his son, and with him his armor-bearer, were absent, he commanded the high priest to take the garments of his high priesthood and prophesy to him what success they should have, who said that they should get the victory and prevail against their enemies. So he went out after the Philistines and set on them as they were slaying one another. Those also who had fled to dens and caves, on hearing that Saul was gaining a victory, came running to him. When, therefore, the number of the Hebrews that came to Saul amounted to about ten thousand, he pursued the enemy, who were scattered all over the country; but then he fell into an action, which was a very unfortunate one, and liable to be very much blamed; for, whether out of ignorance or whether out of joy for a victory gained so strangely (for it frequently happens that persons so fortunate are not then able to use their reason consistently), as he desired to avenge himself and to exact a due punishment of the Philistines, he pronounced a curse on the Hebrews: that if anyone put a stop to his slaughter of the enemy, and went about eating, and ceased the slaughter or the pursuit before the night came on, and compelled them to do so, he should be accursed. Now after Saul had pronounced this curse, since they were now in a forest belonging to the tribe of Ephraim, which was thick and full of bees, Saul’s son, who did not hear his father pronounce that curse, nor hear of the approbation the multitude gave to it, broke off a piece of a honeycomb and ate part of it. But, in the meantime, he was informed with what a curse his father had forbidden them to taste anything before sunset, so he ceased eating and said his father had not done well in this prohibition, because, had they taken some food, they would have pursued the enemy with greater rigor and eagerness, and would have both taken and slain many more of their enemies.

4. When, therefore, they had slain many myriads of the Philistines, they started spoiling the camp of the Philistines, but not until late in the evening. They also took a great deal of prey and cattle, and killed them, and ate them with their blood. This was told to the king by the scribes, that the multitude were sinning against God as they sacrificed and were eating before the blood was well washed away and the flesh was made clean. Then Saul ordered that a great stone should be rolled into the midst of them, and he made proclamation that they should kill their sacrifices on it and not feed on the flesh with the blood, for that was not acceptable to God. And when all the people did as the king commanded them, Saul erected an altar there and offered burnt-offerings on it to God. This was the first altar that Saul built.

5. So when Saul was desirous of leading his men to the enemy’s camp before it was day in order to plunder it, and when the soldiers were not unwilling to follow him, but indeed showed great readiness to do as he commanded them, the king called Ahitub the high priest and commanded him to know of God whether He would grant them the favor and permission to go against the enemy’s camp in order to destroy those that were in it. And when the priest said that God did not give any answer, Saul replied, “And not without some cause does God refuse to answer what we inquire of Him, while yet a little while ago He declared to us all what we desired beforehand and even prevented us in His answer—to be sure there is some sin against Him that is concealed from us, which is the occasion of His silence. Now I swear by Him Himself, that though he that has committed this sin should prove to be my own son Jonathan, I will slay him, and by that means will appease the anger of God against us, and that in the very same manner as if I were to punish a stranger, and one not at all related to me, for the same offense.” So when the multitude cried out to him to do so, he presently set all the rest on one side, and he and his son stood on the other side, and he sought to discover the offender by lot. Now the lot appeared to fall on Jonathan himself. So when he was asked by his father what sin he had been guilty of, and what he was conscious of in the course of his life that might be considered instances of guilt or profaneness, his answer was this: “O father, I have done nothing more than that yesterday, without knowing of the curse and oath you had pronounced, while I was in pursuit of the enemy, I tasted of a honeycomb.” But Saul swore that he would slay him and prefer the observation of his oath before all the ties of birth and of nature. And Jonathan was not dismayed at this threatening of death, but, offering himself to it generously and undauntedly, he said, “Nor do I desire you, father, to spare me: death will be very acceptable to me when it proceeds from your piety, and after a glorious victory; for it is the greatest consolation to me that I leave the Hebrews victorious over the Philistines.” Hereon all the people were very sorry and greatly afflicted for Jonathan; and they swore that they would not overlook Jonathan, and see him, who was the author of their victory, die. By which means they snatched him out of the danger he was in from his father’s curse, while they also made their prayers to God for the young man, that He would forgive his sin.

6. So Saul, having slain about sixty thousand of the enemy, returned home to his own city and reigned happily: and he also fought against the neighboring nations, and he subdued the Ammonites, and Moabites, and Philistines, and Edomites, and Amalekites, as also the king of Zobah. He had three male children: Jonathan, and Isui, and Melchishua; with Merab and Michal his daughters. He also had Abner, his uncle’s son, for the captain of his host: that uncle’s name was Ner. Now Ner, and Kish the father of Saul, were brothers. Saul also had a great many chariots and horsemen and against whomsoever he made war he returned conqueror, and he advanced the affairs of the Hebrews to a great degree of success and prosperity, and made them superior to other nations, and made such of the young men as were remarkable for height and handsomeness his bodyguards.

CHAPTER 7

Saul’s War with the Amalekites and Conquest of Them.

1. Now Samuel came to Saul and said to him that he was sent by God to remind him that God had preferred him before all others and ordained him king; that he therefore ought to be obedient to Him and to submit to His authority, as considering that though he had dominion over the other tribes, yet God had dominion over him and over all things. That accordingly God said to him that “because the Amalekites caused the Hebrews a great deal of trouble while they were in the wilderness, and when, on their coming out of Egypt, they were making their way to that country which is now their own, I command you to punish the Amalekites by making war on them; and when you have subdued them, to leave none of them alive, but to pursue them through every age and to slay them, beginning with the women and the infants, and to require this as a punishment to be inflicted on them for the trouble they did to our forefathers; to spare nothing, neither donkeys nor other beasts, nor to reserve any of them for your own advantage and possession, but to devote them universally to God, and, in obedience to the commands of Moses, to blot out the name of Amalek entirely.”

2. So Saul promised to do what he was commanded; and supposing that his obedience to God would be shown, not only in making war against the Amalekites, but more fully in the readiness and quickness of his proceedings, he made no delay, but immediately gathered together all his forces; and when he had numbered them in Gilgal, he found them to be about four hundred thousand of the Israelites, besides the tribe of Judah, for that tribe contained by itself thirty thousand. Accordingly, Saul made an incursion into the country of the Amalekites and set many men in several parties in ambush at the river, so that he might not only trouble them by open fighting, but might fall on them unexpectedly in the ways, and might thereby surround them and kill them. And when he had joined battle with the enemy, he beat them; and pursuing them as they fled, he destroyed them all. And when that undertaking had succeeded, according as God had foretold, he set on the cities of the Amalekites; he besieged them and took them by force, partly by siege engines, partly by mines dug underground, and partly by building walls on the outsides. Some they starved out with famine, and some they gained by other methods; and after all, he committed himself to slay the women and the children, and thought he did not act therein either barbarically or inhumanly; first, because they were enemies whom he thus treated [as such], and, in the next place, because it was done by the command of God, whom it was dangerous not to obey. He also took Agag, the enemies’ king, captive—the beauty and height of whose body he admired so much, that he thought him worthy of preservation. Yet this was not however done according to the will of God, but by giving way to human passions and allowing himself to be moved with an abnormal commiseration, in a point where it was not safe for him to indulge it; for God hated the nation of the Amalekites to such a degree that He commanded Saul to have no pity on even those infants which we by nature chiefly show compassion; but Saul preserved their king and governor from the miseries which the Hebrews brought on the people, as if he preferred the fine appearance of the enemy to the memory of what God had sent him about. The multitude were also guilty, together with Saul, for they spared the herds and the flocks, and they took them for a spoil when God had commanded [that] they should not spare them. They also carried off with them the rest of their wealth and riches; but if there was anything that was not worthy of regard, that they destroyed.

3. But when Saul had conquered all these Amalekites that reached from Pelusium of Egypt to the Red Sea, he laid waste all the rest of the enemy’s country: but as for the nation of the Shechemites, he did not touch them, although they dwelt in the very middle of the country of Midian; for before the battle, Saul had sent to them and charged them to depart from there, lest they should be partakers of the miseries of the Amalekites; for he had a just reason for saving them, since they were of the relatives of Raguel, Moses’ father-in-law.

4. Hereon Saul returned home with joy, for the glorious things he had done and for the conquest of his enemies, as though he had not neglected anything which the prophet had commanded him to do when he was going to make war with the Amalekites, and as though he had exactly observed all that he ought to have done. But God was grieved that the king of the Amalekites was preserved alive, and that the multitude had seized the cattle for a spoil, because these things were done without His permission; for He thought it an intolerable thing that they should conquer and overcome their enemies by that power which He gave them, and then that He Himself should be so wholly despised and disobeyed by them that a mere man that was a king would not bear it. He therefore told Samuel the prophet that He regretted that He had made Saul king, while he did nothing that He had commanded him, but indulged his own inclinations. When Samuel heard that, he was perplexed and began to implore God all that night to be reconciled to Saul and not to be angry with him; but He did not grant that forgiveness to Saul which the prophet asked for, as not deeming it a suitable thing to grant forgiveness of [such] sins at his pleadings, since injuries do not otherwise grow so great as by the easy tempers of those that are injured, or while they hunt after the glory of being thought gentle and good-natured, before they are aware they produce other sins. Therefore, as soon as God had rejected the intercession of the prophet, and it plainly appeared He would not change His mind, at dawn Samuel came to Saul at Gilgal. When the king saw him, he ran to him, and embraced him, and said, “I return thanks to God, who has given me the victory, for I have performed everything that He has commanded me.” To which Samuel replied, “How is it then that I hear the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the greater cattle in the camp?” Saul answered that the people had reserved them for sacrifices, but that, as for the nation of the Amalekites, it was entirely destroyed, as he had received it in command to see done, and that not one man was left; but that he had saved alive the king alone and brought him to him, concerning whom, he said, they would advise together what should be done with him. But the prophet said, “God is not delighted with sacrifices, but with good and righteous men, who are such as follow His will and His laws and never think that anything is done well by them except when they do it as God had commanded them; that He then looks on Himself as offended, not when anyone does not sacrifice, but when anyone appears to be disobedient to Him; but that from those who do not obey Him, nor pay Him that duty which is the only true and acceptable worship, He will not kindly accept their oblations—[whether they] are those [that] they offer ever so many and so fat, or [if they] are presents they make Him ever so ornamental, no, though they were made of gold and silver themselves, He will still reject them and consider them instances of wickedness, and not of piety; and that He is delighted with those that still bear in mind this one thing, and this only: how to do that, whatsoever it is, which God pronounces or commands for them to do, and to choose rather to die than to transgress any of those commands; nor does He require so much as a sacrifice from them. And when these do sacrifice, though it be a poor oblation, He better accepts it as the honor of poverty, than such oblations as come from the richest men that offer them to Him. Therefore, take notice, that you are under the wrath of God, for you have despised and neglected what He commanded you. How do you then suppose that He will respect a sacrifice out of such things as He has doomed to destruction? Unless perhaps you imagine that it is all the same to offer it in sacrifice to God as to destroy it. Therefore, expect that your kingdom will be taken from you—and [also] that authority which you have abused by such insolent behavior, as to neglect that [very] God who bestowed it on you.” Then Saul confessed that he had acted unjustly and did not deny that he had sinned, because he had transgressed the injunctions of the prophet; but he said that it was out of a dread and fear of the soldiers that he did not prohibit and restrain them when they seized the spoil. “But forgive me,” he said, “and be merciful to me, for I will be cautious how I offend for the time to come.” He also begged the prophet to go back with him, that he might offer his thank-offerings to God; but Samuel went home, because he saw that God would not be reconciled to him.

5. But then Saul was so desirous to retain Samuel that he took hold of his cloak, and because the suddenness of Samuel’s departure made the motion to be violent, the cloak was torn. At this, the prophet said that in the same way the kingdom would be torn from him and that a good and just man would take it; that God persevered in what He had decreed about him; that to be mutable and changeable in what is determined, is agreeable to human passions only, but is not agreeable to the Divine Power. Hereon Saul said that he had been wicked, but that what was done could not be undone: he therefore desired him to honor him so far, that the multitude might see that he would accompany him in worshiping God. So Samuel granted him that favor, and he went with him and worshiped God. Agag also, the king of the Amalekites, was brought to him; and when the king asked, “Is death thus bitter?” Samuel said, “As you have made many of the Hebrew mothers to lament and lament the loss of their children, so will you, by your death, cause your mother to lament you also.” Accordingly, he gave [the] order to slay him immediately at Gilgal and then went away to the city [of] Ramah.

CHAPTER 8

How, on Saul’s Transgression of the Prophet’s Commands, Samuel Ordained Another Person to Be King Privately, Whose Name Was David, as God Commanded Him.

1. Now Saul being sensible of the miserable condition he had brought himself into, and that he had made God to be his enemy, he went up to his royal palace at Gibeah, which name denotes a hill, and after that day he no longer came into the presence of the prophet. And when Samuel mourned for him, God commanded him to cease his concern for him, and to take the holy oil, and go to Beth-Lehem, to Jesse the son of Obed, and to anoint such of his sons as He should show him for their future king. But Samuel said he was afraid lest Saul, when he came to know of it, should kill him, either by some private method or even openly. But on God’s suggesting to him a safe way of going there, he came to the aforementioned city; and when they all saluted him and asked what the reason was of his coming, he told them he came to sacrifice to God. When, therefore, he had gotten the sacrifice ready, he called Jesse and his sons to partake of those sacrifices; and when he saw his eldest son to be a tall and handsome man, he guessed by his attractiveness that he was the person who was to be their future king. But he was mistaken in judging about God’s providence; for when Samuel inquired of God whether he should anoint this youth, whom he so admired, and considered worthy of the kingdom, God said, “Men do not see as God sees. You indeed have respect for the fine appearance of this youth, and there consider him worthy of the kingdom, while I propose the kingdom as a reward, not of the beauty of bodies, but of the virtue of souls, and I inquire after one that is perfectly pleasant in that respect—I mean one who is beautiful in piety, and righteousness, and fortitude, and obedience, for in them consists the beauty of the soul.” When God had said this, Samuel commanded Jesse to show him all his sons. So he made his other five sons to come to him; of all of whom Eliab was the eldest, Aminadab the second, Shammah the third, Nathaniel the fourth, Rael the fifth, and Asam the sixth. And when the prophet saw that these were no way inferior to the eldest in their countenances, he inquired of God which of them it was whom He chose for their king. And when God said it was none of them, he asked Jesse whether he had not some other sons besides these; and when he said that he had one more, named David, but that he was a shepherd and took care of the flocks, Samuel commanded them to call him immediately, because until he had come they could not possibly sit down to the feast. Now, as soon as his father had sent for David, and he had come, he appeared to be of a yellow complexion, of a sharp sight, and a pleasant person in other respects also. “This is he,” said Samuel privately to himself, “whom it pleases God to make our king.” So he sat down to the feast and placed the youth under him, and Jesse also, with his other sons; after which he took oil in the presence of David, and anointed him, and whispered [to] him in the ear, and acquainted him that God chose him to be their king; and he exhorted him to be righteous and obedient to his commands, because by this means his kingdom would continue for a long time and his house should be of great splendor and celebrated in the world; [and] that he should overthrow the Philistines; and that against whatsoever nations he should make war, he should be the conqueror and survive the fight; and that while he lived he should enjoy a glorious name and leave such a name to his posterity also.

2. So Samuel, when he had given him these admonitions, went away. But the Divine Power departed from Saul and relocated to David; who, on this relocation of the Divine Spirit to him, began to prophesy. But as for Saul, some strange and demonic disorders came on him and brought on him such suffocations as were ready to choke him, for which the physicians could find no other remedy but this: that if any person could charm those passions by singing and playing on the harp, they advised them to inquire for such a one, and to observe when these demons came on him and disturbed him, and to take care that such a person might stand over him, and play on the harp, and recite hymns to him. Accordingly, Saul did not delay, but commanded them to seek out such a man. And when a certain bystander said that he had seen in the city of Beth-Lehem a son of Jesse, who was yet no more than a child in age, but handsome and beautiful, and in other respects one that was deserving of great regard, who was skillful in playing on the harp and in singing of hymns, he sent to Jesse and desired him to take David away from the flocks and send him to him, for he intended to see him, as having heard an advantageous character of his beauty and his valor. So Jesse sent his son and gave him presents to carry to Saul. And when he had come, Saul was pleased with him, and made him his armor-bearer, and held him in very high regard, for he charmed his passion and was the only physician against the trouble he had from the demons, whensoever it was that it came on him—and this by reciting of hymns, and playing on the harp, and bringing Saul to his right mind again. However, he sent to Jesse, the father of the child, and desired him to permit David to stay with him, because he was delighted with his sight and company, which stay, that he might not contradict Saul, he granted.

CHAPTER 9

How the Philistines Made Another Expedition against the Hebrews under the Reign of Saul; And How They Were Overcome by David’s Slaying Goliath in Single Combat.

1. Now the Philistines gathered themselves together again not very long afterward; and having gathered together a great army, they made war against the Israelites; and having seized a place between Shochoh and Azekah, they pitched their camp there. Saul also drew out his army to oppose them; and by pitching his own camp on a certain hill, he forced the Philistines to leave their former camp and to encamp themselves on a certain other hill, opposite that on which Saul’s army lay, so that a valley, which was between the two hills on which they lay, divided their camps apart. Now there came down a man out of the camp of the Philistines, whose name was Goliath, of the city of Gath, a man of vast bulk, for he was four cubits and a span in height and had around him weapons suitable to the size of his body, for he had a breastplate on that weighed five thousand shekels: he also had a helmet and greaves of brass, as large as you would naturally suppose might cover the limbs of such a vast body. His spear was also such as was not carried like a light thing in his right hand, but he carried it as lying on his shoulders. He also had a lance of six hundred shekels; and many followed him to carry his armor. Therefore, this Goliath stood between the two armies as they were in array for battle, and sent out a loud voice, and said to Saul and the Hebrews, “I will free you from fighting and from dangers; for what necessity is there that your army should fall and be afflicted? Give me a man from among you that will fight with me, and he that conquers will have the reward of the conqueror and determine the war; for these will serve those others to whom the conqueror will belong; and certainly it is much better, and more prudent, to gain what you desire by risking one man [rather] than all.” When he had said this, he retired to his own camp; but the next day he came again, and used the same words, and did not cease for forty whole days to challenge the enemy in the same words, until Saul and his army were terrified because of it, while they put themselves in array as if they would fight, but did not come to a close battle.

2. Now while this war between the Hebrews and the Philistines was going on, Saul sent David to his father Jesse, and he satisfied himself with those three sons of his whom he had sent to his assistance and to be partners in the dangers of the war: and at first David returned to feed his sheep and his flocks; but after a short time, he came to the camp of the Hebrews, as sent by his father, to carry provisions to his brothers and to know what they were doing, while Goliath came again, and challenged them, and reproached them, that they had no man of valor among them that dare come down to fight him; and as David was talking with his brothers about the business for which his father had sent him, he heard the Philistine reproaching and abusing the army, and had indignation at it, and said to his brothers, “I am ready to fight [in] single combat with this adversary.” Whereon Eliab, his eldest brother, rebuked him, and said that he spoke too rashly and improperly for one of his age, and commanded him to go to his flocks and to his father. So he was ashamed at his brother’s words and went away, but he still spoke to some of the soldiers that he was willing to fight with him that challenged them. And when they had informed Saul what the resolution of the young man was, the king sent for him to come to him: and when the king asked what he had to say, he replied, “O king, do not be downcast or afraid, for I will suppress the insolence of this adversary, and will go down and fight with him, and will bring him under me, as tall and as great as he is, until he will be sufficiently laughed at, and your army will get great glory, when he will be slain by one that is not yet of man’s estate, neither fit for fighting, nor capable of being entrusted with the marshaling [of] an army, or ordering a battle, but by one that looks like a child and is really no older in age than a child.”

3. Now Saul marveled at the boldness and eagerness of David, but dared not presume on his ability by reason of his age; but he said he must on that account be too weak to fight with one that was skilled in the art of war. “I undertake this enterprise,” said David, “in dependence on God’s being with me, for I have already experienced His assistance; for I once pursued after and caught a lion that assaulted my flocks and took away a lamb from them; and I snatched the lamb out of the wild beast’s mouth, and when he leaped on me with violence, I took him by the tail and dashed him against the ground. In the same manner, I avenged myself on a bear also; and let this adversary of ours be regarded like one of these wild beasts, since he has [for] a long time reproached our army and blasphemed our God, who yet will reduce him under my power.”

4. However, Saul prayed that the end might be, by God’s assistance, not disagreeable to the eagerness and boldness of the child, and said, “Go your way to the fight.” So he put his breastplate around him, and girded on his sword, and fitted the helmet to his head, and sent him away. But David was burdened with his armor, for he had not been accustomed to it, nor had he learned to walk with it; so he said, “Let this armor be yours, O king, who can bear it; but give me permission to fight as your servant, and as I myself desire.” Accordingly, he laid aside the armor, and taking his staff with him, and putting five stones out of the brook into a shepherd’s bag, and having a sling in his right hand, he went toward Goliath. But the adversary seeing him come in such a manner, disdained him and jeered at him, as if he did not have such weapons with him as are usual when one man fights against another, but such as are used in driving away and avoiding of dogs; and he said, “Do you take me not for a man, but a dog?” To which he replied, “No, not for a dog, but for a creature worse than a dog.” This provoked Goliath to anger, who therefore cursed him by the Name of God and threatened to give his flesh to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the air—to be torn in pieces by them. To whom David answered, “You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a breastplate; but I have God for my armor in coming against you, who will destroy you and all your army by my hands, for I will this day cut off your head and cast the other parts of your body to the dogs, and all men will learn that God is the protector of the Hebrews, and that our armor and our strength is in His providence, and that without God’s assistance, all other battle preparations and power are useless.” So the Philistine, being slowed by the weight of his armor when he attempted to meet David in haste, came on but slowly, as despising him and depending on it that he should slay him—who was both unarmed and a child also—without any trouble at all.

5. But the youth met his adversary, being accompanied with an invisible assistant, who was no other than God Himself. And taking one of the stones that he had [gathered] out of the brook and had put into his shepherd’s bag, and fitting it to his sling, he slung it against the Philistine. This stone fell on his forehead and sank into his brain insomuch that Goliath was stunned and fell on his face. So David ran, and stood on his adversary as he lay down, and cut off his head with his own sword, for he had no sword himself. And on the fall of Goliath, the Philistines were beaten and fled, for when they saw their champion prostrate on the ground, they were afraid of the entire issue of their affairs and resolved not to remain any longer, but committed themselves to an ignominious and indecent flight, and they thereby endeavored to save themselves from the dangers they were in. But Saul and the entire army of the Hebrews made a shout, and rushed on them, and slew a great number of them, and pursued the rest to the borders of Gath and to the gates of Ekron, so that there were slain of the Philistines thirty thousand, and twice as many were wounded. But Saul returned to their camp, and pulled their fortification to pieces, and burnt it; but David carried the head of Goliath into his own tent and dedicated his sword to God [at the Tabernacle].

CHAPTER 10

Saul Envies David for His Glorious Success and Seeks an Opportunity of Entrapping Him by the Promise He Made [to] Him of Giving Him His Daughter in Marriage; But This on Condition of His Bringing Him Six Hundred Heads of the Philistines.

1. Now the women were a cause of Saul’s envy and hatred for David, for they came to meet their victorious army with cymbals, and drums, and all demonstrations of joy, and sang thus: the wives said that “Saul had slain his many thousands of the Philistines.” The virgins replied that “David had slain his tens of thousands.” Now, when the king heard them singing this, and that he had himself the smallest share in their commendations, and the greater number, the tens of thousands, were ascribed to the young man, and when he considered within himself that there was nothing more lacking to David, after such a mighty applause, but the kingdom, he began to be afraid and suspicious of David. Accordingly, he removed him from the station he was in before, for he was his armor-bearer, which, out of fear, seemed to him much too near a station for him; and so he made him captain over one thousand and bestowed on him a post better indeed in itself, but, as he thought, more for his own security; for he intended to send him against the enemy, and into battles, as hoping he would be slain in such dangerous conflicts.

2. But David had God going along with him wherever he went, and accordingly, he greatly prospered in his undertakings, and it was visible that he had mighty success, insomuch that Saul’s daughter, who was still a virgin, fell in love with him; and her affection so far prevailed over her, that it could not be concealed, and her father became acquainted with it. Now Saul heard this gladly, as intending to make use of it for a snare against David, and he hoped that it would prove the cause of destruction and of danger to him; so he told those that informed him of his daughter’s affection that he would willingly give David the virgin in marriage, and he said, “I commit myself to marry off my daughter to him if he will bring me six hundred heads of my enemies, supposing that when a reward so ample was proposed to him, and when he should aim to get himself great glory by undertaking a thing so dangerous and incredible, he would immediately set about it and so perish by the Philistines; and my plans regarding him will succeed finely to my mind, for I will be freed from him and have him slain, not by myself, but by another man.” So he gave [the] order to his servants to try how David would relish this proposal of marrying the girl. Accordingly, they began to speak thus to him: that King Saul loved him, as well as did all the people, and that he was desirous of his affinity by the marriage of this girl. To which he gave this answer: “Does it seem to you a small thing to be made the king’s son-in-law? It does not seem so to me, especially when I am one of a family that is lowly and without any glory or honor.” Now when Saul was informed by his servants what answer David had made, he said, “Tell him that I do not want any money or dowry from him, which would be to offer my daughter for sale rather than to give her in marriage; but I desire only such a son-in-law as has in him fortitude, and all other kinds of virtue,” of which he saw David was possessed; and [Saul’s] desire was to receive of him, on account of his marrying his daughter, neither gold or silver, nor that he should bring such wealth out of his father’s house, but only some revenge on the Philistines, and indeed six hundred of their heads—than which a more desirable or a more glorious present could not be brought him—and that he would much rather obtain this than any of the accustomed dowries for his daughter, namely, that she should be married to a man of that character and to one who had a testimony as having conquered his enemies.

3. When these words of Saul were brought to David, he was pleased with them and supposed that Saul was really desirous of this affinity with him, so that without bearing to deliberate any longer, or turning over in his mind whether what was proposed was possible, or was difficult or not, he and his companions immediately set on the enemy and went about doing what was proposed as the condition of the marriage. Accordingly, because it was God who made all things easy and possible for David, he slew many [of the Philistines], and cut off the heads of six hundred of them, and came to the king, and by showing him these heads of the Philistines, required that he might have his daughter in marriage. Accordingly, Saul, having no way of getting out of his commitments, as thinking it a dishonorable thing either to seem a liar when he promised him this marriage, or to appear to have acted treacherously by him in putting him on what was in a manner impossible, in order to have him slain, he gave him his daughter in marriage: her name was Michal.

CHAPTER 11

How David, on Saul’s Laying Snares for Him, Yet Escaped the Dangers He Was in by the Affection and Care of Jonathan and the Contrivances of His Wife Michal: And How He Came to Samuel the Prophet.

1. However, Saul was not disposed to persevere long in the state wherein he was, for when he saw that David was [held] in high regard, both with God and with the multitude, he was afraid; and being unable to conceal his fear concerning significant things—his kingdom and his life, to be deprived of either of which was a very great calamity—he resolved to have David slain and commanded his son Jonathan and his most faithful servants to kill him: but Jonathan wondered at his father’s change with relation to David, that it should be made to such a great degree, from showing him no insignificant goodwill, to [now] plot how to have him killed. Now, because he loved the young man and revered him for his virtue, he informed him of the secret order his father had given, and what his intentions were concerning him. However, he advised him to take care and be absent the next day, because he would salute his father, and, if he met with a favorable opportunity, he would discourse with him about him, and learn the cause of his disgust, and show how little basis there was for it, and that for it he ought not kill a man that had done so many good things for the multitude and had been a benefactor to himself, on account of which he ought in reason to obtain pardon, had he been guilty of the greatest crimes; and, “I will then inform you of my father’s resolution.” Accordingly, David complied with such an advantageous advice and then kept himself out of the king’s sight.

2. On the next day, Jonathan came to Saul as soon as he saw him in a cheerful and joyful mood and began to introduce a discourse about David: “What unjust action, O father, either little or great, have you found so exceptional in David, so as to induce yourself to order us to slay a man who has been of great advantage to your own preservation and of still greater to the punishment of the Philistines? A man who has delivered the people of the Hebrews from reproach and derision, which they underwent for forty continuous days, when he alone had courage enough to sustain the challenge of the adversary, and after that brought as many heads of our enemies as he was appointed to bring, and had, as a reward for the same, my sister in marriage; insomuch that his death would be very sorrowful to us, not only on account of his virtue, but on account of the nearness of our relation; for your daughter must be injured at the same time that he is slain and must be obligated to experience widowhood before she can come to enjoy any advantage from their mutual conversation. Consider these things, and change your mind to a more merciful temper, and do no mischief to a man, who, in the first place, has done us the greatest kindness of preserving you; for when an evil spirit and demons had seized you, he cast them out and obtained rest for your soul from their incursions: and, in the second place, has avenged us of our enemies; for it is a dishonorable thing to forget such benefits.” So Saul was pacified with these words and swore to his son that he would do David no harm, for a righteous discourse proved too hard for the king’s anger and fear. So Jonathan sent for David and brought him good news from his father, that he was to be preserved. He also brought him to his father; and David continued with the king as formerly.

3. It was about this time that, on the Philistines making a new expedition against the Hebrews, Saul sent David with an army to fight with them; and joining battle with them, he slew many of them, and after his victory he returned to the king. But his reception by Saul was not as he expected on such success, for he was grieved at his prosperity, because he thought he would be more dangerous to him by having acted so gloriously: but when the demonic spirit came on him, and put him into disorder, and disturbed him, he called for David into his bedchamber wherein he lay, and having a spear in his hand, he ordered him to charm him with playing on his harp and with singing hymns; which when David did at his command, he threw the spear at him with great force; but David was aware of it before it came, and avoided it, and fled to his own house, and abided there all that day.

4. But at night the king sent officers and commanded that he should be watched until the morning, lest he should get away, that he might come into the judgment-hall and so might be delivered up, and condemned, and slain. But when Michal, David’s wife, the king’s daughter, understood what her father had schemed, she came to her husband, as having small hopes of his deliverance, and as greatly concerned about her own life also, for she could not bear to live in case she were deprived of him; and she said, “Do not let the sun find you here when it rises, for if it does, that will be the last time it will see you: flee away then while the night may provide you opportunity and may God lengthen it for your sake; for know this: that if my father finds you, you are a dead man.” So she let him down by a cord out of the window and saved him: and after she had done so, she fitted up a bed for him as if he were sick and put under the bed-clothes a goat’s liver, and when her father, as soon as it was day, sent to seize David, she said to those that were there that he had not been well that night, and she showed them the bed covered and made them believe, by the leaping of the liver, which caused the bed-clothes to move also, that David breathed like one that was asthmatic. So when those that were sent told Saul that David had not been well in the night, he ordered him to be brought in that condition, for he intended to kill him. Now when they came and uncovered the bed, and found out the woman’s contrivance, they told it to the king; and when her father complained to her that she had saved his enemy and had put a trick on himself, she invented this plausible defense for herself and said that when he had threatened to kill her, she lent him her assistance for his preservation, out of fear; for which her assistance she ought to be forgiven, because it was not done of her own free choice, but out of necessity: “For,” she said, “I do not suppose that you were so zealous to kill your enemy, as you were that I should be saved.” Accordingly, Saul forgave the girl; but David, when he had escaped this danger, came to the prophet Samuel at Ramah and told him what snares the king had laid for him and how he was very near to death by Saul’s throwing a spear at him, although he had been [in] no way guilty in relation to him, nor had he been cowardly in his battles with his enemies, but had succeeded well in them all, by God’s assistance—which thing was indeed the cause of Saul’s hatred toward David.

5. When the prophet was made acquainted with the unjust proceedings of the king, he left the city [of] Ramah and took David with him to a certain place called Naioth, and there he abided with him. But when it was told [to] Saul that David was with the prophet, he sent soldiers to him and ordered them to take him and bring him to him: and when they came to Samuel and found a gathering of prophets there, they became partakers of the Divine Spirit and began to prophesy; which when Saul heard of [it], he sent others to David, who prophesying in like manner as did the first, he again sent others; which third sort prophesying also, at last he was angry and went there in a great hurry himself; and when he was close by the place, Samuel, before he saw him, made him prophesy also. And when Saul came to him, he was disordered in mind and under the vehement agitation of a spirit; and, taking off his garments, he fell down and lay on the ground all day and night in the presence of Samuel and David.

6. And David went from there and came to Jonathan, the son of Saul, and lamented to him what snares were laid for him by his father; and he said that though he had been guilty of no evil, nor had offended against him, he was yet very zealous to get him killed. Hereon Jonathan exhorted him not to give credit to such suspicions of his own, nor to the defamations of those that raised those reports if there were any that did so, but to depend on him and take courage, because his father had no such intention, since he would have acquainted him with that matter and taken his advice, had it been so, as he used to consult with him in common when he acted in other affairs. But David swore to him that it was so, and he desired him to believe him and provide for his safety, rather than to despise what he, with great sincerity, told him—that he would believe what he said when he should either see him killed himself, or learn it on inquiry from others, and that the reason why his father did not tell him of these things was this: that he knew of the friendship and affection that he bore toward him.

7. Hereon, when Jonathan found that this intention of Saul was so well attested, he asked him what he would have him do for him, to which David replied, “I am aware that you are willing to gratify me in everything and provide me what I desire. Now tomorrow is the new moon, and I have been accustomed to sit down then with the king at supper: now, if it seems good to you, I will go out of the city and conceal myself privately there; and if Saul inquires why I am absent, tell him that I have gone to my own city [of] Beth-Lehem, to keep a festival with my own tribe; and add this also: that you gave me permission to do so. And if he says, as is usually said in the case of friends that have gone abroad, It is well that he went, then assure yourself that no hidden mischief or enmity may be feared at his hand; but if he answers otherwise, that will be a sure sign that he has some schemes against me; accordingly, you will inform me of your father’s inclinations—and that out of pity to my case and out of your friendship for me, as instances of which friendship you have granted to accept the assurances of my love for you, and to give the same assurances to me, that is, those of a master to his servant; but if you discover any wickedness in me, prevent your father and kill me yourself.”

8. But Jonathan heard these last words with indignation and promised to do what he desired of him and to inform him if his father’s answers implied anything of a melancholy nature and any enmity against him. And that he might more firmly depend on him, he took him out into the open field, into the pure air, and swore that he would neglect nothing that might tend to the preservation of David; and he said, “I appeal to that God, who, as you see, is diffused everywhere and knows this intention of mine before I explain it in words, as the witness of this covenant of mine with you, that I will not cease to make frequent trials of the purpose of my father until I learn whether there is any lurking disease in the most secret parts of his soul; and when I have learned it, I will not conceal it from you, but will reveal it to you, whether he is gently or petulantly disposed; for this God Himself knows that I pray He may always be with you, for He is with you now, and will not forsake you, and will make you superior to your enemies, whether my father is one of them or whether I myself am such. Only, remember what we now do; and if it comes to pass that I die, preserve my children alive and repay what kindness you have now received to them.” When he had thus sworn, he dismissed David, instructing him to go to a certain place of that plain wherein he used to perform his exercises; because, as soon as he knew the mind of his father, he would come there to him, with one servant only; “and if,” he says, “I shoot three darts at the mark, and then command my servant to carry these three darts away, for they are before him, know that there is no mischief to be feared from my father; but if you hear me say the contrary, expect the contrary from the king. However, you will gain security by my means, and will by no means suffer any harm; but see [that] you do not forget what I have desired of you in the time of your prosperity and be serviceable to my children.” Now David, when he had received these assurances from Jonathan, went his way to the place appointed.

9. But on the next day, which was the new moon, the king, when he had purified himself, as the custom was, came to supper; and when there sat by him his son Jonathan on his right hand, and Abner, the captain of his host, on the other hand, he saw [that] David’s seat was empty, but said nothing, supposing that he had not purified himself since he had accompanied with his wife and so could not be present; but when he saw that he was not there the second day of the month either, he inquired of his son Jonathan why the son of Jesse did not come to the supper and the feast, neither the day before nor that day. So Jonathan said that he had gone, according to the agreement between them, to his own city, where his tribe kept a festival, and that by his permission: that he also invited him to come to their sacrifice; “and,” said Jonathan, “if you will give me permission, I will go there, for you know the goodwill that I bear him.” And then it was that Jonathan understood his father’s hatred toward David and plainly saw his entire disposition; for Saul could not restrain his anger, but reproached Jonathan and called him the son of a renegade and an enemy; and he said he was a partner with David, and his assistant, and that by his behavior he showed he had no regard to himself, or to his mother, and would not be persuaded of this—that while David is alive, their kingdom was not secure for them; yet he commanded him to send for him, that he might be punished. And when Jonathan said, in response, “What has he done that you will punish him?” Saul was no longer content to [merely] express his anger in bare words, but snatched up his spear, and leaped on him, and desired to kill him. He did not indeed do what he intended, because he was hindered by his friends; but it appeared plainly to his son that he hated David and greatly desired to destroy him, insomuch that he had almost slain his son with his own hands on his account.

10. And it was then that the king’s son rose hastily from supper; and being unable to admit anything into his mouth for grief, he wept all night, both because he had himself been near destruction, and because the death of David was determined: but as soon as it was day, he went out into the plain that was before the city, as going to perform his exercises, but in reality to inform his friend what disposition his father was in toward him, as he had agreed with him to do; and when Jonathan had done what had been thus agreed, he dismissed his servant that followed him, to return to the city; but he himself went into the desert, and came into his presence, and communed with him. So David appeared and fell at Jonathan’s feet, and bowed down to him, and called him the preserver of his soul; but he lifted him up from the earth, and they mutually embraced one another and made a long greeting—and that not without tears. They also lamented their age, and that familiarity which envy would deprive them of, and that separation which must now be expected, which seemed to them no better than death itself. So, finally settling themselves from their lamentation and exhorting one another to be mindful of the oaths they had sworn to each other, they separated.

CHAPTER 12

How David Fled to Ahimelech and Afterward to the Kings of the Philistines and of the Moabites, and How Saul Slew Ahimelech and His Family.

1. But David fled from the king and that death he was in danger of by him, and he came to the city [of] Nob, to Ahimelech the priest, who, when he saw him coming all alone, and neither a friend nor a servant with him, he wondered at it and desired to learn from him the reason why there was nobody with him. To which David answered that the king had commanded him to do a certain thing that was to be kept secret, to which, if he intended to know so much, he had no occasion for anyone to accompany him: “However, I have ordered my servants to meet me at such and such a place.” So, he desired him to let him have something to eat; and that in case he would supply him, he would act the part of a friend and be assisting to the business he was now about: and when he had obtained what he desired, he also asked him whether he had any weapons with him, either sword or spear. Now there was at Nob a servant of Saul, by birth a Syrian, whose name was Doeg, one that kept the king’s mules. The high priest said that he had no such weapons; but, he added, “Here is the sword of Goliath, which, when you had slain the Philistine, you dedicated to God.”

2. When David had received the sword, he fled out of the country of the Hebrews into that of the Philistines, over which Achish reigned; and when the king’s servants knew him, and he was made known to the king himself, the servants informing him that he was that David who had killed many tens of thousands of the Philistines, David was afraid lest the king should put him to death and that he should experience that danger from him which he had escaped from Saul; so he pretended to be distracted and mad, so that his spittle ran out of his mouth; and he did other similar actions before the king of Gath, which might make him believe that they proceeded from such a disease. Accordingly, the king was very angry at his servants that they had brought him a madman, and he gave orders that they should immediately throw David [out of the city].

3. So when David had escaped in this manner out of Gath, he came to the tribe of Judah and abided in a cave by the city of Adullam. It was then that he sent to his brothers and informed them where he was, who then came to him with all their relatives; and as many others as were either in need or in fear of King Saul came and made a body together, and they told him they were ready to obey his orders; they were about four hundred in all. Whereon he took courage, now [that] such a force and support had come to him; so he removed from there, and came to the king of the Moabites, and desired him to entertain his parents in his country, while the issue of his affairs were in such an uncertain condition. The king granted him this favor and paid great respect to David’s parents all the time they were with him.

4. As for himself, on the prophet’s commanding him to leave the desert, and to go into the portion of the tribe of Judah, and abide there, he complied with that; and coming to the city [of] Hareth, which was in that tribe, he remained there. Now when Saul heard that David had been seen with a multitude around him, he fell into no small disturbance and trouble; but as he knew that David was a bold and courageous man, he suspected that something extraordinary would appear from him, and that openly also, which would make him weep and put him into distress; so he called together to himself his friends, and his commanders, and the tribe from which he was himself derived, to the hill where his palace was; and sitting on a place called Aroura, his courtiers that were in dignities, and his bodyguards, being with him, he spoke thus to them: “You that are men of my own tribe, I conclude that you remember the benefits that I have bestowed on you, and that I have made some of you owners of land, and made you commanders, and bestowed posts of honor on you, and set some of you over the common people, and others over the soldiers; I ask you, therefore, whether you expect greater and more contributions from the son of Jesse? for I know that you are all inclined toward him—even my own son Jonathan himself is of that opinion and persuades you to be of the same—for I am not unacquainted with the oaths and the covenants that are between him and David, and that Jonathan is a counselor and an assistant to those that conspire against me, and none of you are concerned about these things, but you keep silence and watch to see what the outcome will be of these things.” When the king had made this speech, not one of the rest of those that were present made any answer; but Doeg the Syrian, who fed his mules, said that he saw David when he came to the city [of] Nob, to Ahimelech the high priest, and that he learned future events by his prophesying; that he received food from him, and the sword of Goliath, and was led by him in safety to such as he desired to go to.

5. Saul therefore sent for the high priest, and for all his relatives, and said to them, “What terrible or ungrateful demand have you suffered from me, that you have received the son of Jesse, and have bestowed on him both food and weapons, when he was plotting to get the kingdom? And further, why did you deliver oracles to him concerning future events? For you could not be unaware that he had fled away from me, and that he hated my family.” But the high priest did not commit himself to deny what he had done, but confessed boldly that he had supplied him with these things, not to gratify David, but Saul himself: and he said, “I did not know that he was your adversary, but a servant of yours, who was very faithful to you, and a captain over one thousand of your soldiers, and, what is more than these, your son-in-law and relative. Men do not choose to confer such favors on their adversaries, but on those who are regarded to bear the highest goodwill and respect to them. Nor is this the first time that I prophesied for him, but I have done it often, and at other times as well as now. And when he told me that he was sent by you in great haste to do something, if I had furnished him with nothing that he desired I should have thought that it was rather in contradiction to you than to him; therefore, do not entertain any bad opinion of me, nor have a suspicion of what I then thought [was] an act of humanity from what is now told you of David’s attempts against you, for I did then to him as to your friend and son-in-law, and captain of one thousand, and not as to your adversary.”

6. When the high priest had spoken this, he did not persuade Saul, [for] his fear was so prevalent that he could not give credit to an apology that was very just. So he commanded his armed men that stood around him to kill him and all his relatives; but as they dared not touch the high priest, but were more afraid of disobeying God than the king, he ordered Doeg the Syrian to kill them. Accordingly, he took to his assistance such wicked men as were like himself and slew Ahimelech and all his family, who were in all three hundred and eighty-five. Saul also sent to Nob, the city of the priests, and slew all that were there, without sparing either women or children, or any other age, and burnt it; only there was one son of Ahimelech, whose name was Abiathar, who escaped. However, these things came to pass as God had foretold to Eli the high priest, when He said that his posterity should be destroyed on account of the transgression of his two sons.

7. Now this King Saul, by perpetrating such a barbaric crime and murdering the whole family of the high-priestly dignity—by having no pity for the infants, nor reverence for the aged, and by overthrowing the city which God had chosen for the property and for the support of the priests and prophets which were there, and had ordained as the only city allotted for the education of such men—makes everyone understand and consider the disposition of men, that while they are private persons and in a low condition, because it is not in their power to indulge nature, nor to venture on what they wish for, they are equitable and moderate, and pursue nothing but what is just, and bend their whole minds and labors that way; it is then that they have this belief about God, that He is present for all the actions of their lives, and that He does not only see the actions that are done, but clearly knows their thoughts also, from which those actions arise. But once they have advanced into power and authority, then they abandon all such notions, and, as if they were none other than actors in a theater, they lay aside their disguised parts and manners, and take up boldness, insolence, and a contempt of both human and Divine laws, and this at a time when they especially stand in need of piety and righteousness, because they are then most of all exposed to envy, and all they think and all they say is in view of all men; it is then that they become so insolent in their actions, as though God no longer saw them, or was [somehow] afraid of them because of their power: and whatsoever it is that they either are afraid of by the rumors they hear, or they hate by inclination, or they love without reason, these seem to them to be authentic, and firm, and true, and pleasing both to men and to God; but as to what will come hereafter, they have not the least regard for it. They raise those to honor who have indeed undergone a great deal of effort for them, and after that honor they envy them; and when they have brought them into high dignity, they do not only deprive them of what they had obtained, but also, on that very account, of their lives also—and that on wicked accusations, and such as on account of their extravagant nature, are implausible. They also punish men for their actions, not such as deserve condemnation, but from defamations and accusations without examination; and this extends not only to such as deserve to be punished, but to as many as they are able to kill. This reflection is openly confirmed to us from the example of Saul, the son of Kish, who was the first king who reigned after our aristocracy and government under the judges was over; and that by his slaughter of three hundred priests and prophets, on occasion of his suspicion about Ahimelech, and by the additional wickedness of the overthrow of their city, and this is as he was endeavoring in some sort to render the temple [[or tabernacle]] destitute of both priests and prophets, which endeavor he demonstrated by slaying so many of them, and not permitting the very city belonging to them to remain, so that others might succeed them.

8. But Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, who alone could be saved out of the family of priests slain by Saul, fled to David and informed him of the calamity that had happened to their family and of the slaughter of his father, who hereon said [that] he was not unaware of what would follow with relation to them when he saw Doeg there; for he then had a suspicion that the high priest would be falsely accused by him to the king, and he blamed himself as having been the cause of this misfortune. But he desired him to stay there and abide with him, as in a place where he might be better concealed than anywhere else.

CHAPTER 13

How David, When He Twice Had the Opportunity of Killing Saul, Did Not Kill Him. Also Concerning the Death of Samuel and Nabal.

1. It was about this time that David heard how the Philistines had made an inroad into the country of Keilah and robbed it, so he offered himself to fight against them, if God, when He should be consulted by the prophet, would grant him the victory. And when the prophet said that God gave a signal of victory, he made a sudden onset on the Philistines with his companions, and he shed a great deal of their blood, and carried off their prey, and stayed with the inhabitants of Keilah until they had securely gathered in their corn and their fruits. However, it was reported [to] Saul the king that David was with the men of Keilah, for what had been done and the great success that had attended him were not confined among the people where the things were done, but the fame of it went all abroad, and came to the hearing of others, and both the fact as it stood, and the author of the fact, were carried to the king’s ears. Then Saul was glad when he heard David was in Keilah, and he said, “God has now put him into my hands, since He has compelled him to come into a city that has walls, and gates, and bars.” So he commanded all the people suddenly, and when they had besieged and taken it, [he commanded them] to kill David. But when David perceived this, and learned from God that if he stayed there the men of Keilah would deliver him up to Saul, he took his four hundred men and retreated into a desert that was near a city called Engedi, so that when the king heard he had fled away from the men of Keilah, he ceased his expedition against him.

2. Then David removed from there and came to a certain place called the New Place, belonging to Ziph, where Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to him, and saluted him, and exhorted him to be of good courage, and to hope well regarding his condition hereafter and not to despair at his present circumstances, because he should be king and have all the forces of the Hebrews under him: he told him that such happiness usually comes with great labor and pains. They also took oaths, that they would, all their lives long, continue in goodwill and fidelity toward one another; and he called God to witness regarding what execrations he had made on himself if he should transgress His covenant and should change to a contrary behavior. So Jonathan left him there, having rendered his cares and fears somewhat lighter, and returned home. Now the men of Ziph, to gratify Saul, informed him that David abided with them, and [assured him] that if he would come to them, they would deliver him up, because if the king would seize the Straits of Ziph, David would not escape to any other people. So the king commended them and confessed that he had reason to thank them, because they had given him information of his enemy; and he promised them that it should not be long before he would repay their kindness. He also sent men to seek for David and to search the wilderness wherein he was; and he promised that he himself would follow them. Accordingly, they went before the king to hunt for and catch David, and used endeavors, not only to show their goodwill to Saul by informing him where his enemy was, but to prove the same more plainly by delivering him up into his power. But these men failed regarding those unjust and wicked desires of theirs, who, while they underwent no danger by not divulging such an ambition of revealing this to Saul, yet they falsely accused and promised to deliver up a man beloved of God, and one that was unjustly sought after to be put to death, and one that might otherwise have lain concealed—and this out of flattery and expectation of gain from the king; for when David was informed of the malignant intentions of the men of Ziph and the approach of Saul, he left the Straits of that country and fled to the great rock that was in the wilderness of Maon.

3. Hereon Saul made haste to pursue him there; for, as he was marching, he learned that David had gone away from the Straits of Ziph, and Saul moved to the other side of the rock. But the report that the Philistines had again made an incursion into the country of the Hebrews, called Saul away from the pursuit of David, when he was ready to be caught; for he returned back again to oppose those Philistines who were naturally their enemies, as judging it more necessary to avenge himself of them, than to undertake a great deal of effort to catch an enemy of his own and to overlook the ravage that was made in the land.

4. And by this means David unexpectedly escaped out of the danger he was in and came to the Straits of Engedi; and when Saul had driven the Philistines out of the land, there came some messengers who told him that David abided within the bounds of Engedi: so he took three thousand chosen men that were armed and hurried to him; and when he was not far from those places, he saw a deep and hollow cave by the wayside; it was open to a great length and breadth, and it was there that David was concealed with his four hundred men. When he therefore had occasion to relieve himself, he entered into it by himself—alone; and being seen by one of David’s companions—and he that saw him saying to him that he had now, by God’s providence, an opportunity of avenging himself on his adversary and advising him to cut off his head, and so deliver himself out of that tedious, wandering condition and the distress he was in—[David] rose up and only cut off the skirt of that garment which Saul had on, but he soon regretted what he had done; and he said it was not right to kill him that was his master, and one whom God had thought worthy of the kingdom, “because although he is wickedly disposed toward us, yet it is not right for me to be so disposed toward him.” But when Saul had left the cave, David came near, and cried out aloud, and desired Saul to hear him; whereon the king turned his face back, and David, according to custom, fell down on his face before the king, and bowed to him, and said, “O king, you should not listen to wicked men, nor to such as forge defamations, nor to gratify them so far as to believe what they say, nor to entertain suspicions of such as are your best friends, but to judge the dispositions of all men by their actions; for defamation deludes men, but men’s own actions are a clear demonstration of their kindness. Words indeed, in their own nature, may be either true or false, but men’s actions expose their intentions nakedly to our view. Therefore, by these it will be well for you to believe me, as for my regard for you and your house, and not to believe those that frame such accusations against me as never came into my mind, nor are possible to be executed, and do this further by pursuing after my life, and [who] have no [other] concern, both day and night, except how to encircle my life and to murder me, which thing I think you unjustly prosecute; for how does it happen that you have embraced this false opinion about me, as if I had a desire to kill you? Or how can you escape the crime of impiety toward God, when you wish you could kill [me], and consider your adversary [to be] a man who had it in his power this day to avenge himself, and to punish you, but would not do it? nor make use of such an opportunity, which, if it had happened to you against me, you would not have let it slip away, for when I cut off the skirt of your garment, I could have done the same to your head.” So he showed him the piece of his garment and thereby made him agree to what he said to be true; and he added, “I, for certain, have abstained from taking a just revenge on you, yet you are not ashamed to prosecute me with unjust hatred. May God do justice and determine about each of our dispositions.” But Saul was amazed at the strange delivery he had received; and being greatly affected with the moderation and the disposition of the young man, he groaned; and when David had done the same, the king answered that he had the most just occasion to groan, “for you have been the author of good to me, as I have been the author of calamity to you; and you have demonstrated this day that you possess the righteousness of the ancients who determined that men ought to save their enemies, though they caught them in a desert place. I am now persuaded that God reserves the kingdom for you and that you will obtain the dominion over all the Hebrews. Give me then assurances on oath that you will not root out my family, nor, out of remembrance of what evil I have done you, destroy my posterity, but save and preserve my house.” So David swore as he desired and sent Saul back to his own kingdom; but he, and those that were with him, went up the Straits of Mastheroth.

5. About this time, Samuel the prophet died. He was a man whom the Hebrews honored to an extraordinary degree: for that lamentation which the people made for him, and this for a long time, manifested his virtue and the affection which the people bore for him, as also did the solemnity and concern that appeared during his funeral and during the complete observation of all his funeral rites. They buried him in his own city of Ramah and wept for him a very great number of days, not looking on it as a sorrow for the death of another man, but as that in which every one of them were concerned. He was a righteous man and gentle in his nature; and on that account, he was very dear to God. Now he governed and presided over the people alone, after the death of Eli the high priest, twelve years, and eighteen years together with Saul the king. And thus, we have finished the history of Samuel.

6. There was a man that was a Ziphite, of the city of Maon, who was rich and had a vast number of cattle; for he fed a flock of three thousand sheep, and another flock of one thousand goats. Now David had instructed his associates to keep these flocks without harm and without damage, and to cause them no trouble, neither out of covetousness, nor because they were in need, nor because they were in the wilderness, and so could not easily be discovered, but to consider freedom from injustice above all other motives, and to look on the touching of what belonged to another man as a horrible crime and contrary to the will of God. These were the instructions he gave, thinking that the favors he granted this man were granted to a good man, and one that deserved to have such care taken of his affairs. This man was Nabal, for that was his name—a harsh man, and of a very wicked life, being like a cynic in the course of his behavior, but still had obtained for his wife a woman of good character, wise and attractive. To this Nabal, therefore, David sent ten men of his attendants at the time when he sheared his sheep, and by them saluted him; and he also wished [that] he might do what he now did for many years to come, but desired him to make him a present of what he was able to give him, since he had, to be sure, learned from his shepherds that we had done them no harm, but had been their guardians a long time together, while we continued in the wilderness; and he assured him he should never relent of giving anything to David. When the messengers had carried this message to Nabal, he confronted them in an inhuman and rough manner, for he asked them who David was. and when he heard that he was the son of Jesse, he said, “Now is the time that fugitives grow insolent, and make an appearance, and leave their masters.” When they told David this, he was angry, and commanded four hundred armed men to follow him, and left two hundred to take care of the supplies (for he already had six hundred), and went against Nabal: he also swore that he would utterly destroy the whole house and possessions of Nabal that night, because he was grieved, not only that he had proved ungrateful to them without making any return for the humanity they had shown him, but that he had also reproached them, and used bad language against them, when he had received no cause of disgust from them.

7. Hereon one of those that kept the flocks of Nabal said to his mistress, Nabal’s wife, that when David sent to her husband he had received no civil answer at all from him, but that her husband had moreover added very reproachful language, while yet David had taken extraordinary care to keep his flocks from harm, and that what had passed would prove very destructive to his master. When the servant had said this, Abigail—for that was his wife’s name—saddled her donkeys and loaded them with all sorts of presents; and, without telling her husband anything of what she was planning (for he was not sensible on account of his drunkenness), she went to David. She was then met by David as she was descending a hill, who was coming against Nabal with four hundred men. When the woman saw David, she leaped down from her donkey, and fell on her face, and bowed down to the ground, and begged him not to bear in mind the words of Nabal, since he knew that he resembled his name (now Nabal, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies folly). So she made her apology, that she did not see the messengers whom he sent. “Forgive me, therefore,” she said, “and thank God, who has hindered you from shedding human blood; for so long as you keep yourself innocent, He will avenge you of wicked men, for what miseries await Nabal, they will fall on the heads of your enemies. Be gracious to me, and consider me worthy enough so as to accept these presents from me; and, out of regard for me, remit that wrath and that anger which you have against my husband and his house, for mildness and humanity suit you, especially as you are to be our king.” Accordingly, David accepted her presents and said, “No, but, O woman, it was no other than God’s mercy which brought you to us today, for, otherwise, you would have never seen another day—I having sworn to destroy Nabal’s house this very night and to leave alive not one of you who belonged to a man that was wicked and ungrateful to me and my companions; but now you have prevented me, and seasonably placated my anger, as being yourself under the care of God’s providence: but as for Nabal, although for your sake he now escapes punishment, he will not always avoid justice; for his evil conduct, on some other occasion, will be his ruin.”

8. When David had said this, he dismissed the woman. But when she came home and found her husband feasting with a great company and oppressed with wine, she said nothing to him then about what had happened; but on the next day, when he was sober, she told him all the particulars and made his whole body to appear like that of a dead man by her words, and by that grief which arose from them; so Nabal survived ten days, and no more, and then died. And when David heard of his death, he said that God had justly avenged him of this man, because Nabal had died by his own wickedness, and had suffered punishment on his account, while he had kept his own hands clean. At which time he understood that the wicked are prosecuted by God; that He does not overlook any man, but bestows on the good what is suitable to them, and inflicts a deserved punishment on the wicked. So he sent to Nabal’s wife, and invited her to come to him, to live with him, and to be his wife. Whereon she replied to those that came that she was not worthy to touch his feet; however, she came, with all her servants, and became his wife, having received that honor on account of her wise and righteous course of life. She also obtained the same honor partly on account of her beauty. Now David had a wife before, whom he married from the city [of] Abesar; for as to Michal, the daughter of King Saul, who had been David’s wife, her father had given her in marriage to Phalti, the son of Laish, who was of the city of Gallim.

9. After this, certain of the Ziphites came and told Saul that David had come again into their country, and if he would provide them his assistance, they could catch him. So he came to them with three thousand armed men; and on the approach of night, he pitched his camp at a certain place called Hachilah. But when David heard that Saul was coming against him, he sent spies and commanded them to let him know to what place of the country Saul had already come; and when they told him that he was at Hachilah, he concealed his going away from his companions and came to Saul’s camp, having taken with him Abishai, his sister Zeruiah’s son, and Ahimelech the Hittite. Now Saul was asleep, and the armed men, with Abner their commander, lay around him in a circle. Hereon David entered into the king’s tent; but he neither killed Saul, though he knew where he lay, by the spear that was stuck down by him, nor did he give permission to Abishai, who would have killed him, and was earnestly bent on it to do so; for he said it was a horrid crime to kill one that was ordained king by God, although he was a wicked man, because He who gave him the dominion would in time inflict punishment on him. So he restrained his eagerness; but that it might appear to have been in his power to have killed him when he refrained from it, he took his spear, and the jar of water which stood by Saul as he lay asleep, without being perceived by any in the camp, who were all asleep, and went securely away, having performed everything among the king’s attendants that the opportunity provided and his boldness encouraged him to do. So when he had passed over a brook, and had gone up to the top of a hill from where he might be sufficiently heard, he cried aloud to Saul’s soldiers, and to Abner their commander, and awoke them out of their sleep, and called both to him and to the people. Hereon the commander heard him and asked who it was that called him. To whom David replied, “It is I, the son of Jesse, whom you make a wanderer. But what is the matter? Do you, that are a man of such great dignity, and of the first rank in the king’s court, take so little care of your master’s body? and is sleep of more consequence to you than his preservation and your care of him? This negligence of yours deserves death and punishment to be inflicted on you who never perceived when, a little while ago, some of us entered into your camp—indeed, as far as to the king himself, and to all the rest of you. If you look for the king’s spear and his jar of water, you will learn what a mighty misfortune was ready to overtake you in your very camp without your knowing it.” Now when Saul knew David’s voice, and understood that when he had him in his power while he was asleep, and his guards took no care of him, he yet did not kill him, but spared him, when he might justly have cut him off, he said that he owed him thanks for his preservation, and he exhorted him to be of good courage, and not be afraid of suffering any trouble from him anymore, and to return to his own home, for he was now persuaded that he did not love himself so well as he was loved by him: that he had driven away him that could guard him and had given many demonstrations of his goodwill toward him; that he had forced him to live so long in a state of banishment, and in great fears of his life, destitute of his friends and his relatives, while he was still often saved by him, and frequently received his life again when it was evidently in danger of perishing. So David commanded them to send for the spear and the jar of water and take them back, adding this as well: that God would be the judge of both their dispositions and the actions that flowed from the same—“who knows that when it was this day in my power to have killed you, I abstained from it.”

10. Thus, Saul having escaped the hands of David twice, he went his way to his royal palace and his own city: but David was afraid that if he stayed there, he should be caught by Saul, so he thought it better to go up into the land of the Philistines and abide there. Accordingly, he came with the six hundred men that were with him to Achish, the king of Gath, which was one of their five cities. Now the king received both him and his men and gave them a place to dwell in. He also had with him his two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, and he dwelt in Gath. But when Saul heard this, he took no further care about sending to him, or going after him, because he had been twice, in a manner, caught by him, while he was himself endeavoring to catch him. However, David had no mind to continue in the city of Gath, but desired the king, that since he had received him with such humanity, that he would grant him another favor, and bestow on him some place of that country for his habitation, for he was ashamed, by living in the city, to be grievous and burdensome to him. So Achish gave him a certain village called Ziklag, which place David and his sons were fond of when he was king and reckoned it to be their peculiar inheritance. But about those matters we will give the reader further information elsewhere. Now the time that David dwelt in Ziklag, in the land of the Philistines, was four months and twenty days. And now he privately attacked those Geshurites and Amalekites that were neighbors to the Philistines, and laid waste their country, and took much prey of their beasts and camels, and then returned home; but David abstained from the men, as fearing they should reveal him to King Achish; yet he sent part of the prey to him as a free gift. And when the king inquired whom they had attacked when they brought away the prey, he said, “Those that lay to the south of the Jews and dwelling in the plain”; whereby he persuaded Achish to approve of what he had done, for he hoped that David had fought against his own nation, and that now he should have him for his servant all his life long, and that he would stay in his country.

CHAPTER 14

How Saul, on God’s Not Answering Him Concerning the Fight with the Philistines, Desired a Necromantic Woman to Raise up the Soul of Samuel to Him; And How He Died with His Sons at the Overthrow of the Hebrews in Battle.

1. About the same time, the Philistines resolved to make war against the Israelites and sent to all their confederates so that they would go along with them to the war, to Reggan [(near the city of Shunem)], from where they might gather themselves together and suddenly attack the Hebrews. Then Achish, the king of Gath, desired David to assist them with his armed men against the Hebrews. This he readily promised and said that the time had now come wherein he might repay him for his kindness and hospitality. So the king promised to make him his bodyguard after the victory, supposing that the battle with the enemy succeeded to their mind; which promise of honor and confidence he made on purpose to increase his zeal for his service.

2. Now Saul, the king of the Hebrews, had cast out of the country the fortune-tellers, and the necromancers, and all such as exercised similar arts, excepting the prophets. But when he heard that the Philistines had already come and had pitched their camp near the city [of] Shunem, situated in the plain, he hurried to oppose them with his forces; and when he had come to a certain mountain called Gilboa, he pitched his camp opposite the enemy; but when he saw the enemy’s army, he was greatly troubled, because it appeared to him to be numerous and superior to his own; and he inquired of God by the prophets concerning the battle, that he might know beforehand what would be the outcome of it. And when God did not answer him, Saul was under a still greater dread, and his courage fell, foreseeing, as was but reasonable to suppose, that trouble would happen to him, now [that] God was not there to assist him; yet he commanded his servants to inquire for him [from the] sort of woman that was a necromancer and called up the souls of the dead, so that he might know whether his affairs would succeed to his mind; for this sort of necromantic women that bring up the souls of the dead, do by them foretell future events to such as desire them. And one of his servants told him that there was such a woman in the city [of] Endor, but was known to nobody in the camp; hereon Saul took off his royal apparel, and took with him two of those servants of his whom he knew to be most faithful to him, and came to Endor, to the woman, and implored her to act the part of a fortune-teller and to bring up such a soul to him as he should name to her. But when the woman opposed his motion, and said she did not despise the king who had banished this sort of fortune-tellers, and that he did not do well himself, when she had done him no harm, to endeavor to lay a snare for her and to reveal that she exercised a forbidden art, in order to get her to be punished, he swore that nobody should know what she did and that he would not tell anyone else what she foretold, but that she should incur no danger. As soon as he had induced her by this oath to fear no harm, he commanded her to bring up to him the soul of Samuel. She, not knowing who Samuel was, called him out of Hades. When he appeared, and the woman saw one that was venerable, and of a divine form, she was in a panic; and being astonished at the sight, she said, “Are you not King Saul?” for Samuel had informed her who he was. When he had acknowledged that to be true and had asked her from where her panic arose, she said that she saw a certain person ascend, who in his form was like to a god. And when he commanded her to tell him what he resembled, in what clothing he appeared, and of what age he was, she told him he was an old man already, and of a glorious personage, and had on a priestly mantle. So the king discovered by these signs that he was Samuel; and he fell down on the ground, and saluted and bowed to him. And when the soul of Samuel asked him why he had disturbed him and caused him to be brought up, he lamented the necessity he was under; for he said that his enemies pressed heavily on him; that he was in distress [regarding] what to do in his present circumstances; that he was forsaken by God and could obtain no prediction of what was coming, neither by prophets nor by dreams; and that “these were the reasons why I have recourse to time, which always took great care of me.” But Samuel, seeing that the end of Saul’s life had come, said, “It is in vain for you to desire to learn from me anything future when God has forsaken you; however, hear what I say: that David is to be king and to finish this war with good success; and you are to lose your dominion and your life, because you did not obey God in the war with the Amalekites and have not kept His commandments, as I foretold you while I was alive. Know, therefore, that the people will be made subject to their enemies, and that you, with your sons, will fall in the battle tomorrow, and you will then be with me [in Hades].”

3. When Saul heard this, he could not speak because of grief, and he fell down on the floor—whether it was from the sorrow that arose on what Samuel had said, or from his emptiness, for he had taken no food the preceding day or night, [so that] he fell down quite easily—and when with difficulty he had recovered himself, the woman would force him to eat, begging this of him as a favor on account of her concern in that dangerous instance of fortune-telling, which it was not lawful for her to have done, because of the fear she was under of the king, while she did not know who he was, yet she undertook it and went through with it; on which account she implored him to permit that a table and food might be set before him, that he might recover his strength and so get safely to his own camp. And when he opposed her motion, and entirely rejected it, by reason of his anxiety, she forced him, and at last persuaded him to it. Now she had one calf that she was very fond of, and one that she took a great deal of care of, and fed it herself; for she was a woman that got her living by the labor of her own hands and had no other possession but that one calf; this she killed, and made its flesh ready, and set it before his servants and himself. So Saul came to the camp while it was yet night.

4. Now it is but just to recommend the generosity of this woman, because when the king had forbidden her to use that art from which her circumstances were bettered and improved, and when she had never seen the king before, she still did not remember to his disadvantage that he had condemned her sort of learning, and did not refuse him as a stranger, and one that she had had no acquaintance with; but she had compassion on him, and comforted him, and exhorted him to do what he was greatly averse to, and offered him the only creature she had, as a poor woman, and that earnestly, and with great humanity, while she had no payment made [to] her for her kindness, nor hunted after any future favor from him, for she knew he was to die; whereas men are naturally either ambitious to please those that bestow benefits on them, or are very ready to serve those from whom they may receive some advantage. It would therefore be good to imitate the example, and to do kindnesses to all such as are in need, and to think that nothing is better, nor more becoming mankind, than such a general benevolence, nor what will sooner render God favorable and ready to bestow good things on us. And this may suffice to have discussed concerning this woman. But I will speak further on another subject, which will provide me every opportunity of discoursing on what is for the advantage of cities, and people, and nations, and suited to the taste of good men, and will encourage them all in the prosecution of virtue, and is capable of showing them the method of acquiring glory and an everlasting fame, and of imprinting in the kings of nations, and the rulers of cities, great inclination and diligence of doing well, as also of encouraging them to undergo dangers, and to die for their countries, and of instructing them how to despise all the most terrible adversities: and I have a fair occasion offered me to enter on such a discourse by Saul the king of the Hebrews, for although he knew what was coming on him and that he was to die immediately, by the prediction of the prophet, he did not resolve to flee from death, nor so far to indulge the love of life as to betray his own people to the enemy, or to bring a disgrace on his royal dignity; but exposing himself, as well as all his family and children, to dangers, he thought it a brave thing to fall together with them, as he was fighting for his subjects, and that it was better his sons should die thus, showing their courage, than to leave them to their uncertain conduct afterward, while, instead of succession and posterity, they gained commendation and a lasting name. Such a one alone seems to me to be a just, courageous, and prudent man; and when anyone has arrived at these dispositions, or will hereafter arrive at them, he is the man that ought to be by all honored with the testimony of a virtuous or courageous man: for as to those that go out to war with hopes of success, and that they will return safe, supposing they should have performed some glorious action, I think those do not do well who call these valiant men, as so many historians and other writers who discuss them are accustomed to do, although I confess those do justly deserve some commendation also; but those only may be styled courageous and bold in great undertakings, and despisers of adversities, who imitate Saul: for as to those that do not know what the event of war will be as to themselves, and though they do not faint in it, but deliver themselves up to an uncertain future, and are tossed this way and that way, this is not so very prominent an instance of a generous mind, although they happen to perform many great exploits; but when men’s minds expect no good event, but they know beforehand they must die, and that they must undergo that death in the battle also, after this neither to be frightened, nor to be astonished at the terrible fate that is coming, but to go directly on it, when they know it beforehand, it is this that I consider the character of a truly courageous man. Accordingly, this Saul did, and thereby demonstrated that all men who desire fame after they are dead are so to act as they may obtain the same: this especially concerns kings, who ought not to think it enough in their high stations that they are not wicked in the government of their subjects, but to be no more than moderately good to them. I could say more than this about Saul and his courage, the subject providing sufficient matter; but that I may not appear to run out improperly in his commendation, I return again to that history from which I made this digression.

5. Now when the Philistines, as I said before, had pitched their camp, and had taken an account of their forces according to their nations, and kingdoms, and governments, King Achish came last of all with his own army; after whom David came with his six hundred armed men. And when the commanders of the Philistines saw him, they asked the king from where these Hebrews came, and at whose invitation. He answered that it was David, who had fled away from his master Saul, and that he had entertained him when he came to him, and that now he was willing to make him this payment for his favors, and to avenge himself on Saul, and so had become his confederate. The commanders complained of this, that he had taken him for a confederate who was an enemy; and they gave him counsel to send him away, lest he should unknowingly do his friends a great deal of trouble by entertaining him, because he provided him an opportunity of being reconciled to his master by doing trouble to our army. They therefore desired him, out of a prudent foresight of this, to send him away, with his six hundred armed men, to the place he had given him for his habitation, because this was that David whom the virgins celebrated in their hymns, as having destroyed many tens of thousands of the Philistines. When the king of Gath heard this, he thought they spoke well; so he called David and said to him, “As for myself, I can bear witness that you have shown great diligence and kindness concerning me, and on that account it was that I took you for my confederate; however, what I have done does not please the commanders of the Philistines; therefore, go within a day’s time to the place I have given you, without suspecting any harm, and there guard my country, lest any of our enemies should make an incursion on it, which will be one part of that assistance which I expect from you.” So David came to Ziklag, as the king of Gath commanded him; but it happened, that while he had gone to the assistance of the Philistines, the Amalekites had made an incursion, and already taken Ziklag, and had burnt it; and when they had taken a great deal of other spoil out of that place, and out of the other parts of the Philistines’ country, they departed.

6. Now when David found that Ziklag was laid waste, and that it was all spoiled, and that as well his own wives, who were two, as the wives of his companions, with their children, were made captives, he presently tore his clothes, weeping and lamenting, together with his friends; and indeed, he was so downcast with these misfortunes, that finally tears themselves failed him. He was also in danger of being stoned to death by his companions, who were greatly afflicted at the captivity of their wives and children, for they laid the blame on him for what had happened. But when he had recovered himself out of his grief, and had raised up his mind to God, he desired the high priest Abiathar to put on his priestly garments, and to inquire of God, and to prophesy to him whether God would grant that if he pursued after the Amalekites, he should overtake them, and save their wives and their children, and avenge himself on the enemies. And when the high priest commanded him to pursue after them, he marched quickly, with his four hundred men, after the enemy; and when he had come to a certain brook called Besor, and had come to one that was wandering around, an Egyptian by birth, who was almost dead with hunger and famine (for he had continued wandering around without food in the wilderness three days), he first of all gave him sustenance, both meat and drink, and thereby refreshed him. He then asked him to whom he belonged and where he came from. Whereon the man told him he was an Egyptian by birth and was left behind by his master because he was so sick and weak that he could not follow him. He also informed him that he was one of those who had burnt and plundered, not only other parts of Judea, but also Ziklag itself. So David made use of him as a guide to track down the Amalekites; and when he had overtaken them, as they lay scattered around on the ground, some at dinner, some disorderly and entirely drunk with wine, and in the fruition of their spoils and their prey, he suddenly fell on them and made a great slaughter among them; for they were naked, and expected no such thing, but had committed themselves to drinking and feasting; and so they were all easily destroyed. Now some of them that were overtaken as they lay at the table were slain in that posture, and their blood brought up with it their meat and their drink. They slew others of them as they were drinking to one another in their cups, and some of them when their full bellies had made them fall asleep; and for so many as had time to put on their armor, they slew them with the sword, with no less ease than they did those that were naked; and for the partisans of David, they also continued the slaughter from the first hour of the day to the evening, so that there were not more than four hundred of the Amalekites left; and they only escaped by getting on their dromedaries and camels. Accordingly, David recovered not only all the other spoils which the enemy had carried away, but his wives also, and the wives of his companions. But when they had come to the place where they had left the two hundred men, which were unable to follow them, but were left to take care of the stuff, the four hundred men did not think fit to divide among them any other parts of what they had gotten, or of the prey, since they did not accompany them, but pretended to be feeble, and did not follow them in pursuit of the enemy, but said they should be satisfied to have safely recovered their wives; yet David pronounced that this opinion of theirs was evil and unjust, and that when God had granted them such a favor that they had avenged themselves on their enemies and had recovered all that belonged to themselves, they should make an equal distribution of what they had obtained to all, because the rest had tarried behind to guard their possessions; and from that time on this law gained among them: that those who guarded the possessions should receive an equal share with those that fought in the battle. Now when David had come to Ziklag, he sent portions of the spoils to all that had been familiar with him, and to his friends in the tribe of Judah. And thus ended the affairs of the plundering of Ziklag and of the slaughter of the Amalekites.

7. Now on the Philistines joining battle, there followed a sharp engagement, and the Philistines became the conquerors and slew a great number of their enemies; but Saul the king of Israel, and his sons, fought courageously and with the utmost eagerness, as knowing that their entire glory lay in nothing else but dying honorably and exposing themselves to the utmost danger from the enemy (for they had nothing else to hope for); so they brought on themselves the whole power of the enemy, until they were encompassed around and slain, but not before they had killed many of the Philistines. Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchisua; and when these were slain, the multitude of the Hebrews were put to flight, and all was disorder, and confusion, and slaughter when the Philistines were pressing in on them. But Saul himself fled, having a strong body of soldiers around him; and on the Philistines sending after them those that threw javelins and shot arrows, he lost all his company except a few. As for himself, he fought with great bravery; and when he had received so many wounds that he was unable to bear up or oppose any longer, and yet was unable to kill himself, he commanded his armor-bearer to draw his sword and run him through before the enemy should take him alive. But his armor-bearer not daring to kill his master, he drew his own sword, and placing himself opposite its point, he threw himself on it; and when he could neither run it through him, nor, by leaning against it, make the sword pass through him, he turned him around and asked a certain young man that stood by who he was; and when he understood that he was an Amalekite, he desired him to force the sword through him, because he was unable to do it with his own hands, and thereby to obtain himself such a death as he desired. This the young man did accordingly; and he took the golden bracelet that was on Saul’s arm, and his royal crown that was on his head, and ran away. And when Saul’s armor-bearer saw that he was slain, he killed himself; nor did any of the king’s guards escape, but they all fell on the mountain called Gilboa. But when those Hebrews that dwelt in the valley beyond Jordan and those who had their cities in the plain heard that Saul and his sons were fallen, and that the multitude around them were destroyed, they left their own cities and fled to such as were the best fortified and walled; and the Philistines, finding those cities deserted, came and dwelt in them.

8. On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip their enemies that were slain, they got the bodies of Saul and of his sons, and they stripped them and cut off their heads; and they sent messengers all around their country, to inform them that their enemies had fallen; and they dedicated their armor in the temple of Astarte, but hung their bodies on crosses at the walls of the city [of] Beth-Shan, which is now called Scythopolis. But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard that they had dismembered the dead bodies of Saul and of his sons, they deemed it so horrid a thing to overlook this barbarity, and to allow them to be without funeral rites, that the most courageous and hardy among them (and indeed that city had in it men that were very stout both in body and mind) journeyed all night, and came to Beth-Shan, and approached to the enemy’s wall, and taking down the bodies of Saul and of his sons, they carried them to Jabesh, while the enemy was unable enough nor bold enough to hinder them, because of their great courage. So the people of Jabesh wept all in general and buried their bodies in the best place of their country, which was named Areurn; and they observed a public mourning for them seven days, with their wives and children, beating their breasts and lamenting the king and his sons, without either tasting meat or drink [until the evening].

9. Saul came to this end according to the prophecy of Samuel, because he disobeyed the commands of God about the Amalekites, and on account of his destroying the family of Ahimelech the high priest, with Ahimelech himself, and the city of the high priests. Now Saul, when he had reigned eighteen years while Samuel was alive, and after his death two [[or twenty-two]], ended his life in this manner.

BOOK VII

Containing the Interval of Forty Years. From the Death of Saul to the Death of David.

CHAPTER 1

How David Reigned over One Tribe at Hebron While the Son of Saul Reigned over the Rest of the Multitude; And How, in the Civil War Which Then Arose, Asahel and Abner Were Slain.

1. This fight proved to be on the same day whereon David had come back to Ziklag, after he had overcome the Amalekites. Now when he had already been at Ziklag two days, the man who slew Saul came to him, which was the third day after the fight. He had escaped out of the battle which the Israelites had with the Philistines, and had his clothes torn, and ashes on his head. And when he had done his homage to David, he inquired of him where he came from. He replied, “From the battle of the Israelites”; and he informed him that the end of it was unfortunate—many myriads of the Israelites having been cut off, and Saul, together with his sons, slain. He also said that he could well give him this information, because he was present at the victory gained over the Hebrews and was with the king when he fled. Nor did he deny that he had himself slain the king, when he was ready to be taken by the enemy, and he himself exhorted him to do it, because, when he had fallen on his sword, his great wounds had made him so weak that he was unable to kill himself. He also produced demonstrations that the king was slain, which were the golden bracelets that had been on the king’s arms, and his crown, which he had taken away from Saul’s dead body and had brought them to him. So David no longer having any room to call in question the truth of what he said, but seeing most evident signs that Saul was dead, he tore his garments and continued all that day with his companions in weeping and lamentation. This grief was increased by the consideration of Jonathan, the son of Saul, who had been his most faithful friend and the cause of his own deliverance. He also demonstrated himself to have such great virtue, and such great kindness for Saul, as not only to take his death to heart, though he had been frequently in danger of losing his life by his means, but to punish him that slew him; for when David had said to him that he had become his own accuser, as the very man who had slain the king, and when he had understood that he was the son of an Amalekite, he commanded him to be slain. He also committed to writing some lamentations and funeral commendations of Saul and Jonathan, which have continued to my own age.

2. Now when David had paid these honors to the king, he ceased his mourning and inquired of God by the prophet which of the cities of the tribe of Judah he would bestow on him to dwell in, who answered that He bestowed on him Hebron. So he left Ziklag, and came to Hebron, and took with him his wives, who were in number two, and his armed men; whereon all the people of the aforementioned tribe came to him and ordained him their king. But when he heard that the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead had buried Saul and his sons [honorably], he sent to them, and commended them, and took what they had done kindly, and promised to make them amends for their care of those that were dead; and at the same time, he informed them that the tribe of Judah had chosen him for their king.

3. But as soon as Abner, the son of Ner, who was general of Saul’s army, and a very active man, and good-natured, knew that the king, and Jonathan, and his two other sons had fallen in the battle, he hurried into the camp; and taking away with him the remaining son of Saul, whose name was Ishbosheth, he passed over to the land beyond Jordan and ordained him the king of the whole multitude, excepting the tribe of Judah; and he made his royal seat in a place called in our own language Mahanaim, but in the language of the Grecians, The Camps, from where Abner hurried with a select body of soldiers to fight with such of the tribe of Judah as were inclined to it, for he was angry that this tribe had set up David for their king. But Joab, whose father was Suri, and his mother Zeruiah, David’s sister, who was general of David’s army, met him, according to David’s appointment. He had with him his brothers, Abistiai and Asahel, as also all David’s armed men. Now when he met Abner at a certain fountain, in the city of Gibeon, he prepared to fight. And when Abner said to him that he wanted to know which of them had the more valiant soldiers, it was agreed between them that twelve soldiers of each side should fight together. So those that were chosen out by both the generals for this fight came between the two armies, and throwing their lances against one another, they drew their swords, and catching one another by the head, they held one another fast, and ran each other’s swords into their sides and groins, until they all, as it were by mutual agreement, perished together. When these had fallen down dead, the rest of the army came to a severe battle, and Abner’s men were beaten; and when they were beaten, Joab did not cease pursuing them, but he pressed on them, and excited the soldiers to follow them close, and not to grow weary of killing them. His brothers also pursued them with great eagerness, especially the younger, Asahel, who was the most eminent of them. He was very famous for his swiftness of foot, for he could not only be too difficult for men, but is reported to have outrun a horse when they had a race together. This Asahel ran violently after Abner and would not turn in the least out of the straight way, either to the one side or to the other. Hereon Abner turned back and craftily attempted to avoid his violence. Sometimes he commanded him to cease the pursuit and take the armor of one of his soldiers; and sometimes, when he could not persuade him to do so, he exhorted him to restrain himself and not to pursue him any longer, lest he should force him to kill him, and he should then not be able to look his brother in the face: but when Asahel would not acquiesce [to] any persuasions, but still continued to pursue him, Abner struck him with his spear, as he held it during his flight, and that by a backstroke, and gave him a deadly wound, so that he died immediately; but those that were with him pursuing Abner, when they came to the place where Asahel lay, they stood around the dead body and ceased the pursuit of the enemy. However, both Joab himself, and his brother Abishai, ran past the dead corpse, and making their anger at the death of Asahel an occasion of greater zeal against Abner, they went on with incredible speed and eagerness and pursued Abner to a certain place called Ammah: it was about sunset. Then Joab ascended a certain hill, as he stood at that place, having the tribe of Benjamin with him, from which he took a view of them, and of Abner also. Hereon Abner cried aloud and said that it was not right that they should irritate men of the same nation to fight so bitterly against one another; that as for Asahel his brother, he was himself in the wrong when he would not be advised by him not to pursue him any farther, which was the occasion of his wounding and death. So Joab consented to what he said, and accepted these words of his as a [legitimate] excuse, and called the soldiers back with the sound of the trumpet, as a signal for their retreat, and thereby put a stop to any further pursuit. After this, Joab pitched his camp there that night; but Abner marched all that night, and passed over the Jordan River, and came to Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, to Mahanaim. On the next day Joab counted the dead men and took care of all their funerals. Now there were slain of Abner’s soldiers about three hundred and sixty; but of those of David, nineteen, and Asahel, whose body Joab and Abishai carried to Beth-Lehem; and when they had buried him in the tomb of their fathers, they came to David at Hebron. Therefore, from this time on there began a civil war, which lasted a great while, in which the followers of David grew stronger in the dangers they underwent, and the servants and subjects of Saul’s sons became weaker almost every day.

4. About this time David had become the father of six sons, born of as many mothers. The eldest was by Ahinoam, and he was called Ammon; the second was Daniel, by his wife Abigail; the name of the third was Absalom, by Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth he named Adonijah, by his wife Haggith; the fifth was Shephatiah, by Abitail; the sixth he called Ithream, by Eglah. Now while this civil war went on, and the subjects of the two kings frequently came to action and to fighting, it was Abner, the general of the host of Saul’s son, who, by his prudence, and the great interest he had among the multitude, made them all continue with Ishbosheth; and indeed it was a considerable time that they continued of his party; but afterward Abner was blamed, and an accusation was laid against him, that he went in to Saul’s concubine: her name was Rispah, the daughter of Aiah. So when he was complained of by Ishbosheth, he was very uneasy and angry at it, because he did not have justice done to him by Ishbosheth, to whom he had shown the greatest kindness; whereon he threatened to transfer the kingdom to David and demonstrate that he did not rule over the people beyond Jordan by his own abilities and wisdom, but by his military conduct and fidelity in leading his army. So he sent ambassadors to David at Hebron and desired that he would give him assurance on oath that he would consider him his companion and his friend, on condition that he should persuade the people to leave Saul’s son and choose him [to be] king of the whole country; and when David had made that alliance with Abner—for he was pleased with his message to him—he desired that he would provide this as the first sign of performance of the present alliance, that he might have his wife Michal restored to him, as her whom he had purchased with great dangers and with those six hundred heads of the Philistines which he had brought to her father Saul. So Abner took Michal from Phaltiel, who was then her husband, and sent her to David, Ishbosheth himself providing him his assistance, for David had written to him that of right he ought to have this wife of his restored to him. Abner also called together the elders of the multitude, the commanders and captains of thousands, and spoke thus to them: that he had formerly dissuaded them from their own resolution, when they were ready to forsake Ishbosheth and to join themselves to David; that, however, he now gave them permission to do so, if they had intended it, for they knew that God had appointed David to be king of all the Hebrews by Samuel the prophet and had foretold that he should punish the Philistines, and overcome them, and bring them [into] subjection. Now when the elders and rulers heard this and understood that Abner had come over to those sentiments about the public affairs which they were of before, they changed their measures and came in to David. When these men had agreed to Abner’s proposal, he called together the tribe of Benjamin, for all of that tribe were Ishbosheth’s bodyguards, and he spoke to them to the same purpose. And when he saw that they did not in the least oppose what he said, but resigned themselves up to his opinion, he took about twenty of his friends and came to David, in order to receive [for] himself assurance on oath from him; for we may justly consider those things to be firmer which every one of us do by ourselves, than those which we do by another. He also gave him an account of what he had said to the rulers and to the whole tribe of Benjamin; and when David had received him in a courteous manner and had treated him with great hospitality for many days, Abner, when he was dismissed, desired him to bring the multitude with him, that he might deliver up the government to him, when David himself was present and a spectator of what was done.

5. When David had sent Abner away, Joab, the general of his army, immediately came to Hebron; he had understood that Abner had been with David and had parted with him shortly before under covenants and agreements that the government should be delivered up to David; he feared lest David should place Abner, who had assisted him to gain the kingdom, in the first rank of dignity, especially since he was a shrewd man in other respects, in understanding affairs and in managing them craftily, as proper seasons should require, and that he should himself be placed lower and be deprived of the command of the army; so he took a crafty and wicked course [of action]. In the first place, he endeavored to defame Abner to the king, exhorting him to have a consideration of him, and not to give attention to what he had engaged to do for him, because all he did tended to confirm the government to Saul’s son; that he came to him deceitfully and with guile, and had gone away in hopes of gaining his purpose by this management: but when he could not thus persuade David, nor saw him at all exasperated, he committed himself to a project bolder than the former: he determined to kill Abner; and in order for that, he sent some messengers after him, to whom he entrusted that when they should overtake him they should recall him in David’s name and tell him that he had something to say to him about his affairs, which he had not remembered to speak of when he was with him. Now when Abner heard what the messengers said (for they overtook him in a certain place called Besira, which was twenty stadia away from Hebron), he suspected none of the mischief which was happening to him and returned. Hereon Joab met him in the gate and received him in the kindest manner, as if he were Abner’s most benevolent associate and friend; for such as undertake the vilest actions, in order to prevent the suspicion of any private mischief intended, frequently make the greatest pretenses to what really good men sincerely do. So he took him aside from his own followers, as if he would speak with him in private, and brought him into an open place by the gate, having himself nobody with him but his brother Abishai; then he drew his sword and struck him in the groin, on which Abner died by this treachery of Joab, which, as he said himself, was in the way of punishment for his brother Asahel, whom Abner struck and slew as he was pursuing after him in the battle of Hebron, but as the truth was—out of his fear of losing his command of the army, and his dignity with the king, and lest he should be deprived of those advantages and Abner should obtain the first rank in David’s court. By these examples anyone may learn how many and how great instances of wickedness men will venture on for the sake of getting money and authority, and that they may not fail of either of them; for as when they are desirous of obtaining the same, they acquire them by ten thousand evil practices; so when they are afraid of losing them, they get them confirmed to them by practices much worse than the former, as if no other calamity so terrible could happen to them as the failure of acquiring such an exalted authority, and when they have acquired it, and by long custom found the sweetness of it, losing it again: and since this last would be the heaviest of all afflictions, all of them plot and venture on the most difficult undertakings out of the fear of losing the same. But let it suffice that I have made these short reflections on that subject.

6. When David heard that Abner was slain, it grieved his soul; and he called all men to witness, with stretching out his hands to God, and crying out that he was not a partaker in the murder of Abner, and that his death was not obtained by his command or approbation. He also wished the heaviest curses might come to him that slew him and on his whole house; and he devoted those that had assisted him in this murder to the same penalties on its account; for he took care not to appear to have had any hand in this murder, contrary to the assurances he had given and the oaths he had taken to Abner. However, he commanded all the people to weep and lament this man, and to honor his dead body with the usual solemnities; that is, by tearing their garments, and putting on sackcloth, and that things should be the attire in which they should go before the bier; after which he followed it himself, with the elders and those that were rulers, lamenting Abner, and by his tears demonstrating his goodwill to him while he was alive, and his sorrow for him now [that] he was dead, and that he was not taken out with his consent. So he buried him at Hebron in a magnificent manner and wrote funeral elegies for him; he also stood first over the monument weeping, and he caused others to do the same; indeed, so deeply did the death of Abner disturb him, that his companions could by no means force him to take any food, but he affirmed with an oath that he would taste nothing until the sun was set. This procedure gained him the goodwill of the multitude; for such as had an affection for Abner were mightily satisfied with the respect he paid him when he was dead and the observation of that faith he had pledged to him, which was shown in his granting him all the usual ceremonies, as if he had been his relative and his friend, and not allowing him to be neglected and injured with a dishonorable burial, as if he had been his enemy; insomuch that the entire nation rejoiced at the king’s gentleness and mildness of disposition—everyone being ready to suppose that the king would have taken the same care of them in the same circumstances, which they saw he showed in the burial of the dead body of Abner. And indeed, David principally intended to gain a good reputation, and therefore he took care to do what was proper in this case, from which none had any suspicion that he was the author of Abner’s death. He also said this to the multitude, that he was greatly troubled at the death of such a good man; and that the affairs of the Hebrews had suffered great detriment by being deprived of him who was of such great abilities to preserve them by his excellent advice and by the strength of his hands in war. But he added that “God, who has a regard for all men’s actions, will not allow this man [Joab] to go off unrevenged; but know that I am unable to do anything to these sons of Zeruiah, Joab and Abishai, who have more power than I have; but God will repay their insolent attempts on their own heads.” And this was the fatal conclusion of the life of Abner.

CHAPTER 2

That on the Slaughter of Ishbosheth by the Treachery of His Friends, David Received the Whole Kingdom.

1. When Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, had heard of the death of Abner, he took it to heart to be deprived of a man that was of his relatives and had indeed given him the kingdom, but was greatly afflicted, and Abner’s death very much troubled him; nor did he himself outlive [him] any length of time, but was treacherously pursued by the sons of Rimmon (Baanah and Rechab were their names) and was slain by them; for these being of a family of the Benjamites, and of the first rank among them, thought that if they should slay Ishbosheth, they should obtain large presents from David and be made commanders by him, or, otherwise, should have some other trust committed to them. So when they once found him alone, and asleep at noon, in an upper room, when none of his guards were there, and when the woman that kept the door was not watching, but had also fallen asleep, partly on account of the labor she had undergone, and partly on account of the heat of the day, these men went into the room in which Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, lay asleep, and slew him; they also cut off his head, and took their journey all that night, and the next day, as supposing themselves fleeing away from those they had injured, to one that would accept this action as a favor and provide them security. So they came to Hebron, and showed David the head of Ishbosheth, and presented themselves to him as his well-wishers, and such as had killed one that was his enemy and antagonist. Yet David did not relish what they had done as they expected, but said to them, “You vile wretches! You will immediately receive the punishment you deserve. Did you not know what vengeance I executed on him that murdered Saul and brought me his crown of gold—and this while he who made this slaughter did it as a favor to him, that he might not be caught by his enemies? Or do you imagine that I am altered in my disposition, and suppose that I am not the same man I then was, but am pleased with men that are evildoers, and respect your vile actions, when you have become murderers of your master, as grateful to me, when you have slain a righteous man on his bed, who never did evil to anybody and treated you with great goodwill and respect? Therefore, you will suffer the punishment due on his account, and the vengeance I ought to inflict on you for killing Ishbosheth, and for supposing that I should take his death kindly at your hands; for you could not lay a greater blot on my honor, than by making such a supposal.” When David had said this, he tormented them with all sorts of torments and then put them to death; and he bestowed all accustomed rites on the burial of the head of Ishbosheth and laid it in the grave of Abner.

2. When these things were brought to this conclusion, all the principal men of the Hebrew people came to David at Hebron, with the heads of thousands and other rulers, and delivered themselves up to him, reminding him of the goodwill they had borne to him in Saul’s lifetime and the respect they had not then ceased to pay him when he was captain of one thousand, as also that he was chosen of God by Samuel the prophet, he and his sons; and declaring additionally how God had given him power to save the land of the Hebrews and to overcome the Philistines. Whereon, he kindly received this eagerness of theirs on his account and exhorted them to continue in it, because they should have no reason to relent of being thus disposed toward him. So when he had feasted them and treated them kindly, he sent them out to bring all the people to him; on which came to him about six thousand and eight hundred armed men of the tribe of Judah, who bore shields and spears for their weapons, for these had [until now] continued with Saul’s son, when the rest of the tribe of Judah had ordained David for their king. There also came seven thousand and one hundred out of the tribe of Simeon. Out of the tribe of Levi came four thousand and seven hundred, having Jehoiada for their leader. After these came Zadok the high priest, with twenty-two captains of his relatives. Out of the tribe of Benjamin the armed men were four thousand; but the rest of the tribe continued, still expecting that someone of the house of Saul should reign over them. Those of the tribe of Ephraim were twenty thousand and eight hundred, and these mighty men of valor and eminent for their strength. Out of the half tribe of Manasseh came eighteen thousand of the most potent men. Out of the tribe of Issachar came two hundred, who foreknew what was to come hereafter, but of armed men twenty thousand. Of the tribe of Zebulon fifty thousand chosen men. This was the only tribe that came universally in to David, and all these had the same weapons as the tribe of Gad. Out of the tribe of Naphtali the eminent men and rulers were one thousand, whose weapons were shields and spears, and the tribe itself followed after, being, in a sense, innumerable [(thirty-seven thousand)]. Out of the tribe of Dan there were of chosen men twenty-seven thousand and six hundred. Out of the tribe of Asher were forty thousand. Out of the two tribes that were beyond Jordan, and the rest of the tribe of Manasseh, such as used shields, and spears, and head-pieces, and swords, were one hundred and twenty thousand. The rest of the tribes also made use of swords. This multitude came together to David at Hebron with a great quantity of corn, and wine, and all other sorts of food, and established David in his kingdom with unanimous consent. And when the people had rejoiced for three days in Hebron, David and all the people departed and came to Jerusalem.

CHAPTER 3

How David Laid Siege to Jerusalem; And When He Had Taken the City, He Cast the Canaanites Out of It and Brought in the Jews to Inhabit Therein.

1. Now the Jebusites, who were the inhabitants of Jerusalem and by deduction Canaanites, shut their gates, and placed the blind, and the lame, and all their maimed persons on the wall, in way of derision of the king, and said that the very lame themselves would hinder his entrance into it. This they did out of contempt of his power and as depending on the strength of their walls. David was hereby enraged, and began the siege of Jerusalem, and employed his utmost diligence and eagerness therein, as intending by the taking of this place to demonstrate his power and to intimidate all others that might be of the same [evil] disposition toward him. So he took the lower city by force, but the citadel held out still; from which it was that the king, knowing that the proposal of dignities and rewards would encourage the soldiers to greater actions, promised that he who should first go over the ditches that were beneath the citadel and should ascend to the citadel itself and take it, should have the command of the entire people conferred on him. So they all were ambitious to ascend and thought no efforts too great in order to ascend there, out of their desire for the chief command. However, Joab, the son of Zeruiah, prevented the rest; and as soon as he had gotten up to the citadel, cried out to the king and claimed the chief command.

2. When David had cast the Jebusites out of the citadel, he also rebuilt Jerusalem, and named it The City of David, and abided there all the time of his reign; but for the time that he reigned over the tribe of Judah only in Hebron, it was seven years and six months. Now when he had chosen Jerusalem to be his royal city, his affairs prospered more and more by the providence of God, who took care that they should improve and be increased. Hiram also, the king of the Tyrians, sent ambassadors to him and made a covenant of mutual friendship and assistance with him. He also sent him presents, cedar-trees, and mechanics, and men skillful in building and architecture, that they might build him a royal palace at Jerusalem. Now David made buildings around the lower city: he also joined the citadel to it and made it one body; and when he had surrounded everything with walls, he appointed Joab to take care of them. It was David, therefore, who first cast the Jebusites out of Jerusalem and called it by his own name, The City of David: for under our forefather Abraham it was called Salem [[or Jerusalem]]; but after that time, some say that Homer mentions it by that name of Salem, [for he named the temple Salem, according to the Hebrew language, which denotes security]. Now the whole time from the warfare under Joshua our general against the Canaanites, and from that war in which he overcame them and distributed the land among the Hebrews (nor could the Israelites ever cast the Canaanites out of Jerusalem until this time, when David took it by siege), this whole time was five hundred and fifteen years.

3. I will now make mention of Araunah, who was a wealthy man among the Jebusites, but was not slain by David in the siege of Jerusalem, because of the goodwill he bore to the Hebrews, and a particular kindness and affection which he had for the king himself; which I will take a more timely opportunity to speak of shortly afterward. Now David married other wives over and above those which he had before: he also had concubines. The sons whom he had were in number eleven, whose names were Amnon, Emnos, Eban, Nathan, Solomon, Jeban, Elien, Phalna, Ennaphen, Jenae, Eliphale; and a daughter, Tamar. Nine of these were born of legitimate wives, but the two last-named of concubines; and Tamar had the same mother with Absalom.

CHAPTER 4

That, When David Had Conquered the Philistines Who Made War against Him at Jerusalem, He Removed the Ark to Jerusalem and Intended to Build a Temple.

1. When the Philistines understood that David was made king of the Hebrews, they made war against him at Jerusalem; and when they had seized that valley which is called The Valley of the Giants, and is a place not far from the city, they pitched their camp therein; but the king of the Jews, who never permitted himself to do anything without prophecy and the command of God, and without depending on him as a security for the time to come, commanded the high priest to foretell to him what the will of God was and what the outcome of this battle would be. And when he foretold that he should gain the victory and the dominion, he led out his army against the Philistines; and when the battle was joined, he himself came in the rear, and suddenly fell on the enemy, and slew some of them, and put the rest to flight. And let no one suppose that it was a small army of the Philistines that came against the Hebrews, as supposing so from the suddenness of their defeat, and from their having performed no great action, or which was worth recording, from the slowness of their march and lack of courage; but let him know that all Syria and Phoenicia, with many other nations besides them, and those warlike nations also, came to their assistance and had a share in this war, which thing was the only cause why, when they had been so often conquered, and had lost so many myriads of their men, they still came on the Hebrews with greater armies; no, indeed, when they had so often failed of their purpose in these battles, they came on David with an army three times as numerous as before and pitched their camp on the same spot of ground as before. The king of Israel therefore inquired of God again concerning the event of the battle; and the high priest prophesied to him that he should keep his army in the groves, called the Groves of Weeping, which were not far from the enemy’s camp, and that he should not move, nor begin to fight, until the trees of the grove should be in motion without the wind’s blowing; but as soon as these trees moved, and the time foretold to him by God had come, he should, without delay, go out to gain what was an already prepared and evident victory; for the numerous ranks of the enemy’s army did not sustain him, but retreated at the first onset, whom he closely followed, and slew them as he went along, and pursued them to the city [of] Gaza (which is the limit of their country): after this he spoiled their camp, in which he found great riches; and he destroyed their gods.

2. When this had proved the outcome of the battle, David thought it proper, on a consultation with the elders, and rulers, and captains of thousands, to send for those that were in the flower of their age out of all his countrymen, and out of the whole land, and additionally for the priests and the Levites, in order to their going to Kirjath-Jearim, to bring up the Ark of God out of that city, and to carry it to Jerusalem, and there to keep it, and offer before it those sacrifices and those other honors with which God used to be well-pleased; for had they done this in the reign of Saul, they would not have undergone any great misfortunes at all. So, when the whole body of the people had come together as they had resolved to do, the king came to the Ark, which the priest brought out of the house of Aminadab, and laid it on a new cart, and permitted their brothers and their children to draw it, together with the oxen. Before it went the king, and the whole multitude of the people with him, singing hymns to God and making use of all sorts of songs usual among them, with a variety of the sounds of musical instruments, and with dancing and singing of psalms, as also with the sounds of trumpets and of cymbals, and so brought the Ark to Jerusalem. But as they had come to the threshing-floor of Chidon, a place so called, Uzzah was slain by the anger of God; for as the oxen shook the Ark, he stretched out his hand and would inevitably take hold of it. Now, because he was not a priest and yet touched the Ark, God struck him dead. Hereon both the king and the people were displeased at the death of Uzzah; and the place where he died is still called the Breach of Uzzah to this day. So David was afraid; and supposing that if he received the Ark to himself into the city, he might suffer in the same manner as Uzzah had suffered, who, on his mere putting out his hand to the Ark, died in the manner already mentioned, he did not receive it to himself into the city, but he took it aside to a certain place belonging to a righteous man, whose name was Obededom, who was by his family a Levite, and deposited the Ark with him; and it remained there three entire months. This increased the house of Obededom and conferred many blessings on it. And when the king heard what had happened to Obededom, how he had become—of a poor man in a low estate—exceedingly blessed and the object of envy to all those that saw or inquired after his house, he took courage, and, hoping that he should meet with no misfortune thereby, he transferred the Ark to his own house, the priests carrying it, while seven companies of singers, who were set in that order by the king, went before it, and while he himself played on the harp and joined in the music, insomuch that when his wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, who was our first king, saw him doing so, she laughed at him. But when they had brought in the Ark, they placed it under the Tabernacle which David had pitched for it, and he offered costly sacrifices and peace-offerings, and treated the whole multitude, and dealt both to the women, and the men, and the infants a loaf of bread and a cake, and another cake baked in a pan, with the portion of the sacrifice. So, when he had thus feasted the people, he sent them away, and he himself returned to his own house.

3. But when Michal his wife, the daughter of Saul, came and stood by him, she wished him all other happiness and pleaded that whatever else he should desire, to the utmost possibility, might be given him by God, and that He might be favorable to him; yet she blamed him, that such a great king as he was should dance in such an inappropriate manner, and in his dancing, uncover himself among the servants and the handmaidens. But he replied that he was not ashamed to do what was acceptable to God, who had preferred him before her father, and before all others; that he would play frequently, and dance, without any regard to what the handmaidens and she herself thought of it. So this Michal, who was David’s wife, had no children; however, when she was afterward married to him to whom Saul her father had given her (for at this time David had taken her away from him, and had her himself), she bore five children. But concerning those matters, I will discuss [them] in a proper place.

4. Now when the king saw that his affairs grew better almost every day, by the will of God, he thought he should offend Him, if, while he himself continued in houses made of cedar, such as were of a great height and had the most curious works of architecture in them, he should overlook the Ark while it was laid in a tabernacle; and he desired to build a temple to God, as Moses had predicted such a temple should be built. And when he had discussed with Nathan the prophet about these things and had been encouraged by him to do whatsoever he intended to do, as having God with him and his helper in all things, he was therefore even more ready to undertake that construction. But God appeared to Nathan that very night, and He commanded him to say to David that He took his purpose and his desires kindly, since nobody had before now taken it into their mind to build Him a temple, although on his having such a notion He would not permit him to build Him that temple, because he had made many wars and was defiled with the slaughter of his enemies; that, however, after his death, in his old age, and when he had lived a long life, there should be a temple built by a son of his, who should take the kingdom after him, and should be called Solomon, whom He promised to provide for, as a father provides for his son, by preserving the kingdom for his son’s posterity and delivering it to them; but that He would still punish him, if he sinned, with diseases and barrenness of land. When David understood this from the prophet, and was overjoyed at this knowledge of the sure continuance of the dominion to his posterity, and that his house should be splendid and very famous, he came to the Ark, and fell down on his face, and began to adore God, and to return thanks to Him for all His benefits, as well for those that He had already bestowed on him in raising him from a low state, and from the employment of a shepherd, to such great dignity of dominion and glory—as also for those which He had promised to his posterity—and besides [this], for that providence which He had exercised over the Hebrews in securing them the liberty they enjoyed. And when he had said this and had sung a hymn of praise to God, he went his way.

CHAPTER 5

How David Subjugated the Philistines, and the Moabites, and the Kings of Sophene and of Damascus, and of the Syrians as Also the Idumeans, in War; And How He Made an Alliance with the King of Hamath and Was Mindful of the Friendship That Jonathan, the Son of Saul, Had Borne Him.

1. A little while after this, he considered that he ought to make war against the Philistines, and not to see any idleness or laziness permitted in his management, so that it might prove, as God had foretold to him, that when He had overthrown his enemies, He should leave his posterity to reign in peace afterward: so he called together his army again, and when he had commanded them to be ready and prepared for war, and when he thought that all things in his army were in a good state, he departed from Jerusalem and came against the Philistines; and when he had overcome them in battle, and had cut off a great part of their country and adjoined it to the country of the Hebrews, he transferred the war to the Moabites; and when he had overcome two parts of their army in battle, he took the remaining part captive and imposed tribute on them, to be paid annually. He then made war against Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Sophene; and when he had joined battle with him at the Euphrates River, he destroyed twenty thousand of his footmen and about seven thousand of his horsemen. He also took one thousand of his chariots, and destroyed the greatest part of them, and ordered that no more than one hundred should be kept.

2. Now when Hadad, king of Damascus and of Syria, heard that David fought against Hadadezer, who was his friend, he came to his assistance with a powerful army, in hopes to rescue him; and when he had joined battle with David at the Euphrates River, he failed in his purpose and lost in the battle a great number of his soldiers; for there were slain of the army of Hadad twenty thousand, and all the rest fled. Nicolaus [of Damascus] also makes mention of this king in the fourth book of his histories where he speaks thus: “A great while after these things had happened, there was one of that country whose name was Hadad, who had become very powerful; he reigned over Damascus and the other parts of Syria, excepting Phoenicia. He made war against David, the king of Judea, and tried his fortune in many battles, and particularly in the last battle at Euphrates, wherein he was beaten. He seemed to have been the most excellent of all their kings in strength and manhood.” Indeed, besides this, he says of his posterity that “they succeeded one another in his kingdom and in his name”; where he thus speaks: “When Hadad was dead, his posterity reigned for ten generations, each of his successors receiving from his father his dominion and his name, as did the Ptolemies in Egypt. But the third was the most powerful of them all and was willing to avenge the defeat his forefather had received, so he made an expedition against the Jews and laid waste the city which is now called Samaria.” Nor did he err from the truth, for this is that Hadad who made the expedition against Samaria, in the reign of Ahab, king of Israel, concerning whom we will speak in due place hereafter.

3. Now when David had made an expedition against Damascus and the other parts of Syria, and had brought it all into subjection, and had placed garrisons in the country, and appointed that they should pay tribute, he returned home. He also dedicated to God at Jerusalem the golden quivers, the entire armor which the guards of Hadad used to wear, which Shishak, the king of Egypt, took away when he fought with David’s grandson, Rehoboam, with a great deal of other wealth which he carried out of Jerusalem. However, these things will come to be explained in their proper places hereafter. Now as for the king of the Hebrews, he was assisted by God, who gave him great success in his wars, and he made an expedition against the best cities of Hadadezer, Betah and Machen; so he took them by force and laid them waste. Therein was found a very great quantity of gold and silver, besides that sort of brass which is said to be more valuable than gold; of which brass Solomon made that large vessel which was called The [Brazen] Sea, and those most curious lavers, when he built the temple for God.

4. But when the king of Hamath was informed of the failure of Hadadezer and had heard of the ruin of his army, he was afraid on his own account and resolved to make a covenant of friendship and fidelity with David before he should come against him; so he sent to him his son Joram and professed that he owed him thanks for fighting against Hadadezer, who was his enemy, and made a covenant with him of mutual assistance and friendship. He also sent him presents, vessels of ancient workmanship, both of gold, of silver, and of brass. So when David had made this covenant of mutual assistance with Toi (for that was the name of the king of Hamath) and had received the presents he sent him, he dismissed his son with that respect which was due on both sides; but then David brought those presents that were sent by him, as also the rest of the gold and silver which he had taken of the cities whom he had conquered, and dedicated them to God. Nor did God give victory and success to him only when he went to the battle himself and led his own army, but He [also] gave victory to Abishai, the brother of Joab, general of his forces, over the Idumeans, and by him to David, when he sent him with an army into Idumea: for Abishai destroyed eighteen thousand of them in the battle, whereon the king [of Israel] placed garrisons through all Idumea, and received the tribute of the country and of every head among them. Now David was just in his nature and made his determination with regard for truth. He had for the general of his whole army Joab; and he made Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, recorder. He also appointed Zadok, of the family of Phinehas, to be high priest, together with Abiathar, for he was his friend. He also made Seisan the scribe and committed the command over his bodyguards to Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. His elder sons were near his body and had the responsibility of it also.

5. He also called to mind the covenants and the oaths he had made with Jonathan, the son of Saul, and the friendship and affection Jonathan had for him; for besides all the rest of his excellent qualities with which he was endowed, he was also exceedingly mindful of such as had at other times bestowed benefits on him. He therefore gave [the] order that inquiry should be made, whether any of Jonathan’s lineage were living, to whom he might make return of that familiar acquaintance which Jonathan had had with him, and for which he was still debtor. And when one of Saul’s freed men was brought to him, who was acquainted with those of his family that were still living, he asked him whether he could tell him of anyone belonging to Jonathan that was now alive and capable of a reward for the benefits which he had received from Jonathan. And he said that a son of his was remaining, whose name was Mephibosheth, but that he was disabled in his feet, because when his nurse heard that the father and grandfather of the child had fallen in the battle, she snatched him up, and fled away, and let him fall from her shoulders, and his feet were disabled. So, when he had learned where and by whom he was brought up, he sent messengers to Machir, to the city of Lodebar, for the son of Jonathan was brought up with him, and he sent for him to come to him. So when Mephibosheth came to the king, he fell on his face and paid homage to him; but David encouraged him and commanded him to be of good cheer and expect better times. So he gave him his father’s house and all the estate which his grandfather Saul was in possession of, and commanded him to come and dine with him at his own table, and never to be absent one day from that table. And when the youth had paid homage to him on account of his words and gifts given to him, he called for Ziba and told him that he had given the youth his father’s house and all Saul’s estate. He also ordered that Ziba should cultivate his land, and take care of it, and bring him the profits of all to Jerusalem. Accordingly, David brought him to his table every day; and he bestowed on the youth, Ziba and his sons, who were in number fifteen, and his servants, who were in number twenty. When the king had made these appointments, and Ziba had paid homage to him and promised to do all that he had commanded him, he went his way; so this son of Jonathan dwelt at Jerusalem, and dined at the king’s table, and had the same care that a son could claim taken of him. He also had a son himself, whom he named Micha.

CHAPTER 6

How the War Was Waged against the Ammonites and Happily Concluded.

1. These were the honors that such as were left of Saul’s and Jonathan’s lineage received from David. About this time, Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, who was a friend of David’s, died; and when his son had succeeded his father in the kingdom, David sent ambassadors to him to comfort him, and exhorted him to take his father’s death patiently, and to expect that he would continue the same kindness toward him which he had shown to his father. But the princes of the Ammonites took this message as evil, and not as David’s kind dispositions intended it to be taken; and they excited the king to resent it, and they said that David had sent men to spy out the country and what strength it had, under the pretense of humanity and kindness. They further advised him to be careful and not to listen to David’s words, lest he should be deluded by him and so fall into an inconsolable calamity. Accordingly, Nahash’s [son], the king of the Ammonites, thought these princes spoke what was more probable than the truth would admit and so abused the ambassadors in a very harsh manner, for he shaved one half of their beards, and cut off one half of their garments, and sent his answer, not in words, but in deeds. When the king of Israel saw this, he had indignation at it and openly showed that he would not overlook this injurious and insulting treatment, but would make war with the Ammonites and would avenge this wicked treatment of his ambassadors on their king. So that king’s intimate friends and commanders, understanding that they had violated their covenant and were liable to be punished for the same, made preparations for war; they also sent one thousand talents to the Syrian king of Mesopotamia, and endeavored to prevail with him to assist them for that pay, and Shobach. Now these kings had twenty thousand footmen. They also hired the king of the country, called Maacah, and a fourth king, by name Ishtob, the latter of which had twelve thousand armed men.

2. But David was under no consternation at this confederacy, nor at the forces of the Ammonites; and putting his trust in God, because he was going to war with a just cause on account of the injurious treatment he had met with, he immediately sent Joab, the captain of his host, against them, and gave him the flower of his army, who pitched his camp by Rabbah, the metropolis of the Ammonites; whereon the enemy came out and set themselves in array, not all of them together, but in two bodies; for the auxiliaries were set in array in the plain by themselves, but the army of the Ammonites at the gates opposite the Hebrews. When Joab saw this, he opposed one strategy against another, and chose out the most hardy part of his men, and set them in opposition to the king of Syria and the kings that were with him, and gave the other part to his brother Abishai, and commanded him to set them in opposition to the Ammonites; and he said to him that in case he should see that the Syrians distressed him, and were too difficult for him, he should order his troops to turn around and assist him; and he said that he himself would do the same for him if he saw him in the same distress from the Ammonites. So he sent his brother first, and encouraged him to do everything courageously and with eagerness, which would teach them to be afraid of disgrace and to fight bravely; and so he dismissed him to fight with the Ammonites, while he fell on the Syrians. And though they made a strong opposition for a while, Joab slew many of them, but compelled the rest to commit themselves to fleeing; which, when the Ammonites saw, and were additionally afraid of Abishai and his army, they remained no longer, but imitated their auxiliaries and fled to the city. So Joab, when he had thus overcome the enemy, returned with great joy to the king at Jerusalem.

3. This defeat still did not induce the Ammonites to be quiet, nor to accept those that were superior to them to be so, and be still, but they sent to Chalaman, the king of the Syrians, beyond Euphrates, and hired him for an auxiliary. He had Shobach for the captain of his host, with eighty thousand footmen and ten thousand horsemen. Now when the king of the Hebrews understood that the Ammonites had again gathered such a great army together, he determined to make war with them no longer by his generals, but he passed over the Jordan River himself with all his army; and when he met them, he joined battle with them, and overcame them, and slew forty thousand of their footmen and seven thousand of their horsemen. He also wounded Shobach, the general of Chalaman’s forces, who died from that blow; but the people of Mesopotamia, on such a conclusion of the battle, delivered themselves up to David, and sent him presents, who at wintertime returned to Jerusalem. But at the beginning of the spring, he sent Joab, the captain of his host, to fight against the Ammonites, who overran all their country, and laid it waste, and shut them up in their metropolis Rabbah, and besieged them therein.

CHAPTER 7

How David Fell in Love with Bathsheba and Slew Her Husband Uriah, for Which He Is Rebuked by Nathan.

1. But David now fell into a very grievous sin, though he was otherwise naturally a righteous and religious man, and one that firmly observed the laws of our fathers; for when late in an evening he took a view around him from the roof of his royal palace, where he used to walk at that hour, he saw a woman washing herself in her own house: she was one of extraordinary beauty, and therein surpassed all other women; her name was Bathsheba. So he was overcome by that woman’s beauty and was unable to restrain his desires, but sent for her and lay with her. Hereon she conceived with child and sent to the king that he should devise some way for concealing her sin (for, according to the laws of their fathers, she who had been guilty of adultery ought to be put to death). So the king sent for Joab’s armor-bearer from the siege, who was the woman’s husband, and his name was Uriah. And when he had come, the king inquired of him concerning the army and concerning the siege; and when he had responded that all their affairs went according to their wishes, the king took some portions of meat from his supper, and gave them to him, and commanded him to go home to his wife and take his rest with her. Uriah did not do so, but slept near the king with the rest of his armor-bearers. When the king was informed of this, he asked him why he did not go home to his house and to his wife after such a long absence, which is the natural custom of all men, when they come from a long journey. He replied that it was not right, while his fellow soldiers, and the general of the army, slept on the ground, in the camp, and in an enemy’s country, that he should go and take his rest and comfort himself with his wife. So when he had thus replied, the king ordered him to stay there that night, that he might dismiss him the next day to the general. So the king invited Uriah to supper, and in a cunning and adept manner, manipulated him with drink at supper, until he was thereby disoriented; yet he nevertheless slept at the king’s gates without any inclination to go to his wife. On this, the king was very angry at him, and wrote to Joab, and commanded him to punish Uriah, for he told him that he had offended him; and he suggested to him the manner in which he would have him punished, that it might not be discovered that he was himself the author of his punishment; for he commanded him to set him near that part of the enemy’s army where the attack would be most dangerous, and where he might be deserted and be in the greatest jeopardy, for he commanded him to order his fellow soldiers to retreat out of the fight. When he had written thus to him and sealed the letter with his own seal, he gave it to Uriah to carry to Joab. When Joab had received it, and on reading it understood the king’s purpose, he set Uriah in that place where he knew the enemy would be most difficult for them; and he gave him for his partners some of the best soldiers in the army; and he said that he would also come to their assistance with the whole army, that if possible they might break down some part of the wall and enter the city. And he desired him to be glad of the opportunity of exposing himself to such great pains, and not to be displeased at it, since he was a valiant soldier and had a great reputation for his valor, both with the king and with his countrymen. And when Uriah undertook the work he was set on with eagerness, he gave private orders to those who were to be his companions that when they saw the enemy make an offensive, they should leave him. When, therefore, the Hebrews made an attack on the city, the Ammonites were afraid that the enemy might prevent them and get up into the city, and this at the very place where Uriah was ordered; so they exposed their best soldiers to be in the forefront, and opened their gates suddenly, and fell on the enemy with great vehemence, and ran violently on them. When those that were with Uriah saw this, they all retreated backward, as Joab had directed them beforehand; but Uriah, as ashamed to run away and leave his post, sustained the enemy, and receiving the violence of their onset, he slew many of them; but being surrounded and caught in the midst of them, he was slain, and some others among his companions were slain with him.

2. When this was done, Joab sent messengers to the king and ordered them to tell him that he did what he could to take the city quickly, but that, as they made an assault on the wall, they had been forced to retreat with great loss; and he commanded them [that] if they saw the king was angry about it, to add this: that Uriah was also slain. When the king had heard this from the messengers, he took it heinously and said that they did wrong when they assaulted the wall, whereas they ought, by undermining and other strategies of war, to endeavor the taking of the city, especially when they had before their eyes the example of Abimelech, the son of Gideon, who would necessarily take the tower in Thebes by force and was killed by a large stone thrown at him by an old woman; and although he was a man of great prowess, he died ignominiously by the dangerous manner of his assault: that they should remember this accident, and not come near the enemy’s wall, because the best method of making war with success was to call to mind the misfortunes of former wars, and what good or bad success had attended them in similar dangerous situation, so that they might imitate the one, and avoid the other. But when the king was in this disposition, the messenger told him that Uriah was also slain; whereon he was pacified. So he commanded the messenger to go back to Joab and tell him that this misfortune is none other than what is common among mankind, and that such is the nature, and such the mishaps of war, insomuch that sometimes the enemy will have success therein, and sometimes others, but that he ordered him to still continue in his care about the siege, that no bad accident might happen to him in it hereafter; that they should raise bulwarks and use machines in besieging the city; and when they have captured it, to overturn its very foundations, and to destroy all those that are in it. Accordingly, the messenger carried the king’s message with which he was entrusted and hurried to Joab. But Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, when she was informed of the death of her husband, mourned for his death many days; and when her mourning was over, and the tears which she shed for Uriah had dried up, the king took her for [his] wife presently; and a son was born to him by her.

3. With this marriage God was not well pleased, but was therefore angry at David; and He appeared to Nathan the prophet in his sleep and complained of the king. Now Nathan was a fair and prudent man; and considering that kings, when they fall into a passion, are guided more by that passion than they are by justice, he resolved to conceal the threats that proceeded from God and made a good-natured discourse to him, and this after the following manner: he desired that the king would give him his opinion in the following case: “There were,” he said, “two men inhabiting the same city, one of them was rich, and [the other poor]. The rich man had a great many flocks of cattle, of sheep, and of cows; but the poor man had but one ewe lamb. This he brought up with his children and let her eat her food with them; and he had the same natural affection for her which anyone might have for a daughter. Now on the coming of a stranger to the rich man, he would not permit [anyone] to kill any of his own flocks and thereby feast his friend; but he sent for the poor man’s lamb, and took her away from him, and made her ready for food, and there feasted the stranger.” This discourse troubled the king exceedingly; and he pronounced to Nathan that, “This man was a wicked man! Who could dare to do such a thing; and that it was but just that he should restore the lamb fourfold and be punished with death for it also.” On this, Nathan immediately said that he was himself the man who ought to suffer those punishments, and that by his own sentence; and that it was he who had perpetrated this great and horrid crime. He also revealed to him, and laid before him, the anger of God against him, who had made him king over the army of the Hebrews, and lord of all the nations, and those many and great nations around him; who had formerly delivered him out of the hands of Saul, and had given him such wives as he had justly and legally married; and now this God was despised by him, and insulted by his impiety, when he had married, and now had, another man’s wife; and by exposing her husband to the enemy, had really slain him; that God would inflict punishments on him on account of those instances of wickedness; that his own wives should be forced by one of his sons; and that he should be treacherously supplanted by the same son; and that although he had perpetrated his wickedness secretly, yet should that punishment which he was to undergo be inflicted publicly on him; “that, moreover,” he said, “the child which was born to you of her will soon die.” When the king was troubled at these messages, and sufficiently confounded, and said with tears and sorrow that he had sinned (for he was, without question, a pious man and guilty of no sin at all in his whole life, excepting those in the matter of Uriah), God had compassion on him, and was reconciled to him, and promised that He would preserve to him both his life and his kingdom; for He said that, seeing he converted of the things he had done, He was no longer displeased with him. So Nathan, when he had delivered this prophecy to the king, returned home.

4. However, God sent a dangerous disease on the child that was born to David of the wife of Uriah, at which the king was troubled and did not take any food for seven days, although his servants almost forced him to take it; but he clothed himself in a black garment, and fell down, and lay on the ground in sackcloth, entrusting God for the recovery of the child, for he fervently loved the child’s mother; but when, on the seventh day, the child was dead, the king’s servants dared not tell him of it, as supposing that when he knew it, he would still [even] less admit of food and other care of himself, by reason of his grief at the death of his son, since when the child was only sick, he so greatly afflicted himself and grieved for him: but when the king perceived that his servants were troubled and seemed to be affected, as those who are very desirous to conceal something, he understood that the child was dead; and when he had called one of his servants to him and discovered that it was so, he rose up, and washed himself, and took a white garment, and came into the Tabernacle of God. He also commanded them to set supper before him, and thereby greatly surprised his relatives and servants, while he did nothing of this when the child was sick, but did it all when he was dead. Whereon having first begged permission to ask him a question, they pleaded with him to tell them the reason of his conduct; he then called them unskillful people and instructed them how he had hopes of the recovery of the child while it was alive, and accordingly did all that was proper for him to do, as thinking by such means to render God propitious to him; but that when the child was dead, there was no longer any occasion for grief, which was then to no purpose. When he had said this, they commended the king’s wisdom and understanding. He then went in to Bathsheba his wife and she conceived and bore a son; and by the command of Nathan the prophet, called his name Solomon.

5. But Joab severely distressed the Ammonites in the siege by cutting off their waters and depriving them of other means of subsistence, until they were in the greatest need of meat and drink, for they depended only on one small well of water, and this they dare not drink of too freely, lest the fountain should entirely fail them. So he wrote to the king and informed him thereof; and he persuaded him to come himself to take the city, that he might have the honor of the victory. On this letter of Joab’s, the king accepted his goodwill and fidelity, and took with him his army, and came to the destruction of Rabbah; and when he had taken it by force, he gave it to his soldiers to plunder it; but he himself took the king of the Ammonites’ crown, whose weight was a talent of gold, and it had in its middle a precious stone called a sardonyx—which crown David always wore on his own head afterward. He also found many other vessels in the city, and those both splendid and of great price; but as for the men, he tormented them and then destroyed them; and when he had taken the other cities of the Ammonites by force, he treated them in the same way.

CHAPTER 8

How Absalom Murdered Amnon, Who Had Forced His Own Sister; And How He Was Banished and Afterward Recalled by David.

1. When the king had returned to Jerusalem, a sad misfortune happened to his house, on the following occasion: he had a daughter, who was yet a virgin and very lovely, insomuch that she surpassed all the most beautiful women; her name was Tamar; she had the same mother with Absalom. Now Amnon, David’s eldest son, fell in love with her, and being unable to obtain his desires on account of her virginity and the custody she was under, was so greatly intractable, indeed, his grief so ate up his body that he grew lean, and his complexion was changed. Now there was one Jonadab, a countryman and friend of his, who discovered this passion of his, for he was an extraordinarily wise man and of great shrewdness of mind. When, therefore, he saw that every morning Amnon was not in body as he ought to be, he came to him and desired him to tell him what the cause of it was: however, he said that he guessed that it arose from the passion of love. Amnon confessed his passion, that he was in love with a sister of his, who had the same father with himself. So Jonadab suggested to him by what method and scheme he might obtain his desires; for he persuaded him to pretend sickness and commanded him, when his father should come to him, to beg of him that his sister might come and minister to him; for if that were done, he should be better and should quickly recover from his disease. So Amnon lay down on his bed and pretended to be sick, as Jonadab had suggested. When his father came and inquired how he did, he begged of him to send his sister to him. Accordingly, he presently ordered her to be brought to him; and when she had come, Amnon commanded her to make cakes for him, and fry them in a pan, and do it all with her own hands, because he should take them better from her hand [than from anyone else]. So, she kneaded the flour in the sight of her brother, and made him cakes, and baked them in a pan, and brought them to him; but at that time, he would not taste them, but gave an order to his servants to send all that were there out of his chamber, because he wanted to rest himself, free from tumult and disturbance. As soon as what he had commanded was done, he desired his sister to bring his supper to him into the inner parlor, which, when the girl had done [it], he took hold of her and endeavored to persuade her to lie with him. Whereon the girl cried out and said, “No, brother, do not force me, nor be so wicked as to transgress the laws and bring on yourself the utmost confusion. Curb this unrighteous and impure lust of yours, from which our house will get nothing but reproach and disgrace.” She also advised him to speak to his father about this affair, for he would permit him [to marry her]. This she said, as desirous to avoid her brother’s violent passion at present. But he would not yield to her; but, inflamed with love and blinded with the vehemency of his passion, he forced his sister: but as soon as Amnon had satisfied his lust, he hated her immediately, and giving her reproachful words, commanded her to rise up and be gone. And when she said that this was a more injurious treatment than the former, if, now [that] he had forced her, he would not let her stay with him until the evening, but commanded her to go away in the daytime, and while it was light, that she might meet with people that would be witnesses of her shame—he commanded his servant to turn her out of his house. Whereon she was deeply grieved at the injury and violence that had been offered to her, and tore her loose coat (for the virgins of ancient time wore such loose coats tied at the hands, and let down to the ankles, that the inner coats might not be seen), and sprinkled ashes on her head, and went up the middle of the city, crying out and lamenting for the violence that had been offered her. Now Absalom, her brother, happened to meet her and asked her what sad thing had happened to her that she was in that plight; and when she had told him what injury had been offered her, he comforted her, and desired her to be quiet, and endure everything patiently, and not to consider her being corrupted by her brother as an injury. So she yielded to his advice, and she ceased her crying out and revealing the force offered her to the multitude; and she continued as a widow with her brother Absalom a long time.

2. When David his father knew this, he was grieved at the actions of Amnon; but because he had an extraordinary affection for him, for he was his eldest son, he was compelled not to afflict him; but Absalom watched for a fit opportunity of avenging this crime on him, for he thoroughly hated him. Now the second year after this wicked affair concerning his sister was over and Absalom was about to go to shear his own sheep at Ba‘al-Hazor, which is a city in the portion of Ephraim, he pleaded with his father, as well as his brothers, to come and feast with him: but when David excused himself, as not being willing to be burdensome to him, Absalom desired he would however send his brothers, whom he sent accordingly. Then Absalom instructed his own servants that when they should see Amnon inebriated and drowsy with wine, and he should give them a signal, they should fear nobody, but kill him.

3. When they had done as they were commanded, the rest of his brothers were astonished and disturbed, and were afraid for themselves, so they immediately got on horseback and rode away to their father; but there was somebody there who prevented them and told their father they were all slain by Absalom, whereon he was overcome with sorrow, as for so many of his sons that were destroyed at once, and that by their brother also; and by this consideration, that it was their brother that appeared to have slain them, he aggravated his sorrow for them. So he neither inquired what was the cause of this slaughter, nor stayed to hear anything else, which yet it was but reasonable to have done, when so very great, and by that greatness so incredible, a misfortune was related to him: he tore his clothes, and threw himself on the ground, and there lay lamenting the loss of all his sons, both those who, as he was informed, were slain, and of him who slew them. But Jonadab, the son of his brother Shemeah, implored him not to indulge his sorrow so far, for as to the rest of his sons he did not believe that they were slain, for he found no cause for such a suspicion, but he said it might deserve inquiry as to Amnon, for it was not unlikely that Absalom might venture to kill him on account of the injury he had offered to Tamar. In the meantime, a great noise of horses, and a tumult of some people that were coming, turned their attention to them; they were the king’s sons, who had fled away from the feast. So their father met them as they were in their grief, and he himself grieved with them; but it was more than he expected to see his sons again, whom he had shortly before heard to have perished. However, there were tears on both sides: they lamenting their brother who was killed, and the king lamenting his son who was also killed; but Absalom fled to Geshur, to his grandfather by his mother’s side, who was king of that country, and he remained with him three whole years.

4. Now David had a plan to send to Absalom, not that he should come to be punished, but that he might be with him, for the effects of his anger were abated by length of time. It was Joab, the captain of his host, that chiefly persuaded him to do so; for he induced an ordinary woman that was stricken in age, to go to the king in mourning apparel, who said this to him: that two of her sons, in a coarse way, had some difference between them, and that in the progress of that difference they came to an open fight, and that one was struck by the other and was killed; and she desired him to intervene in this case, and to do her the favor to save her son from her relatives, who were very zealous to have him that had slain his brother put to death, so that she might not be further deprived of the hopes she had of being taken care of in her old age by him; and that if he would hinder this slaughter of her son by those that wished for it, he would do her a great favor, because the relatives would not be restrained from their purpose by anything else than by the fear of him. And when the king had given his consent to what the woman had begged of him, she made this reply to him: “I owe you thanks for your kindness to me in pitying my old age and preventing the loss of my only remaining child; but in order to assure me of your kindness, first be reconciled to your own son and cease to be angry with him; for how will I persuade myself that you have really bestowed this favor on me, while you yourself continue in the same way in your wrath toward your own son? for it is a foolish thing to add willfully another to your dead son, while the death of the other was brought about without your consent.” And now the king perceived that this pretend story was a subornation derived from Joab, and was of his scheme, and when, on inquiry of the old woman, he understood it to be so in reality, he called for Joab and told him he had obtained what he requested according to his own mind; and he commanded him to bring Absalom back, for he was not now displeased, but had already ceased to be angry with him. So Joab bowed himself down to the king, and took his words kindly, and immediately went to Geshur, and took Absalom with him, and came to Jerusalem.

5. However, the king sent a message to his son beforehand, as he was coming, and commanded him to retire to his own house, for he was not yet in such a disposition as to think right at present to see him. Accordingly, on the father’s command, he avoided coming into his presence and satisfied himself with the respects paid him by his own family only. Now his beauty was not impaired, either by the grief he had been under, or by the need of such care as was proper to be taken of a king’s son, for he still surpassed and excelled all men in the height of his body and was more eminent [in appearance] than those that dined most luxuriously; and indeed such was the thickness of the hair of his head, that it was with difficulty that he was trimmed every eighth day; and his hair weighed two hundred shekels, which are five pounds. However, he dwelt in Jerusalem two years and became the father of three sons and one daughter, which daughter was of very great beauty, and which Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, took for a wife afterward and had a son by her named Abijah. But Absalom sent to Joab and desired him to fully pacify his father toward him, and to implore him to give him permission to come to him to see him and speak with him. But when Joab neglected to do so, he sent some of his own servants and set fire to the field adjoining to him; which, when Joab realized, he came to Absalom, and accused him of what he had done, and asked him the reason why he did so. To this Absalom replied that “I have found out this strategy that might bring you to us, while you have taken no care to perform the injunction I laid on you, which was this: to reconcile my father to me; and I really beg it of you, now [that] you are here, to pacify my father as to me, since I consider my coming here to be more grievous than my banishment, while my father’s wrath against me continues.” Hereby Joab was persuaded, and pitied the distress that Absalom was in, and became an intercessor with the king for him. And when he had conversed with his father, he soon brought him to that amicable disposition toward Absalom that he presently sent for him to come to him; and when he had cast himself down on the ground and had begged for the forgiveness of his offenses, the king raised him up and promised him to forget what he had formerly done.

CHAPTER 9

Concerning the Insurrection of Absalom against David; And Concerning Ahithophel and Hushai; And Concerning Ziba and Shimei; And How Ahithophel Hanged Himself.

1. Now Absalom, on this success of his with the king, acquired for himself a great many horses, and many chariots, and that in a short time also; moreover, he had fifty armor-bearers that were around him; and he came early every day to the king’s palace and spoke what was agreeable to such as came for justice and had lost their causes, as if that happened from lack of good counselors around the king, or perhaps because the judges misjudged in that unjust sentence they gave; whereby he gained the goodwill of them all. He told them that had he but such authority committed to him, he would distribute justice to them in a most equitable manner. When he had made himself so popular among the multitude, he thought he already had the goodwill of the people secured to him; but when four years had passed since his father’s reconciliation to him, he came to him and pleaded with him to give him permission to go to Hebron and pay a sacrifice to God, because he vowed it to Him when he fled out of the country. So when David had granted his request, he went there and great multitudes came running together to him, for he had sent to a great number to do so.

2. Among them came Ahithophel the Gilonite, a counselor of David’s, and two hundred men out of Jerusalem itself, who did not know his intentions, but were sent for as to a sacrifice. So he was appointed king by all of them, which he obtained by this strategy. As soon as this news was brought to David and he was informed of what he did not expect from his son, he was frightened at his impious and bold undertaking and wondered how he was so far from remembering how his offense had been so recently forgiven him that he undertook much worse and more wicked enterprises; first, to deprive him of that kingdom which was given him from God; and secondly, to take away his own father’s life. He therefore resolved to flee to the parts beyond Jordan: so he called his most intimate friends together and communicated to them all that he had heard of his son’s madness. He committed himself to God, to judge between them about all their actions, and left the care of his royal palace to his ten concubines, and went away from Jerusalem, being willingly accompanied by the rest of the multitude, who went hastily away with him, and particularly by those six hundred armed men who had been with him from his first flight in the days of Saul. But he persuaded Abiathar and Zadok, the high priests, who had determined to go away with him, as also all the Levites, who were with the Ark, to stay behind, as hoping that God would deliver him without its removal; but he commanded them to let him know privately how all things were going; and he had their sons, Ahimmaz the son of Zadok, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, for faithful ministers in all things; but Ittai the Gittite went out with him whether David would let him or not, for he would have persuaded him to stay, and on that account he appeared more friendly to him. But as he was ascending the Mount of Olives barefooted, and all his company were in tears, it was told him that Ahithophel was with Absalom and was of his side. This hearing increased his grief; and he pleaded with God earnestly to alienate the mind of Absalom from Ahithophel, for he was afraid that he should persuade him to follow his malicious counsel, for he was a prudent man and very sharp in seeing what was advantageous. When David had gotten on the top of the mountain, he took a view of the city and prayed to God with abundance of tears, as having already lost his kingdom; and here it was that a faithful friend of his, whose name was Hushai, met him. When David saw him with his clothes torn, and having ashes all over his head, and in lamentation for the great change of affairs, he comforted him and exhorted him to cease grieving; indeed, he finally pleaded with him to go back to Absalom, and appear as one of his party, and to fish out the secret counsels of his mind, and to contradict the counsels of Ahithophel, because he could not do him so much good by being with him as he might by being with Absalom. So he was persuaded by David, and left him, and came to Jerusalem, where Absalom himself also came a little while afterward.

3. When David had gone a little farther, there met him Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth (whom he had sent to take care of the possessions which had been given him, as the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul), with a couple of donkeys, loaded with provisions, and desired him to take as much of them as he and his followers stood in need of. And when the king asked him where he had left Mephibosheth, he said he had left him in Jerusalem, expecting to be chosen king in the present confusions, in remembrance of the benefits Saul had conferred on them. At this, the king had great indignation and gave to Ziba all that he had formerly bestowed on Mephibosheth; for he determined that it was much better that he should have them than the other, at which Ziba greatly rejoiced.

4. When David was at Bahurim, a place so called, there came out a relative of Saul’s whose name was Shimei, and he threw stones at him and gave him reproachful words; and as his friends stood around the king and protected him, he persevered still more in his reproaches and called him a bloody man and the author of all sorts of trouble. He commanded him to also go out of the land as an impure and accursed wretch; and he thanked God for depriving him of his kingdom and causing him to be punished for what injuries he had done to his master [Saul], and this by the means of his own son. Now when they were all provoked against him, and angry at him, and particularly Abishai, who had intended to kill Shimei, David restrained his anger. “Let us not,” he said, “bring on ourselves another fresh misfortune to those we have already, for truly I have not the least regard or concern for this dog that raves at me: I submit myself to God, by whose permission this man treats me in such a wild manner; nor is it any wonder that I am obligated to undergo these abuses from him, while I experience the same from an impious son of my own; but perhaps God will have some pity on us, if it is His will we will overcome them.” So he went on his way without troubling himself with Shimei, who ran along the other side of the mountain and threw out his abusive language abundantly. But when David had come to Jordan, he allowed those that were with him to refresh themselves, for they were weary.

5. But when Absalom and his counselor Ahithophel had come to Jerusalem, with all the people, David’s friend, Hushai, came to them; and when he had worshiped Absalom, he additionally wished that his kingdom might last a long time and continue for all ages. But when Absalom said to him, “How is it that he who was such an intimate friend of my father’s and appeared faithful to him in all things is not with him now, but has left him and come over to me?” Hushai’s answer was very pertinent and prudent, for he said, “We ought to follow God and the multitude of the people; while these, therefore, my lord and master, are with you, it is right that I should follow them, for you have received the kingdom from God. I will therefore, if you believe me to be your friend, show the same fidelity and kindness to you, which you know I have shown to your father; nor is there any reason to be in the least dissatisfied with the present state of affairs, for the kingdom is not transferred into another, but remains still in the same family, by the son’s receiving it after his father.” This speech persuaded Absalom, who previously suspected Hushai. And now he called Ahithophel and consulted with him [regarding] what he ought to do: he persuaded him to go in to his father’s concubines, for he said that “by this action the people would believe that your difference with your father is irreconcilable and will therefore fight with great eagerness against your father, for thus far they are afraid of taking up open enmity against him, out of an expectation that you will be reconciled again.” Accordingly, Absalom was persuaded by this advice and commanded his servants to pitch him a tent on the top of the royal palace, in the sight of the multitude; and he went in and lay with his father’s concubines. Now this came to pass according to the prediction of Nathan, when he prophesied and signified to him that his son would rise up in rebellion against him.

6. And when Absalom had done what he was advised to by Ahithophel, he desired his advice, in the second place, about the war against his father. Now Ahithophel only asked him to let him have ten thousand chosen men, and he promised he would slay his father and bring the soldiers back again in safety; and he said that the kingdom would then be secured to him when David was dead, [but not otherwise]. Absalom was pleased with this advice and called for Hushai, David’s friend (for so he styled him), and informing him of the opinion of Ahithophel, he asked, further, what his opinion concerning that matter was. Now he was sensible that if Ahithophel’s counsel was followed, David would be in danger of being seized and slain, so he attempted to introduce a contrary opinion and said, “You are not unacquainted, O king, with the valor of your father, and of those that are now with him; that he has made many wars and has always come away with victory, though he likely now abides in the camp, for he is very skillful in strategies and in foreseeing the deceitful tricks of his enemies; yet he will leave his own soldiers in the evening and will either hide himself in some valley, or will place an ambush at some rock, so that when our army joins battle with him, his soldiers will retreat for a little while, but will come on us again, as encouraged by the king’s being near them; and in the meantime, your father will show himself suddenly in the time of the battle and will infuse courage into his own people when they are in danger, but bring consternation to yours. Consider, therefore, my advice, and contemplate it, and if you cannot but acknowledge it to be the best, reject the opinion of Ahithophel. Send to the entire country of the Hebrews and order them to come and fight with your father; and you yourself take the army, and be your own general in this war, and do not trust its management to another; then expect to conquer him with ease, when you overtake him openly with his few partisans, but have yourself many myriads, who will be desirous to demonstrate to you their diligence and eagerness. And if your father will shut himself up in some city and venture a siege, we will overthrow that city with machines of war and by undermining it.” When Hushai had said this, he obtained his point against Ahithophel, for his opinion was preferred by Absalom before the other’s: however, it was none other than God [Himself] who made the counsel of Hushai appear best to the mind of Absalom.

7. So Hushai hurried to the high priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and told them the opinion of Ahithophel, and his own, and that the resolution was taken to follow this latter advice. He therefore commanded them to send to David, and tell him of it, and to inform him of the counsels that had been taken, and to desire him further to pass quickly over Jordan, lest his son should change his mind and hurry to pursue him, and so prevent him and seize him before he was in safety. Now the high priests had their sons concealed in a proper place out of the city, that they might carry news to David of what was done. Accordingly, they sent a maidservant, whom they could trust, to them, to carry the news of Absalom’s counsels, and ordered them to signify the same to David with all speed. So they made no excuse or delay, but taking along with them their fathers’ orders, because [they were] pious and faithful ministers, and judging that quickness and suddenness was the best mark of faithful service, they hurried to meet with David. But certain horsemen saw them when they were two stadia from the city and informed Absalom of them, who immediately sent some to take them; but when the sons of the high priest perceived this, they went out of the road and committed themselves to a certain village; that village was called Bahurim; there they desired a certain woman to hide them and provide them security. Accordingly, she let the young men down by a rope into a well and laid fleeces of wool over them; and when those that pursued them came to her and asked her whether she saw them, she did not deny that she had seen them, because they stayed with her some time, but she said they then went their ways; and she foretold that, however, if they would follow them directly, they would catch them; but when after a long pursuit they could not catch them, they came back again; and when the woman saw [that] those men had returned and that there was no longer any fear of the young men’s being caught by them, she drew them up by the rope and commanded them to go on their journey accordingly. They used great diligence in the prosecution of that journey, and came to David, and informed him accurately of all the counsels of Absalom. So he commanded those that were with him to pass over Jordan while it was night and not to delay at all on that account.

8. But Ahithophel, on rejection of his advice, got on his donkey and rode away to his own country, Gilon; and calling his family together, he told them distinctly what advice he had given Absalom; and since he had not been persuaded by it, he said he would evidently perish, and this in a short time, and that David would overcome him and return to his kingdom again; so he said it was better that he should take his own life away with freedom and nobility, than expose himself to be punished by David, in opposition to whom he had acted entirely for Absalom. When he had spoken this to them, he went into the inmost room of his house and hanged himself; and thus was the death of Ahithophel, who was self-condemned; and when his relations had taken him down from the noose, they took care of his funeral. Now, as for David, he passed over Jordan, as we have already stated, and came to Mahanaim, a very fine and very strong city; and all the chief men of the country received him with great pleasure, both out of the shame they had that he should be forced to flee away [from Jerusalem], and out of the respect they bore him while he was in his former prosperity. These were Barzillai the Gileadite, and Siphar the ruler among the Ammonites, and Machir the principal man of Gilead; and these furnished him with abundant provisions for himself and his followers, insomuch that they wanted no beds nor blankets for them, nor loaves of bread, nor wine; indeed, they brought them a great many cattle for slaughter and provided them what furniture they wanted for their refreshment when they were weary, and for food, with plenty of other necessities.

CHAPTER 10

How, When Absalom Was Beaten, He Was Caught in a Tree by His Hair and Was Slain.

1. And this was the state of David and his followers; but Absalom gathered together a vast army of the Hebrews to oppose his father, and passed over the Jordan River with it, and sat down not far from Mahanaim, in the country of Gilead. He appointed Amasa to be captain of all his host, instead of his relative Joab: his father was Ithra and his mother Abigail; now she and Zeruiah, the mother of Joab, were David’s sisters. But when David had numbered his followers and found them to be about four thousand, he resolved not to tarry until Absalom attacked him, but set over his men captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, and divided his army into three parts; the first part he committed to Joab, the next to Abishai, Joab’s brother, and the third to Ittai, David’s companion and friend, but one that came from the city [of] Gath; and when he was desirous of fighting among them himself, his friends would not let him; and this refusal of theirs was founded on very wise reasons: “For,” they said, “if we are conquered when he is with us, we will have lost all good hopes of recovering ourselves; but if we should be beaten in one part of our army, the other parts may retreat to him, and may thereby prepare a greater force, while the enemy will naturally suppose that he has another army with him.” So David was pleased with their advice and resolved himself to tarry at Mahanaim; and as he sent his friends and commanders to the battle, he desired them to show all possible eagerness and fidelity, and to bear in mind what advantages they had received from him, which, though they had not been very great, yet they had not been quite inconsiderable [either]; and he begged of them to spare the young man Absalom, lest some trouble should happen to himself if he should be killed; and thus he sent out his army to the battle and wished them victory therein.

2. Then Joab put his army in array for battle opposite the enemy in the Great Plain, where he had a forest behind him. Absalom also brought his army into the field to oppose him. On the joining of the battle, both sides showed great actions with their hands and their boldness: the one side exposing themselves to the greatest dangers, and using their utmost eagerness, that David might recover his kingdom; and the other being no way deficient, either in doing or suffering, that Absalom might not be deprived of that kingdom and be brought to punishment by his father for his impudent attempt against him. Those also that were the most numerous were attentive that they might not be conquered by those few that were with Joab and with the other commanders, because that would be the greater disgrace to them; while David’s soldiers strove greatly to overcome so many myriads as the enemy had with them. Now David’s men were conquerors, as superior in strength and skill in war, so they followed the others as they fled away through the forests and valleys; some they took prisoners, and many they slew—and more in the flight than in the battle, for there fell about twenty thousand that day. But all David’s men ran violently on Absalom, for he was easily known by his beauty and height. He was himself also afraid lest his enemies should seize him, so he got on the king’s mule and fled; but as he was carried with violence, and noise, and a great motion, as being himself light, he entangled his hair greatly in the large boughs of a knotty tree that spread a great way, and there he hung in a surprising manner; and as for the beast, it went on farther, and that swiftly, as if his master had still been on his back; but he, hanging in the air on the boughs, was taken by his enemies. Now when one of David’s soldiers saw this, he informed Joab of it; and when the general said that if he had shot at and killed Absalom, he would have given him fifty shekels, he replied, “I would not have killed my master’s son if you would have given me one thousand shekels, especially when he desired that the young man might be spared in the hearing of us all.” But Joab commanded him to show him where it was that he saw Absalom hang, whereon he shot him to the heart and slew him, and Joab’s armor-bearers stood around the tree, and pulled down his dead body, and cast it into a great chasm that was out of sight, and laid a heap of stones on him, until the cavity was filled up and had both the appearance and size of a grave. Then Joab sounded a retreat and recalled his own soldiers from pursuing the enemy’s army, in order to spare their countrymen.

3. Now Absalom had erected for himself a marble pillar in the king’s dale, two stadia away from Jerusalem, which he named Absalom’s Hand, saying that if his children were killed, his name would remain by that pillar; for he had three sons and one daughter, named Tamar, as we said before, who when she was married to David’s grandson, Rehoboam, bore a son, Abijah by name, who succeeded his father in the kingdom; but of these we will speak in a part of our history which will be more proper. After the death of Absalom, they returned everyone to their own homes respectively.

4. But now Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok the high priest, went to Joab and desired [that] he would permit him to go and tell David of this victory and to bring him the good news that God had provided His assistance and His providence to him. However, he did not grant his request, but said to him, “Will you, who have always been the messenger of good news, now go and inform the king that his son is dead?” So he desired him to desist. He then called Cushi and committed the business to him, that he should tell the king what he had seen. But when Ahimaaz again desired him to let him go as a messenger and assured him that he would only relate what concerned the victory, but not concerning the death of Absalom, he gave him permission to go to David. Now he took a nearer road than the former did, for nobody knew it but himself, and he came before Cushi. Now as David was sitting between the gates and waiting to see when somebody would come to him from the battle and tell him how it went, one of the watchmen saw Ahimaaz running, and before he could discern who he was, he told David that he saw somebody coming to him who said he was a good messenger. A little while after, he informed him that another messenger followed him, whereon the king said that he was also a good messenger: but when the watchman saw Ahimaaz, and that he was already very near, he gave the king notice that it was the son of Zadok the high priest who came running. So David was very glad and said he was a messenger of good tidings and brought him some such news from the battle as he desired to hear.

5. While the king was saying this, Ahimaaz appeared and paid homage to the king. And when the king inquired of him about the battle, he said he brought him the good news of victory and dominion. And when he inquired what he had to say concerning his son, he said that he immediately came away as soon as the enemy was defeated, but that he heard a great noise of those that pursued Absalom and that he could learn no more, because of the haste he made when Joab sent him to inform him of the victory. But when Cushi had come, and had paid homage to him, and informed him of the victory, he asked him about his son, who replied, “May the same misfortune happen to your enemies as has happened to Absalom.” That word did not permit either himself or his soldiers to rejoice for the victory, though it was a very great one; but David went up to the highest part of the city, and wept for his son, and beat his breast, tearing [the hair of] his head, tormenting himself all manner of ways, and crying out, “O my son! I wish that I had died myself and ended my days with you!” for he was of a tender natural affection and had extraordinary compassion for this son in particular. But when the army and Joab heard that the king mourned for his son, they were ashamed to enter the city in the attire of conquerors, but they all came in as downcast, and in tears, as if they had been beaten. Now while the king covered himself and grievously lamented his son, Joab went in to him, and comforted him, and said, “O my lord the king, are you not aware that you lay a blot on yourself by what you now do? For you seem to hate those that love you and undergo dangers for you; indeed—to hate yourself and your family, and to love those that are your bitter enemies, and to desire the company of those that are no more and who have been justly slain; for had Absalom gotten the victory and firmly settled himself in the kingdom, there would have been none of us left alive, but all of us, beginning with yourself and your children, would have miserably perished, while our enemies would not have wept for his, but rejoiced over us, and punished even those that pitied us in our misfortunes; and you are not ashamed to do this in the case of one that has been your bitter enemy, who, while he was your own son has proved so wicked to you. Cease, therefore, your unreasonable grief, and come abroad, and be seen by your soldiers, and return them thanks for the eagerness they showed in the fight; for I myself will this day persuade the people to leave you, and to give the kingdom to another, if you continue to do this; and then I will make you to grieve bitterly and in earnest.” On Joab’s speaking this to him, he made the king cease his sorrow and brought him to the consideration of his affairs. So David changed his attire, and exposed himself in a manner fit to be seen by the multitude, and sat at the gates; whereon all the people heard of it, and ran together to him, and saluted him. And this was the present state of David’s affairs.

CHAPTER 11

How David, When He Had Recovered His Kingdom, Was Reconciled to Shimei and to Ziba and Showed a Great Affection for Barzillai; And How, on the Rise of a Sedition, He Made Amasa Captain of His Host, in Order to Pursue Seba, Which Amasa Was Slain by Joab.

1. Now those Hebrews that had been with Absalom and had retreated from the battle, when they had all returned home, sent messengers to every city to remind them of what benefits David had bestowed on them and of that liberty which he had gotten them by delivering them from many and great wars. But they complained, that whereas they had banished him from his kingdom, and committed it to another governor, which other governor, whom they had set up, was already dead, they did not now implore David to cease his anger at them, and to become friends with them, and, as he used to do, to resume the care of their affairs and take the kingdom again. This was often told to David. And notwithstanding this, David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the high priests, that they should speak to the rulers of the tribe of Judah in the following manner: that it would be a reproach on them to permit the other tribes to choose David for their king before their tribe, “and this,” he said, “while you are a relative to him and of the same common blood.” He also commanded them to say the same to Amasa, the captain of their forces, that whereas he was his sister’s son, he had not persuaded the multitude to restore the kingdom to David; that he might expect from him not only a reconciliation—for that was already granted—but also that supreme command of the army which Absalom had bestowed on him. Accordingly, the high priests, when they had discoursed with the rulers of the tribe and said what the king had ordered them, persuaded Amasa to undertake the care of his affairs. So, he persuaded that tribe to immediately send ambassadors to him, to implore him to return to his own kingdom. All the Israelites did the same at the same persuasion of Amasa.

2. When the ambassadors came to him, he came to Jerusalem; and the tribe of Judah was the first that came to meet the king at the Jordan River. And Shimei, the son of Gera, came with one thousand men, which he brought with him out of the tribe of Benjamin; and Ziba, the freeman of Saul, with his sons, fifteen in number, and with his twenty servants. All these, as well as the tribe of Judah, laid a bridge [of boats] across the river, that the king and those that were with him might pass over it with ease. Now as soon as he had come to Jordan, the tribe of Judah saluted him. Shimei also came on the bridge, and took hold of his feet, and pleaded with him to forgive him what he had offended, and not to be too bitter against him, nor to think fit to make him the first example of severity under his new authority, but to consider that he had converted of his failure of duty and had taken care to come first of all to him. While he was thus begging the king and moving him to compassion, Abishai, Joab’s brother, said, “And will this man not die for this, that he has cursed that king whom God has appointed to reign over us?” But David turned himself toward him and said, “Will you never stop, you sons of Zeruiah? Please do not raise new troubles and seditions among us, now [that] the former are over; for I would not have you ignorant that I begin my reign today and therefore swear to remit to all offenders their punishments and not to condemn anyone that has sinned. Be, therefore,” he said, “O Shimei, of good courage, and do not fear being put to death at all.” So he worshiped him and went on before him.

3. Mephibosheth also, Saul’s grandson, met David, clothed in a filthy garment and having his hair thick and neglected; for after David had fled away, he was in such grief that he had not trimmed his head, nor had he washed his clothes, as dooming himself to undergo such hardships on occasion of the change of the king’s affairs. Now he had been unjustly defamed to the king by Ziba, his steward. When he had saluted the king and paid homage to him, the king began to ask him why he did not go out of Jerusalem with him and accompany him during his flight. He replied that this piece of injustice was owing to Ziba; because, when he was ordered to get things ready for his going out with him, he took no care of it, but regarded him no more than if he had been a slave; “and indeed, had I had my feet sound and strong, I would not have deserted you, for I could then have made use of them in my flight: but this is not all the injury that Ziba has done me, as to my duty to you, my lord and master, but he has also defamed me and told lies about me of his own invention; but I know your mind will not allow such defamations, but is righteously inclined and a lover of truth, which it is also the will of God [that it] should prevail. For when you were in the greatest danger of suffering by my grandfather, and when, on that account, our whole family might justly have been destroyed, you were moderate and merciful, and did then especially forget all those injuries, when, if you had remembered them, you would have had the power of punishing us for them; but you have judged me to be your friend and have set me every day at your own table; nor have I wanted anything which one of your own relatives of greatest regard with you could have expected.” When he had said this, David resolved neither to punish Mephibosheth, nor to condemn Ziba, as having contradicted his master; but he said to him that as he had [previously] granted all his estate to Ziba, because he did not come along with him, so he [now] promised to forgive him and ordered that one half of his estate should be restored to him. Whereon Mephibosheth said, “No, let Ziba take all; it is enough for me that you have recovered your kingdom.”

4. But David desired Barzillai the Gileadite, that great and good man, and one that had made abundant provision for him at Mahanaim and had led him as far as Jordan, to accompany him to Jerusalem, for he promised to treat him in his old age with all manner of honor—to take care of him and provide for him. But Barzillai was so desirous to live at home, that he implored him to excuse him from attendance on him; and he said that his age was too great to enjoy the pleasures [of a court], since he was eighty years old and was therefore making provision for his death and burial: so he desired him to gratify him in this request and dismiss him, for he had no enjoyment of his meat, or his drink, by reason of his age; and that his ears were too shut up to hear the sound of pipes, or the melody of other musical instruments, such as all those that live with kings delight in. When he requested for this so earnestly, the king said, “I dismiss you, but you will grant me your son Chimham, and on him I will bestow all sorts of good things.” So Barzillai left his son with him, and paid homage to the king, and wished him a prosperous conclusion of all his affairs according to his own mind, and then returned home; but David came to Gilgal, having around him half the people [of Israel], and the [whole] tribe of Judah.

5. Now the principal men of the country came to him at Gilgal with a great multitude and complained of the tribe of Judah that they had come to him in a private manner, whereas they ought all collectively, and with one and the same intention, to have given him the meeting. But the rulers of the tribe of Judah desired them not to be displeased, if they had been prevented by them; for, they said, “We are David’s relatives, and on that account it was rather us [who] took care of him, and loved him, and so came first to him”; yet they had not, by their early coming, received any gifts from him, which might give them who came last any uneasiness. When the rulers of the tribe of Judah had said this, the rulers of the other tribes were not quiet, but said further, “O brothers, we cannot but wonder at you when you call the king your relative alone, whereas he that has received from God the power over all of us in common ought to be considered a relative to us all, for which reason the whole people have eleven parts in him, and you but one part; we are also older than you; therefore, you have not done justly in coming to the king in this private and concealed manner.”

6. While these rulers were thus disputing with one another, a certain wicked man, who took a pleasure in seditious practices (his name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, of the tribe of Benjamin), stood up in the midst of the multitude, and cried aloud, and spoke thus to them: “We have no part in David, nor inheritance in the son of Jesse.” And when he had used those words, he blew with a trumpet and declared war against the king; and they all left David and followed him; the tribe of Judah alone stayed with him and settled him in his royal palace at Jerusalem. But as for his concubines, with whom Absalom his son had accompanied: indeed, he removed them to another house and ordered those that had care of them to make abundant provision for them, but he did not come near them anymore. He also appointed Amasa for the captain of his forces and gave him the same high office which Joab had before; and he commanded him to gather together, out of the tribe of Judah, as great an army as he could, and come to him within three days, that he might deliver to him his entire army and might send him to fight against [Sheba] the son of Bichri. Now while Amasa had gone out, and made some delay in gathering the army together, and so had not yet returned, on the third day the king said to Joab, “It is not right [that] we should make any delay in this affair of Sheba, lest he acquires a numerous army around him, and is the occasion of greater trouble, and harms our affairs more than Absalom himself did; therefore, do not wait any longer, but take such forces as you have at hand, and that body of six hundred men, and your brother Abishai with you, and pursue after our enemy, and endeavor to fight him wheresoever you can overtake him. Make haste to prevent him, lest he seizes some walled cities and causes us great labor and pains before we can capture him.”

7. So Joab resolved to make no delay, but taking with him his brother and those six hundred men, and giving orders that the rest of the army which was at Jerusalem should follow him, he marched with great speed against Sheba; and when he had come to Gibeon, which is a village forty stadia away from Jerusalem, Amasa brought a great army with him and met Joab. Now Joab was girded with a sword and his breastplate on; and when Amasa came near him to salute him, he took particular care that his sword should fall out, as it were, of its own accord: so he took it up from the ground, and while he approached Amasa, who was then near him, as though he would kiss him, he took hold of Amasa’s beard with his other hand, and he struck him in his belly when he did not foresee it, and slew him. This impious and altogether profane action Joab did to a good young man, and his relative, and one that had done him no harm, and this out of jealousy that he would obtain the chief command of the army and be in equal dignity with himself around the king; and for the same cause it was that he killed Abner. But as for that former wicked action, the death of his brother Asahel, which he seemed to avenge, provided him a decent pretense and made that crime a pardonable one; but in this murder of Amasa there was no such covering for it. Now when Joab had killed this general, he pursued after Sheba, having left a man with the dead body, who was ordered to proclaim aloud to the army that Amasa was justly slain and deservedly punished. “But,” he said, “if you are for the king, follow Joab his general, and Abishai, Joab’s brother”: but because the body lay on the road, and all the multitude came running to it, and, as is usual with the multitude, stood wondering a great while at it, he that guarded it removed it from there, and carried it to a certain place that was very remote from the road, and laid it there, and covered it with his garment. When this was done, all the people followed Joab. Now as he pursued Sheba through all the country of Israel, someone told him that he was in a strong city, called Abel-Beth-Maachah. Hereon Joab went there, and set around it with his army, and cast up an embankment around it, and ordered his soldiers to undermine the walls and to overthrow them; and since the people in the city did not permit him, he was greatly displeased at them.

8. Now there was a woman of little account, and yet both wise and intelligent, who seeing her native city lying at the last extremity, ascended on the wall, and, by means of the armed men, called for Joab; and when he came to her, she began to say that “God ordained kings and generals of armies, that they might cut off the enemies of the Hebrews and introduce a universal peace among them; but you are endeavoring to overthrow and depopulate a metropolis of the Israelites, which has been guilty of no offense.” But he replied, “God continue to be merciful to me: I am inclined to avoid killing anyone of the people, much less would I destroy such a city as this; and if they will deliver me up Sheba, the son of Bichri, who has rebelled against the king, I will stop the siege, and withdraw the army from the place.” Now as soon as the woman heard what Joab said, she desired him to cease the siege for a little while, so that he should have the head of his enemy thrown out to him presently. So she went down to the citizens and said to them, “Will you be so wicked as to perish miserably, with your children and wives, for the sake of a vile fellow, and one whom nobody knows who he is? And will you have him for your king instead of David, who has been such a great benefactor to you, and your city alone oppose such a mighty and strong army?” So she prevailed with them, and they cut off the head of Sheba and threw it into Joab’s army. When this was done, the king’s general sounded a retreat and raised the siege. And when he had come to Jerusalem, he was again appointed to be general of all the people. The king also established Benaiah [as] captain of the guards and of the six hundred men. He also set Adoram over the tribute, and Sabathes and Achilaus over the records. He made Sheva the scribe, and appointed Zadok and Abiathar the high priests.

CHAPTER 12

How the Hebrews Were Delivered from a Famine When the Gibeonites Had Caused Punishment to Be Inflicted for Those of Them That Had Been Slain: As Also, What Great Actions Were Performed against the Philistines by David and the Men of Valor around Him.

1. After this, when the country was greatly afflicted with a famine, David pleaded with God to have mercy on the people and to reveal to him what the cause of it was and how a remedy might be found for that disorder. And when the prophets answered that God would have the Gibeonites avenged whom Saul the king was so wicked as to betray to slaughter, and had not observed the oath which Joshua the general and the senate had sworn to them: “If, therefore,” said God, “the king would permit such vengeance to be taken for those that were slain as the Gibeonites should desire,” He promised that He would be reconciled to them and free the multitude from their miseries. Therefore, as soon as the king understood that it was this which God sought, he sent for the Gibeonites and asked them what it was they should have; and when they desired to have seven sons of Saul delivered to them to be punished, he delivered them up, but spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan. So, when the Gibeonites had received the men, they punished them as they pleased, on which God began to send rain, and to recover the earth to bring forth its fruits as usual, and to free it from the aforementioned drought, so that the country of the Hebrews flourished again. Shortly afterward, the king made war against the Philistines; and when he had joined battle with them and put them to flight, he was left alone, as he was in pursuit of them; and when he was quite exhausted, he was seen by one of the enemy—his name was Achmon, the son of Araph, he was one of the sons of the giants. He had a spear, the handle of which weighed three hundred shekels, and a breastplate of chain-work, and a sword. He turned back and ran violently to slay [David,] their enemy’s king, for he was quite tired out with labor; but Abishai, Joab’s brother, suddenly appeared and protected the king with his shield, as he lay down, and slew the enemy. Now the multitude were very troubled by these dangers of the king, and that he was very near to being slain; and the rulers made him swear that he would no longer go out with them to battle, lest he should come to some great misfortune by his courage and boldness, and thereby deprive the people of the benefits they now enjoyed by his means, and of those that they might hereafter enjoy by his living a long time among them.

2. When the king heard that the Philistines had gathered together at the city [of] Gazara, he sent an army against them, when Sibbechai the Hittite, one of David’s most courageous men, acted himself so as to deserve great commendation, for he slew many of those that bragged they were the posterity of the giants and boasted about themselves highly on that account, and was thereby the occasion of victory to the Hebrews. After which defeat, the Philistines made war again; and when David had sent an army against them, his relative Nephan fought in single combat with the strongest of all the Philistines, and slew him, and put the rest to flight. Many of them were also slain in the fight. Now a little while after this, the Philistines pitched their camp at a city which lay not far from the bounds of the country of the Hebrews. They had a man who was six cubits tall and had on each of his feet and hands one more toe and finger than men naturally have. Now the person who was sent against them by David out of his army was Jonathan, the son of Shimea, who fought this man in single combat and slew him; and as he was the person who gave the turn to the battle, he gained the greatest reputation for courage therein. This man also boasted about himself to be of the sons of the giants. But after this fight, the Philistines no longer made war against the Israelites.

3. And now David being freed from wars and dangers, and enjoying for the future a profound peace, composed songs and hymns to God of several sorts of meter; some of those which he made were trimeters, and some were pentameters. He also made instruments of music and taught the Levites to sing hymns to God, both on that called the Sabbath day and on other festivals. Now the construction of the instruments was thus: the viol was an instrument of ten strings, it was played on with a bow; the psaltery had twelve musical notes and was played on by the fingers; the cymbals were broad and large instruments and were made of brass. And so much will suffice to be spoken by us concerning these instruments, that the readers may not be wholly unacquainted with their nature.

4. Now all the men that were around David were men of courage. Those that were most illustrious and famous of them for their actions were thirty-eight; of whom I will only relate the actions of five [of them], for these will suffice to make manifest the virtues of the others also; for these were powerful enough to subdue countries and conquer great nations. First, therefore, was Jessai, the son of Achimaas, who frequently leaped on the troops of the enemy and did not cease fighting until he overthrew nine hundred of them. After him was Eleazar, the son of Dodo, who was with the king at Arasam. This man, when once the Israelites were demoralized at the multitude of the Philistines and were running away, stood alone, and fell on the enemy, and slew many of them, until his sword clung to his band by the blood he had shed, and until the Israelites, seeing the Philistines retreat by his means, came down from the mountains and pursued them, and at that time won a surprising and a famous victory, while Eleazar slew the men, and the multitude followed and spoiled their dead bodies. The third was Sheba, the son of Ilus. Now this man, when, in the wars against the Philistines, they pitched their camp at a place called Lehi, and when the Hebrews were again afraid of their army and did not hold fast, he alone stood still, as [if] an [entire] army and body of men; and some of them he overthrew, and some who were unable to abide his strength and force he pursued. These are the works of the hands, and of fighting, which these three performed. Now at the time when the king was once at Jerusalem and the army of the Philistines came on him to fight him, David went up to the top of the citadel, as we have already stated, to inquire of God concerning the battle, while the enemy’s camp lay in the valley that extends to the city [of] Beth-Lehem, which is twenty stadia away from Jerusalem. Now David said to his companions, “We have excellent water in my own city, especially that which is in the pit near the gate,” wondering if anyone would bring him some of it to drink; but he said that he would rather have it than a great deal of money. When these three men heard what he said, they immediately ran away, and burst through the midst of their enemy’s camp, and came to Beth-Lehem; and when they had drawn the water, they returned again through the enemy’s camp to the king, insomuch that the Philistines were so surprised at their boldness and eagerness, that they were quiet and did nothing against them, as if they despised their small number. But when the water was brought to the king, he would not drink it, saying that it was brought by the danger and the blood of men, and that it was not proper on that account to drink it. But he poured it out to God and gave Him thanks for the salvation of the men. Next to these was Abishai, Joab’s brother, for he slew six hundred in one day. The fifth of these was Benaiah, by lineage a priest; for being challenged by [two] eminent men in the country of Moab, he overcame them by his valor. Moreover, there was a man, by nation an Egyptian, who was of huge size and challenged him, yet he, while he was unarmed, killed him with his own spear, which he threw at him; for he caught him by force, and took away his weapons while he was alive and fighting, and slew him with his own weapons. One may also add this to the aforementioned actions of the same man, either as the principal of them in eagerness, or as resembling the rest. When God sent a snow, there was a lion who slipped and fell into a certain pit, and because the pit’s mouth was narrow it was evident he would perish, being enclosed with the snow; so when he saw no way to get out and save himself, he roared. When Benaiah heard the wild beast, he went toward him, and coming at the noise he made, he went down into the mouth of the pit and struck him, as he struggled, with a stake that lay there, and immediately slew him. The other thirty-three were also like these in valor.

CHAPTER 13

That When David Had Numbered the People, They Were Punished; And How the Divine Compassion Restrained That Punishment.

1. Now King David desired to know how many myriads there were of the people, but forgot the commands of Moses, who told them beforehand that if the multitude were numbered, they should pay half a shekel to God for every head. Accordingly, the king commanded Joab, the captain of his host, to go and number the whole multitude; but when he said there was no need for such a numeration, he was not persuaded [to revoke it], but he commanded him to make no delay, but to immediately go about the numbering of the Hebrews. So Joab took with him the heads of the tribes and the scribes, and went over the country of the Israelites, and took notice how numerous the multitude was, and returned to the king at Jerusalem after nine months and twenty days; and he gave to the king the number of the people, without the tribe of Benjamin, for he had not yet numbered that tribe, no more than the tribe of Levi, for the king converted of his having sinned against God. Now the number of the rest of the Israelites was nine hundred thousand men, who were able to bear arms and go to war; but the tribe of Judah, by itself, was four hundred thousand men.

2. Now when the prophets had signified to David that God was angry at him, he began to pray to Him and to desire He would be merciful to him and forgive his sin. But God sent Nathan the prophet to him, to propose to him the election of three things, that he might choose which he liked best: whether he would have famine come on the country for seven years, or would have a war and be subdued three months by his enemies, or whether God should send a pestilence and a disease on the Hebrews for three days? But as he was limited to a fatal choice of great miseries, he was in trouble and gravely confounded; and when the prophet had said that he must necessarily make his choice and had ordered him to answer quickly, that he might declare what he had chosen to God, the king reasoned with himself that in case he should ask for famine, he would appear to do it for others, and without danger to himself, since he had a great deal of corn hoarded up, but to the harm of others; that in case he should choose to be overcome [by his enemies] for three months, he would appear to have chosen war, because he had valiant men around him, and strongholds, and that therefore he feared nothing from it: so he chose that affliction which is common to kings and to their subjects, and in which the fear was equal on all sides; and he said this beforehand: that it was much better to fall into the [merciful] hands of God, than into those of his enemies.

3. When the prophet had heard this, he declared it to God, who therefore sent pestilence and death on the Hebrews; nor did they die after one and the same manner, nor so that it was easy to know what the disease was. Now the miserable disease was indeed [only] one, but it carried them off by ten thousand causes and occasions, which those that were afflicted could not understand; for one died on the neck of another, and the terrible malady seized them before they were aware and suddenly brought them to their end, some giving up the spirit immediately with very great pains and bitter grief, and some were worn away by their disorders and had nothing remaining to be buried, but as soon as they fell, had entirely wasted away; some were choked and greatly lamented their case, as being also stricken with a sudden darkness; there were some who, as they were burying a relation, fell down dead, without finishing the rites of the funeral. Now there perished of this disease, which began in the morning and lasted until the hour of dinner, seventy thousand. Indeed, the messenger stretched out his hand over Jerusalem, as sending this terrible judgment on it. But David had put on sackcloth and lay on the ground, pleading [with] God and begging that the disease might now cease, and that He would be satisfied with those that had already perished. And when the king looked up into the air and saw the messenger carried along thereby into Jerusalem, with his sword drawn, he said to God that he might justly be punished, who was their shepherd, but that the sheep ought to be preserved, as not having sinned at all; and he implored God that He would send His wrath on him and on all his family, but spare the people.

4. When God heard his supplication, He caused the pestilence to cease, and sent Gad the prophet to him, and commanded him to immediately go up to the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and build an altar there to God, and offer sacrifices. When David heard that, he did not neglect his duty, but hurried to the place appointed to him. Now Araunah was threshing wheat; and when he saw the king and all his servants coming to him, he ran before, and came to him, and paid homage to him: he was by his lineage a Jebusite, but a particular friend of David’s; and it was for that reason that when he overthrew the city, he did him no harm, as we informed the reader shortly before. Now Araunah inquired, “Therefore, [why] has my lord come to his servant?” He answered, to buy of him the threshing-floor, that he might build an altar to God therein and offer a sacrifice. He replied that he freely gave him both the threshing-floor and the plows, and the oxen for a burnt-offering; and he pleaded with God to graciously accept his sacrifice. But the king responded that he took his generosity and benevolence loudly and accepted his goodwill, but he desired him to take the price of them all, because it was not just to offer a sacrifice that cost nothing. And when Araunah said [that] he would do as he pleased, he bought the threshing-floor from him for fifty shekels. And when he had built an altar, he performed Divine service, and brought a burnt-offering, and offered peace-offerings also. With these God was pacified and became gracious to them again. Now it happened that Abraham came and offered his son Isaac for a burnt-offering at that very place; and when the youth was ready to have his throat cut, a ram suddenly appeared, standing by the altar, which Abraham sacrificed in the place of his son, as we have previously related. Now when King David saw that God had heard his prayer and had graciously accepted his sacrifice, he resolved to call that entire place The Altar of all the People, and to build a temple to God there; which words he uttered very fittingly to what was to be done afterward, for God sent the prophet to him and told him that his son should build Him an altar there—that son who was to take the kingdom after him.

CHAPTER 14

That David Made Great Preparations for the House of God; And That, on Adonijah’s Attempt to Gain the Kingdom, He Appointed Solomon to Reign.

1. After the delivery of this prophecy, the king commanded the strangers to be numbered; and they were found to be one hundred and eighty thousand; of these he appointed eighty thousand to be hewers of stone, and the rest of the multitude to carry the stones, and of them he set over the workmen three thousand and five hundred. He also prepared a great quantity of iron and brass for the work, with many exceedingly large cedar trees, the Tyrians and Sidonians sending them to him, for he had sent to them for a supply of those trees. And he told his friends that these things were now prepared, that he might leave materials ready for the building of the temple to his son, who was to reign after him, and that he might not have them to seek then, when he was very young, and by reason of his age unskillful in such matters, but might have them lying by him, and so might complete the work more readily.

2. So David called his son Solomon, and instructed him, when he had received the kingdom, to build a temple to God, and said, “I was willing to build God a temple myself, but He prohibited me, because I was polluted with blood and wars; but He has foretold that Solomon, my youngest son, should build Him a temple and should be called by that name; over whom He has promised to take the same care as a father takes over his son; and that He would make the country of the Hebrews blessed under him, and that, not only in other respects, but by giving it peace and freedom from wars and from internal seditions, which are the greatest of all blessings. Since, therefore,” he says, “you were ordained king by God Himself before you were born, endeavor to render yourself worthy of His providence, as in other instances, so particularly in being religious, and righteous, and courageous. Also, keep His commands and His laws, which He has given us by Moses, and do not permit others to break them. Also, be zealous to dedicate a temple to God, which He has chosen to be built under your reign; nor be frightened by the vastness of the work, nor set about it timidly, for I will make all things ready before I die: and take notice that there are already ten thousand talents of gold and one hundred thousand talents of silver collected together. I have also laid together brass and iron without number, and an immense quantity of timber and of stones. Moreover, you have many myriads [of] stone-cutters and carpenters; and if you will want anything further, add something of your own. Therefore, if you perform this work, you will be acceptable to God and have Him for your supporter.” David also further exhorted the rulers of the people to assist his son in this building and to attend to the Divine service when they should be free from all their misfortunes, because they by this means should enjoy, instead of them, peace and a happy settlement, with which blessings God rewards such men as are religious and righteous. He also gave orders that when the temple should finally be built, they should put the Ark therein, with the holy vessels; and he assured them that they ought to have had a temple long ago, if their fathers had not been negligent of God’s commands, who had given it in trust, that when they had gotten possession of this land, they should build Him a temple. Thus David discoursed to the governors and to his son.

3. David was now [advanced] in years, and his body, by length of time, had become cold and numb, insomuch that he could get no heat by covering himself with many clothes; and when the physicians came together, they agreed to this advice, that a beautiful virgin, chosen out of the whole country, should sleep by the king’s side, and that this girl would transfer heat to him and be a remedy against his numbness. Now there was found in the city one woman of a superior beauty to all other women—her name was Abishag—who, sleeping with the king, did no more than transfer warmth to him, for he was so old that he could not know her as a husband knows his wife. But of this woman we will speak more presently.

4. Now the fourth son of David was a handsome young man, and tall, born to him of his wife Haggith. He was named Adonijah and was similar to Absalom in his disposition; and he exalted himself as hoping to be king and told his friends that he ought to take the government himself. He also prepared many chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. When his father saw this, he did not reprove him, nor restrain him from his purpose, nor did he go so far as to ask [why] he therefore did so. Now Adonijah had for his assistants Joab the captain of the army and Abiathar the high priest; and the only persons that opposed him were Zadok the high priest, and the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah, who was captain of the guards, and Shimei, David’s friend, with all the other most mighty men. Now Adonijah had prepared a supper out of the city, near the fountain that was in the king’s paradise, and had invited all his brothers except Solomon, and had taken with him Joab the captain of the army, and Abiathar, and the rulers of the tribe of Judah, but had not invited to this feast either Zadok the high priest, or Nathan the prophet, or Benaiah the captain of the guards, nor any of those of the contrary party. This matter was told by Nathan the prophet to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, that Adonijah was king, and that David knew nothing of it; and he advised her to save herself and her son Solomon, and to go by herself to David, and say to him that he had indeed sworn that Solomon should reign after him, but that in the meantime Adonijah had already taken the kingdom. He said that he, the prophet himself, would come after her, and when she had spoken thus to the king, would confirm what she had said. Accordingly, Bathsheba agreed with Nathan, and went in to the king, and paid homage to him, and when she had desired permission to speak with him, she told him all things in the manner that Nathan had suggested to her, and related what a supper Adonijah had made, and who they were whom he had invited: Abiathar the high priest, and Joab the general, and David’s sons, excepting Solomon and his intimate friends. She also said that all the people had their eyes on him, to know whom he would choose for their king. She desired him also to consider how, after his departure, Adonijah, if he were king, would slay her and her son Solomon.

5. Now, as Bathsheba was speaking, the keeper of the king’s chambers told him that Nathan desired to see him. And when the king had commanded that he should be admitted, he came in and asked him whether he had ordained Adonijah to be king and had delivered the government to him or not, because he had made a splendid dinner and invited all his sons, except Solomon; as also that he had invited Joab, the captain of his host, [and Abiathar the high priest,] who are feasting with applauses, and many joyful sounds of instruments, and wish that his kingdom may last forever; but he has not invited me, nor Zadok the high priest, nor Benaiah the captain of the guards; and it is only right that all should know whether this is done by your consent or not. When Nathan had said this, the king commanded that they should call Bathsheba to him, for she had gone out of the room when the prophet came. And when Bathsheba had come, David said, “I swear by Almighty God, that your son Solomon will certainly be king, as I formerly swore, and that he will sit on my throne, and that this very day also.” So Bathsheba paid homage to him and wished him a long life; and the king sent for Zadok the high priest, and Benaiah the captain of the guards; and when they had come, he ordered them to take with them Nathan the prophet and all the armed men around the palace, and to set his son Solomon on the king’s mule, and to carry him out of the city to the fountain called Gihon, and to anoint him there with the holy oil, and to make him king. This he commanded Zadok the high priest and Nathan the prophet to do, and he commanded them to follow Solomon through the midst of the city, and to sound the trumpets, and wish aloud that Solomon the king may sit on the royal throne forever, so that all the people may know that he is ordained king by his father. He also gave Solomon a command concerning his government, to rule the whole nation of the Hebrews, and particularly the tribe of Judah, religiously and righteously. And when Benaiah had prayed to God to be favorable to Solomon, without any delay they set Solomon on the mule, and brought him out of the city to the fountain, and anointed him with oil, and brought him into the city again, with acclamations and wishes that his kingdom might continue a long time: and when they had introduced him into the king’s house, they set him on the throne; whereon all the people committed themselves to rejoice and to celebrate a festival, dancing and delighting themselves with musical pipes, until both the earth and the air echoed with the multitude of the instruments of music.

6. Now when Adonijah and his guests perceived this noise, they were in distress; and Joab the captain of the host said he was not pleased with these echoes and the sound of these trumpets. And when dinner was set before them, nobody tasted of it, but they were all very reflective [regarding] what would be the matter. Then Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the high priest, came running to them; and when Adonijah saw the young man gladly and said to him that he was a good messenger, he declared to them the whole matter about Solomon and the determination of King David: hereon both Adonijah and all the guests rose hastily from the feast, and everyone fled to their own homes. Adonijah also, as afraid of the king for what he had done, became a supplicant to God and took hold of the horns of the altar, which were prominent. It was also told Solomon that he had done so, and that he desired to receive assurances from him that he would not remember the injury he had done and not inflict any severe punishment for it. Solomon answered very mildly and prudently that he forgave him [for] his offense, but additionally said that if he were discovered in any attempt for new innovations, that he would be the author of his own punishment. So he sent to him and raised him up from the place of his supplication. And when he had come to the king and had paid homage to him, the king commanded him to go away to his own house and have no suspicion of any harm; and he desired him to show himself a worthy man, as what would tend to his own advantage.

7. But David, being desirous of ordaining his son king of all the people, called together their rulers to Jerusalem, with the priests and the Levites; and having first numbered the Levites, he found them to be thirty-eight thousand, from thirty years old to fifty; out of which he appointed twenty-three thousand to take care of the building of the temple, and out of the same, six thousand to be judges of the people and scribes, four thousand for doorkeepers to the house of God, and as many for singers, to sing with the instruments which David had prepared, as we have already stated. He also divided them into courses: and when he had separated the priests from them, he found of these priests twenty-four courses, sixteen of the house of Eleazar, and eight of that of Ithamar; and he ordained that one course should minister to God eight days, from Sabbath to Sabbath. And thus were the courses distributed by lot, in the presence of David, and Zadok and Abiathar the high priests, and of all the rulers; and that course which came up first was written down as the first, and accordingly the second, and so on to the twenty-fourth; and this partition has remained to this day. He also made twenty-four parts of the tribe of Levi; and when they cast lots, they came up in the same manner for their courses of eight days. He also honored the posterity of Moses and made them the keepers of the treasures of God and of the donations which the kings dedicated. He also ordained that all the tribe of Levi, as well as the priests, should serve God night and day, as Moses had commanded them.

8. After this, he divided the entire army into twelve parts, with their leaders, [and captains of hundreds], and commanders. Now every part had twenty-four thousand, which were ordered to wait on Solomon, by thirty days at a time, from the first day until the last, with the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds. He also set rulers over every part, such as he knew to be good and righteous men. He also set others to take charge of the treasures, and of the villages, and of the fields, and of the beasts, whose names I do not think it necessary to mention. When David had ordered all these officers after the manner previously mentioned, he called the rulers of the Hebrews, and their heads of tribes, and the officers over the several divisions, and those that were appointed over every work and every possession; and standing on a high platform, he said to the multitude as follows: “My brothers and my people, I would have you know that I intended to build a house for God and prepared a large quantity of gold and one hundred thousand talents of silver; but God prohibited me by the prophet Nathan, because of the wars I had on your account, and because my right hand was polluted with the slaughter of our enemies; but He commanded that my son, who was to succeed me in the kingdom, should build a temple for Him. Now therefore, since you know that of the twelve sons whom Jacob our forefather had, Judah was appointed to be king, and that I was preferred before my six brothers, and received the government from God, and that none of them were troubled by it, so I also desire that my sons not be seditious against one another now [that] Solomon has received the kingdom, but to bear him cheerfully for their lord, as knowing that God has chosen him; for it is not a grievous thing to obey even a foreigner as a ruler, if it is God’s will, but it is right to rejoice when a brother has obtained that dignity, since the rest partake of it with him. And I pray that the promises of God may be fulfilled, and that this happiness which He has promised to bestow on King Solomon, over all the country, may continue therein for all time to come. And these promises, O son, will be firm and come to a happy end, if you show yourself to be a religious and a righteous man, and an observer of the laws of your country; but if not, expect adversity on your disobedience to them.”

9. Now when the king had said this, he ceased, but gave the description and pattern of the building of the temple in the sight of them all to Solomon: of the foundations and of the chambers, inferior and superior; how many they were to be, and how large in height and in breadth; as also he determined the weight of the golden and silver vessels. Moreover, he earnestly excited them with his words to use the utmost eagerness regarding the work; he exhorted the rulers also, and particularly the tribe of Levi, to assist him, both because of his youth, and because God had chosen him to take care of the building of the temple, and of the government of the kingdom. He also declared to them that the work would be easy, and not very laborious to them, because he had prepared for it many talents of gold, and more of silver, with timber, and a great many carpenters and stone-cutters, and a large quantity of emeralds, and all sorts of precious stones; and he said that even now he would give of the proper goods of his own dominion two hundred talents and three hundred other talents of pure gold for the Holy of Holies, and for the chariot of God, the cherubim, which are to stand over and cover the Ark. Now when David had finished speaking, there appeared great eagerness among the rulers, and the priests, and the Levites, who now contributed and made great and splendid promises for a future contribution; for they undertook to bring five thousand talents and ten thousand drachmas of gold, and ten thousand talents of silver, and many ten thousand talents of iron; and if anyone had a precious stone, he brought it, and donated it to be put among the treasures; of which Jachiel, one of the posterity of Moses, had the care.

10. On this occasion all the people rejoiced, as in particular did David when he saw the zeal and forward ambition of the rulers, and the priests, and of all the rest; and he began to bless God with a loud voice, calling Him the Father and Parent of the universe, and the Author of human and divine things, with which he had adorned Solomon, the supporter and guardian of the Hebrew nation, and of its happiness, and of that kingdom which he has given his son. Besides this, he prayed for happiness for all the people; and for his son Solomon: a sound and righteous mind, and confirmed in all sorts of virtue; and then he commanded the multitude to bless God, on which they all fell down on the ground and worshiped Him. They also gave thanks to David, on account of all the blessings which they had always received since he had taken the kingdom. On the next day, he presented sacrifices to God: one thousand bullocks, and as many lambs, which they offered for burnt-offerings. They also offered peace-offerings and slew myriads of sacrifices; and the king feasted all day, together with all the people; and they anointed Solomon a second time with the oil, and appointed him to be king, and Zadok to be the high priest of the whole multitude. And when they had brought Solomon to the royal palace and had set him on his father’s throne, they were obedient to him from that day [on].

CHAPTER 15

What Instruction David Gave to His Son Solomon at the Approach of His Death, and How Many Things He Left Him for the Building of the Temple.

1. Shortly afterward, David also fell into a disease by reason of his age; and perceiving that he was near to death, he called his son Solomon and discoursed to him thus: “I am now, O my son, going to my grave and to my fathers, which is the common way which all men that now are, or will be hereafter, must go; from which way it is no longer possible to return and to know anything that is done in this world. On which account I exhort you, while I am still alive, though already very near to death, in the same manner as I have formerly said in my advice to you, to be righteous toward your subjects and religious toward God, who has given you your kingdom; to observe His commands and His laws, which He has sent us by Moses; and neither allow out of favor or flattery any lust nor other passion to weigh with you to disregard them; for if you transgress His laws, you will lose the favor of God, and you will turn His providence away from you in all things; but if you behave yourself so as it is proper [for] you and as I exhort you, you will preserve our kingdom to our family, and no other house will bear rule over the Hebrews but we ourselves for all ages. Be also mindful of the transgressions of Joab, the captain of the host, who has slain two generals out of envy, and those righteous and good men, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether; whose death you must avenge as will seem right to you, since Joab has been too difficult for me and more powerful than myself, and so has escaped punishment thus far. I also commit to you the son of Barzillai the Gileadite, whom, in order to gratify me, you will hold in great honor and take great care of; for we have not done good to him first, but we only repay that debt which we owe to his father for what he did to me in my flight. There is also Shimei the son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin, who, after he had cast many reproaches on me, when, in my flight, I was going to Mahanaim, met me at Jordan and received assurances that he should then suffer nothing. Now seek out for some righteous opportunity and punish him.”

2. When David had given these admonitions to his son about public affairs, and about his friends, and about those whom he knew to deserve punishment, he died, having lived seventy years, and reigned seven years and six months in Hebron over the tribe of Judah, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem over all the country. This man was of an excellent character, and was endowed with all virtues that were desirable in a king, and in one that had the preservation of so many tribes committed to him; for he was a man of valor to a very extraordinary degree, and he went readily and before all into dangers when he was to fight for his subjects, as exciting the soldiers to action by his own labors, and fighting for them, and not by commanding them in a despotic way. He also had very great abilities in understanding and apprehension of present and future circumstances when he was to manage any affairs. He was prudent and moderate, and [also] kind to such as were under any calamities; he was righteous and humane, which are good qualities, especially for kings; nor was he guilty of any offense in the exercise of such great authority, except in the business of the wife of Uriah. He also left behind him greater wealth than any other king—either of the Hebrews or of other nations—ever did.

3. He was buried by his son Solomon in Jerusalem, with great magnificence and with all the other funeral pomp which kings used to be buried with; moreover, he had great and immense wealth buried with him, the vastness of which may be easily conjectured at by what I will now say; for one thousand and three hundred years afterward, Hyrcanus the high priest, when he was besieged by Antiochus, that was called the Pious, the son of Demetrius, and was desirous of giving him money to get him to raise the siege and draw off his army, and having no other method of gathering the money, opened one room of David’s tomb, and took out three thousand talents, and gave part of that sum to Antiochus; and by this means he caused the siege to be raised, as we have informed the reader elsewhere. Indeed, after him, and that many years, King Herod opened another room and took away a great deal of money, and yet neither of them came at the coffins of the kings themselves, for their bodies were buried under the earth so cleverly that they did not appear to even those that entered into their monuments. But so much will suffice us to have said concerning these matters.

BOOK VIII

Containing the Interval of One Hundred and Sixty-Three Years. From the Death of David to the Death of Ahab.

CHAPTER 1

How Solomon, When He Had Received the Kingdom, Removed His Enemies.

1. We have already discussed David, and his virtue, and the benefits he was the author of to his countrymen; also his wars and battles, which he managed with success, and then died an old man, in the preceding book. And when his son Solomon, who was only a youth in age, had taken the kingdom—and whom David had declared [to be], while he was [yet] alive, the lord of that people, according to God’s will—when he sat on the throne, the whole body of the people made joyful acclamations to him, as is usual at the beginning of a reign; and they wished that all his affairs might come to a blessed conclusion; and that he might arrive at a great age and at the most blessed state of affairs possible.

2. But Adonijah, who while his father was living attempted to gain possession of the government, came to the king’s mother Bathsheba and saluted her with great civility; and when she asked him whether he came to her as desiring her assistance in anything or not, and commanded him to tell her if that was the case because she would cheerfully offer it [to] him, he began to say that she knew herself that the kingdom was his, both on account of his older age and of the disposition of the multitude, and that it was yet transferred to her son Solomon according to the will of God. He also said that he was satisfied to be a servant under him and was pleased with the present settlement; but he desired her to be a means of obtaining a favor from his brother to him, and to persuade him to bestow on him in marriage Abishag, who had indeed slept by his father, but, because his father was too old, he did not lie with her, and she was still a virgin. So Bathsheba promised him to provide him her assistance very earnestly, and to bring this marriage about, because the king would be willing to gratify him in such a thing, and because she would press it on him very earnestly. Accordingly, he went away in hopes of succeeding in this match. So Solomon’s mother presently went to her son to speak to him about what she had promised, on Adonijah’s supplication to her. And when her son came forward to meet her, and embraced her, and when he had brought her into the house where his royal throne was set, he sat thereon and commanded them to set another throne on the right hand for his mother. When Bathsheba was set down, she said, “O my son, grant me one request that I desire of you, and do not do anything to me that is disagreeable or ungrateful, which you will do if you deny me.” And when Solomon commanded her to lay her commands on him, because it was agreeable to his duty to grant her everything she should ask and complained that she did not at first begin her discourse with a firm expectation of obtaining what she desired, but had some suspicion of a denial, she implored him to grant that his brother Adonijah might marry Abishag.

3. But the king was greatly offended at these words, and sent his mother away, and said that Adonijah aimed at great things, and that he wondered that she did not desire him to yield up the kingdom to him, as to his elder brother, since she desired that he might marry Abishag, and that he had powerful friends—Joab the captain of the host, and Abiathar the priest. So he called for Benaiah, the captain of the guards, and ordered him to slay his brother Adonijah. He also called for Abiathar the priest, and said to him, “I will not put you to death because of those other hardships which you have endured with my father, and because of the Ark which you have carried along with him; but I inflict this following punishment on you, because you were among Adonijah’s followers, and were of his party: do not continue here, nor come into my sight anymore, but go to your own town, and live on your own fields, and abide there all your life; for you have offended so greatly, that it is not just that you should retain your dignity any longer.” For the aforementioned cause, therefore, it was that the house of Ithamar was deprived of the priestly dignity, as God had foretold to Eli, the grandfather of Abiathar. So it was transferred to the family of Phinehas, to Zadok. Now those that were of the family of Phinehas, but lived privately during the time that the high priesthood was transferred to the house of Ithamar (of which family Eli was the first that received it), were these that follow: Bukki, the son of Abishua the high priest; his son was Joatham; Joatham’s son was Meraioth; Meraioth’s son was Arophaeus; Arophaeus’ son was Ahitub; and Ahitub’s son was Zadok, who was first made high priest in the reign of David.

4. Now when Joab the captain of the host heard of the slaughter of Adonijah, he was greatly afraid, for he was a greater friend to him than to Solomon; and suspecting, not without reason, that he was in danger on account of his favor to Adonijah, he fled to the altar, and supposed he might obtain security thereby to himself, because of the king’s piety toward God. But when some told the king what Joab’s assumption was, he sent Benaiah and commanded him to raise him up from the altar and bring him to the judgment-seat, in order to make his defense. However, Joab said he would not leave the altar, but would rather die there than in another place. And when Benaiah had reported his answer to the king, Solomon commanded him to cut off his head there and let him take that as a punishment for those two captains of the host whom he had wickedly slain, and to bury his body, that his sins might never leave his family, but that himself and his father, by Joab’s death, might be guiltless. And when Benaiah had done what he was commanded to do, he was himself appointed to be captain of the whole army. The king also made Zadok to be alone the high priest, in the room of Abiathar, whom he had removed.

5. But as for Shimei, Solomon commanded that he should build him a house, and stay at Jerusalem, and attend on him, and should not have authority to go over the brook Cedron; and that if he disobeyed that command, death should be his punishment. He also threatened him so terribly, that he compelled him to take an oath that he would obey. Accordingly, Shimei said that he had reason to thank Solomon for giving him such an injunction; and added an oath, that he would do as he commanded him; and leaving his own country, he made his abode in Jerusalem. But three years afterward, when he heard that two of his servants had run away from him and were in Gath, he went for his servants in haste; and when he had come back with them, the king perceived it, and was much displeased that he had despised his commands, and, what was more, had no regard for the oaths he had sworn to God; so he called him, and said to him, “Did you not swear never to leave me, nor to go out of this city to another? You will not therefore escape punishment for your perjury, but I will punish you—you wicked wretch, both for this crime, and for those with which you abused my father when he was in his flight, that you may know that wicked men gain nothing in [the] end, although they are not punished immediately for their unjust practices; but that in all the time wherein they think themselves secure, because they have yet suffered nothing, their punishment increases and is heavier on them—and that to a greater degree than if they had been punished immediately on the commission of their crimes.” So Benaiah, on the king’s command, slew Shimei.

CHAPTER 2

Concerning the Wife of Solomon; Concerning His Wisdom and Riches; And Concerning What He Obtained from Hiram for the Building of the Temple.

1. Solomon having already settled himself firmly in his kingdom, and having brought his enemies to punishment, he married the daughter of Pharaoh king of Egypt and built the walls of Jerusalem much larger and stronger than those that had been before, and thenceforth he managed public affairs very peaceably. Nor was his youth any hindrance in the exercise of justice, or in the observation of the laws, or in the remembrance of what commands his father had given him at his death, but he discharged every duty with great accuracy, as might have been expected from such as are aged and of the greatest prudence. He now resolved to go to Hebron and sacrifice to God on the brazen altar that was built by Moses. Accordingly, he offered burnt-offerings there, one thousand in number; and when he had done this, he thought he had paid great honor to God, for as he was asleep that very night, God appeared to him and commanded him to ask of Him some gifts which He was ready to give him as a reward for his piety. So Solomon asked of God what was most excellent and of the greatest worth in itself—what God would bestow with the greatest joy, and what it was most profitable for man to receive—for he did not desire to have bestowed on him either gold or silver, or any other riches, as a man and a youth might naturally have done, for these are the things that generally are valued by most men, as alone of the greatest worth, and the best gifts of God; but, he said, “Give me, O Lord, a sound mind and a good understanding, whereby I may speak and judge the people according to truth and righteousness.” With these petitions God was well pleased; and He promised to give him all those things that he had not mentioned in his choice—riches, glory, victory over his enemies; and, in the first place, understanding and wisdom, and this in such a degree as no other mortal man, neither kings nor ordinary persons, ever had. He also promised to preserve the kingdom to his posterity for a very long time, if he continued [to be] righteous and obedient to Him and imitated His father in those things wherein he excelled. When Solomon heard this from God, he presently leaped out of his bed; and when he had worshiped Him, he returned to Jerusalem; and after he had offered great sacrifices before the Tabernacle, he feasted all his own family.

2. In these days a difficult case came before him in judgment, which it was very difficult to find any solution to; and I think it necessary to explain the fact about which the conflict was, that such as come to my writings may know what a difficult case Solomon was to determine, and those that are concerned in such matters may take this shrewdness of the king for a pattern, that they may more easily give sentence about such questions. There were two women, who were harlots in the course of their lives, that came to him; of whom she that seemed to be injured began to speak first, and said, “O king, I and this other woman dwell together in one room. Now it came to pass that we both bore a son at the same hour of the same day; and on the third day this woman laid on her son, and killed him, and then took my son out of my bosom, and removed him to herself, and as I was asleep she laid her dead son in my arms. Now, when in the morning I desired to give the breast to the child, I did not find my own, but saw the woman’s dead child lying by me, for I considered it exactly, and found it to be so. Hence it was that I demanded my son back, and when I could not obtain him, I have recourse, my lord, to your assistance; for since we were alone, and there was nobody there that could convict her, she cares for nothing, but perseveres in the firm denial of the fact.” When this woman had told her story, the king asked the other woman what she had to say in contradiction to that story. But when she denied that she had done what was charged on her, and said that it was her child that was living, and that it was her opponent’s child that was dead, and when no one could devise what judgment could be given, and the whole court was blind in their understanding and could not tell how to find out this riddle, the king alone invented the following method how to discover it: he commanded them to bring in both the dead child and the living child; and he sent one of his guards, and commanded him to fetch a sword, and draw it, and to cut both the children into two pieces, that each of the women might have half the living and half the dead child. Hereon all the people privately laughed at the king, as no more than a youth. But, in the meantime, she that was the real mother of the living child cried out that he should not do so, but deliver that child to the other woman as her own, for she would be satisfied with the life of the child, and with the sight of it, although it was regarded as the other’s child; but the other woman was ready to see the child divided, and desired, moreover, that the first woman should be tormented. When the king understood that both their words proceeded from the truth of their passions, he adjudicated the child to her that cried out to save it, because she was the real mother of it; and he condemned the other as a wicked woman, who had not only killed her own child, but was endeavoring to see her friend’s child destroyed also. Now the multitude looked on this determination as a great sign and demonstration of the king’s shrewdness and wisdom, and after that day attended to him as to one that had a divine mind.

3. Now the captains of his armies and [the] officers appointed over the whole country were these: over the lot of Ephraim was Ures; over the toparchy of Beth-Lehem was Dioclerus; Abinadab, who married Solomon’s daughter, had the region of Dora and the seacoast under him; the Great Plain was under Benaiah, the son of Achilus; he also governed all the country as far as Jordan; Gabaris ruled over Gilead and Gaulonitis, and had under him the sixty great and walled cities [of Og]; Achinadab managed the affairs of all Galilee as far as Sidon, and had himself also married a daughter of Solomon’s, whose name was Basima; Banacates had the seacoast around Arce; as had Shaphat Mount Tabor, and Carmel, and [the Lower] Galilee, as far as the Jordan River; one man was appointed over all this country; Shimei was entrusted with the lot of Benjamin; and Gabares had the country beyond Jordan, over whom there was again one governor appointed. Now the people of the Hebrews, and particularly the tribe of Judah, received a wonderful increase when they committed themselves to farming and the cultivation of their grounds; for as they enjoyed peace, and were not distracted with wars and troubles, and having, in addition, an abundant realization of the most desirable liberty, everyone was busy in increasing the product of their own lands, and making them worth more than they had formerly been.

4. The king also had other rulers, who were over the land of Syria [[and of the Philistines]], which reached from the Euphrates River to Egypt, and these collected his tributes of the nations. Now these contributed to the king’s table, and to his supper every day, thirty cori of fine flour and sixty of meal; as also ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and one hundred fat lambs; all these were in addition [to] what was taken by hunting harts, and buffalos, and birds, and fishes, which were brought to the king by foreigners day by day. Solomon also had such a great number of chariots that the stalls of his horses for those chariots were forty thousand; and besides these, he had twelve thousand horsemen: one half of which waited on the king in Jerusalem, and the rest were dispersed abroad and dwelt in the royal villages; but the same officer who provided for the king’s expenses also supplied the fodder for the horses and still carried it to the place where the king abided at that time.

5. Now the shrewdness and wisdom which God had bestowed on Solomon was so great that he exceeded the ancients, insomuch that he was [in] no way inferior to the Egyptians, who are said to have been beyond all men in understanding; no, indeed, it is evident that their shrewdness was very much inferior to that of the king’s. He also excelled and distinguished himself in wisdom above those who were most eminent among the Hebrews at that time for shrewdness; those I mean were Ethan, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He also composed books of odes, and of songs one thousand and five, [and] of parables and similitudes three thousand; for he spoke a parable on every sort of tree, from the hyssop to the cedar; and in like manner also about beasts, about all sorts of living creatures, whether on the earth, or in the seas, or in the air; for he was not unacquainted with any of their natures, nor omitted inquiries about them, but described them all like a philosopher, and demonstrated his exquisite knowledge of their various properties. God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons, which is a science useful and healing to men. He composed such incantations also by which diseases are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return; and this method of cure is of great force to this day; for I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demonic in the presence of Vespasian, and his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the cure was this: he put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils; and when the man fell down immediately, he abjured him to return into him no longer, still making mention of Solomon and reciting the incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power, he set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man; and when this was done, the skill and wisdom of Solomon was shown very manifestly: for which reason it is that all men may know the vastness of Solomon’s abilities, and how he was beloved of God, and that the extraordinary virtues of every kind with which this king was endowed may not be unknown to any people under the sun; it is for this reason, I say, that we have proceeded to speak so expansively regarding these matters.

6. Moreover Hiram, king of Tyre, when he had heard that Solomon succeeded to his father’s kingdom, was very glad of it, for he was a friend of David’s. So he sent ambassadors to him, and saluted him, and congratulated him on the present blessed state of his affairs. At this, Solomon sent him a letter, the contents of which here follow:

Solomon To King Hiram.

“Know that my father would have built a temple to God, but was hindered by wars and continual expeditions; for he did not cease to overthrow his enemies until he made them all subject to tribute. But I give thanks to God for the peace I at present enjoy, and on that account I am at leisure, and plan to build a house to God, for God foretold to my father that such a house should be built by me; therefore, I desire you to send some of your subjects with mine to Mount Lebanon to cut down timber, for the Sidonians are more skillful than our people in [the] cutting of wood. As for wages to the hewers of wood, I will pay whatever price you will determine.”

7. When Hiram had read this letter, he was pleased with it and wrote this response back to Solomon:

Hiram To King Solomon.

“It is right to bless God that He has committed your father’s government to you who are a wise man and endowed with all virtues. As for myself, I rejoice at the condition you are in, and will be subservient to you in all that you send to me about; for when by my subjects I have cut down many and large trees of cedar and cypress wood, I will send them by sea, and will order my subjects to make floats of them, and to sail to whatever place of your country you will desire, and leave them there, after which your subjects may carry them to Jerusalem. But take care to provide us corn for this timber, which we stand in need of, because we inhabit an island.”

8. The copies of these letters remain to this day and are preserved not only in our books, but also among the Tyrians, insomuch that if anyone would know the certainty about them, he may desire of the keepers of the public records of Tyre to show him them, and he will find what is set down there to agree with what we have stated. I have said so much out of a desire that my readers may know that we speak nothing but the truth, and do not compose a history out of some [supposedly] plausible relations, which deceive men and please them at the same time, nor attempt to avoid examination, nor desire men to believe us immediately; nor are we at liberty to depart from speaking truth, which is the proper commendation of a historian, and yet to be blameless: but we insist on no admittance of what we say unless we are able to manifest its truth by demonstration and the [most] certain proofs.

9. Now King Solomon, as soon as this letter of the king of Tyre was brought him, commended the readiness and goodwill he declared therein, and repaid him in what he desired, and sent him yearly twenty thousand cori of wheat, and as many baths of oil: now the bath is able to contain seventy-two sextaries. He also sent him the same measure of wine. So the friendship between Hiram and Solomon hereby increased more and more; and they swore to continue it forever. And the king appointed a tribute to be laid on all the people of thirty thousand laborers, whose work he rendered easy to them by prudently dividing it among them; for he made ten thousand cut timber in Mount Lebanon for one month; and then to come home, and rest two months, until the time when the other twenty thousand had finished their task at the appointed time; and so afterward it came to pass that the first ten thousand returned to their work every fourth month: and it was Adoram who was over this tribute. There were also of the strangers who were left by David, who were to carry the stones and other materials, seventy thousand; and of those that cut the stones, eighty thousand. Of these, three thousand and three hundred were rulers over the rest. He also commanded them to cut out large stones for the foundations of the temple, and that they should fit them and unite them together in the mountain, and so bring them to the city. This was done not only by our own country workmen, but by those workmen whom Hiram also sent.

CHAPTER 3

Of the Building of This Temple.

1. Solomon began to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign, on the second month, which the Macedonians call Artemisius, and the Hebrews Jur, five hundred and ninety-two years after the Exodus out of Egypt; but one thousand and twenty years from Abraham’s coming out of Mesopotamia into Canaan, and after the Deluge one thousand four hundred and forty years; and from Adam, the first man who was created, until Solomon built the temple, there had passed three thousand one hundred and two years in all. Now that year on which the temple began to be built was already the eleventh year of the reign of Hiram; but from the building of Tyre to the building of the temple, there had passed two hundred and forty years.

2. Now, therefore, the king laid the foundations of the temple very deep in the ground, and the materials were strong stones, and such as would resist the force of time; these were to unite themselves with the earth, and become a basis and a sure foundation for that superstructure which was to be erected over it; they were to be so strong, in order to sustain with ease those vast superstructures and precious ornaments, whose own weight was to be not less than the weight of those other high and heavy buildings which the king designed to be very ornamental and magnificent. They erected its entire body, fully up to the roof, of white stone; its height was sixty cubits, and its length was the same, and its breadth twenty. There was another building erected over it, equal to it in its measures, so that the entire height of the temple was one hundred and twenty cubits. Its front was to the east. As for the porch, they built it in front of the temple; its length was twenty cubits, and it was so ordered that it might agree with the breadth of the house; and it had twelve cubits in width, and its height was raised as high as one hundred and twenty cubits. He also built around the temple thirty small rooms, which might include the whole temple, by their closeness to one another, and by their number and outward position around it. He also made passages through them, that they might come into one through another. Every one of these rooms had five cubits in breadth, and the same in length, but in height twenty. Above these there were other rooms, and others above them, equal, both in their measures and number, so that these reached to a height equal to the lower part of the house; for the upper part had no buildings around it. The roof that was over the house was of cedar; and truly every one of these rooms had a roof of their own that was not connected with the other rooms; but for the other parts, there was a covered roof common to them all, and built with very long beams that passed through the rest, and through the whole building, so that the middle walls, being strengthened by the same beams of timber, might be thereby made firmer: but as for that part of the roof that was under the beams, it was made of the same materials, and was all made smooth, and had ornaments proper for roofs, and plates of gold nailed on them. And as he enclosed the walls with boards of cedar, so he fixed on them plates of gold, which had sculptures on them, so that the whole temple shined and dazzled the eyes of such as entered, by the splendor of the gold that was on every side of them. Now the whole structure of the temple was made with great skill of polished stones, and those were laid together so very harmoniously and smoothly that there appeared to the spectators no sign of any hammer or other instrument of architecture, but as if, without any use of them, all the materials had naturally united themselves together, so that the agreement of one part with another seemed rather to have been natural, than to have arisen from the force of tools on them. The king also had a fine design for an ascent to the upper room over the temple, and that was by steps in the thickness of its wall; for it had no large door on the east end, as the lower house had, but the entrances were by the sides, through very small doors. He also overlaid the temple, both inside and outside, with boards of cedar that were kept close together by thick chains, so that this design was in the nature of a support and [added] strength to the building.

3. Now when the king had divided the temple into two parts, he made the inner house of twenty cubits [every way], to be the most secret chamber, but he appointed that of forty cubits to be the sanctuary; and when he had cut a doorway out of the wall, he put doors of cedar therein and overlaid them with a great deal of gold that had sculptures on it. He also had veils of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and the brightest and softest linen, with the most curious flowers wrought on them, which were to be drawn before those doors. He also dedicated for the most secret place—whose breadth was twenty cubits and length the same—two cherubim of solid gold; the height of each of them was five cubits; each of them had two wings stretched out as far as five cubits; therefore Solomon set them up not far from each other, that with one wing they might touch the southern wall of the secret place, and with another the northern: their other wings, which joined to each other, were a covering to the Ark, which was set between them; but nobody can tell, or even conjecture, what the shape of these cherubim was. He also laid the floor of the temple with plates of gold; and he added doors to the gate of the temple, agreeable to the measure of the height of the wall, but in breadth twenty cubits, and on them he glued gold plates. And to summarize with one word: he left no part of the temple, neither internal nor external, except what was covered with gold. He also had curtains drawn over these doors in a similar manner as they were drawn over the inner doors of the Holy of Holies; but the porch of the temple had nothing of that sort.

4. Now Solomon sent for a craftsman out of Tyre, whose name was Hiram; he was by birth of the tribe of Naphtali, on the mother’s side (for she was of that tribe), but his father was Ur, of the stock of the Israelites. This man was skillful in all sorts of work, but his chief skill lay in working in gold, and silver, and brass, by whom all the mechanical works around the temple were made according to the will of Solomon. Moreover, this Hiram made two [hollow] pillars, whose outsides were of brass, and the thickness of the brass was four fingers’ breadth, and the height of the pillars was eighteen cubits, and their circumference twelve cubits; but there was cast with each of their chapiters lily-work that stood on the pillar, and it was elevated five cubits, around which there was network interwoven with small palms, made of brass, which covered the lily-work. To this also were hung two hundred pomegranates, in two rows. One of these pillars he set at the entrance of the porch on the right hand and called it Jachin, and the other at the left hand and called it Boaz.

5. Solomon also cast a brazen sea, whose figure was that of a hemisphere. This brazen vessel was called a sea for its size, for the laver was ten feet in diameter and cast of the thickness of a palm. Its middle part rested on a short pillar that had ten spirals around it, and that pillar was ten cubits in diameter. There stood around it twelve oxen that looked to the four winds of heaven, three to each wind, having their rear parts depressed, so that the hemispherical vessel might rest on them, which itself was also inwardly depressed around. Now this sea contained three thousand baths.

6. He also made ten brazen bases for so many quadrangular lavers; the length of every one of these bases was five cubits, and the breadth four cubits, and the height six cubits. This vessel was partly turned, and was designed thus: there were four small quadrangular pillars that stood one at each corner; these had the sides of the base fitted to them on each quarter; they were parted into three parts; every interval had a border fitted to support [the laver], on which was engraved, in one place a lion, and in another place a bull, and an eagle. The small pillars had the same animals engraved that were engraved on the sides. The whole work was elevated and stood on four wheels, which were also cast, which also had naves and felloes, and were a foot and a half in diameter. Anyone who saw the spokes of the wheels, how exactly they were turned and united to the sides of the bases, and with what harmony they agreed to the felloes, would wonder at them. However, their structure was this: certain shoulders of hands stretched out held the corners above, on which rested a short spiral pillar that lay under the hollow part of the laver, resting on the front part of the eagle and the lion, which were adapted to them, insomuch that those who viewed them would think they were of one piece: between these were engravings of palm trees. This was the construction of the ten bases. He also made ten large round brass vessels, which were the lavers themselves, each of which contained forty baths; for it had its height four cubits, and its edges were equally distant from each other. He also placed these lavers on the ten bases that were called Mechonoth; and he set five of the lavers on the left side of the temple, which was that side toward the north wind, and as many on the right side, toward the south, but looking toward the east; the same [eastern] way he also set the sea. Now he appointed the sea to be for washing the hands and the feet of the priests when they entered into the temple and were to ascend the altar, but the lavers to cleanse the entrails of the beasts that were to be burnt-offerings, with their feet also.

7. He also made a brazen altar, whose length was twenty cubits, and its breadth the same, and its height ten, for the burnt-offerings. He also made all its vessels of brass: the pots, and the shovels, and the basins; and besides these, the snuffers and the tongs, and all its other vessels, he made of brass, and such brass as was in splendor and beauty like gold. The king also dedicated a great number of tables, but one that was large and made of gold, on which they set the loaves of God; and he made ten thousand more that resembled them, but were done after another manner, on which lay the vials and the cups; those of gold were twenty thousand, those of silver were forty thousand. He also made ten thousand candlesticks, according to the command of Moses, one of which he dedicated for the temple, that it might burn in the daytime, according to the Law; and one table with loaves on it, on the north side of the temple, opposite the candlestick; for this he set on the south side, but the golden altar stood between them. All these vessels were contained in that part of the holy house which was forty cubits long, and were before the veil of that most secret place wherein the Ark was to be set.

8. The king also made pouring vessels, in number eighty thousand, and one hundred thousand golden vials, and twice as many silver vials: of golden dishes, in order therein to offer kneaded fine flour at the altar, there were eighty thousand, and twice as many of silver. Of large basins also, wherein they mixed fine flour with oil, sixty thousand of gold, and twice as many of silver. Of the measures like those which Moses called the Hin and the Assaron (a tenth deal), there were twenty thousand of gold, and twice as many of silver. The golden censers, in which they carried the incense to the altar, were twenty thousand; the other censers, in which they carried fire from the great altar to the little altar within the temple, were fifty thousand. The priestly garments which belonged to the high priest, with the long robes, and the oracle, and the precious stones, were one thousand. But the crown on which Moses wrote [the Name of God] was only one and has remained to this very day. He also made ten thousand priestly garments of fine linen, with purple girdles for every priest, and two hundred thousand trumpets, according to the command of Moses; also two hundred thousand garments of fine linen for the singers that were Levites. And he made forty thousand musical instruments, and such as were invented for singing of hymns, called Nablae and Cinyrae [(psalteries and harps)], which were made of electrum, [the finest brass].

9. Solomon made all these things for the honor of God, with great variety and magnificence, sparing no cost, but using all possible liberality in adorning the temple; and these things he dedicated to the treasures of God. He also placed a partition around the temple, which in our tongue we call Gison, but it is called Thrigcos by the Greeks, and he raised it up to the height of three cubits; and it was for the exclusion of the multitude from coming into the temple and showing that it was a place that was free and open only for the priests. He also built beyond this court a temple, whose figure was that of a quadrangle, and erected for it great and broad cloisters; this was entered into by very high gates, each of which had its front exposed to one of the [four] winds, and were shut by golden doors. Into this temple all the people entered that were distinguished from the rest by being pure and observant of the laws. But he made that temple which was beyond this a wonderful one indeed, and such as exceeds all description in words; no, if I may so say—is hardly believed at [first] sight; for when he had filled up great valleys with earth, which, on account of their immense depth, could not be looked on, when you bended down to see them, without pain, and had elevated the ground four hundred cubits, he made it to be on a level with the top of the mountain, on which the temple was built, and by this means the outmost temple, which was exposed to the air, was even with the temple itself. He also surrounded this with a building of a double row of cloisters, which stood on high on pillars of native stone, while the roofs were of cedar and were polished in a manner proper for such high roofs; but he made all the doors of this temple of silver.

CHAPTER 4

How Solomon Moved the Ark into the Temple; How He Made Supplication to God and Offered Public Sacrifices to Him.

1. When King Solomon had finished these works, these large and beautiful buildings, and had laid up his donations in the temple, and all this in the interval of seven years, and had given a demonstration of his riches and eagerness therein, insomuch that anyone who saw it would have thought it must have been an immense time before it could have been finished and would be surprised that so much should be finished in such a short time (short, I mean, if compared with the greatness of the work), he also wrote to the rulers and elders of the Hebrews and ordered all the people to gather themselves together to Jerusalem, both to see the temple which he had built, and to move the Ark of God into it; and when this invitation of the whole body of the people to come to Jerusalem was carried abroad everywhere, it was the seventh month before they came together; which month is by our countrymen called Tishri, but by the Macedonians Hyperberetoets. The Celebration of Tabernacles happened to fall at the same time, which was celebrated by the Hebrews as a most holy and most important feast. So they carried the Ark and the Tabernacle which Moses had pitched, and all the vessels that were for ministration to the sacrifices of God, and moved them to the temple. The king himself, and all the people and the Levites, went before [them], rendering the ground moist with sacrifices, and drink-offerings, and the blood of a great number of oblations, and burning an immense quantity of incense, and this until the very air itself everywhere around was so full of these aromas, that it met, in a most agreeable manner, persons at a great distance, and was an indication of God’s presence; and, as men’s opinion was [that] His habitation [was] with them in this newly built and consecrated place, they did not grow weary, either of singing hymns or of dancing, until they came to the temple; and in this manner they carried the Ark. But when they should transfer it into the most secret place, the rest of the multitude went away, and only those priests that carried it set it between the two cherubim, which embracing it with their wings (for so they were framed by the craftsman), they covered it, as under a tent or a cupola. Now the Ark contained nothing else except those two tablets of stone that preserved the Ten Commandments, which God spoke to Moses in Mount Sinai, and which were engraved on them; but they set the candlestick, and the table, and the golden altar in the temple, before the most secret place, in the very same places wherein they stood until that time in the Tabernacle. So they offered up the daily sacrifices; but for the brazen altar, Solomon set it before the temple, opposite the door, that when the door was opened, it might be exposed to sight, and the sacred solemnities, and the richness of the sacrifices, might be there seen; and all the rest of the vessels they gathered together, and put them within the temple.

2. Now as soon as the priests had put everything in order around the Ark and had gone out, a thick cloud came down, and stood there, and spread itself in a gentle manner into the temple; it was such a cloud as was diffused and temperate, not such a rough one as we see full of rain in the winter season. This cloud so darkened the place that one priest could not discern another, but it provided to the minds of everyone a visible image and glorious appearance of God’s having descended into this temple, and of His having gladly pitched His tabernacle therein. So these men were intent on this thought. But Solomon rose up (for he was sitting in front), and used such words to God as he thought agreeable to the Divine nature to receive, and suitable for him to give; for he said, “You have a perpetual house, O Lord, and such a one as You have created for Yourself out of Your own works; we know it to be the heaven, and the air, and the earth, and the sea, which You pervade, nor are You contained within their limits. I have indeed built this temple for You and Your Name, that from there, when we sacrifice and perform sacred operations, we may send our prayers up into the air, and may constantly believe that You are present and not distant from what is Your own; for neither when You see all things and hear all things, nor now, when it pleases You to dwell here, do You leave the care of all men, but rather You are very near to them all, but You are especially present to those that address themselves to You, whether by night or by day.” When he had thus solemnly addressed himself to God, he changed his discourse to the multitude and strongly represented the power and providence of God to them: how He had shown all things that had come to pass to his father David, as many of those things had already come to pass, and the rest would certainly come to pass hereafter; and how He had given him his name, and told to David what he should be called before he was born; and foretold, that when he should be king after his father’s death, he should build Him a temple, which since they saw accomplished, according to His prediction, he required them to bless God, and by believing Him, from the sight of what they had seen accomplished, never to despair of anything that He had promised for the future, for their happiness, or suspect that it would not come to pass.

3. When the king had thus discoursed to the multitude, he looked toward the temple again, and lifting up his right hand to the multitude, he said, “It is not possible by what men can do to return sufficient thanks to God for His benefits bestowed on them, for the Deity stands in need of nothing, and is above any such repayment; but so far as we have been made superior, O Lord, to other animals by You, it is right for us to bless Your Majesty, and it is necessary for us to return You thanks for what You have bestowed on our house and on the Hebrew people; for with what other instrument can we better appease You when You are angry at us, or more properly preserve Your favor, than with our voice? which, as we have it from the air, so we know that by that air it ascends upwards [toward You]. I therefore ought to return You thanks myself thereby, in the first place, concerning my father, whom You have raised from obscurity to such great joy; and, in the next place, concerning myself, since You have performed all that You have promised to this very day. And I implore You for the time to come to provide us whatsoever You, O God, have power to bestow on such as You regard; and to enlarge our house for all ages, as You have promised to my father David to do, both in his lifetime and at his death, that our kingdom will continue, and that his posterity should successively receive it to ten thousand generations. Therefore, do not fail to give us these blessings and to bestow on my children that virtue in which You delight. And besides all this, I humbly implore You that You will let some portion of Your Spirit come down and inhabit in this temple, that You may appear to be with us on earth. As for Yourself: the entire heavens, and the immensity of the things that are therein, are but a small habitation for You—much more is this poor temple so; but I beg You to keep it, as Your own house, from being destroyed by our enemies forever, and to take care of it as Your own possession: but if this people is found to have sinned, and is therefore afflicted by You with any plague, because of their sin, as with death or pestilence, or any other affliction which You use to inflict on those that transgress any of Your holy laws, and if they all flee from them to this temple, imploring You, and begging of You to deliver them, then hear their prayers, as being within Your house, and have mercy on them, and deliver them from their afflictions. Indeed, moreover, this help is what I implore of You: not for the Hebrews only, when they are in distress, but when anyone will come here from any ends of the world anywhere, and will return from their sins, and implore Your pardon—then pardon them and hear their prayer. For hereby will everyone learn that You Yourself were pleased with the building of this house for You, and that we are not ourselves of a tribal nature, nor behave ourselves like enemies to such as are not of our own people; but are willing that Your assistance should be communicated by You to all men in common, and that they may have the enjoyment of Your benefits bestowed on them.”

4. When Solomon had said this, and had cast himself on the ground, and worshiped a long time, he rose up and brought sacrifices to the altar; and when he had filled it with unblemished victims, he most evidently discovered that God had with pleasure accepted everything that he had sacrificed to Him, for there came a fire running out of the air, and rushed with violence on the altar, in the sight of all, and caught hold of and consumed the sacrifices. Now when this Divine appearance was seen, the people supposed it to be a demonstration of God’s abode in the temple, and were pleased with it, and fell down on the ground and worshiped. At this, the king began to bless God, and exhorted the multitude to do the same as now having sufficient indications of God’s favorable disposition toward them, and to pray that they might always have the same indications from Him, and that He would preserve in them a mind pure from all wickedness, in righteousness and religious worship, and that they might continue in the observation of those precepts which God had given them by Moses, because by that means the Hebrew nation would be blessed, and indeed [be] the most blessed of all nations among all mankind. He also exhorted them to remember that by what methods they had attained their present good things, by the same they must preserve them sure to themselves and make them greater and more than they were at present; because it was not sufficient for them to suppose they had received them on account of their piety and righteousness, but that they had no other way of preserving them for the time to come; because it is not so great a thing for men to acquire something which they want, as to preserve what they have [already] acquired and to be guilty of no sin whereby it may be harmed.

5. So when the king had spoken thus to the multitude, he dissolved the congregation, but not until he had completed his oblations, both for himself and for the Hebrews, insomuch that he sacrificed twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep; for it was then that the temple first of all tasted of the victims, and all the Hebrews, with their wives and children, feasted therein: indeed, besides this, the king then observed splendidly and magnificently the feast which is called the Celebration of Tabernacles, before the temple, for twice seven days; and he then feasted together with all the people.

6. When all these solemnities were abundantly satisfied, and nothing was omitted that concerned the Divine worship, the king dismissed them; and everyone went to their own homes, giving thanks to the king for the care he had taken of them and the works he had done for them, and praying to God to preserve Solomon to be their king for a long time. They also took their journey home with rejoicing, and celebrating, and singing hymns to God. And indeed, the pleasure they enjoyed took away the sense of the pains they all underwent in their journey home. So, when they had brought the Ark into the temple, and had seen its greatness, and how fine it was, and had been partakers of the many sacrifices that had been offered, and of the festivals that had been solemnized, then everyone returned to their own cities. But a dream that appeared to the king in his sleep informed him that God had heard his prayers and that He would not only preserve the temple, but would always abide in it; that is, if his posterity and the whole multitude would be righteous. And for himself, He said that if he continued according to the admonitions of his father, He would advance him to an immense degree of dignity and happiness, and that his posterity should then be kings of that country, of the tribe of Judah, forever; but that still, if he should be found [to be] a betrayer of the ordinances of the Law, and forget them, and turn away to the worship of strange gods, He would cut him off by the roots, and would neither allow any remainder of his family to continue, nor would He overlook the people of Israel, or preserve them any longer from afflictions, but would utterly destroy them with ten thousand wars and misfortunes; would cast them out of the land which He had given their fathers, and make them sojourners in strange lands, and deliver that temple which was now built to be burnt and spoiled by their enemies, and that city to be utterly overthrown by the hands of their enemies; and make their miseries deserve to be a proverb, and such as should be very exceedingly credited for their stupendous magnitude, until their neighbors, when they should hear of them, should wonder at their calamities and very earnestly inquire for the reason why the Hebrews, who had been so far advanced by God to such glory and wealth, should then be so hated by Him. and that the answer that should be made by the remainder of the people should be by confessing their sins and their transgression of the laws of their country. Accordingly, we have it transmitted to us in writing that God thus spoke to Solomon in his sleep.

CHAPTER 5

How Solomon Built Himself a Very Costly and Magnificent Royal Palace; And How He Solved the Riddles Which Were Sent to Him by Hiram.

1. After the building of the temple, which, as we have stated before, was finished in seven years, the king laid the foundation of his palace, which he did not finish under thirteen years, for he was not equally zealous in the building of this palace as he had been about the temple; for as to that, though it was a great work, and required wonderful and surprising application, yet God, for whom it was made, so far cooperated with it that it was finished in the aforementioned number of years: but the palace, which was a building much inferior in dignity to the temple, both on account that its materials had not been so long beforehand made ready, nor had been so zealously prepared, and on account that this was only a habitation for kings and not for God, it was longer in finishing. However, this building was raised so magnificently, as suited the blessed state of the Hebrews, and of the king thereof. But it is necessary that I describe the entire structure and disposition of the parts, so that those that come to this book may thereby make a conjecture, and, as it were, have a prospect of its magnitude.

2. This house was a large and curious building, and was supported by many pillars, which Solomon built to contain a multitude for hearing causes and understanding suits. It was sufficiently large to contain a great body of men, who would come together to have their causes determined. It was one hundred cubits long, and fifty broad, and thirty high, supported by quadrangular pillars, which were all of cedar; but its roof was according to the Corinthian order, with folding doors, and their adjoining pillars of equal magnitude, each fluted with three cavities; which building was both firm and very ornamental. There was also another house so ordered that its entire breadth was placed in the middle; it was quadrangular, and its breadth was thirty cubits, having a temple opposite it, raised on massive pillars; in which temple there was a large and very glorious room, wherein the king sat in judgment. To this was joined another house that was built for his queen. There were other smaller edifices for dining and for sleeping after public matters were finished; and these were all floored with boards of cedar. Some of these Solomon built with stones of ten cubits and wainscoted the walls with other stones that were sawed, and were of great value, such as are dug out of the earth for the ornaments of temples, and to make fine prospects in royal palaces, and which make the mines from which they are dug famous. Now the interweaving of the curious workmanship of these stones was in three rows, but the fourth row would make one admire its sculptures, whereby were represented trees and all sorts of plants with the shades that arose from their branches and leaves that hung down from them. Those trees and plants covered the stone that was beneath them, and their leaves were worked so prodigiously thin and subtle, that you would think they were in motion; but the other part up to the roof was plastered over, and, as it were—embroidered with colors and pictures. He, moreover, built other edifices for pleasure; as also very long cloisters, and those situated in an agreeable place of the palace; and among them a most glorious dining room, for feastings and carousals, and full of gold, and such other furniture as so fine a room ought to have for the conveniency of the guests, and where all the vessels were made of gold. Now it is very difficult to comprehend the magnitude and variety of the royal apartments; how many rooms there were of the largest sort, how many of a size inferior to those, and how many that were subterranean and invisible; the curiosity of those that enjoyed the fresh air; and the groves for the most delightful prospect, for avoiding the heat and shading their bodies. And, to summarize everything in brief: Solomon made the whole building entirely of white stone, and cedar wood, and gold, and silver. He also adorned the roofs and walls with stones set in gold and beautified them thereby in the same manner as he had beautified the temple of God with similar stones. He also made himself a throne of prodigious size, of ivory, constructed as a seat of justice, and having six steps to it; on every one of which stood—on each end of the step—two lions, two other lions standing above also; but at the sitting place of the throne, hands came out and received the king; and when he sat backward, he rested on half a bullock that looked toward his back; but still all was fastened together with gold.

3. When Solomon had completed all this in twenty years’ time, because Hiram king of Tyre had contributed a great deal of gold, and more silver to these buildings, as also cedar wood and pine wood, he also rewarded Hiram with rich presents; he also sent him corn year after year, and wine and oil, which were the principal things that he stood in need of, because he inhabited an island, as we have already stated. And besides these, he granted him certain cities of Galilee, twenty in number, that lay not far from Tyre; which, when Hiram went to [them], and viewed [them], and did not like the gift, he sent word to Solomon that he did not want such cities as they were; and after that time, these cities were called the land of Cabul; which name, if it is interpreted according to the language of the Phoenicians, denotes what does not please. Moreover, the king of Tyre sent sophisms and enigmatical sayings to Solomon, and desired [that] he would solve them and free them from the ambiguity that was in them. Now so wise and understanding was Solomon, that none of these problems were too hard for him; but he conquered them all by his reasonings, and discovered their hidden meaning, and brought it to light. Menander also, one who translated the Tyrian archives out of the dialect of the Phoenicians into the Greek language, makes mention of these two kings, where he says thus: “When Abibalus was dead, his son Hiram received the kingdom from him, who, when he had lived fifty-three years, reigned thirty-four. He raised an embankment in the large place and dedicated the golden pillar which is in Jupiter’s temple. He also went and cut down materials of timber out of the mountain called Lebanon, for the roof of temples; and when he had pulled down the ancient temples, he both built the temple of Hercules and that of Astarte; and he first set up the temple of Hercules in the month Peritius; he also made an expedition against the Euchii, or Titii, who did not pay their tribute, and when he had subdued them to himself, he returned. Under this king there was Abdemon, a very youth in age, who always conquered the difficult problems which Solomon, king of Jerusalem, commanded him to explain.” Dius also makes mention of him, where he says thus: “When Abibalus was dead, his son Hiram reigned. He raised the eastern parts of the city higher and made the city itself larger. He also joined the temple of Jupiter, which before stood by itself, to the city, by raising an embankment in the middle between them; and he adorned it with donations of gold. Moreover, he went up to Mount Lebanon and cut down materials of wood for the building of the temples.” He also says that Solomon, who was then king of Jerusalem, sent riddles to Hiram and desired to receive the same from him, but that he who could not solve them should pay money to them that did solve them, and that Hiram accepted the conditions; and when he was unable to solve the riddles proposed by Solomon, he paid a great deal of money for his fine; but that he afterward solved the proposed riddles by means of Abdemon, a man of Tyre; and that Hiram proposed other riddles, which, when Solomon could not solve, he paid back a great deal of money to Hiram.” It is this which Dius wrote.

CHAPTER 6

How Solomon Fortified the City of Jerusalem and Built Great Cities; And How He Brought Some of the Canaanites into Subjection and Entertained the Queen of Egypt and of Ethiopia.

1. Now when the king saw that the walls of Jerusalem stood in need of being better secured and made stronger (for he thought the walls that encompassed Jerusalem ought to correspond to the dignity of the city), he both repaired them, and made them higher, with great towers on them; he also built cities which might be counted among the strongest: Hazor and Megiddo, and the third Gezer, which had indeed belonged to the Philistines; but Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had made an expedition against it, and besieged it, and taken it by force; and when he had slain all its inhabitants, he utterly overthrew it, and gave it as a present to his daughter, who had been married to Solomon; for which reason the king rebuilt it as a city that was naturally strong and might be useful in wars and the changes of affairs that sometimes happen. Moreover, he built two other cities not far from it: Beth-Horon was the name of one of them, and Baalath of the other. He also built other cities that lay conveniently for these, for the enjoyment of pleasures and delicacies in them, such as were naturally of a good temperature of the air, and agreeable for fruits ripe in their proper seasons, and well-watered with springs. Indeed, Solomon went as far as the desert above Syria, and took possession of it himself, and built a very great city there, which was two days’ journey distant from Upper Syria, and one day’s journey from Euphrates, and six long days’ journey from Babylon the Great. Now the reason why this city lay so remote from the parts of Syria that are inhabited is this: that below there is no water to be obtained, and that it is only in that place that there are springs and pits of water. When he had therefore built this city and surrounded it with very strong walls, he gave it the name of Tadmor, and that is the name it is still called by at this day among the Syrians, but the Greeks name it Palmyra.

2. Now Solomon the king was at this time engaged in building these cities. But if anyone inquires why all the kings of Egypt from Menes, who built Memphis, and was many years earlier than our forefather Abraham, until Solomon, where the interval was more than one thousand three hundred years, were called Pharaohs and took it from one Pharaoh that lived after the kings of that interval, I think it necessary to inform them of it, and this in order to cure their ignorance, and to make the reason for that name apparent. Pharaoh, in the Egyptian tongue, signifies a king; but I suppose they made use of other names from their childhood; but when they were made kings, they changed them into the name which in their own tongue denoted their authority; for thus it was also that the kings of Alexandria, who were formerly called by other names, when they took the kingdom, were named Ptolemies, from their first king. The Roman emperors were also from their nativity called by other names, but are styled Caesars—their empire and their dignity imposing that name on them and not permitting them to continue in those names which their fathers gave them. I also suppose that Herodotus of Halicarnassus, when he said there were three hundred and thirty kings of Egypt after Menes, who built Memphis, did not therefore tell us their names, because they were in common called Pharaohs; for when after their death there was a queen [who] reigned, he calls her by her name Nicaule, as thereby declaring that while the kings were of the male line, and so admitted of the same nature, while a woman did not admit the same, he therefore set down her name, which she could not naturally have. As for myself, I have discovered from our own books, that after Pharaoh, the father-in-law of Solomon, no other king of Egypt used that name any longer; and that it was after that time when the aforementioned queen of Egypt and Ethiopia came to Solomon, concerning whom we will inform the reader presently; but I have now made mention of these things, that I may prove that our books and those of the Egyptians agree together in many things.

3. But King Solomon himself subjugated the remnant of the Canaanites that had not formerly submitted to him—those I mean that dwelt in Mount Lebanon, and as far as the city [of] Hamath; and he ordered them to pay tribute. He also chose out of them every year such as were to serve him in the humblest offices, and to do his domestic works, and to follow farming; for none of the Hebrews were servants [in such low employments]: nor was it reasonable, that when God had brought so many nations under their power, they should depress their own people to such humble offices of life, rather than those nations; while all the Israelites were concerned with military affairs, and were in armor, and were set over the chariots and the horses, rather than leading the life of slaves. He also appointed five hundred and fifty rulers over those Canaanites who were reduced to such domestic slavery, who received the entire care of them from the king and instructed them in those labors and operations wherein he wanted their assistance.

4. Moreover, the king built many ships in the Egyptian Bay of the Red Sea, in a certain place called Ezion-Geber: it is now called Berenice and is not far from the city [of] Eloth. This country formerly belonged to the Jews and became useful for shipping from the donations of Hiram king of Tyre; for he sent a sufficient number of men there for captains, and such as were skillful in navigation, to whom Solomon gave this command: that they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch him gold. And when they had gathered four hundred talents together, they returned to the king again.

5. There was then a woman [ruler]: queen of Egypt and Ethiopia; she was inquisitive into philosophy, and one that on other accounts was also to be admired. When this queen heard of the virtue and prudence of Solomon, she had a great mind to see him; and the reports that went abroad every day induced her to come to him—she being desirous to be satisfied by her own experience, and not by a mere report (for reports thus heard are likely enough to comply with a false opinion, while they wholly depend on the credit of the relators); so she resolved to come to him, and that especially in order to have a trial of his wisdom, while she proposed questions of very great difficulty and implored that he would solve their hidden meaning. Accordingly, she came to Jerusalem with great splendor and rich furniture, for she brought with her camels laden with gold, with several sorts of sweet spices, and with precious stones. Now, on the king’s kind reception of her, he showed both a great desire to please her, and easily comprehending in his mind the meaning of the curious questions she submitted to him, he resolved them sooner than anybody could have expected. So she was amazed at the wisdom of Solomon and discovered that it was more excellent on trial than what she had heard by report beforehand; and she was especially surprised at the fineness and size of his royal palace, and not less so at the good order of the apartments, for she observed that the king had therein shown great wisdom; but she was beyond measure astonished at the house which was called the Forest of Lebanon, as also at the magnificence of his daily table, and the circumstances of its preparation and ministration, with the apparel of his servants that waited, and the skillful and decent management of their attendance: nor was she less affected with those daily sacrifices which were offered to God and the careful management which the priests and Levites used for them. When she saw this done every day, she was in the greatest admiration imaginable, insomuch that she was unable to contain the surprise she was in, but openly confessed how wonderfully she was affected; for she proceeded to discourse with the king, and thereby admitted that she was overcome with admiration at the things previously related; and she said, “All things indeed, O king, that came to our knowledge by report, came with uncertainty as to our belief of them; but as for those good things that relate to you—both such as you yourself possess, I mean wisdom, and prudence, and the happiness you have from your kingdom—certainly the same that came to us was no falsity; it was not only a true report, but it related your blessedness in a much humbler manner than I now see it to be before my eyes. For as to the report, it only attempted to persuade our hearing, but did not so make known the dignity of the things themselves as does the sight of them, and being present among them. I indeed, who did not believe what was reported by reason of the multitude and grandeur of the things I inquired about, do see them to be much more numerous than they were reported to be. Accordingly, I regard the Hebrew people, as well as your servants and friends, to be blessed, who enjoy your presence and hear your wisdom every day continually. One would therefore bless God, who has so loved this country, and those that inhabit therein, as to make you king over them.”

6. Now when the queen had thus demonstrated in words how deeply the king had affected her, her disposition was known by certain presents, for she gave him twenty talents of gold, and an immense quantity of spices and precious stones. (They also say that we possess the root of that balsam which our country still bears by this woman’s gift.) Solomon also repaid her with many good things, and principally by bestowing on her what she chose of her own inclination, for there was nothing that she desired which he denied her; and as he was very generous and liberal in his own temper, so he showed the greatness of his soul in bestowing on her what she herself desired of him. So, when this queen of Ethiopia had obtained what we have already given an account of and had again communicated to the king what she brought with her, she returned to her own kingdom.

CHAPTER 7

How Solomon Grew Rich and Fell Desperately in Love with Women, and How God, Being Angry at It, Raised up Ader and Jeroboam Against Him. Concerning the Death of Solomon.

1. About the same time there were brought to the king from the Aurea Chersonesus, a country so called, precious stones and pine trees, and these trees he made use of for supporting the temple and the palace, as also for the materials of musical instruments, the harps and the psalteries, that the Levites might make use of them in their hymns to God. The wood which was brought to him at this time was larger and finer than any that had ever been brought before; but let no one imagine that these pine trees were like those which are now so named, and which take their denomination from the merchants, who so call them, that they may acquire them to be admired by those that purchase them; for those we speak of were to the sight like the wood of the fig tree, but were whiter and shinier. Now we have said this much, so that nobody may be ignorant of the difference between these sorts of wood, nor unacquainted with the nature of the genuine pine tree; and we thought it both a seasonable and humane thing, when we mentioned it, and the uses the king made of it, to explain this difference so far as we have done.

2. Now the weight of gold that was brought [to] him was six hundred and sixty-six talents, not including in that sum what was brought by the merchants, nor what the toparchs and kings of Arabia gave him in presents. He also cast two hundred bucklers of gold, each of them weighing six hundred shekels. He also made three hundred shields, every one weighing three pounds of gold and he had them carried and put into that house which was called the Forest of Lebanon. He also made cups of gold, and of [precious] stones, for the entertainment of his guests, and had them adorned in the most artificial manner; and he contrived that all his other furniture of vessels should be of gold, for there was nothing then to be sold or bought for silver; for the king had many ships which lay on the sea of Tarsus, these he commanded to carry all sorts of merchandise to the most distant nations, by the sale of which silver and gold were brought to the king, and a great quantity of ivory, and Ethiopians, and apes; and they finished their voyage, going and returning, in three years’ time.

3. Accordingly, there went forth great renown all around the neighboring countries, which proclaimed the virtue and wisdom of Solomon, insomuch that all the kings everywhere were desirous to see him, as not giving credit to what was reported, on account of its being almost incredible: they also demonstrated the regard they had for him by the presents they made him, for they sent him vessels of gold, and silver, and purple garments, and many sorts of spices, and horses, and chariots, and as many mules for his carriages as they could find proper to please the king’s eyes, by their strength and beauty. This addition that he made to those chariots and horses which he had before from those that were sent him, increased the number of his chariots by above four hundred, for he had one thousand before, and increased the number of his horses by two thousand, for he had twenty thousand before. These horses were also greatly exercised, for their having a fine appearance, and running swiftly, that no others could, on comparison, appear either finer or swifter; but they were at once the most beautiful of all others, and their swiftness was also incomparable. Their riders were also a further ornament to them, being, in the first place, young men in the most delightful flower of their age, and being eminent for their size, and far taller than other men. They also had very long heads of hair hanging down and were clothed in garments of Tyrian purple. They also had dust of gold sprinkled on their hair every day, so that their heads sparkled with the reflection of the sunbeams from the gold. The king himself rode on a chariot in the midst of these men, who were still in armor and had their bows fitted to them. He had on a white garment and used to take his procession out of the city in the morning. There was a certain place about fifty stadia away from Jerusalem, which is called Etham, it is very pleasant in fine gardens and abounding in streams of water; he used to go out there in the morning, sitting on high [in his chariot].

4. Now Solomon had a divine shrewdness in all things and was very diligent and studious to have things done in an elegant manner; so he did not neglect the care of the ways, but he laid a causeway of black stone along the roads that led to Jerusalem, which was the royal city, both to render them easy for travelers, and to manifest the grandeur of his riches and government. He also parted his chariots and set them in a regular order, that a certain number of them should be in every city, still keeping a few around him; and those cities he called the cities of his chariots. And the king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones in the street, and so multiplied cedar trees in the plains of Judea, which did not grow there before, that they were like the multitude of common sycamore trees. He also ordained the Egyptian merchants that brought him their merchandise to sell him a chariot, with a pair of horses, for six hundred drachmas of silver, and he sent them to the kings of Syria, and to those kings that were beyond [the] Euphrates.

5. But although Solomon had become the most glorious of kings, and the best beloved by God, and had exceeded in wisdom and riches those that had been rulers of the Hebrews before him, yet he did not persevere in this blessed state until he died. No, he abandoned the observation of the laws of his fathers and came to an end [in] no way suitable to our preceding history of him. He grew mad in his love of women, and laid no restraint on himself in his lusts; nor was he satisfied with the women of his country alone, but he married many wives out of foreign nations; Sidonians, and Tyrians, and Ammonites, and Edomites; and he transgressed the laws of Moses, which forbade Jews to marry any but those that were of their own people. He also began to worship their gods, which he did for the gratification of his wives, and out of his affection for them. This very thing our legislator suspected, and so admonished us beforehand, that we should not marry women of other countries, lest we should be entangled with foreign customs and apostatize from our own; lest we should cease to honor our own God and should worship their gods. But Solomon was given headlong into unreasonable pleasures and did not regard those admonitions, for when he had married seven hundred wives, the daughters of princes and of eminent persons, and three hundred concubines, and those besides the king of Egypt’s daughter, he soon was governed by them, until he came to imitate their practices. He was forced to give them this demonstration of his kindness and affection toward them, to live according to the laws of their countries. And as he grew into years, and his reason became weaker by length of time, it was not sufficient to recall to his mind the institutions of his own country; so he still more and more despised his own God, and continued to regard the gods that his marriages had introduced; indeed, before this happened, he sinned and fell into an error regarding the observation of the laws, when he made the images of brazen oxen that supported the brazen sea, and the images of lions around his own throne; for these he made, although it was not agreeable to piety to do so; and this he did, notwithstanding that he had his father as a most excellent and domestic pattern of virtue, and knew what a glorious character he had left behind him, because of his piety toward God. Nor did he imitate David, although God had twice appeared to him in his sleep and exhorted him to imitate his father. So he died ingloriously. Therefore, a prophet came to him, who was sent by God, and told him that his wicked actions were not concealed from God; and he threatened him that he should not long rejoice in what he had done; that, indeed, the kingdom should not be taken from him while he was alive, because God had promised to his father David that He would make him his successor, but that He would take care that this should happen to his son when he was dead—not that He would withdraw all the people from him, but that He would give ten tribes to a servant of his, and leave only two tribes to David’s grandson for his sake, because He loved God, and for the sake of the city of Jerusalem, wherein He should have a temple.

6. When Solomon heard this, he was grieved and greatly confounded—on this change of almost all that blessedness which had made him to be admired—into a terrible state; nor had much time passed after the prophet had foretold what was coming, before God raised up an enemy against him, whose name was Ader, who took the following opportunity for his enmity toward him. He was a child of the stock of the Edomites, and of royal blood; and when Joab, the captain of David’s host, laid waste the land of Edom and destroyed all that were men grown and able to bear arms, for six months’ time, this Hadad fled away and came to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, who received him kindly and assigned him a house to dwell in and a country to supply him with food; and when he was grown up he loved him exceedingly, insomuch that he gave him his wife’s sister, whose name was Tahpenes, for a wife, by whom he had a son, who was brought up with the king’s children. When Hadad heard in Egypt that both David and Joab were dead, he came to Pharaoh and desired that he would permit him to go to his own country; on which the king asked what it was that he wanted, and what hardship he had met with, that he was so desirous to leave him. And when he was often troublesome to him, and implored him to dismiss him, he did not then do it; but at the time when Solomon’s affairs began to grow worse, on account of his aforementioned transgressions and God’s anger against him for the same, Hadad, by Pharaoh’s permission, came to Edom; and when he was unable to make the people forsake Solomon, for it was subjugated by many garrisons, and an innovation was not to be made with safety, he departed from there and came into Syria; there he came to one Rezon, who had run away from Hadadezer, king of Zobah, his master, and had become a robber in that country, and joined friendship with him, who already had a band of robbers around him. So he went up, and seized that part of Syria, and was made king thereof. He also made incursions into the land of Israel, and caused it no small trouble, and spoiled it, and that in the lifetime of Solomon. And this was the calamity which the Hebrews suffered by Hadad.

7. There was also one of Solomon’s own nation that made an attempt against him: Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had an expectation of rising, from a prophecy that had been made to him long before. He was left a child by his father and brought up by his mother; and when Solomon saw that he was of an active and bold disposition, he made him the curator of the walls which he built around Jerusalem; and he took such care of those works, that the king approved of his behavior and gave him, as a reward for the same, the charge of the tribe of Joseph. And when about that time Jeroboam was once going out of Jerusalem, a prophet of the city [of] Shiloh, whose name was Ahijah, met him and saluted him; and when he had taken him a little aside to a place out of the way, where there was no other person present, he tore the garment he had on into twelve pieces and commanded Jeroboam to take ten of them; and he told him beforehand that “this is the will of God: He will part the dominion of Solomon and give one tribe, with that which is next it, to his son, because of the promise made to David for his succession; and He will give ten tribes to you, because Solomon has sinned against Him and delivered himself up to women and to their gods. Therefore, seeing [that] you know the cause for which God has changed His mind and is alienated from Solomon, be righteous and keep the laws, because He has proposed to you the greatest of all rewards for your piety, and the honor you will pay to God, namely, to be as greatly exalted as you know David to have been.”

8. So Jeroboam was elevated by these words of the prophet; and being a young man, of a hot temper and ambitious for greatness, he could not be quiet; and when he had such a great responsibility in the government, and called to mind what had been revealed to him by Ahijah, he endeavored to persuade the people to forsake Solomon, to make a disturbance, and to bring the government over to himself. But when Solomon understood his intention and treachery, he sought to catch him and kill him; but Jeroboam was informed of it beforehand and fled to Shishak, the king of Egypt, and abided there until the death of Solomon, by which means he gained these two advantages: to suffer no harm from Solomon, and to be preserved for the kingdom. So Solomon died when he was already an old man, having reigned eighty years, and lived ninety-four. He was buried in Jerusalem, having been superior to all other kings in happiness, and riches, and wisdom, excepting when he, growing [old] in years, was deluded by women and transgressed the law; concerning which transgressions, and the miseries which happened to the Hebrews thereby, I think proper to discuss at another opportunity.

CHAPTER 8

How, on the Death of Solomon, the People Abandoned His Son Rehoboam and Ordained Jeroboam [as] King over the Ten Tribes.

1. Now when Solomon was dead and his son Rehoboam (who was born of an Ammonite wife, whose name was Naamah) had succeeded him in the kingdom, the rulers of the multitude sent immediately into Egypt and called back Jeroboam; and when he had come to them, to the city [of] Shechem, Rehoboam came to it also, for he had resolved to declare himself king to the Israelites while they were gathered together there. So the rulers of the people, as well as Jeroboam, came to him, and pleaded with him, and said that he ought to relax and be gentler than his father, in the servitude he had imposed on them, because they had borne a heavy yoke, and that then they should be better disposed toward him, and be well-satisfied to serve him under his moderate government, and should do it more out of love than fear. But Rehoboam told them they should come to him again in three days’ time, when he would give an answer to their request. This delay gave occasion to a present suspicion, since he had not given them a favorable answer to their mind immediately; for they thought that he should have given them a humane answer right away, especially since he was but young. However, they thought that this consultation about it, and that he did not presently give them a denial, provided them some good hope of success.

2. Rehoboam now called his father’s friends and consulted with them [regarding] what sort of answer he ought to give to the multitude; on which they gave him the advice which suited friends, and those that knew the temper of such a multitude. They advised him to speak in a way more popular than suited the grandeur of a king, because he would thereby compel them to submit to him with goodwill, it being most agreeable to subjects that their kings should be almost on the [same] level with them. But Rehoboam rejected such good—and in general, such profitable—advice (it was such, at least, at that time when he was to be made king), God Himself, I suppose, causing what was most advantageous to be condemned by him. So he called for the young men who were brought up with him, and told them what advice the elders had given him, and commanded them to speak what they thought he ought to do. They advised him to give the following answer to the people (for neither their youth nor God Himself allowed them to discern what was best): that his little finger should be thicker than his father’s loins; and if they had met with hard usage from his father, they should experience much rougher treatment from him; and if his father had chastised them with whips, they must expect that he would do it with scorpions. The king was pleased with this advice and thought it agreeable to the dignity of his government to give them such an answer. Accordingly, when the multitude had come together to hear his answer on the third day, all the people were in great expectation and very intent to hear what the king would say to them, and they supposed they should hear something of a kind nature; but he passed by his friends and answered as the young men had given him counsel. Now this was done according to the will of God, that what Ahijah had foretold might come to pass.

3. By these words the people were struck as if by an iron hammer, and were so grieved at the words, as if they had already felt the effects of them; and they had great indignation at the king; and they all cried out aloud and said, “We will no longer have any relation to David or his posterity after this day.” And they said further, “We only leave to Rehoboam the temple which his father built”; and they threatened to forsake him. Indeed, they were so bitter and retained their wrath so long, that when he sent Adoram, which was over the tribute, that he might pacify them, and render them milder, and persuade them to forgive him if he had said anything that was rash or grievous to them in his youth, they would not hear it, but threw stones at him and killed him. When Rehoboam saw this, he thought himself aimed at by those stones with which they had killed his servant and feared lest he should undergo the last of punishments in earnest; so he immediately got into his chariot and fled to Jerusalem, where the tribe of Judah and that of Benjamin ordained him king; but the rest of the multitude deserted the sons of David from that day on and appointed Jeroboam to be the ruler of their public affairs. On this, Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, assembled a great congregation of those two tribes that submitted to him, and was ready to take one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men out of the army, to make an expedition against Jeroboam and his people, that he might force them by war to be his servants; but he was forbidden of God by the prophet [Shemaiah] to go to war, because it was not just that brothers of the same country should fight against one another. He also said that this defection of the multitude was according to the purpose of God. So he did not proceed in this expedition. And now I will first relate the actions of Jeroboam, the king of Israel, after which we will relate what are connected with the actions of Rehoboam, the king of the two tribes; by this means we will preserve the good order of the history completely.

4. Therefore, when Jeroboam had built himself a palace in the city [of] Shechem, he dwelt there. He also built himself another at Penuel, a city so called. And now [that] the Celebration of Tabernacles was approaching in a short time, Jeroboam speculated that if he should permit the multitude to go to worship God at Jerusalem, and to celebrate the festival there, they would probably regret what they had done, and be enticed by the temple, and by the worship of God performed there, and would leave him and return to their first kings; and if so, he should run the risk of losing his own life; so he invented this scheme: he made two golden heifers and built two little temples for them: one in the city [of] Bethel, and the other in Dan, the latter of which was at the fountains of the Lesser Jordan, and he put the heifers into both [of] the little temples, in the aforementioned cities. And when he had called those ten tribes together over whom he ruled, he made a speech to the people with these words: “I suppose, my countrymen, that you know this, that every place has God in it; nor is there any one determinate place in which He is, but everywhere He hears and sees those that worship Him; on which account I do not think it [is] right for you to go on such a long journey to Jerusalem, which is an enemy’s city, to worship Him. It was a [mere] man that built the temple; I have also made two golden heifers, dedicated to the same God; and one of them I have consecrated in the city [of] Bethel, and the other in Dan, to the end that those of you that dwell nearest those cities may go to them and worship God there; and I will ordain for you certain priests and Levites from among yourselves, that you may have no lack of the tribe of Levi, or of the sons of Aaron; but let him that is desirous among you of being a priest bring to God a bullock and a ram, which they say Aaron the first priest also brought.” When Jeroboam had said this, he deluded the people and made them to revolt from the worship of their forefathers and to transgress their laws. This was the beginning of miseries for the Hebrews and the reason why they were overcome in war by foreigners and so fell into captivity. But we will relate those things in their proper places hereafter.

5. When the Celebration [of Tabernacles] was quickly approaching, Jeroboam desired to celebrate it himself in Bethel, as the two tribes celebrated it in Jerusalem. Accordingly, he built an altar in front of the heifer, and he undertook to be high priest himself. So he went up to the altar with his own priests around him; but when he was going to offer the sacrifices and the burnt-offerings in the sight of all the people, a prophet, whose name was Jadon, was sent by God and came to him from Jerusalem, who stood in the midst of the multitude and in the hearing of the king, and directing his discourse to the altar, said this: “God foretells that there will be a certain man of the family of David, Josiah by name, who will slay on you those false priests that will live at that time, and on you will burn the bones of those deceivers of the people—those impostors and wicked wretches. However, that this people may believe that these things will so come to pass, I foretell a sign to them that will also come to pass: this altar will be broken to pieces immediately and all the fat of the sacrifices that is on it will be poured on the ground.” When the prophet had said this, Jeroboam fell into a passion, and stretched out his hand, and commanded them to lay hold of him; but that hand which he stretched out was enfeebled, and he was unable to pull it in again to himself, for it had become withered and hung down, as if it were a dead hand. The altar was also broken to pieces, and all that was on it was poured out, as the prophet had foretold should come to pass. So the king understood that he was a man of truth and had a Divine foreknowledge; and he begged him to pray to God that He would restore his right hand. Accordingly, the prophet prayed to God to grant him that request. So the king, having his hand recovered to its natural state, rejoiced at it and invited the prophet to dine with him; but Jadon said that he could not endure to come into his house, nor to taste of bread or water in this city, for that was a thing God had forbidden him to do, as also to go back by the same way which he came; but he said he was to return by another way. So the king wondered at the restraint of the man, but was himself in fear, as suspecting a change of his affairs for the worse, from what had been said to him.

CHAPTER 9

How Jadon the Prophet Was Persuaded by Another Lying Prophet, and Returned [To Bethel], and Was Afterward Slain by a Lion. As Also What Words the Wicked Prophet Made Use of to Persuade the King, and Thereby Alienated His Mind from God.

1. Now there was a certain wicked man in that city, who was a false prophet, whom Jeroboam held in high regard, but was deceived by him and his flattering words. This man was bedridden, by reason of the infirmities of old age: however, he was informed by his sons concerning the prophet that had come from Jerusalem, and concerning the signs done by him; and how, when Jeroboam’s right hand had been enfeebled, at the prophet’s prayer he had it revived again; whereon, he was afraid that this stranger and prophet should be [held] in higher regard with the king than himself and obtain greater honor from him: and he gave orders to his sons to saddle his donkey presently and make everything ready so that he might go out. Accordingly, they hurried to do what they were commanded, and he got on the donkey and followed after the prophet; and when he had overtaken him as he was resting himself under a very large oak tree that was thick and shady, he at first saluted him, but presently he complained of him, because he had not come into his house and partaken of his hospitality. And when the other said that God had forbidden him to taste of anyone’s provision in that city, he replied that “surely God had not forbidden that I should set food before you, for I am a prophet as you are and worship God in the same manner that you do; and I have now come as sent by Him, in order to bring you into my house and make you my guest.” Now Jadon gave credit to this lying prophet and returned back with him. But when they were at dinner and cheerful together, God appeared to Jadon and said that he should suffer punishment for transgressing His commands, and He told him what that punishment should be, for He said that he should meet with a lion as he was going on his way, by which lion he should be torn in pieces and be deprived of burial in the tombs of his fathers; which things came to pass, as I suppose, according to the will of God, so that Jeroboam might not listen to the words of Jadon as of one that had been convicted of lying. However, as Jadon was again going to Jerusalem, a lion assaulted him, and pulled him off the beast he rode on, and slew him; yet he did not hurt the donkey at all, but sat by him, and kept him, as also the prophet’s body. This continued until some travelers that saw it came and told it in the city to the false prophet, who sent his sons, and brought the body to the city, and made a funeral for him at great expense. He also charged his sons to bury himself with him and said that all which he had foretold against that city, and the altar, and priests, and false prophets, would prove true; and that if he were buried with him, he should receive no injurious treatment after his death—the bones not being then [able] to be distinguished apart. But now, when he had performed those funeral rites to the prophet, and had given that charge to his sons, as he was a wicked and an impious man, he goes to Jeroboam, and says to him, “And therefore is it now that you are disturbed at the words of this silly fellow?” And when the king had related to him what had happened around the altar, and about his own hand, and gave him the names of [the] divine man and an excellent prophet, he endeavored by a wicked trick to weaken his opinion; and by using plausible words concerning what had happened, he aimed to injure the truth that was in them; for he attempted to persuade him that his hand was enfeebled by the labor it had undergone in supporting the sacrifices, and that on its resting awhile, it returned to its former nature again; and that as to the altar, it was but new, and had borne abundance of sacrifices, and those large ones too, and was accordingly broken to pieces and fell down by the weight of what had been laid on it. He also informed him of the death of him that had foretold those things, and how he perished; [from which he concluded that] he did not have anything in him of a prophet, nor spoke anything like one. When he had thus spoken, he persuaded the king, and entirely alienated his mind from God and from doing works that were righteous and holy, and encouraged him to go on in his impious practices, and accordingly, he was to that degree injurious to God and so great a transgressor that he sought for nothing else every day except how he might be guilty of some new instances of wickedness—and such as should be more detestable than what he had been so insolent as to do before. And so much will at present suffice to have said concerning Jeroboam.

CHAPTER 10

Concerning Rehoboam and How God Inflicted Punishment on Him for His Impiety by Shishak [King of Egypt].

1. Now Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who, as we said before, was king of the two tribes, built strong and large cities: Beth-Lehem, and Etare, and Tekoa, and Beth-Zur, and Shoco, and Adullam, and Ipan, and Maresha, and Ziph, and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah, and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron; he built these first of all in the tribe of Judah. He also built other large cities in the tribe of Benjamin, and walled them around, and put garrisons in them all, and captains, and a great deal of corn, and wine, and oil, and he abundantly furnished every one of them with other provisions that were necessary for sustenance; moreover, he put shields and spears therein for many myriads of men. Also, the priests that were in all Israel, and the Levites, and if there were any of the multitude that were good and righteous men, they gathered themselves together to him, having left their own cities, that they might worship God in Jerusalem, for they were not willing to be forced to worship the heifers which Jeroboam had made; and they increased the kingdom of Rehoboam for three years. And after he had married a woman of his own relatives and had three children born to him by her, he also married another of his own relatives, who was the daughter of Absalom by Tamar, whose name was Maachah, and he had a son by her whom he named Abijah. Moreover, he had many other children by other wives, but he loved Maachah above them all. Now he had eighteen legitimate wives and thirty concubines; and he had twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters born to him; but he appointed Abijah, whom he had by Maachah, to be his successor in the kingdom, and already entrusted him with the treasures and the strongest cities.

2. Now I cannot but think that the greatness of a kingdom and its change into prosperity often become the cause of mischief and of transgression to men; for when Rehoboam saw that his kingdom was so greatly increased, he went out of the right way to unrighteous and irreligious practices, and he despised the worship of God until the people themselves imitated his wicked actions: for so it usually happens, that the manners of subjects are corrupted at the same time with those of their governors, which subjects then lay aside their own sober way of living as a rebuke of their governors’ intemperate actions, and follow their wickedness as if it were virtue; for it is not possible to show that men approve of the actions of their kings unless they do the same actions with them. Agreeable to this, it now so happened to the subjects of Rehoboam; for when he had grown impious and a transgressor himself, they endeavored not to offend him by resolving to still be righteous. But God sent Shishak, king of Egypt, to punish them for their unjust behavior toward Him, concerning whom Herodotus was mistaken and applied his actions to Sesostris; for this Shishak, in the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, made an expedition [into Judea] with many myriads of men; for he had one thousand two hundred chariots in number that followed him, and sixty thousand horsemen, and four hundred thousand footmen. He brought these with him, and the greatest part of them were Libyans and Ethiopians. Now therefore, when he fell on the country of the Hebrews, he took the strongest cities of Rehoboam’s kingdom without fighting; and when he had put garrisons in them, he came last of all to Jerusalem.

3. Now when Rehoboam, and the multitude with him, were shut up in Jerusalem by means of the army of Shishak, and when they pleaded with God to give them victory and deliverance, they could not persuade God to be on their side. But Shemaiah the prophet told them that God threatened to forsake them, as they had themselves forsaken His worship. When they heard this, they were immediately in a consternation of mind; and seeing no way of deliverance, they all earnestly set themselves to confess that God might justly overlook them, since they had been guilty of impiety toward Him and had let His laws lie in confusion. So when God saw them in that disposition, and that they acknowledged their sins, He told the prophet that He would not destroy them, but that He would, however, make them servants to the Egyptians, that they might learn whether they will suffer less by serving men or God. So when Shishak had taken the city without fighting because Rehoboam was afraid and received him into it, yet Shishak did not uphold the covenants he had made, but he spoiled the temple, and emptied the treasures of God, and those of the king, and carried off innumerable myriads of gold and silver, and left nothing at all behind him. He also took away the bucklers of gold, and the shields, which Solomon the king had made; indeed, he did not leave the golden quivers which David had taken from the king of Zobah and had dedicated to God; and when he had done this, he returned to his own kingdom. Now Herodotus of Halicarnassus mentions this expedition, having only mistaken the king’s name, and [says that] he also made war on many other nations, and brought Syria of Palestine into subjection, and took the men that were therein prisoners without fighting. Now it is manifest that he intended to declare that our nation was subdued by him, for he says that he left behind him pillars in the land of those that delivered themselves up to him without fighting and engraved on them the secret parts of women. Now our King Rehoboam delivered up our city without fighting. He additionally says that the Ethiopians learned to circumcise their private parts from the Egyptians, with this addition: that the Phoenicians and Syrians that live in Palestine confess that they learned it from the Egyptians. Yet it is evident that none of the other Syrians that live in Palestine, besides us alone, are circumcised. But as for such matters, let everyone speak what is agreeable to his own opinion.

4. When Shishak had gone away, King Rehoboam made bucklers and shields of brass, instead of those of gold, and delivered the same number of them to the keepers of the king’s palace. So, instead of military expeditions, and that glory which results from those public actions, he reigned in great quietness, though not without fear, as always being an enemy to Jeroboam, and he died when he had lived fifty-seven years, and reigned seventeen. In his disposition he was a proud and foolish man and lost [part of his] dominions by not listening to his father’s friends. He was buried in Jerusalem, in the tombs of the kings; and his son Abijah succeeded him in the kingdom, and this [was] in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign over the ten tribes; and this was the conclusion of these affairs. It must now be our business to relate the affairs of Jeroboam and how he ended his life, for he did not cease nor rest [from] being injurious to God, but every day raised up altars on high mountains and went about making priests out of the multitude.

CHAPTER 11

Concerning the Death of a Son of Jeroboam. How Jeroboam Was Beaten by Abijah, Who Died Shortly Afterward, and Was Succeeded in His Kingdom by Asa. And Also How, After the Death of Jeroboam, Baasha Destroyed His Son Nadab and All the House of Jeroboam.

1. However, in a short time God was ready to return Jeroboam’s wicked actions and the punishment they deserved on his own head and on the heads of all his house. And whereas a son of his lay sick at that time, who was called Abijah, he instructed his wife to lay aside her robes, and to take the garments belonging to a private person, and to go to Ahijah the prophet, because he was a wonderful man in foretelling future events, “it having been he who told me that I should be king.” He also instructed her, when she came to him, to inquire concerning the child, as if she were a stranger, whether he should escape this disease. So she did as her husband commanded her, and changed her attire, and came to the city [of] Shiloh, for Ahijah lived there. And as she was going into his house, his eyes being then dim with age, God appeared to him and informed him of two things: that the wife of Jeroboam had come to him, and what answer he should make to her inquiry. Accordingly, as the woman was coming into the house like a private person and a stranger, he cried out, “Come in, O wife of Jeroboam! Why conceal yourself? You are not concealed from God, who has appeared to me, and informed me that you were coming, and has given me in command what I will say to you.” So he said that she should go away to her husband and speak this to him: “Since I made you a great man when you were little—or rather were nothing—and tore the kingdom from the house of David and gave it to you, and you have been unmindful of these benefits, have ceased My worship, [and] have made molten gods and honored them, I will in [the] same way cast you down again, and will destroy all your house, and make them food for the dogs and the birds; for a certain king is rising up, by appointment, over all this people, who will leave none of the family of Jeroboam remaining. The multitude will also partake of the same punishment themselves, and will be cast out of this good land, and will be scattered into the places beyond Euphrates, because they have followed the wicked practices of their king, and have worshiped the gods that he made, and forsaken My sacrifices. But you, O woman, hurry back to your husband and tell him this message; but you will then find your son dead, for as you enter the city he will depart this life; yet he will be buried with the lamentation of all the multitude and honored with a general mourning, for he was the only person of goodness from Jeroboam’s family.” When the prophet had foretold these events, the woman went hastily away with a disordered mind and greatly grieved at the death of the aforementioned child. So she was in lamentation as she went along the road, and mourned for the death of her son, which was immediately at hand. She was indeed in a miserable condition at the unavoidable misery of his death, and went swiftly, but in circumstances very unfortunate because of her son: for the greater haste she made, she would sooner see her son dead, yet she was forced to make such haste on account of her husband. Accordingly, when she had come back, she found that the child had given up the spirit, as the prophet had said; and she related all the circumstances to the king.

2. Yet Jeroboam did not lay any of these things to heart, but he brought together a very numerous army and made a military expedition against Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, who had succeeded his father in the kingdom of the two tribes, for he despised him because of his age. But when he heard of the expedition of Jeroboam, he was not frightened at it, but proved of a courageous temper of mind, superior both to his youth and to the hopes of his enemy; so he chose [for] himself an army out of the two tribes, and met Jeroboam at a place called Mount Zemaraim, and pitched his camp near the other, and prepared everything necessary for the fight. His army consisted of four hundred thousand, but the army of Jeroboam was double that. Now as the armies stood in array, ready for action and dangers, and were immediately going to fight, Abijah stood on an elevated place, and beckoning with his hand, he desired the multitude and Jeroboam himself to first hear with silence what he had to say. And when silence was made, he began to speak and told them, “God had consented that David and his posterity should be their rulers for all time to come, and this you yourselves are not unacquainted with; but I cannot but wonder how you should forsake my father, and join yourselves to his servant Jeroboam, and are now here with him to fight against those who, by God’s own determination, are to reign, and to deprive them of that dominion which they have still retained; for as to the greater part of it, Jeroboam is unjustly in possession of it. However, I do not suppose he will enjoy it any longer; but when he has suffered that punishment which God thinks due to him for what is past, he will cease the transgressions he has been guilty of, and the injuries he has offered to Him, and which he has still continued to offer and has persuaded you to do the same: yet when you were no longer unjustly treated by my father, except that he did not speak to you so as to please you—and this only in compliance with the advice of wicked men—you deserted him in anger, as you pretended, but in reality, you withdrew yourselves from God and from His laws, although it had been right for you to have forgiven a man that was young in age and not used to governing people; [and forgiven] not only some disagreeable words, but [also] if his youth and unskillfulness in affairs had led him into some unfortunate actions, and that for the sake of his father Solomon, and the benefits you received from him; for men ought to excuse the sins of posterity on account of the support of [the] parent; but you considered nothing of all this then, neither do you consider it now, but you come with such a great army against us. And what is it you depend on for victory? Is it on these golden heifers, and the altars that you have on high places, which are demonstrations of your impiety, and not of religious worship? Or is it the exceeding multitude of your army which gives you such good hopes? Yet there is certainly no strength at all in an army of many myriads when the war is unjust; for we ought to place our surest hopes of success against our enemies in righteousness alone, and in piety toward God, which hope we justly have, since we have kept the laws from the beginning and have worshiped our own God, who was not made by hands out of corruptible matter, nor was He formed by a wicked king in order to deceive the multitude; but who is His own workmanship, and the beginning and end of all things. Therefore, I give you counsel even now to relent, and to take better advice, and to stop the prosecution of the war—to call to mind the laws of your country and to reflect on what it has been that has advanced you to such a blessed state as you are now in.”

3. This was the speech which Abijah made to the multitude. But while he was still speaking, Jeroboam secretly sent some of his soldiers to surround Abijah, in certain parts of the camp that were not taken notice of; and when he was thus encircled by the enemy, his army was frightened, and their courage failed them; but Abijah encouraged them and exhorted them to place their hopes in God, because He was not surrounded by the enemy. So they all at once implored the Divine assistance, while the priests sounded with the trumpet, and they made a shout, and fell on their enemies, and God broke the courage and cast down the force of their enemies, and He made Ahijah’s army superior to them; for God permitted to grant them a wonderful and very famous victory; and such a slaughter was now made of Jeroboam’s army as is never recorded to have happened in any other war, whether it were of the Greeks or of the Barbarians, for they overthrew five hundred thousand of their enemies, and they took their strongest cities by force and spoiled them; and besides those, they did the same to Bethel and her towns, and Jeshanah and her towns. And after this defeat, Jeroboam never recovered himself during the life of Abijah, who yet did not long survive, for he reigned but three years and was buried in Jerusalem in the tombs of his forefathers. He left twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters behind him; and he also had those children by fourteen wives; and his son Asa succeeded [him] in the kingdom; and the young man’s mother was Michaiah. Under his reign the country of the Israelites enjoyed peace for ten years.

4. And so far has concerned Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, as his history has come down to us. But Jeroboam, the king of the ten tribes, died when he had governed them twenty-two years; whose son Nadab succeeded him, in the second year of the reign of Asa. Now Jeroboam’s son governed two years and resembled his father in impiety and wickedness. In these two years he made an expedition against Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines, and continued the siege in order to take it; but he was conspired against while he was there by a friend of his, whose name was Baasha, the son of Ahijah, and was slain—which Baasha took the kingdom after the other’s death and destroyed the whole house of Jeroboam. It also came to pass, according as God had foretold, that some of Jeroboam’s relatives that died in the city were torn to pieces and devoured by dogs, and that others of them that died in the fields were torn and devoured by the birds. So the house of Jeroboam suffered the just punishment of his impiety and of his wicked actions.

CHAPTER 12

How Zerah, King of the Ethiopians, Was Beaten by Asa; And How Asa, on Baasha’s Making War Against Him, Invited the King of the Damascenes to Assist Him; And How, on the Destruction of the House of Baasha, Zimri Obtained the Kingdom, as Did His Son Ahab After Him.

1. Now Asa, the king of Jerusalem, was of an excellent character, and had a regard for God, and neither did nor designed anything but what had relation to the observation of the laws. He made a reformation of his kingdom, and cut off whatsoever was wicked therein, and purified it from every impurity. Now he had an army of chosen men that were armed with bucklers and spears, out of the tribe of Judah, three hundred thousand; and out of the tribe of Benjamin, that bore shields and drew bows, two hundred and fifty thousand. But when he had already reigned ten years, Zerah, king of Ethiopia, made an expedition against him with a great army of nine hundred thousand footmen, and one hundred thousand horsemen, and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah, a city that belonged to the tribe of Judah. Now when Zerah had passed so far with his own army, Asa met him, and put his army in array opposite him, in a valley called Zephathah, not far from the city; and when he saw the multitude of the Ethiopians, he cried out, and pleaded with God to give him the victory, and that he might kill many myriads of the enemy: “For,” he said, “I depend on nothing else but that assistance which I expect from You, which is able to make the fewer superior to the more numerous, and the weaker to the stronger; and there it is alone that I venture to meet Zerah and fight him.”

2. While Asa was saying this, God gave him a signal of victory, and joining battle cheerfully on account of what God had foretold about it, he slew a great many of the Ethiopians; and when he had put them to flight, he pursued them to the country of Gerar; and when they ceased killing their enemies, they committed themselves to spoiling them (for the city [of] Gerar was already taken), and to spoiling their camp, so that they carried off much gold, and much silver, and a great deal of [other] prey, and camels, and great cattle, and flocks of sheep. Accordingly, when Asa and his army had obtained such a victory, and such wealth from God, they returned to Jerusalem. Now as they were coming, a prophet, whose name was Azariah, met them on the road and commanded them to briefly stop their journey; and he began to say to them this: that the reason why they had obtained this victory from God was this: that they had showed themselves [to be] righteous and religious men and had done everything according to the will of God; that therefore, he said, if they persevered therein, God would grant that they should always overcome their enemies and live happily; but that if they ceased His worship, all things will happen on the contrary; “and a time should come wherein no true prophet will be left in your whole multitude, nor a priest who will deliver you a true answer from the oracle; but your cities will be overthrown and your nation scattered over the whole earth; and [you will] live the life of strangers and wanderers.” So he advised them, while they had time, to be good and not to deprive themselves of the favor of God. When the king and the people heard this, they rejoiced; and all in common, and everyone in particular, took great care to conduct themselves righteously. The king also sent some to take care that those in the country should observe the laws also.

3. And this was the state of Asa, king of the two tribes. I now return to Baasha, the king of the multitude of the Israelites, who slew Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, and retained the government. He dwelt in the city [of] Tirzah, having made that his habitation, and reigned twenty-four years. He became more wicked and impious than Jeroboam or his son. He did a great deal of mischief to the multitude and was injurious to God, who sent the prophet Jehu, and told him beforehand that his whole family should be destroyed, and that He would bring the same miseries on his house which had brought that of Jeroboam to ruin, because when he had been made king by Him, he had not repaid His kindness by governing the multitude righteously and religiously—which things, in the first place, tended to their own happiness, and, in the next place, were pleasing to God; that he had imitated this very wicked king Jeroboam; and although that man’s soul had perished, yet he expressed [in his life] his wickedness; and he said that he should therefore justly experience the same calamity with him, since he had been guilty of the same wickedness. But Baasha, though he heard beforehand what miseries would happen to him and his whole family for their insolent behavior, yet did not cease his wicked practices for the time to come, nor did he care to appear other than worse and worse until he died; nor did he then convert of his past actions, nor endeavor to obtain pardon of God for them, but did as those do who have rewards proposed to them, when they have once in earnest set about their work, they do not cease their labors; for thus did Baasha, when the prophet foretold to him what would come to pass, grow worse, as if what were threatened—the perdition of his family and the destruction of his house (which are really among the greatest of evils)—were good things; and, as if he were a combatant for wickedness, every day he took more and more pains for it: and at last, he took his army and assaulted a certain considerable city called Ramah, which was forty stadia away from Jerusalem; and when he had taken it, he fortified it, having determined beforehand to leave a garrison in it, that they might make excursions from there and do trouble to the kingdom of Asa.

4. Whereon Asa was afraid of the attempts the enemy might make on him; and considering within himself how many mischiefs this army that was left in Ramah might do to the country over which he reigned, he sent ambassadors to the king of the Damascenes, with gold and silver, desiring his assistance and reminding him that “we have had a friendship together from the times of our forefathers.” So he gladly received that sum of money, and made a covenant with him, and broke the friendship he had with Baasha, and sent the commanders of his own forces to the cities that were under Baasha’s dominion, and ordered them to do them trouble. So they went and burnt some of them, and spoiled others—Ijon, and Dan, and Abelmain, and many others. Now when the king of Israel heard this, he ceased building and fortifying Ramah, and returned presently to assist his own people under the distresses they were in; but Asa made use of the materials that were prepared for building that city for building two strong cities in the same place: one of which was called Geba, and the other Mizpah; so that after this, Baasha had no leisure to make expeditions against Asa, for he was prevented by death and was buried in the city [of] Tirzah; and his son Elah took the kingdom, who, when he had reigned two years, died, being treacherously slain by Zimri, the captain of half [of] his army; for when he was at Arza, his steward’s house, he persuaded some of the horsemen that were under him to assault Elah, and by that means he slew him when he was without his armed men and his captains, for they were all occupied with the siege of Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines.

5. When Zimri, the captain of the army, had killed Elah, he took the kingdom himself, and, according to Jehu’s prophecy, slew all the house of Baasha; for it came to pass that Baasha’s house utterly perished on account of his impiety, in the same manner as we have already described the destruction of the house of Jeroboam. But the army that was besieging Gibbethon, when they heard what had happened to the king, and that when Zimri had killed him, he had gained the kingdom, they made their general Omri king, who drew off his army from Gibbethon, and came to Tirzah, where the royal palace was, and assaulted the city, and took it by force. But when Zimri saw that the city had none to defend it, he fled into the innermost part of the palace, and set it on fire, and burnt himself with it, when he had reigned only seven days. On this, the people of Israel were presently divided, and part of them would have Tibni to be king, and part Omri; but when those that were for Omri’s ruling had beaten Tibni, Omri reigned over all the multitude. Now it was in the thirtieth year of the reign of Asa that Omri reigned for twelve years; six of these years he reigned in the city [of] Tirzah, and the rest in the city called Semareon, but named by the Greeks Samaria; but he himself called it Semareon, from Semer, who sold him the mountain whereon he built it. Now Omri was [in] no way different from those kings that reigned before him, except that he grew [even] worse than they, for they all sought how they might turn the people away from God by their daily wicked practices; and it was on that account that God made one of them to be slain by another, and that not [even] one person from their families should remain. This Omri also died in Samaria, and his son Ahab succeeded him.

6. Now by these events we may learn what concern God has for the affairs of mankind, and how He loves good men, and hates the wicked, and destroys them root and branch; for many of these kings of Israel, they and their families, were miserably destroyed and taken away by one another in a short time for their transgression and wickedness; but Asa, who was king of Jerusalem and of the two tribes, attained, by God’s blessing, a long and blessed old age for his piety and righteousness, and he died happily when he had reigned forty-one years; and when he was dead, his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him in the government. He was born of Asa’s wife Azubah. And all men acknowledged that he followed the works of his forefather David, and this both in courage and piety; but we are not now obligated to speak anymore of the affairs of this king.

CHAPTER 13

How Ahab, When He Had Taken Jezebel for [His] Wife, Became More Wicked than All the Kings That Had Been Before Him; [Also] of the Actions of the Prophet Elijah and What Happened to Naboth.

1. Now Ahab the king of Israel dwelt in Samaria and held the government for twenty-two years; and he made no alteration in the conduct of the kings that were his predecessors, but only in such things as were of his own invention for the worse, and in his most egregious wickedness. He imitated them in their wicked actions, and in their injurious behavior toward God, and most especially, he imitated the transgression of Jeroboam; for he worshiped the heifers that he had made; and he designed other absurd objects of worship besides those heifers: he also took for [His] wife the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians and Sidonians, whose name was Jezebel, of whom he learned to worship her own gods. This woman was active and bold, and she fell into such a great degree of impurity and madness that she built a temple to the god of the Tyrians, which they call Belus, and planted a grove of all sorts of trees; she also appointed priests and false prophets to this god. The king also himself had many such around him, and so exceeded in madness and wickedness all [the kings] that went before him.

2. There was now a prophet of God Almighty, of Thesbon (a country in Gilead), that came to Ahab and said to him that God foretold He would not send rain nor dew in those years on the country except when he should appear. And when he had confirmed this by an oath, he departed into the southern parts and made his dwelling by a brook, out of which he had water to drink; for as to his food, ravens brought it to him every day: but when that river was dried up for lack of rain, he came to Zarephath, a city not far from Sidon and Tyre, for it lay between them, and this at the command of God, for [God told him] that he should find a woman there who was a widow that should give him sustenance. So when he was not far from the city, he saw a woman that labored with her own hands, gathering sticks: so God informed him that this was the woman who was to give him sustenance. So he came and saluted her, and desired her to bring him some water to drink; but as she was going to do so, he called to her and would have her to bring him a loaf of bread also, whereon she affirmed on oath that she had nothing at home more than one handful of meal and a little oil, and that she was going to gather some sticks, so that she might knead it and make bread for herself and her son; after which, she said [that] they must perish and be consumed by the famine, for they had nothing for themselves any longer. Hereon he said, “Go on with great courage, and hope for better things; and first of all, make me a little cake and bring it to me, for I foretell to you that this vessel of meal and this jar of oil will not fail until God sends rain.” When the prophet had said this, she came to him and made him the aforementioned cake; of which she had part for herself, and gave the rest to her son, and to the prophet also; nor did anything of this fail until the drought ceased. Now Menander mentions this drought in his account of the acts of Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians; where he says thus: “Under him there was a lack of rain from the month Hyperberetaeus until the month Hyperberetaeus of the following year; but when he made supplications, there came great thunders. This Ethbaal built the city [of] Botrys in Phoenicia, and the city [of] Auza in Libya.” By these words he confirmed the lack of rain that was in the days of Ahab, for at that time it was that Ethbaal also reigned over the Tyrians, as Menander informs us.

3. Now this woman—of whom we spoke before that sustained the prophet—when her son had fallen into a disease until he gave up the spirit and appeared to be dead, came to the prophet weeping, and beating her breasts with her hands, and sending out such expressions as her passions dictated to her, and complained to him that he had come to her to reproach her for her sins, and that it was on this account that her son was dead. But he commanded her to be of good cheer and deliver her son to him, because he would deliver him again to her alive. So when she had delivered her son up to him, he carried him into an upper room, where he himself lodged, and laid him down on the bed, and cried to God, and said that God had not done well in rewarding the woman who had entertained him and sustained him by taking away her son; and he prayed that He would send the soul of the child into him again and bring him to life again. Accordingly, God took pity on the mother and was willing to gratify the prophet, so that he might not seem to have come to her to do her harm, and the child, beyond all expectation, came to life again. So the mother returned the prophet thanks and said she was then clearly satisfied that God did [indeed] converse with him.

4. After a little while, Elijah came to King Ahab, according to God’s will, to inform him that rain was coming. Now the famine had seized the whole country, and there was a great need of what was necessary for sustenance, insomuch that it was not only men that wanted it, but the earth itself also, which did not produce enough for the horse and the other beasts of what was useful for them to feed on, by reason of the drought. So the king called for Obadiah, who was steward over his cattle, and said to him that he would have him go to the fountains of water and to the brooks, so that if any herbs could be found for them, they might mow it down and reserve it for the beasts. And when he had sent persons all over the habitable earth to reveal the prophet Elijah, and they could not find him, he commanded Obadiah to accompany him. So it was resolved [that] they should make an advance and divide the ways between them; and Obadiah took one road, and the king another. Now it happened that the same time when Queen Jezebel slew the prophets, that this Obadiah had hidden one hundred prophets and had fed them with nothing but bread and water. But when Obadiah was alone and absent from the king, the prophet Elijah met him; and Obadiah asked him who he was; and when he had learned it from him, he paid homage to him. Elijah then commanded him to go to the king and tell him that I am here ready to wait on him. But Obadiah replied, “What evil have I done to you, that you send me to one who seeks to kill you and has sought for you over all the earth? Or was he so ignorant as not to know that the king had left no place untouched to which he had not sent persons to bring him back, in order that, if they could capture him, to have him put to death?” For he told him he was afraid lest God should appear to him again, and he should go away into another place; and that when the king should send him for Elijah, and he should miss him, and not be able to find him anywhere on earth, he should be put to death. He therefore desired him to take care of his preservation; and he told him how diligently he had provided for those of his own profession, and had saved one hundred prophets when Jezebel slew the rest of them, and had kept them concealed, and that they had been sustained by him. But Elijah commanded him to fear nothing but go to the king; and he assured him on oath that he would certainly show himself to Ahab that very day.

5. So when Obadiah had informed the king that Elijah was there, Ahab met him and asked him angrily if he was the man that afflicted the people of the Hebrews, and was the occasion of the drought they lay under. But Elijah, without any flattery, said that [Ahab] was himself the man—he and his house—which brought such sad afflictions on them, and this by introducing strange gods into their country and worshiping them, and by leaving their own, who was the only true God, and having no manner of regard for Him. However, he commanded him to go his way and gather all the people together to him at Mount Carmel, with his own prophets, and those of his wife, telling him how many there were of them, as also the prophets of the groves, about four hundred in number. And as all the men whom Ahab sent for ran away to the aforementioned mountain, the prophet Elijah stood in the midst of them, and said, “How long will you live thus in uncertainty of mind and opinion?” He also exhorted them, that in case they regarded their own country’s God to be the true and only God, they would follow Him and His commandments; but in case they regarded Him to be nothing, but had a regard for the strange gods, and that they ought to worship them, his counsel was that they should follow them. And when the multitude made no answer to what he said, Elijah desired that for a trial of the power of the strange gods and of their own God, he, who was His only prophet while they had four hundred, might take a heifer and kill it as a sacrifice, and lay it on pieces of wood, and not kindle any fire, and that they should do the same things, and call on their own gods to set the wood on fire; for if that were done, they would there learn the nature of the true God. This proposal pleased the people. So Elijah commanded the prophets to choose out a heifer first, and kill it, and to call on their gods. But when there appeared no effect of the prayer or invocation of the prophets on their sacrifice, Elijah derided them, and commanded them to call on their gods with a loud voice, for they might either be on a journey, or asleep; and when these prophets had done so from morning until noon, and cut themselves with swords and lances, according to the customs of their country, and he was about to offer his sacrifice, he commanded [the prophets] to go away, but commanded [the people] to come near and observe what he did, lest he should privately hide fire among the pieces of wood. So, on the approach of the multitude, he took twelve stones—one for each tribe of the people of the Hebrews—and built an altar with them, and dug a very deep trench; and when he had laid the pieces of wood on the altar, and had laid the pieces of the sacrifices on them, he ordered them to fill four barrels with the water of the fountain and to pour it on the altar until it ran over it, and until the trench was filled with the water poured into it. When he had done this, he began to pray to God and to summon Him to make His power manifest to a people that had already been in an error a long time; on which words a fire suddenly came from [the] sky in the sight of the multitude, and fell on the altar, and consumed the sacrifice, until the very water was set on fire, and the place had become dry.

6. Now when the Israelites saw this, they fell down on the ground, and worshiped [the] one [true] God, and called Him the great and only true God; but they called the others mere names, framed by the evil and vile opinions of men. So they caught their prophets, and, at the command of Elijah, slew them. Elijah also said to the king that he should go to dinner without any further concern, because in a short time he would see God send them rain. Accordingly, Ahab went his way. But Elijah went up to the highest top of Mount Carmel, and sat down on the ground, and leaned his head on his knees, and commanded his servant to go up to a certain elevated place, and look toward the sea, and when he should see a cloud rising anywhere, he should give him notice of it, for until that time the air had been clear. When the servant had gone up and had said many times that he saw nothing, at the seventh time of his going up, he said that he saw a small black thing in the sky, not larger than a man’s foot. When Elijah heard that, he sent to Ahab and desired him to go away to the city before the rain came down. So he came to the city [of] Jezreel, and in a short time the air was all obscured, and covered with clouds, and a vehement storm of wind came on the earth, and with it a great deal of rain; and the prophet was under a Divine fury and ran along with the king’s chariot to Jezreel, a city of Izar [(Issachar)].

7. When Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, understood what signs Elijah had wrought, and how he had slain her prophets, she was angry, and sent messengers to him, and by them threatened to kill him, as he had destroyed her prophets. At this, Elijah was frightened and fled to the city called Beersheba, which is situated at the utmost limits of the country belonging to the tribe of Judah, toward the land of Edom; and there he left his servant and went away into the desert. He also prayed that he might die, because he was not better than his fathers, nor need he be very desirous to live, when they were dead; and he lay and slept under a certain tree; and when somebody awakened him, and he had arisen, he found food set by him and water: so when he had eaten and recovered his strength by his food, he came to that mountain which is called Sinai, where it is related that Moses received his laws from God; and finding a certain hollow cave there, he entered into it and continued to make his abode in it. But when a certain Voice came to him—but from where he did not know—and asked him why he had come there and had left the city, he said that because he had slain the prophets of the foreign gods and had persuaded the people that He alone whom they had worshiped from the beginning was God, he was sought for by the king’s wife to be punished for doing so. And when he had heard another Voice telling him that he should come out the next day into the open air and should thereby know what he was to do, he came out of the cave the next day accordingly, at which time he both heard an earthquake, and saw the bright splendor of a fire; and after a silence was made, [the] Divine Voice exhorted him not to be disturbed with the circumstances he was in, because none of his enemies should have power over him. The Voice also commanded him to return home, and to ordain Jehu, the son of Nimshi, to be king over their own multitude; and Hazael of Damascus, to be over the Syrians; and Elisha, of the city [of] Abel, to be a prophet in his stead; and that of the impious multitude, some should be slain by Hazael, and others by Jehu. So Elijah, on hearing this command, returned into the land of the Hebrews. And when he found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, plowing, and certain others with him, driving twelve yoke of oxen, he came to him and cast his own garment on him; on which Elisha began to prophesy presently, and leaving his oxen, he followed Elijah. And when he desired permission to salute his parents, Elijah gave him permission to do so; and when he had taken his leave of them, he followed him and became the disciple and the servant of Elijah all the days of his life. And thus, I have communicated the affairs in which this prophet was concerned.

8. Now there was one Naboth, of the city [of] Izar [(Jezreel)], who had a field adjoining to that of the king: the king would have persuaded him to sell him his field, which lay so near to his own lands, at what price he pleased, that he might join them together and make them one farm; and if he would not accept money for it, he gave him permission to choose any of his other fields in its stead. But Naboth said he would not do so, but would keep the possession of that land of his own, which he had by inheritance from his father. On this, the king was grieved as if he had received an injury, when he could not get another man’s possession, and he would neither wash himself, nor take any food: and when Jezebel asked him what it was that troubled him, and why he would neither wash himself, nor eat either dinner or supper, he related to her the perverseness of Naboth, and how, when he had made use of gentle words to him, and such as were beneath the royal authority, he had been insulted and had not obtained what he desired. However, she persuaded him not to be downcast at this accident, but to cease his grief, and return to the usual care of his body, because she would take care to have Naboth punished; and she immediately sent letters to the rulers of the Israelites [(Jezreelites)] in Ahab’s name, and commanded them to fast and to assemble a congregation, and to set Naboth at the head of them, because he was of an illustrious family, and to have three bold men ready to bear witness that he had blasphemed God and the king, and then to stone him, and slay him in that manner. Accordingly, when Naboth had been thus testified against—as the queen had written to them—that he had blasphemed against God and Ahab the king, she desired him to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard free of cost. So Ahab was glad at what had been done and rose up immediately from the bed whereon he lay to go to see Naboth’s vineyard; but God had great indignation at it and sent Elijah the prophet to the field of Naboth to speak to Ahab and to say to him that he had slain the true owner of that field unjustly. And as soon as he came to him and the king had said that he might do with him what he pleased (for he thought it a reproach to him to be thus caught in his sin), Elijah said that in that very place in which the dead body of Naboth was eaten by dogs, both his own blood and that of his wife’s should be shed, and that all his family should perish, because he had been so insolently wicked, and had slain a citizen unjustly, and contrary to the laws of his country. Hereon Ahab began to be sorry for the things he had done and to convert from them; and he put on sackcloth, and went barefoot, and would not touch any food; he also confessed his sins and endeavored thus to appease God. But God said to the prophet that while Ahab was living he would put off the punishment of his family, because he converted of those insolent crimes he had been guilty of, but that he would still fulfill his threatening under Ahab’s son; which message the prophet delivered to the king.

CHAPTER 14

How Hadad, King of Damascus and of Syria, Made Two Expeditions Against Ahab and Was Beaten.

1. When the affairs of Ahab were thus, at that very time the son of Hadad [(Ben-Hadad)], who was king of the Syrians and of Damascus, gathered together an army out of all his country and procured thirty-two kings beyond Euphrates to be his auxiliaries: so he made an expedition against Ahab; but because Ahab’s army was not like that of Ben-Hadad, he did not set it in array to fight him, but having shut up everything that was in the country in the strongest cities he had, he abided in Samaria himself, for the walls around it were very strong, and it appeared to not be easily taken in other respects also. So the king of Syria took his army with him, and came to Samaria, and placed his army around the city, and besieged it. He also sent a herald to Ahab and desired [that] he would admit the ambassadors he would send him, by whom he would let him know his pleasure. So, on the king of Israel’s permission for him to send, those ambassador’s came, and by their king’s command spoke thus: that Ahab’s riches, and his children, and his wives were Ben-Hadad’s, and if he would make an agreement and give him permission to take as much of what he had as he pleased, he would withdraw his army and stop the siege. On this, Ahab commanded the ambassadors to go back and tell their king that both he himself and all that he has are his possessions. And when these ambassadors had told this to Ben-Hadad, he sent to him again and desired, since he confessed that all he had was his, that he would admit those servants of his which he should send the next day; and he commanded him to deliver to those whom he should send whatsoever, on their searching his palace, and the houses of his friends and relatives, [that] they should find to be excellent in its kind, but that what did not please them they should leave to him. At this second envoy of the king of Syria, Ahab was surprised, and gathered together the multitude to a congregation, and told them that, for himself, he was ready, for their safety and peace, to give up his own wives and children to the enemy, and to yield to him all his own possessions, for that was what the Syrian king required at his first envoy; but that now he desires to send his servants to search all their houses and to leave nothing in them that is excellent in its kind, seeking an occasion of fighting against him, “as knowing that I would not spare what is my own for your sakes, but taking a handle from the disagreeable terms he offers concerning you to bring a war on us; however, I will do what you will resolve is fit to be done.” But the multitude advised him to listen to none of his proposals, but to despise him, and be in readiness to fight him. Accordingly, when he had given the ambassadors this answer to be reported, he still continued in the mind to comply with what terms he at first desired for the safety of the citizens; but as for his second desires, he would not submit to them—he dismissed them.

2. Now when Ben-Hadad heard this, he had indignation, and sent ambassadors to Ahab the third time, and threatened that his army would raise an embankment higher than those walls, in confidence of whose strength he despised him, and that by each man of his army only taking a handful of earth, hereby making a show of the great number of his army and aiming to frighten him. Ahab answered that he ought not to exalt himself when he had only put on his armor, but when he should have conquered his enemies in the battle. So the ambassadors came back, and found the king at supper with his thirty-two kings, and informed him of Ahab’s answer, who then immediately gave an order for proceeding thus: to make lines around the city, and raise a bulwark, and to prosecute the siege [in] all manner of ways. Now, as this was being done, Ahab was in great agony and all his people with him; but he took courage and was freed from his fears on a certain prophet coming to him and saying to him that God had promised to subdue so many myriads of his enemies under him. And when he inquired by whose means the victory was to be obtained, he said, “By the sons of the princes; but under your conduct as their leader, by reason of their unskillfulness [in war].” On which he called for the sons of the princes and found them to be two hundred and thirty-two persons. So when he was informed that the king of Syria had committed himself to feasting and rest, he opened the gates and sent out the princes’ sons. Now when the sentinels told Ben-Hadad of it, he sent some to meet them and commanded them that if these men had come out for fighting, they should bind them and bring them to him; and that if they came out peaceably, they should do the same. Now Ahab had another army ready within the walls, but the sons of the princes fell on the watchmen, and slew many of them, and pursued the rest of them to the camp; and when the king of Israel saw that these had the upper hand, he sent out all the rest of his army, which, falling suddenly on the Syrians, beat them, for they did not think they would have come out; on which account it was that they assaulted them when they were naked and drunk, insomuch that they left all their armor behind them when they fled out of the camp, and the king himself escaped with difficulty, by fleeing away on horseback. But Ahab went a great way in pursuit of the Syrians; and when he had spoiled their camp, which contained a great deal of wealth, and moreover a large quantity of gold and silver, he took Ben-Hadad’s chariots and horses, and returned to the city; but as the prophet told him he ought to have his army ready, because the Syrian king would make another expedition against him the next year, Ahab was busy in making provision for it accordingly.

3. Now Ben-Hadad, when he had saved himself, and as much of his army as he could, out of the battle, he consulted with his friends [about] how he might make another expedition against the Israelites. Now those friends advised him not to fight with them on the hills, because their God was potent in such places, and it had come to pass there that they had very recently been beaten; but they said that if they joined battle with them in the plain, they should beat them. They also gave him this further advice: to send home those kings whom he had brought as his auxiliaries, but to retain their army, and to set captains over it instead of the kings, and to raise an army out of their country, and let them be in the place of the former who perished in the battle, together with horses and chariots. So he judged their counsel to be good and acted according to it in the management of the army.

4. At the beginning of the spring, Ben-Hadad took his army with him and led it against the Hebrews; and when he had come to a certain city which was called Aphek, he pitched his camp in the great plain. Ahab also went to meet him with his army and pitched his camp opposite him, although his army was a very small one, if it were compared with the enemy’s; but the prophet came to him again and told him that God would give him the victory, that He might demonstrate His own power to be not only on the mountains, but on the plains also; which it seems was contrary to the opinion of the Syrians. So they lay quiet in their camp seven days; but on the last of those days, when the enemies came out of their camp and put themselves in array in order to fight, Ahab also brought out his own army; and when the battle was joined and they fought valiantly, he put the enemy to flight, and pursued them, and pressed on them, and slew them; indeed, they were destroyed by their own chariots, and by one another; nor could any more than a few of them escape to their own city [of] Aphek, who were also killed by the walls falling on them, being in number twenty-seven thousand. Now there were slain in this battle one hundred thousand more; but Ben-Hadad, the king of the Syrians, fled away, with certain others of his most faithful servants, and hid himself in a cellar underground; and when these told him that the kings of Israel were humane and merciful men, and that they might make use of the usual manner of supplication, and obtain deliverance from Ahab, in case he would give them permission to go to him, he gave them permission accordingly. So they came to Ahab, clothed in sackcloth, with ropes around their heads (for this was the ancient manner of supplication among the Syrians), and said that Ben-Hadad desired [that] he would save him, and that he would always be a servant to him for that favor. Ahab replied he was glad that he was alive and not hurt in the battle; and he further promised him the same honor and kindness that a man would show to his brother. So they received assurances on oath from him that when he came to him he should receive no harm from him, and then they went and brought him out of the cellar wherein he was hid and brought him to Ahab as he sat in his chariot. So Ben-Hadad paid homage to him; and Ahab gave him his hand, and made him come up to him into his chariot, and kissed him, and commanded him to be of good cheer, and not to expect that any trouble should be done to him. So Ben-Hadad returned him thanks, and professed that he would remember his kindness to him all the days of his life, and promised he would restore those cities of the Israelites which the former kings had taken from them, and grant that he should have permission to come to Damascus, as his forefathers had to come to Samaria. So they confirmed their covenant by oaths, and Ahab made him many presents, and sent him back to his own kingdom. And this was the conclusion of the war that Ben-Hadad made against Ahab and the Israelites.

5. But a certain prophet, whose name was Micaiah, came to one of the Israelites and commanded him to strike him on the head, for by doing so he would please God; but when he would not do so, he foretold to him that since he disobeyed the commands of God, he should meet with a lion and be destroyed by him. When that sad accident had happened to the man, the prophet came again to another and gave him the same injunction; so he struck him and wounded his skull; on which he bound up his head, and came to the king, and told him that he had been a soldier of his, and had the custody of one of the prisoners committed to him by an officer, and that the prisoner having run away, he was in danger of losing his own life by the means of that officer who had threatened him, that if the prisoner escaped he would kill him. And when Ahab had said that he would justly die, he took off the binding around his head, and was known by the king to be Micaiah the prophet, who made use of this artifice as a prelude to his following words; for he said that God would punish him who had allowed Ben-Hadad, a blasphemer against Him, to escape punishment; and that He would so bring it about that he should die by the other’s means and his people by the other’s army. On this, Ahab was very angry at the prophet and gave command that he should be put in prison and kept there; but for himself, he was perplexed at the words of Micaiah and returned to his own house.

CHAPTER 15

Concerning Jehoshaphat, the King of Jerusalem, and How Ahab Made an Expedition Against the Syrians and Was Assisted Therein by Jehoshaphat, but Was Himself Overcome in Battle and Perished Therein.

1. And these were the circumstances in which Ahab was. But I now return to Jehoshaphat, the king of Jerusalem, who, when he had increased his kingdom, had set garrisons in the cities of the countries belonging to his subjects and had put such garrisons no less into those cities which were taken out of the tribe of Ephraim by his grandfather Abijah, when Jeroboam reigned over the ten tribes. But then he had God favorable and assisting to him, as being both righteous and religious, and seeking to do something every day that should be agreeable and acceptable to God. The kings that were around him also honored him with the presents they made him, until the riches that he had acquired were immensely great, and the glory he had gained was of a most exalted nature.

2. Now, in the third year of his reign, he called together the rulers of the country and the priests and commanded them to go around the land, and teach all the people that were under him, city by city, the laws of Moses, and to keep them, and to be diligent in the worship of God. With this the whole multitude was so pleased that they were not so eagerly set on or affected with anything so much as the observation of the laws. The neighboring nations also continued to love Jehoshaphat and to be at peace with him. The Philistines paid their appointed tribute, and the Arabians supplied him every year with three hundred and sixty lambs, and as many kids of the goats. He also fortified the great cities, which were many in number, and of great consequence. He also prepared a mighty army of soldiers and weapons against their enemies. Now the army of men that wore their armor was three hundred thousand of the tribe of Judah, of whom Adnah was the chief; but John was chief of two hundred thousand. The same man was chief of the tribe of Benjamin and had two hundred thousand archers under him. There was another chief, whose name was Jehozabad, who had one hundred and eighty thousand armed men. This multitude was distributed to be ready for the king’s service, besides those whom he sent to the best fortified cities.

3. Jehoshaphat took for his son Jehoram the daughter of Ahab, the king of the ten tribes, for a wife, whose name was Athaliah. And when, after some time, he went to Samaria, Ahab received him courteously and treated the army that followed him in a splendid manner, with great abundance of corn and wine, and of slain beasts; and he desired that he would join with him in his war against the king of Syria, that he might recover from him the city [of] Ramoth in Gilead, for though it had belonged to his father, yet the king of Syria’s father had taken it away from him; and on Jehoshaphat’s promise to provide him his assistance (for indeed his army was not inferior to the other), and his sending for his army from Jerusalem to Samaria, the two kings went out of the city, and each of them sat on his own throne, and each gave their orders to their several armies. Now Jehoshaphat commanded them to call some of the prophets, if there were any there, and inquire of them concerning this expedition against the king of Syria, whether they would give them counsel to make that expedition at this time, for there was peace at that time between Ahab and the king of Syria, which had lasted three years, from the time he had taken him captive until that day.

4. So Ahab called his own prophets, being about four hundred in number, and commanded them to inquire of God whether He would grant him the victory if he made an expedition against Ben-Hadad, and enable him to overthrow that city, for whose sake it was that he was going to war. Now these prophets gave their counsel for making this expedition and said that he would beat the king of Syria, and, as formerly, would reduce him under his power. But Jehoshaphat, understanding by their words that they were false prophets, asked Ahab whether there was not some other prophet—and he belonging to the true God—“that we might have surer information concerning future events.” Hereon Ahab said there was indeed such a one, but that he hated him, as having prophesied evil to him, and having foretold that he should be overcome and slain by the king of Syria, and that for this reason he now held him in prison, and that his name was Micaiah, the son of Imlah. But on Jehoshaphat’s desire that he might be produced, Ahab sent a eunuch, who brought Micaiah to him. Now the eunuch had informed him by the way that all the other prophets had foretold that the king should gain the victory; but he said that it was not lawful for him to lie against God, but that he must speak what He should say to him about the king, whatsoever it was. When he came to Ahab, and he had adjured him on oath to speak the truth to him, he said that God had shown to him the Israelites running away, and pursued by the Syrians, and dispersed on the mountains by them, as flocks of sheep are dispersed when their shepherd is slain. He further said that God signified to him that those Israelites would return in peace to their own home, and that he alone would fall in the battle. When Micaiah had thus spoken, Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I told you a little while ago the disposition of the man with regard to me, and that he used to prophesy evil to me.” On which Micaiah replied that he ought to hear everything, whatsoever it is, that God foretells; and that in particular, they were false prophets that encouraged him to make this war in hope of victory, whereas he must fight and be killed. Whereon the king was in suspense with himself: but Zedekiah, one of those false prophets, came near and exhorted him not to listen to Micaiah, for he did not speak truth at all; as a demonstration of which he instanced in what Elijah had said, who was a better prophet in foretelling future events than Micaiah, for he foretold that the dogs should lick his blood in the city of Jezreel, in the field of Naboth, as they licked the blood of Naboth, who by his means was stoned to death there by the multitude; that therefore it was plain that this Micaiah was a liar, as contradicting a greater prophet than himself, and saying that he should be slain at three days’ journey distance: and [he said that] “you will soon know whether he is a true prophet and has the power of the Divine Spirit; for I will strike him, and let him then hurt my hand, as Jadon caused the hand of Jeroboam the king to wither when he would have caught him; for I suppose you have certainly heard of that misfortune.” So when, on his striking Micaiah, no harm happened to him, Ahab took courage and readily led his army against the king of Syria; for, as I suppose, fate was too hard for him and made him believe that the false prophets spoke truer than the true one, that it might take an opportunity for bringing him to his end. However, Zedekiah made horns of iron and said to Ahab that God made those horns signals, that by them he should overthrow all Syria. But Micaiah replied that Zedekiah, in a few days, should go from one secret chamber to another to hide himself, that he might escape the punishment of his lying. Then the king gave orders that they should take Micaiah away, and guard him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to give him nothing but bread and water.

5. Then Ahab and Jehoshaphat, the king of Jerusalem, took their forces and marched to Ramoth, a city of Gilead; and when the king of Syria heard of this expedition, he brought out his army to oppose them and pitched his camp not far from Ramoth. Now Ahab and Jehoshaphat had agreed that Ahab should lay aside his royal robes, but that the king of Jerusalem should put on [Ahab’s] proper attire and stand before the army, in order to disprove, by this artifice, what Micaiah had foretold. But Ahab’s fate found him without his robes; for Ben-Hadad, the king of Assyria, had commanded his army, by the means of their commanders, to kill nobody else but only the king of Israel. So when the Syrians, on their joining battle with the Israelites, saw Jehoshaphat stand before the army and conjectured that he was Ahab, they fell violently on him and surrounded him; but when they were near and knew that it was not him, they all returned back; and while the fight lasted from the morning until late in the evening, and the Syrians were conquerors, they killed nobody, as their king had commanded them. And when they sought to kill Ahab alone, but could not find him, there was a young nobleman belonging to King Ben-Hadad, whose name was Naaman; he drew his bow against the enemy, and wounded the king through his breastplate, in his lungs. On this, Ahab resolved not to make his misfortune known to his army, lest they should run away; but he commanded the driver of his chariot to turn it back and carry him out of the battle, because he was severely and mortally wounded. However, he sat in his chariot and endured the pain until sunset, and then he fainted away and died.

6. And now the Syrian army, on the arrival of the night, retired to their camp; and when the herald belonging to the camp gave notice that Ahab was dead, they returned home; and they took the dead body of Ahab to Samaria and buried it there; but when they had washed his chariot in the fountain of Jezreel, which was bloody with the dead body of the king, they acknowledged that the prophecy of Elijah was true, for the dogs licked his blood, and the harlots continued afterward to wash themselves in that fountain; but he still died at Ramoth, as Micaiah had foretold. And as what things were foretold should happen to Ahab by the two prophets came to pass, we ought there to have high notions of God, and everywhere to honor and worship Him, and never to suppose that what is pleasant and agreeable is worthy of belief before what is true, and to regard nothing more advantageous than the gift of prophecy and that foreknowledge of future events which is derived from it, since God shows men thereby what we ought to avoid. We may also speculate from what happened to this king and have reason to consider the power of fate—that there is no way of avoiding it, even when we know it. It creeps on human souls and flatters them with pleasing hopes until it leads them around to the place where it will be too hard for them. Accordingly, Ahab appears to have been deceived thereby, until he disbelieved those that foretold his defeat; but, by giving credit to such as foretold what was agreeable to him, was slain; and his son Ahaziah succeeded him.

BOOK IX

Containing the Interval of One Hundred and Fifty-Seven Years. From the Death of Ahab to the Captivity of the Ten Tribes.

CHAPTER 1

Concerning Jehoshaphat Again; How He Constituted Judges and by God’s Assistance Overcame His Enemies.

1. When Jehoshaphat the king had come to Jerusalem, from the assistance he had provided Ahab, the king of Israel, when he fought with Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, the prophet Jehu met him and accused him for assisting Ahab, a man both impious and wicked; and he said to him that God was displeased with him for doing so, but that He delivered him from the enemy, despite [that] he had sinned, because of his own proper disposition, which was good. Whereon the king committed himself to thanksgivings and sacrifices to God; after which he presently went over all that country which he ruled and taught the people both the laws which God gave them by Moses, as well as that religious worship that was due to Him. He also constituted judges in every one of the cities of his kingdom and instructed them to have regard for 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 mindful 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. There he also constituted judges out of the priests and the Levites, and principal persons of the multitude, and admonished them to pass all their sentences with care and justice, and that if any of the people of his country had differences of great consequence, they should send them out of the other cities to these judges, who would be obligated to give righteous sentences concerning such causes; and this with the greater care, because it is proper that the sentences which are given in that city wherein the temple of God is, and wherein the king dwells, be given with extreme care and the greatest justice. Now he set over them Amariah the priest and Zebadiah, [both] of the tribe of Judah; and it was after this manner that the king ordered these affairs.

2. [It was] about the same time [that] the Moabites and Ammonites made an expedition against Jehoshaphat, and took with them a great body of Arabians, and pitched their camp at Engedi, a city that is situated at the Salt Sea and three hundred stadia away from Jerusalem. In that place the best kind of palm trees and the opobalsamum grow. Now Jehoshaphat heard that the enemies had passed over the lake and had made an invasion into that country which belonged to his kingdom; at which news he was frightened, and called the people of Jerusalem to a congregation at the temple, and standing opposite the temple itself, he called on God to provide him power and strength, so as to inflict punishment on those that made this expedition against them (because those who built His temple had prayed that He would protect that city and take vengeance on those that were so bold as to come against it): “For they have come to take from us that land which You have given us for a possession.” When he had prayed this, he fell into tears; and the whole multitude, together with their wives and children, also made their supplications: on which a certain prophet, Jahaziel by name, came into the midst of the assembly, and cried out, and spoke both to the multitude and to the king, that God heard their prayers and promised to fight against their enemies. He also gave [the] order that the king should draw his forces out the next day, because he should find them between Jerusalem and the ascent of Engedi, at a place called The Eminence, and that he should not fight against them, but only stand still and see how God would fight against them. When the prophet had said this, both the king and the multitude fell on their faces, and gave thanks to God, and worshiped Him; and the Levites continued singing hymns to God with their instruments of music.

3. As soon as it was day, and the king had come into that wilderness which is under the city of Tekoa, he said to the multitude that “they ought to give credit to what the prophet had said and not set themselves in array for fighting; but to set the priests with their trumpets, and the Levites with the singers of hymns, to give thanks to God, as having already delivered our country from our enemies.” This opinion of the king pleased [the people], and they did what he advised them to do. So God caused a terror and a commotion to arise among the Ammonites, who thought one another to be enemies, and slew one another, insomuch that not one man out of such a great army escaped; and when Jehoshaphat looked on that valley wherein their enemies had been encamped and saw it full of dead men, he rejoiced at such a surprising event, as was this assistance from God, while He Himself by His own power, and without their labor, had given them the victory. He also gave his army permission to take the prey of the enemy’s camp and to spoil their dead bodies; and indeed, they did so for three whole days, until they were weary—so great was the number of the slain; and on the fourth day, all the people were gathered together to a certain hollow place or valley, and they blessed God for His power and support, from which the place had this name given [to] it: the Valley of Blessing.

4. And when the king had brought his army back to Jerusalem, he committed himself to celebrate festivals and offer sacrifices, and this for many days. And indeed, after this destruction of their enemies, and when it came to the ears of the foreign nations, they were all greatly frightened, as supposing that God would openly fight for him hereafter. So Jehoshaphat from that time lived in great glory and splendor, on account of his righteousness and his piety toward God. He was also in friendship with Ahab’s son, who was king of Israel; and he joined with him in the building of ships that were to sail to Pontus and the trade cities of Thrace; but he failed of his gains, for the ships were destroyed by being so great [and unwieldy], on which account he was no longer concerned about shipping. And this is the history of Jehoshaphat, the king of Jerusalem.

CHAPTER 2

Concerning Ahaziah, the King of Israel; And Again Concerning the Prophet Elijah.

1. And now Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, reigned over Israel and made his abode in Samaria. He was a wicked man, and in all respects similar to both [of] his parents and to Jeroboam, who first of all transgressed and began to deceive the people. In the second year of his reign, the king of Moab ceased his obedience and stopped paying those tributes which he previously paid to his father Ahab. Now it happened that Ahaziah, as he was coming down from the top of his house, fell down from it, and in his sickness sent to the Fly [(Ba‘al- Zebub)], which was the god of Ekron, for that was this god’s name, to inquire about his recovery; but the God of the Hebrews appeared to Elijah the prophet and commanded him to go and meet the messengers that were sent, and to ask them whether the people of Israel did not have a God of their own, that the king sent to a foreign god to inquire about his recovery, and to command them to return and tell the king that he would not escape this disease. And when Elijah had performed what God had commanded him, and the messengers had heard what he said, they immediately returned to the king; and when the king wondered how they could return so soon and asked them the reason for it, they said that a certain man met them and forbade them to go on any farther, but to return and tell you, from the command of the God of Israel, that this disease will have a bad end. And when the king commanded them to describe the man that said this to them, they replied that he was a hairy man, and was girt around with a girdle of leather. So the king understood by this that the man who was described by the messengers was Elijah, whereon he sent a captain to him with fifty soldiers and commanded them to bring Elijah to him; and when the captain that was sent found Elijah sitting on the top of a hill, he commanded him to come down and to come to the king, for so he had commanded; but that in case he refused, they would carry him by force. Elijah said to him, “That you may have a trial whether I am a true prophet, I will pray that fire may fall from [the] sky and destroy both the soldiers and yourself.” So he prayed, and a whirlwind of fire fell [from the sky] and destroyed the captain and those that were with him. And when the king was informed of the destruction of these men, he was very angry and sent another captain with the same number of armed men that were sent before. And when this captain also threatened the prophet that unless he came down of his own accord, he would take him and carry him away, on his prayer against him, fire [from the sky] slew this captain as well as the other. And when, on inquiry, the king was informed of what happened to him, he sent out a third captain. But when this captain, who was a wise man and of a mild disposition, came to the place where Elijah happened to be, and spoke respectfully to him, and said that he knew it was without his own consent and only in submission to the king’s command that he came to him and that those that came before did not come willingly, but on the same account, he therefore desired him to have pity on those armed men that were with him, and that he would come down and follow him to the king. So Elijah accepted his discreet words and courteous behavior, and he came down and followed him. And when he came to the king, he prophesied to him and told him that God said, “Since you have despised Him as not being God, and so [reckoned Him] unable to foretell the truth about your disease, but have sent to the god of Ekron to inquire of him what will be the end of your disease, know this: you will [surely] die.”

2. Accordingly, in a very short time the king died, as Elijah had foretold; but his brother Jehoram succeeded him in the kingdom, for he died without children: but as for this Jehoram, he was like his father Ahab in wickedness and reigned twelve years, indulging himself in all sorts of wickedness and impiety toward God, for, ceasing His worship, he worshiped foreign gods; but in other respects he was an active man. Now it was at this time that Elijah disappeared from among men, and no one knows of his death to this very day; but he left his disciple Elisha behind him, as we have previously stated. And indeed, as for Elijah, and as for Enoch, who was before the Deluge, it is written in the sacred books that they disappeared—no one saw their death.

CHAPTER 3

How Joram and Jehoshaphat Made an Expedition Against the Moabites; As Also Concerning the Wonders of Elisha and the Death of Jehoshaphat.

1. When Joram had taken on him the kingdom, he resolved to make an expedition against the king of Moab, whose name was Mesha; for, as we told you before, he had departed from his obedience to his brother [Ahaziah], while he paid to his father Ahab two hundred thousand sheep, with their fleeces of wool. Therefore, when he had gathered his own army together, he also sent to Jehoshaphat and implored him, that since he had been a friend to his father from the beginning, he should assist him in the war that he was entering into against the Moabites, who had departed from their obedience, who not only himself promised to assist him, but would also compel the king of Edom, who was under his authority, to make the same expedition as well. When Joram had received these assurances of assistance from Jehoshaphat, he took his army with him and came to Jerusalem; and when he had been extravagantly entertained by the king of Jerusalem, it was resolved by them to take their march against their enemies through the wilderness of Edom. And when they had taken a route of seven days’ journey, they were in distress for lack of water for the cattle, and for the army, from the mistake of their roads by the guides that led them, insomuch that they were all in agony, especially Joram; and they cried to God, by reason of their sorrow, and [desired to know] what wickedness had been committed by them that induced Him to deliver three kings together, without fighting, to the king of Moab. But Jehoshaphat, who was a righteous man, encouraged him and commanded him to send to the camp and learn whether any prophet of God had come along with them, “so that we might by him learn from God what we should do.” And when one of the servants of Joram said that he had seen Elisha, the son of Shaphat, the disciple of Elijah, there, the three kings went to him, at the request of Jehoshaphat; and when they had come to the prophet’s tent, which tent was pitched outside of the camp, they asked him what would become of the army. and Joram was particularly very pressing with him about it. And when he replied to him that he should not trouble him, but go to his father and mother’s prophets, for they were true prophets, he still desired him to prophesy and to save them. So he swore by God that he would not answer him, unless it were on account of Jehoshaphat, who was a holy and righteous man; and when, at his desire, they brought him a man that could play on the psaltery, the Divine Spirit came on him as the music played, and he commanded them to dig many trenches in the valley; for he said, “Although there appears neither cloud, nor wind, nor storm of rain, you will see this river full of water, until the army and the cattle are saved for you by drinking of it. Nor will this be all the favor that you will receive from God, but you will also overcome your enemies and take the best and strongest cities of the Moabites, and you will cut down their fruit trees, and lay waste their country, and stop up their fountains and rivers.”

2. When the prophet had said this, the next day, before the sunrising, a great torrent ran strongly, for God had caused it to rain very plentifully at the distance of three days’ journey into Edom, so that the army and the cattle found water to drink in abundance. But when the Moabites heard that the three kings were coming on them and made their approach through the wilderness, the king of Moab gathered his army together presently and commanded them to pitch their camp on the mountains, so that when the enemies should attempt to enter their country, they might not be concealed from them. But when at the rising of the sun they saw the water in the torrent—for it was not far from the land of Moab—and that it was of the color of blood, for at such a time the water looks especially red by the shining of the sun on it, they formed a false notion of the state of their enemies, as if they had slain one another for thirst, and that the river ran with their blood. However, supposing that this was the case, they desired [that] their king would send them out to spoil their enemies, whereon they all went in haste, as to an advantage already gained, and came to the enemy’s camp, as supposing them already destroyed. But their hope deceived them, for as their enemies stood around them, some of them were cut to pieces, and others of them were dispersed and fled to their own country. And when the kings fell into the land of Moab, they overthrew the cities that were in it, and spoiled their fields, and marred them, filling them with stones out of the brooks, and cut down the best of their trees, and stopped up their fountains of water, and overthrew their walls to their foundations. But the king of Moab, when he was pursued, endured a siege; and seeing his city in danger of being overthrown by force, made an offensive, and went out with seven hundred men, in order to break through the enemy’s camp with his horsemen on that side where the watch seemed to be kept most negligently; and when, on trial, he could not get away, for he came to a place that was carefully watched, he returned into the city and did a thing that showed despair and the utmost distress: for he took his eldest son, who was to reign after him, and lifting him up on the wall, that he might be visible to all the enemies, he offered him as a whole burnt-offering to God, whom, when the kings saw, they sympathized the distress that was the occasion of it, and were so affected, in way of humanity and pity, that they raised the siege, and every one returned to his own house. So Jehoshaphat came to Jerusalem, and continued in peace there, and outlived this expedition but a short time, and then died, having lived sixty years in all, and of them reigned twenty-five. He was buried in a magnificent manner in Jerusalem, for he had imitated the actions of David.

CHAPTER 4

Jehoram Succeeds Jehoshaphat; How Joram, His Namesake, King of Israel, Fought with the Syrians; And What Wonders Were Done by the Prophet Elisha.

1. Jehoshaphat had a good number of children, but he appointed his eldest son Jehoram to be his successor, who had the same name with his mother’s brother, that was king of Israel, and the son of Ahab. Now when the king of Israel had come out of the land of Moab to Samaria, he had Elisha the prophet with him, whose acts I intend to go over particularly, for they were illustrious and worthy to be related, as we have them set down in the sacred books.

2. For they say that the widow of Ahab’s steward Obadiah came to him and said that he was not ignorant how her husband had preserved the prophets that were to be slain by Jezebel, the wife of Ahab; for she said that he hid one hundred of them, and had borrowed money for their maintenance, and that, after her husband’s death, she and her children were carried away to be made slaves by the creditors; and she desired of him to have mercy on her on account of what her husband did and provide her some assistance. And when he asked her what she had in the house, she said, “Nothing but a very small quantity of oil in a jar.” So the prophet commanded her to go away, and borrow a great many empty vessels of her neighbors, and when she had shut her chamber door, to pour the oil into them all, because God would fill them full. And when the woman had done what she was commanded to do, and commanded her children to bring every one of the vessels, and all were filled, and not one left empty, she came to the prophet and told him that they were all full; on which he advised her to go away, and sell the oil, and pay the creditors what was owed them, because there would be some surplus of the price of the oil, which she might make use of for the maintenance of her children. And thus, Elisha discharged the woman’s debts and freed her from the frustration of her creditors.

3. Elisha also sent a hasty message to Joram and exhorted him to take care of that place, because therein were some Syrians lying in ambush to kill him. So the king did as the prophet exhorted him and avoided his going hunting. And when Ben-Hadad missed the opportunity of his lying in ambush, he was angry with his own servants, as if they had betrayed his ambush to Joram; and he sent for them and said [that] they were the betrayers of his secret counsels; and he threatened that he would put them to death, since their practice was evident, because he had entrusted this secret to no one but them, and yet it was made known to his enemy. And one that was present said that he should not mistake himself, nor suspect that they had revealed to his enemy his sending men to kill him, but that he ought to know that it was Elisha the prophet who revealed everything to him and laid open all his counsels. So he gave an order that they should send some to learn in what city [of] Elisha dwelt. Accordingly, those that were sent brought word that he was in Dothan; therefore, Ben-Hadad sent a great army to that city with horses and chariots to take Elisha: so they surrounded the city by night and kept him confined therein; but when the prophet’s servant perceived this in the morning, and that his enemies sought to take Elisha, he came running, and crying out in a chaotic manner to him, and told him of it; but he encouraged him, and commanded him not to be afraid, and to despise the enemy, and trust in the assistance of God, and was himself without fear; and he pleaded with God to make manifest to His servant His power and presence, so far as was possible, for inspiring him with hope and courage. Accordingly, God heard the prayer of the prophet and made the servant see a multitude of chariots and horses surrounding Elisha, until he laid aside his fear, and his courage revived at the sight of what he supposed had come to their assistance. After this, Elisha further requested that God would dim the eyes of their enemies and cast a mist before them, whereby they might not discern him. When this was done, he went into the midst of his enemies and asked them who it was that they came to seek; and when they replied, “The prophet Elisha,” he promised he would deliver him to them, if they would follow him to the city where he was. So these men were so darkened by God in their sight and in their mind, that they followed him very diligently; and when Elisha had brought them to Samaria, he ordered Joram the king to shut the gates and to place his own army around them; and he prayed to God to clear the eyes of their enemies and take the mist from before them. Accordingly, when they were freed from the obscurity they had been in, they saw themselves in the midst of their enemies; and as the Syrians were strangely amazed and distressed, as was but reasonable at an action so Divine and surprising, and as King Joram asked the prophet if he would give him permission to shoot at them, Elisha forbade him to do so and said that “it is just to kill those that are taken in battle, but that these men had done the country no harm, but, without knowing it, had come there by the Divine Power”—so that his counsel was to treat them in a hospitable manner at his table and then send them away without hurting them. Therefore, Joram obeyed the prophet; and when he had feasted the Syrians in a splendid and magnificent manner, he let them go to Ben-Hadad their king.

4. Now when these men had come back, and had showed Ben-Hadad how strange a fate had happened to them, and what an appearance and power they had experienced of the God of Israel, he wondered at it, as also at that prophet with whom God was so evidently present; so he determined to make no more secret attempts on the king of Israel, out of fear of Elisha, but resolved to make open war with them, as supposing he could be too difficult for his enemies by the multitude of his army and power. So he made an expedition with a great army against Joram, who, not thinking himself a match for him, shut himself up in Samaria, and depended on the strength of its walls; but Ben-Hadad supposed he could take the city—if not by his engines of war, yet that he should overcome the Samaritans by famine and the lack of necessities—and so brought his army on them and besieged the city; and the supply of necessities was brought so low with Joram, that from the extremity of need a donkey’s head was sold in Samaria for eighty pieces of silver, and the Hebrews bought a sextary of dove’s dung, instead of salt, for five pieces of silver. Now Joram was in fear lest somebody should betray the city to the enemy, by reason of the famine, and went around the walls and the guards every day to see whether any such were concealed among them; and by being thus seen, and taking such care, he deprived them of the opportunity of planning any such thing; and if they intended to do it, he, by this means, prevented them: but on a certain woman’s crying out, “Have pity on me, my lord!” while he thought that she was about to ask for something to eat, he invoked God’s curse on her and said he had neither threshing-floor nor winepress from which he might give her anything at her petition. On which she said she did not desire his aid in any such thing, nor trouble him about food, but desired that he would do her justice as to another woman. And when he commanded her to speak further and let him know what she desired, she said she had made an agreement with the other woman who was her neighbor and her friend, that because the famine and need was intolerable, they should kill their children—each of them having a son of their own—“and we will live on them ourselves for two days, the one day on one son, and the other day on the other; and,” she said, “I have killed my son the first day, and we lived on my son yesterday; but this other woman will not do the same thing, but has broken her agreement, and has hid her son.” This story mightily grieved Joram when he heard it, so he tore his garment, and cried out with a loud voice, and conceived great wrath against Elisha the prophet, and set himself eagerly to have him slain, because he did not pray to God to provide them some exit and way of escape out of the miseries with which they were surrounded; and he sent one away immediately to cut off his head, who made haste to kill the prophet. But Elisha was not unacquainted with the wrath of the king against him, for as he sat in his house by himself, with none but his disciples around him, he told them that Joram, who was the son of a murderer, had sent one to take away his head; “but,” he said, “when he that is commanded to do this comes, take care that you do not let him come in, but press the door against him, and hold him there, for the king himself will follow him and come to me, having altered his mind.” Accordingly, they did as they were commanded, when he that was sent by the king to kill Elisha came. But Joram relented from his wrath against the prophet; and for fear [that] he who was commanded to kill him should have done it before he came, he made haste to hinder his slaughter and to save the prophet: and when he came to him, he accused him that he did not pray to God for their deliverance from the miseries they now lay under, but saw them so sadly destroyed by them. Hereon Elisha promised that the very next day, at the very same hour in which the king came to him, they should have great abundance of food, and that two measures of barley should be sold in the market for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour should be sold for a shekel. This prediction made Joram, and those that were present, very joyful, for they did not hesitate believing what the prophet said, on account of the experience they had of the truth of his former predictions; and the expectation of abundance made the need they were in that day, with the uneasiness that accompanied it, appear insignificant to them: but the captain of the third band, who was a friend of the king, and on whose hand the king leaned, said, “You talk of incredible things, O prophet! for as it is impossible for God to pour down torrents of barley, or fine flour, out of [the] sky, so is it impossible that what you say should come to pass.” To which the prophet made this reply, “You will see these things come to pass, but you will not be a partaker of them in the least.”

5. Now what Elisha had thus foretold came to pass in the following manner: there was a law in Samaria that those that had the leprosy, and whose bodies were not cleansed from it, should dwell outside the city; and there were four men that on this account dwelt in front of the gates, while nobody gave them any food, by reason of the extremity of the famine; and as they were prohibited from entering into the city by the Law, and they considered that if they were permitted to enter, they should miserably perish by the famine; as also, that if they stayed where they were, they should suffer in the same manner, they resolved to deliver themselves up to the enemy, that in case they should spare them, they should live; but if they should be killed, that would be an easy death. So, when they had confirmed their decision, they came by night to the enemy’s camp. Now God had begun to frighten and disturb the Syrians and to bring the noise of chariots and armor to their ears, as though an army were coming on them, and had made them suspect that it was coming nearer and nearer to them. In short, they were in such dread of this army, that they left their tents, and ran together to Ben-Hadad, and said that Joram the king of Israel had hired both the king of Egypt and the king of the Islands for auxiliaries, and led them against them, for they heard the noise of them as they were coming. And Ben-Hadad believed what they said (for the same noise came to his ears as well as it did to theirs); so they descended into a mighty panic and tumult, and left their horses and beasts in their camp, with immense riches also, and committed themselves to flee. And those lepers who had departed from Samaria and had gone to the camp of the Syrians, of whom we made mention shortly before, when they were in the camp, saw nothing but great quietness and silence: accordingly, they entered into it and went hastily into one of their tents; and when they saw nobody there, they ate, and drank, and carried garments and a great quantity of gold, and hid it outside of the camp; after which they went into another tent and carried off what was in it, as they did at the former, and this they did several times without the least interruption from anyone. So they thereby gathered that the enemies had departed; whereon they reproached themselves that they did not inform Joram and the citizens of it. So they came to the walls of Samaria, and called aloud to the watchmen, and told them in what state the enemies were, as did these tell the king’s guards, by whose means Joram came to know of it; who then sent for his friends and the captains of his host and said to them that he suspected that this departure of the king of Syria was by way of ambush and treachery, and that out of despair of ruining you by famine, when you imagine them to have fled away, you may come out of the city to spoil their camp, and he may then suddenly fall on you, and may both kill you and take the city without fighting; from which it is that I exhort you to guard the city carefully, and by no means to go out of it, or proudly to despise your enemies, as though they had really gone away.” And when a certain person said that he did very well and wisely to admit such a suspicion, but that he still advised him to send a couple of horsemen to search all the country as far as Jordan, that “if they were seized by an ambush of the enemy, they might be a security to your army, that they may not go out as if they suspected nothing, nor undergo the same misfortune; and,” he said, “those horsemen may be numbered among those that have died by the famine, supposing they are caught and destroyed by the enemy.” So the king was pleased with this opinion and sent such as might search out the truth, who performed their journey over a road that was without any enemies, but found it full of provisions and of weapons, that they had therefore thrown away and left behind them for their being light and expeditious in their flight. When the king heard this, he sent out the multitude to take the spoils of the camp, which gains of theirs were not of things of small value, but they took a great quantity of gold, and a great quantity of silver, and flocks of all kinds of cattle. They also themselves took possession of [so many] myriad measures of wheat and barley, as they never in the least dreamed of, and were not only freed from their former miseries, but had such abundance that two measures of barley were bought for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, according to the prophecy of Elisha. Now a measure is equal to an Italian modius and a half. The captain of the third band was the only man that received no benefit by this plenty; for as he was appointed by the king to oversee the gate, so that he might prevent the excessive crowd of the multitude, and they might not endanger one another to perish by treading on one another in the stampede, he himself suffered in that very way and died in that very manner, as Elisha had foretold his death, when he alone of them all disbelieved what he said concerning that abundance of provisions which they should soon have.

6. Hereon, when Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, had escaped to Damascus and understood that it was God Himself that cast all his army into this fear and disorder, and that it did not arise from the invasion of enemies, he was mightily downcast at his having God so greatly for his enemy and fell into a disease. Now it happened at that time that Elisha the prophet had gone out of his own country to Damascus, of which Ben-Hadad was informed: he sent Hazael, the most faithful of all his servants, to meet him, and to carry him presents, and commanded him to inquire of him about his disease, and whether he should escape the danger that it threatened. So Hazael came to Elisha with forty camels, that carried the best and most precious fruits that the country of Damascus offered, as well as those which the king’s palace supplied. He kindly saluted him, and said that he was sent to him by King Ben-Hadad, and brought presents with him, in order to inquire concerning his disease, whether he should recover from it or not. Whereon the prophet commanded him to tell the king no melancholy news; but still he said he would die. So the king’s servant was troubled to hear it; and Elisha wept also, and his tears ran down abundantly at his foresight of what miseries his people would undergo after the death of Ben-Hadad. And when Hazael asked him what the reason of this confusion he was in was, he said that he wept out of his pity for the multitude of the Israelites, “and what terrible miseries they will suffer by you, for you will slay the strongest of them, and will burn their strongest cities, and will destroy their children, and dash them against the stones, and will tear open their women with child.” And when Hazael said, “How can it be that I should have power enough to do such things?” the prophet replied that God had informed him that he should be king of Syria. So when Hazael had come to Ben-Hadad, he told him good news concerning his disease, but on the next day he spread a wet cloth, in the nature of a net, over him, and strangled him, and took his dominion. He was an active man and had the goodwill of the Syrians and of the people of Damascus to a great degree—by whom both Ben-Hadad himself, and Hazael, who ruled after him, are honored to this day as gods, by reason of their benefits and their building them temples by which they adorned the city of the Damascenes. They also pay their worship to these kings with great pomp every day and value themselves on their antiquity; nor do they know that these kings are much later than they imagine, and that they are not yet eleven hundred years old. Now when Joram, the king of Israel, heard that Ben-Hadad was dead, he recovered out of the terror and dread he had been in on his account and was very glad to live in peace.

CHAPTER 5

Concerning the Wickedness of Jehoram King of Jerusalem; His Defeat and Death.

1. Now Jehoram, the king of Jerusalem—for we have stated before that he had the same name with the king of Israel—as soon as he had taken the government on him, committed himself to the slaughter of his brothers and his father’s friends, who were governors under him, and there made a beginning and demonstration of his wickedness; nor was he any better than those kings of Israel who at first transgressed against the laws of their country, and of the Hebrews, and against God’s worship. And it was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, whom he had married, who taught him to be a bad man in other respects and also to worship foreign gods. Now God would not quite root out this family, because of the promise he had made to David. However, Jehoram did not stop the introduction of new sorts of customs to the propagation of impiety, and to the ruin of the customs of his own country. And about that time, when the Edomites had revolted from him and slain their former king, who was in subjection to his father, and had set up one of their own choosing, Jehoram fell on the land of Edom, with the horsemen that were around him, and the chariots, by night, and destroyed those that lay near to his own kingdom, but did not proceed further. However, this expedition did him no good, for they all revolted from him, with those that dwelt in the country of Libnah. He was indeed so mad as to compel the people to go up to the high places of the mountains and worship foreign gods.

2. As he was doing this and had entirely cast his own country’s laws out of his mind, a letter from Elijah the prophet was brought to him which declared that God would execute great judgments on him, because he had not imitated his own fathers, but had followed the wicked actions of the kings of Israel and had compelled the tribe of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem to leave the holy worship of their own God and to worship idols as Ahab had compelled the Israelites to do, and because he had slain his brothers and the men that were good and righteous. And the prophet gave him notice in this letter what punishment he should undergo for these crimes, namely, the destruction of his people, with the corruption of the king’s own wives and children; and that he should himself die of a disease in his bowels, with long torments—his bowels falling out by the violence of the inward rottenness of the parts, insomuch that, though he sees his own misery, he will not be able to help himself at all, but will die in that manner. It was this which Elijah pronounced to him in that letter.

3. It was not long after this that an army of those Arabians that lived near to Ethiopia, and of the Philistines, fell on the kingdom of Jehoram and spoiled the country and the king’s house. Moreover, they slew his sons and his wives: only one of his sons was left to him, who escaped the enemy; his name was Ahaziah; after which calamity, he himself fell into that disease which was foretold by the prophet and lasted a great while (for God inflicted this punishment on him in his belly, out of his wrath against him), and so he died miserably and saw his own bowels fall out. The people also mutilated his dead body; I suppose it was because they thought that his death came on him by the wrath of God, and that he was therefore not worthy to partake of such a funeral as suited kings. Accordingly, they neither buried him in the tombs of his fathers, nor granted him any honors, but buried him like a private man, and this when he had lived forty years and reigned eight. And the people of Jerusalem delivered the government to his son Ahaziah.

CHAPTER 6

How Jehu Was Anointed King and Slew Both Joram and Ahaziah; As Also What He Did for the Punishment of the Wicked.

1. Now Joram, the king of Israel, after the death of Ben-Hadad, hoped that he might now take Ramoth, a city of Gilead, from the Syrians. Accordingly, he made an expedition against it with a great army; but as he was besieging it, an arrow was shot at him by one of the Syrians, but the wound was not mortal. So he returned to have his wound healed in Jezreel, but left his whole army in Ramoth, and Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for their general, for he had already taken the city by force; and he proposed, after he was healed, to make war with the Syrians, but Elisha the prophet sent one of his disciples to Ramoth, and he gave him holy oil to anoint Jehu and to tell him that God had chosen him to be their king. He also sent him to say other things to him and command him to take his journey as if he fled, that when he came away, he might escape the knowledge of all men. So when he had come to the city, he found Jehu sitting in the midst of the captains of the army, as Elisha had foretold he should find him. So he came up to him and said that he desired to speak with him about certain matters; and when he had arisen and had followed him into an inner chamber, the young man took the oil, and poured it on his head, and said that God ordained him to be king, in order for his destroying the house of Ahab, and that he might avenge the blood of the prophets that were unjustly slain by Jezebel, so that their house might utterly perish, as those of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and of Baasha, had perished for their wickedness, and no seed might remain of Ahab’s family. So when he had said this, he went away hastily out of the chamber and endeavored not to be seen by any of the army.

2. But Jehu came out and went to the place where he previously sat with the captains; and when they asked him and desired him to tell them from where it was that this young man came to him, and additionally added that he was mad, he replied, “You guess right, for the words he spoke were the words of a madman”; and when they were eager about the matter and desired [that] he would tell them, he answered that God had said He had chosen him to be king over the multitude. When he had said this, every one of them took off his garment, and spread it under him, and blew with trumpets, and gave notice that Jehu was king. So, when he had gathered the army together, he was preparing to set out immediately against Joram, at the city [of] Jezreel, in which city, as we said before, he was healing from the wound which he had received in the siege of Ramoth. It also happened that Ahaziah, king of Jerusalem, had now come to Joram, for he was his sister’s son, as we have said already, to see how he did after his wound, and this on account of their relatives; but as Jehu wanted to suddenly fall on Joram and those with him, he desired that none of the soldiers might run away and tell to Joram what had happened, because this would be an evident demonstration of their kindness to him and would show that their real inclinations were to make him king.

3. So they were pleased with what he did and guarded the roads, lest someone should privately tell the thing to those that were at Jezreel. Now Jehu took his choice horsemen, and sat on his chariot, and went on for Jezreel; and when he had come near, the watchman whom Joram had set there to spy out such as came to the city, saw Jehu marching on and told Joram that he saw a troop of horsemen marching on. On this, he immediately gave orders that one of his horsemen should be sent out to meet them and to know who it was that was coming. So when the horseman came up to Jehu, he asked him in what condition the army was, because the king wanted to know it; but Jehu commanded him not to meddle with such matters at all, but to follow him. When the watchman saw this, he told Joram that the horseman had mingled himself among the company and came along with them. And when the king had sent a second messenger, Jehu commanded him to do as the former did; and as soon as the watchman told this also to Joram, he at last got on his chariot himself, together with Ahaziah, the king of Jerusalem, for, as we said before, he was there to see how Joram did, after he had been wounded, as being his relation. So he went out to meet Jehu, who marched slowly, and in good order; and when Joram met him in the field of Naboth, he asked him if all things were well in the camp; but Jehu reproached him bitterly and ventured to call his mother a witch and a harlot. On this the king, fearing what he intended, and suspecting he had no good intention, turned his chariot around as soon as he could, and said to Ahaziah, “We are fought against by deceit and treachery.” But Jehu drew his bow and struck him—the arrow going through his heart: so Joram immediately fell down on his knee and gave up the spirit. Jehu also gave orders to Bidkar, the captain of the third part of his army, to cast the dead body of Joram into the field of Naboth, reminding him of the prophecy which Elijah prophesied to his father Ahab when he had slain Naboth, that both he and his family should perish in that place; for as they sat behind Ahab’s chariot, they heard the prophet say so, and that it had now come to pass according to his prophecy. On the fall of Joram, Ahaziah was afraid of his own life and turned his chariot into another road, supposing he should not be seen by Jehu; but he followed after him, and overtook him at a certain slope, and drew his bow, and wounded him; so he left his chariot, and got on his horse, and fled from Jehu to Megiddo; and though he was under cure, in a short time he died of that wound, and was carried to Jerusalem, and buried there, after he had reigned [only] one year and had proved a wicked man, and worse than his father.

4. Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel adorned herself, and stood on a tower, and said he was a fine servant that had killed his master! And when he looked up to her, he asked who she was and commanded her to come down to him. At last, he ordered the eunuchs to throw her down from the tower; and being thrown down, she sprinkled the wall with her blood, and was trodden on by the horses, and so died. When this was done, Jehu came to the palace with his friends and took some refreshment after his journey, both with other things, and by eating a meal. He also commanded his servants to take up Jezebel and bury her, because of the nobility of her blood, for she was descended from kings; but those that were appointed to bury her found nothing else remaining but the extreme parts of her body, for all the rest were eaten by dogs. When Jehu heard this, he admired the prophecy of Elijah, for he foretold that she should perish in this manner at Jezreel.

5. Now Ahab had seventy sons brought up in Samaria. So Jehu sent two letters: one to them that brought up the children, the other to the rulers of Samaria, which said that they should set up the most valiant of Ahab’s sons for king, because they had abundance of chariots, and horses, and armor, and a great army, and walled cities, and that by doing so they might avenge the murder of Ahab. He wrote this to try the intentions of those of Samaria. Now when the rulers, and those that had brought up the children, had read the letter, they were afraid; and considering that they were not at all able to oppose him who had already subdued two very great kings, they returned him this answer: that they owned him for their lord, and would do whatsoever he commanded them. So he wrote back to them such a reply as instructed them to obey what he gave an order for, and to cut off the heads of Ahab’s sons, and send them to him. Accordingly, the rulers sent for those that brought up the sons of Ahab, and commanded them to slay them, to cut off their heads, and send them to Jehu. So they did whatsoever they were commanded, without omitting anything at all, and put them up in wicker baskets, and sent them to Jezreel. And when Jehu, as he was at supper with his friends, was informed that the heads of Ahab’s sons were brought, he ordered them to make two heaps of them, one in front of each of the gates; and in the morning, he went out to take a view of them, and when he saw them, he began to say to the people that were present that he himself made an expedition against his master [Joram] and slew him, but that it was not he that slew all these; and he desired them to take notice, that as for Ahab’s family, all things had come to pass according to God’s prophecy, and his house had perished, according as Elijah had foretold. And when he had further destroyed all the relatives of Ahab that were found in Jezreel, he went to Samaria; and as he was on the road, he met the relations of Ahaziah king of Jerusalem and asked them where they were going. they replied that they came to salute Joram, and their own King Ahaziah, for they did not know that he had slain them both. So Jehu gave orders that they should catch these, and kill them, being in number forty-two persons.

6. After these, a good and righteous man, whose name was Jehonadab, and who had been his friend of old, met him. He saluted Jehu and began to commend him, because he had done everything according to the will of God in eradicating the house of Ahab. So Jehu desired him to come up into his chariot and make his entry with him into Samaria; and he told him that he would not spare one wicked man, but would punish the false prophets, and false priests, and those that deceived the multitude and persuaded them to leave the worship of God Almighty and to worship foreign gods; and that it was a most excellent and most pleasing sight to a good and righteous man to see the wicked punished. So Jehonadab was persuaded by these arguments, and came up into Jehu’s chariot, and came to Samaria. And Jehu sought out all of Ahab’s relatives and slew them. And being desirous that none of the false prophets, nor the priests of Ahab’s god, might escape punishment, he caught them deceitfully by this scheme: for he gathered all the people together and said that he would worship twice as many gods as Ahab worshiped, and desired that his priests, and prophets, and servants might be present, because he would offer costly and great sacrifices to Ahab’s god; and that if any of his priests were missing, they should be punished with death. Now Ahab’s god was called Ba‘al; and when he had appointed a day on which he would offer those sacrifices, he sent messengers through all the country of the Israelites, that they might bring the priests of Ba‘al to him. So Jehu commanded to give all the priests vestments; and when they had received them, he went into the house [of Ba‘al], with his friend Jehonadab, and gave orders to make a search [of] whether there was not any foreigner or stranger among them, for he would have no one of a different religion to mix among their sacred offices. And when they said that there was no stranger there, and they were beginning their sacrifices, he set eighty men outside—they being such of his soldiers as he knew to be most faithful to him—and commanded them to slay the prophets and now vindicate the laws of their country, which had been a long time in disregard. He also threatened that if any one of them escaped, their own lives should go for them. So they slew them all with the sword, and burnt the house of Ba‘al, and by that means purged Samaria of foreign customs [(idol worship)]. Now this Ba‘al was the god of the Tyrians; and Ahab, in order to gratify his father-in-law Ethbaal, who was the king of Tyre and Sidon, built a temple for him in Samaria, and appointed him prophets, and worshiped him with all sorts of worship, although, when this god was demolished, Jehu permitted the Israelites to worship the golden heifers. However, because he had done this, and taken care to punish the wicked, God foretold by his prophet that his sons should reign over Israel for four generations. And Jehu was in this condition at this time.

CHAPTER 7

How Athaliah Reigned over Jerusalem for Five [[or Six]] Years When Jehoiada the High Priest Slew Her and Made Jehoash, the Son of Ahaziah, King.

1. Now when Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, heard of the death of her brother Joram, and of her son Ahaziah, and of the royal family, she endeavored that none of the house of David might be left alive, but that the whole family might be exterminated, that no king might arise out of it afterward; and, as she thought, she had actually done it; but one of Ahaziah’s sons was preserved, who escaped death in the following manner: Ahaziah had a sister by the same father, whose name was Jehosheba, and she was married to the high priest Jehoiada. She went into the king’s palace, and found Jehoash, for that was the little child’s name, who was not above a year old, among those that were slain, but concealed with his nurse; so she took him with her into a secret bedchamber, and shut him up there, and she and her husband Jehoiada brought him up privately in the temple six years, during which time Athaliah reigned over Jerusalem and the two tribes.

2. Now, on the seventh year, Jehoiada communicated the matter to certain of the captains of hundreds, five in number, and persuaded them to be supportive to what attempts he was making against Athaliah, and to join with him in asserting the kingdom to the child. He also received such oaths from them as are proper to secure those that assist one another from the fear of discovery; and he was then of good hope that they should depose Athaliah. Now those men whom Jehoiada the priest had taken to be his partners went into all the country and gathered together the priests and the Levites, and the heads of the tribes out of it, and came and brought them to the high priest at Jerusalem. So he demanded the security of an oath from them, to keep private whatsoever he should reveal to them, which required both their silence and their assistance. So, when they had taken the oath and had thereby made it safe for him to speak, he produced the child that he had brought up of the family of David, and said to them, “This is your king, of that house which you know God has foretold should reign over you for all time to come. I therefore exhort you that one-third part of you guard him in the temple, and that a fourth part keep watch at all the gates of the temple, and that the next part of you keep guard at the gate which opens and leads to the king’s palace, and let the rest of the multitude be unarmed in the temple, and let no armed person go into the temple, but the priest only.” He also gave them this additional order: “A part of the priests and the Levites should be around the king himself and be a guard to him, with their drawn swords, and to kill that man immediately, whoever he may be, that should be so bold as to enter armed into the temple”; and he commanded them to be afraid of nobody, but persevere in guarding the king. So these men obeyed what the high priest advised them to and declared the reality of their resolution by their actions. Jehoiada also opened that armory which David had made in the temple and distributed to the captains of hundreds, as also to the priests and Levites, all the spears and quivers, and whatever kind of weapons it contained, and set them armed in a circle around the temple, so as to touch one another’s hands, and by that means excluding those from entering that ought not to enter. So they brought the child into the midst of them, and put on him the royal crown, and Jehoiada anointed him with the oil, and made him king; and the multitude rejoiced, and made a noise, and cried, “God save the king!”

3. When Athaliah unexpectedly heard the tumult and the acclamations, she was greatly disturbed in her mind and suddenly proceeded out of the royal palace with her own army; and when she had come to the temple, the priests received her; but as for those that stood around the temple, as they were ordered by the high priest to do, they hindered the armed men that followed her from going in. But when Athaliah saw the child standing on a pillar, with the royal crown on his head, she tore her clothes, and cried out vehemently, and commanded [her guards] to kill him that had laid snares for her and endeavored to deprive her of the government. But Jehoiada called for the captains of hundreds and commanded them to bring Athaliah to the valley of Cedron and slay her there, for he would not have the temple defiled with the punishments of this pernicious woman; and he gave [the] order that if anyone came near to help her, he should also be slain; therefore, those that had the charge of her slaughter took hold of her, and led her to the gate of the king’s mules, and slew her there.

4. Now as soon as what concerned Athaliah was by this strategy [and] after this manner dispatched, Jehoiada called together the people and the armed men into the temple and made them take an oath that they would be obedient to the king and take care of his safety and of the safety of his government; after which he compelled the king to give security [on oath] that he would worship God and not transgress the laws of Moses. They then ran to the house of Ba‘al, which Athaliah and her husband Jehoram had built, to the dishonor of the God of their fathers, and to the honor of Ahab, and demolished it, and slew Mattan, that had his priesthood. But Jehoiada entrusted the care and custody of the temple to the priests and Levites, according to the appointment of King David, and instructed them to bring their regular burnt-offerings twice a day and to offer incense according to the Law. He also ordained some of the Levites, with the gatekeepers, to be a guard to the temple, so that no one that was defiled might come there.

5. And when Jehoiada had set these things in order, he, with the captains of hundreds, and the rulers, and all the people, took Jehoash out of the temple into the king’s palace; and when he had set him on the king’s throne, the people shouted for joy, and committed themselves to feasting, and kept a festival for many days; but the city was quiet on the death of Athaliah. Now Jehoash was seven years old when he took the kingdom. His mother’s name was Zibiah, of the city [of] Beersheba. And all the time that Jehoiada lived, Jehoash was careful that the laws should be kept, and very zealous in the worship of God; and when he was of age, he married two wives, who were given to him by the high priest, by whom were born to him both sons and daughters. And thus, much will suffice to have related concerning King Jehoash, how he escaped the treachery of Athaliah, and how he received the kingdom.

CHAPTER 8

Hazael Makes an Expedition Against the People of Israel and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jehu Dies and Jehoahaz Succeeds [Him] in the Government. Jehoash, the King of Jerusalem, at First Is Careful About the Worship of God, but Afterward Becomes Impious and Commands Zechariah to Be Stoned. When Jehoash Was Dead, Amaziah Succeeds Him in the Kingdom.

1. Now Hazael, king of Syria, fought against the Israelites and their king Jehu and spoiled the eastern parts of the country beyond Jordan, which belonged to the Reubenites, and Gadites, and to [the half tribe of] Manassites; as also Gilead and Bashan, burning, and spoiling, and offering violence to all that he laid his hands on, and this without [any] impediment from Jehu, who made no haste to defend the country when it was under this distress; indeed, he had become a despiser of religion, and a despiser of holiness, and of the laws, and died when he had reigned over the Israelites twenty-seven years. He was buried in Samaria and left his son Jehoahaz [as] his successor in the government.

2. Now Jehoash, king of Jerusalem, had an inclination to repair the temple of God; so he called Jehoiada and commanded him to send the Levites and priests through all the country, to require half a shekel of silver for every head, toward the rebuilding and repairing of the temple, which was brought to decay by Jehoram, and Athaliah, and her sons. But the high priest did not do this, as concluding that no one would willingly pay that money; but in the twenty-third year of Jehoash’s reign, when the king sent for him and the Levites, and complained that they had not obeyed what he ordered them, and still commanded them to take care of the rebuilding [of] the temple, he used this strategy for collecting the money, with which the multitude was pleased: he made a wooden chest, and closed it up securely on all sides, but opened one hole in it; he then set it in the temple beside the altar and desired everyone to cast into it, through the hole, whatever he pleased for the repair of the temple. This plan was acceptable to the people, and they strove with one another and jointly brought in large quantities of silver and gold; and when the scribe and the priest that were over the treasuries had emptied the chest and counted the money in the king’s presence, they then set it in its former place, and thus they did every day. But when the multitude appeared to have cast in as much as was wanted, the high priest Jehoiada, and King Joash, sent to hire masons and carpenters, and to buy large pieces of timber, and of the most curious sort; and when they had repaired the temple, they made use of the remaining gold and silver, which was not a little, for bowls, and basins, and cups, and other vessels, and they went on to make the altar every day fat with sacrifices of great value. And these things were taken suitable care of as long as Jehoiada lived.

3. But as soon as he was dead (which was when he had lived one hundred and thirty years, having been a righteous and in every respect a very good man, and was buried in the king’s tombs at Jerusalem, because he had recovered the kingdom to the family of David), King Jehoash revealed his [lack of] care about God. The principal men of the people were also corrupted together with him, and offended against their duty, and what their constitution determined to be most for their good. Hereon God was displeased with the change that was made on the king, and on the rest of the people, and sent prophets to testify to them what their actions were and to bring them to cease their wickedness; but they had gotten such a strong affection and so violent an inclination for it, that neither could the examples of those that had offered offenses to the laws, and had been so severely punished, they and their entire families, nor could the fear of what the prophets now foretold, bring them to conversion and turn them back from their course of transgression to their former duty. But the king commanded that Zechariah, the son of the high priest Jehoiada, should be stoned to death in the temple; and he forgot the kindnesses he had received from his father; for when God had appointed him to prophesy, he stood in the midst of the multitude and gave this counsel to them and to the king: that they should act righteously; and he foretold to them that if they would not listen to his admonitions, they would suffer a heavy punishment. But as Zechariah was ready to die, he appealed to God as a witness of what he suffered for the good counsel he had given them, and how he perished in a most severe and violent manner for the good deeds his father had done to Jehoash.

4. However, it was not long before the king suffered punishment for his transgression; for when Hazael, king of Syria, made an incursion into his country, and when he had overthrown Gath and spoiled it, he made an expedition against Jerusalem; on which Jehoash was afraid, and emptied all the treasures of God and of the kings [before him], and took down the gifts that had been dedicated [in the temple], and sent them to the king of Syria, and secured so much by them that he was not besieged, nor his kingdom quite endangered; but Hazael was induced by the greatness of the sum of money not to bring his army against Jerusalem; yet Jehoash fell into a severe disease and was set on by his friends, in order to avenge the death of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. These laid snares for the king and slew him. He was indeed buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal tombs of his forefathers, because of his impiety. He lived forty-seven years, and his son Amaziah succeeded him in the kingdom.

5. In the twenty-first year of the reign of Jehoash, Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, took the government of the Israelites in Samaria and held it seventeen years. He did not [properly] imitate his father, but was guilty of as wicked practices as those that first held God in contempt: but the king of Syria brought him low, and by an expedition against him, so greatly reduced his forces that there remained no more of such a great army than ten thousand armed men and fifty horsemen. He also took away from him his great cities, and many of them also, and destroyed his army. And these were the things that the people of Israel suffered, according to the prophecy of Elisha, when he foretold that Hazael should kill his master and reign over the Syrians and Damascenes. But when Jehoahaz was under such unavoidable miseries, he had recourse to prayer and supplication to God and pleaded with Him to deliver him out of the hands of Hazael, and not overlook him, and give him up into his hands. Accordingly, God accepted his conversion instead of virtue; and being desirous rather to admonish those that might convert, and not to determine that they should be utterly destroyed, He granted him deliverance from war and dangers. So the country, having obtained peace, returned to its former condition again and flourished as before.

6. Now after the death of Jehoahaz, his son Joash took the kingdom, in the thirty-seventh year of Jehoash, the king of the tribe of Judah. This Joash then took the kingdom of Israel in Samaria, for he had the same name with the king of Jerusalem, and he retained the kingdom sixteen years. He was a good man, and in his disposition was not at all like his father. Now it was at this time when Elisha the prophet, who was already very old and had now fallen into a disease, the king of Israel came to visit him; and when he found him very near death, he began to weep in his sight, and lament, to call him his father, and his weapons, because it was by his means that he never made use of his weapons against his enemies, but that he overcame his own adversaries by his prophecies, without fighting; and that he was now departing this life and leaving him to the Syrians, which were already armed, and to other enemies of his that were under their power; so he said it was not safe for him to live any longer, but that it would be well for him to hasten to his end and depart out of this life with him. As the king was thus distressing himself, Elisha comforted him and commanded the king to bend a bow that was brought [to] him; and when the king had fitted the bow for shooting, Elisha took hold of his hands and commanded him to shoot; and when he had shot three arrows, and then ceased, Elisha said, “If you had shot more arrows, you would have cut the kingdom of Syria up by the roots; but since you have been satisfied with shooting three times only, you will fight and beat the Syrians no more times than three, that you may recover that country which they cut off from your kingdom in the reign of your father.” So when the king had heard that, he departed; and a little while after, the prophet died. He was a man celebrated for righteousness and in eminent favor with God. He also performed wonderful and surprising works by prophecy, and such as were gloriously preserved in memory by the Hebrews. He also obtained a magnificent funeral, such a one indeed as it was suitable a person so beloved by God should have. It also so happened that at that time certain robbers cast a man whom they had slain into Elisha’s grave, and on his dead body coming close to Elisha’s body, it revived again. And thus far have we expanded on the actions of Elisha the prophet, both such as he did while he was alive, and how he had a Divine power after his death also.

7. Now, on the death of Hazael, the king of Syria, that kingdom came to his son Adad, with whom Joash, king of Israel, made war; and when he had beaten him in three battles, he took from him all that country, and all those cities and villages, which his father Hazael had taken from the kingdom of Israel, which came to pass, however, according to the prophecy of Elisha. But when Joash happened to die, he was buried in Samaria and the government transferred over to his son Jeroboam.

CHAPTER 9

How Amaziah Made an Expedition Against the Edomites and Amalekites and Conquered Them; But Afterward, When He Made War Against Joash, He Was Beaten and Not Long After Was Slain, and Uzziah Succeeded [Him] in the Government.

1. Now, in the second year of the reign of Joash over Israel, Amaziah reigned over the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan, who was born in Jerusalem. He was exceedingly careful of doing what was right, and this when he was very young; but when he came to the management of affairs and to the government, he resolved that he ought first of all to avenge his father Jehoash, and to punish his friends that had laid violent hands on him: so he seized them all and put them to death; yet he did not execute any severity on their children, but acted therein according to the laws of Moses, who did not think it just to punish children for the sins of their fathers. After this, he chose [for] himself an army out of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, of such as were in the flower of their age, and about twenty years old; and when he had collected about three hundred thousand of them together, he set captains of hundreds over them. He also sent to the king of Israel and hired one hundred thousand of his soldiers for one hundred talents of silver, for he had resolved to make an expedition against the nations of the Amalekites, and Edomites, and Gebalites: but as he was preparing for his expedition and ready to go out to the war, a prophet gave him counsel to dismiss the army of the Israelites, because they were bad men, and because God foretold that he would be beaten if he made use of them as auxiliaries; but that he would overcome his enemies, though he had but a few soldiers, when it so pleased God. And when the king grudged at his having already paid the hire of the Israelites, the prophet exhorted him to do what God would have him, because he would thereby obtain much wealth from God. So he dismissed them, and said that he still freely gave them their pay, and went himself with his own army, and made war with the nations previously mentioned; and when he had beaten them in battle, he slew of them ten thousand and took as many prisoners alive, whom he brought to the great rock which is in Arabia, and threw them down from it headlong. He also brought away a great deal of prey and vast riches from those nations. But while Amaziah was engaged in this expedition, those Israelites whom he had hired and then dismissed, were very troubled by it, and taking their dismissal for an insult (as supposing that this would not have been done to them but out of contempt), they fell on his kingdom, and proceeded to spoil the country as far as Beth-Horon, and took much cattle, and slew three thousand men.

2. Now on the victory which Amaziah had gotten, and the great acts he had done, he was puffed up and began to overlook God, who had given him the victory, and proceeded to worship the gods he had brought out of the country of the Amalekites. So a prophet came to him and said that he wondered how he could regard these to be gods, who had been of no advantage to their own people who paid them honors, nor had delivered them from his hands, but had overlooked the destruction of many of them, and had allowed themselves to be carried away captive, for they had been carried to Jerusalem in the same manner as anyone might have taken some of the enemy alive, and led them there. This reprimand provoked the king to anger, and he commanded the prophet to hold his peace, and threatened to punish him if he meddled with his conduct. So he replied that he would indeed hold his peace, but additionally foretold that God would not overlook his attempts for innovation. But Amaziah was unable to contain himself under that prosperity which God had given him, although he had dishonored God; but in a mood of insolence he wrote to Joash, the king of Israel, and commanded that he and all his people should be obedient to him, as they had formerly been obedient to his progenitors, David and Solomon; and he let him know that if he would not be so wise as to do what he commanded him, he must fight for his dominion. To which message Joash returned this answer in writing: “King Joash to King Amaziah: There was a vastly tall cypress tree in Mount Lebanon, as also a thistle; this thistle sent to the cypress tree to give the cypress tree’s daughter in marriage to the thistle’s son; but as the thistle was saying this, there came a wild beast, which trod down the thistle: and this may be a lesson to you, not to be so ambitious, and to have a care, lest on your good success in the fight against the Amalekites you grow so proud, so as to bring dangers on yourself and on your kingdom.”

3. When Amaziah had read this letter, he was more eager on this expedition, which, I suppose, was by the impulse of God, that he might be punished for his offense against Him. But as soon as he led out his army against Joash, and they were going to join battle with him, there came such a fear and consternation on the army of Amaziah, as God, when He is displeased, sends on men, and defeated them, even before they came to a close fight. Now it so happened that as they were scattered around by the terror that was on them, Amaziah was left alone and was taken prisoner by the enemy; whereon Joash threatened to kill him, unless he would persuade the people of Jerusalem to open their gates to him and receive him and his army into the city. Accordingly, Amaziah was so distressed, and in such fear for his life, that he made his enemy to be received into the city. So Joash overthrew a part of the wall, of the length of four hundred cubits, and drove his chariot through the breach into Jerusalem, and led Amaziah captive along with him, by which means he became master of Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of God, and carried off all the gold and silver that was in the king’s palace, and then freed the king from captivity, and returned to Samaria. Now these things happened to the people of Jerusalem in the fourteenth year of the reign of Amaziah, who after this had a conspiracy made against him by his friends, and fled to the city [of] Lachish, and was slain there by conspirators, who sent men there to kill him. So they took up his dead body, and carried it to Jerusalem, and made a royal funeral for him. This was the end of the life of Amaziah, because of his innovations in religion and his contempt for God, when he had lived fifty-four years and had reigned twenty-nine. He was succeeded by his son, whose name was Uzziah.

CHAPTER 10

Concerning Jeroboam King of Israel and Jonah the Prophet; And How After the Death of Jeroboam His Son Zechariah Took the Government. How Uzziah, King of Jerusalem, Subdued the Nations That Were Around Him; And What Happened to Him When He Attempted to Offer Incense to God.

1. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Amaziah, Jeroboam the son of Joash reigned over Israel in Samaria forty years. This king was guilty of derision against God and became very wicked in worshiping of idols and in many undertakings that were absurd and foreign. He was also the cause of ten thousand misfortunes to the people of Israel. Now one Jonah, a prophet, foretold to him that he should make war with the Syrians, and conquer their army, and enlarge the bounds of his kingdom on the northern parts to the city [of] Hamath, and on the southern [parts] to the Salt Sea, for these were originally the bounds of the Canaanites, as Joshua their general had determined them. So Jeroboam made an expedition against the Syrians and overran all their country, as Jonah had foretold.

2. Now I cannot but think it necessary for me, who have promised to give an accurate account of our affairs, to describe the actions of this prophet, insofar as I have found them written down in the Hebrew books. Jonah had been commanded by God to go to the kingdom of Nineveh, and when he was there, to proclaim in that city how it would lose the dominion it had over the nations. But he did not go out of fear; indeed, he ran away from God to the city of Joppa, and finding a ship there, he went into it and sailed toward Tarsus, in Cilicia; and on the rise of a most terrible storm, which was so great that the ship was in danger of sinking, the mariners, the master, and the captain himself, made prayers and vows, in case they escaped the sea: but Jonah lay still and covered without imitating anything that the others did; but as the waves grew greater, and the sea became more violent by the winds, they suspected, as is usual in such cases, that one of the persons that sailed with them was the reason for this storm and agreed to reveal by lot which of them it was. When they had cast lots, the lot fell on the prophet; and when they asked him where he came from and what he had done, he replied that he was a Hebrew by nation, and a prophet of Almighty God; and he persuaded them to cast him into the sea, if they were to escape the danger they were in, because he was the reason for the storm which was on them. Now at first they dared not do so, as considering it [to be] a wicked thing to cast a man who was a stranger, and who had committed his life to them, into such obvious perdition; but at last, when their misfortune overbore them, and the ship was going to be drowned immediately, and when they were animated to do it by the prophet himself and by the fear concerning their own safety, they cast him into the sea, on which the sea became calm. It is also reported that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, and that when he had been there three days, and as many nights, he was vomited out on the Euxine Sea—and this alive and without any injury on his body—and there, on his prayer to God, he obtained pardon for his sins, and went to the city [of] Nineveh, where he stood so as to be heard, and preached that in a very short time they would lose the dominion of Asia. And when he had proclaimed this, he returned. Now I have given this account about him as I found it written [in our sacred books].

3. When Jeroboam the king had passed his life in great happiness and had ruled forty years, he died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Zechariah took the kingdom. In the same way, Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, began to reign over the two tribes in Jerusalem, in the fourteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam. He was born of Jecoliah, his mother, who was a citizen of Jerusalem. He was a good man, and by nature righteous and benevolent, and very laborious in taking care of the affairs of his kingdom. He also made an expedition against the Philistines, and overcame them in battle, and took the cities of Gath and Jabneh, and broke down their walls; after which expedition he assaulted those Arabs that adjoined to Egypt. He also built a city on the Red Sea and put a garrison into it. He, after this, overthrew the Ammonites and appointed that they should pay tribute. He also overcame all the countries as far as the bounds of Egypt and then began to take care of Jerusalem itself for the rest of his life, for he rebuilt and repaired all those parts of the wall which had either fallen down by length of time, or by the carelessness of the kings, his predecessors, as well as all that part which had been thrown down by the king of Israel when he took his father Amaziah prisoner and entered with him into the city. Moreover, he built a great many towers, of one hundred and fifty cubits high, and built walled towns in desert places, and put garrisons into them, and dug many channels for [the] conveyance of water. He also had many beasts for labor and an immense number of cattle, for his country was suited for pasturage. He was also given to farming, and took care to cultivate the ground, and planted it with all sorts of plants, and sowed it with all sorts of seeds. He also had an army composed of chosen men around him, three hundred and seventy thousand in number, who were governed by general officers and captains of thousands, who were men of valor and of unconquerable strength, two thousand in number. He also divided his whole army into bands and armed them, giving everyone a sword, with brazen bucklers and breastplates, with bows and slings; and besides these, he made for them many engines of war for besieging of cities, such as cast stones and darts, with grapplers, and other instruments of that sort.

4. While Uzziah was in this state and making preparation [for the future], he was corrupted in his mind by pride and became insolent, and this on account of that abundance which he had of things that will soon perish, and despised that power which is of continuous duration (which consisted in piety toward God, and in the observation of the laws); so he fell by reason of the good success of his affairs and was carried headlong into those sins of his father, which the splendor of that prosperity he enjoyed, and the glorious actions he had done led him into, while he was unable to control himself well concerning them. Accordingly, when a remarkable day had come, and a general festival was to be celebrated, he put on the holy garment and went into the temple to offer incense to God on the golden altar, which he was prohibited to do by Azariah the high priest, who had eighty priests with him, and who told him that it was not lawful for him to offer sacrifice, and that “none besides the posterity of Aaron were permitted to do so.” And when they cried out that he must go out of the temple and not transgress against God, he was angry at them and threatened to kill them, unless they would hold their peace. In the meantime, a great earthquake shook the ground, and a tear was made in the temple, and the bright rays of the sun shone through it, and fell on the king’s face, insomuch that leprosy seized him immediately. And in front of the city, at a place called Eroge, half the mountain broke off from the rest on the west, and rolled itself four stadia, and stood still at the east mountain, until the roads, as well as the king’s gardens, were spoiled by the obstruction. Now, as soon as the priests saw that the king’s face was infected with leprosy, they told him of the calamity he was under and commanded that he should go out of the city as a polluted person. Hereon he was so confounded at the miserable disease and aware that he was not at liberty to disagree, that he did as he was commanded and underwent this miserable and terrible punishment for an intention beyond what suited a man to have, and for that impiety against God which was implied therein. So he abided outside of the city for some time and lived a private life, while his son Jotham took the government, after which he died with grief and anxiety at what had happened to him when he had lived sixty-eight years and reigned fifty-two of them; and he was buried by himself in his own gardens.

CHAPTER 11

How Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah Took the Government over the Israelites; And How Pul and Tiglath-Pileser Made an Expedition Against the Israelites. How Jotham, the Son of Uzziah, Reigned over the Tribe of Judah; And What Things Nahum Prophesied Against the Assyrians.

1. Now when Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam, had reigned six months over Israel, he was slain by the treachery of a certain friend of his, whose name was Shallum, the son of Jabesh, who took the kingdom afterward, but kept it no longer than thirty days; for Menahem, the general of his army, who was at that time in the city [of] Tirzah and heard of what had happened to Zechariah, therefore departed with all his forces to Samaria, and joining battle with Shallum, slew him; and when he had made himself king, he went from there and came to the city [of] Tiphsah; but the citizens that were in it shut their gates, and barred them against the king, and would not admit him: but in order to be avenged on them, he burnt the country around it and took the city by force, on a siege; and being very greatly displeased at what the inhabitants of Tiphsah had done, he slew them all, and spared not so much as the infants, without omitting the utmost instances of cruelty and barbarity; for he used such severity on his own countrymen, as would not be pardonable with regard to strangers who had been conquered by him. And it was in this way that this Menahem continued to reign with cruelty and barbarity for ten years. But when Pul, king of Assyria, had made an expedition against him, he did not think [it] suitable to fight or engage in battle with the Assyrians, but he persuaded him to accept one thousand talents of silver, and to go away, and so put an end to the war. This sum the multitude collected for Menahem, by exacting fifty drachmas as poll-tax for every head; after which he died, and was buried in Samaria, and left his son Pekahiah [as] his successor in the kingdom, who followed the barbarity of his father, and so ruled only two years alone, after which he was slain with his friends at a feast, by the treachery of one Pekah, the general of his horse, and the son of Remaliah, who laid snares for him. Now this Pekah held the government twenty years and proved [to be] a wicked man and a transgressor. But the king of Assyria, whose name was Tiglath-Pileser, when he had made an expedition against the Israelites and had overrun all the land of Gilead, and the region beyond Jordan, and the adjoining country, which is called Galilee, and Kadesh, and Hazor, he made the inhabitants prisoners and transplanted them into his own kingdom. And so much will suffice to have related here concerning the king of Assyria.

2. Now Jotham, the son of Uzziah, reigned over the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem, being a citizen thereof by his mother, whose name was Jerusha. This king was not defective in any virtue, but was religious toward God, and righteous toward men, and careful of the good of the city (for whatever part needed to be repaired or adorned, he magnificently repaired and adorned them). He also took care of the foundations of the cloisters in the temple, and repaired the walls that had fallen down, and built very great towers, and such as were almost impregnable; and if anything else in his kingdom had been neglected, he took great care of it. He also made an expedition against the Ammonites, and overcame them in battle, and ordered them to pay tribute—one hundred talents, and ten thousand cori of wheat, and as much barley, every year; and he so increased his kingdom that his enemies could not despise it, and his own people lived happily.

3. Now there was a prophet at that time, whose name was Nahum, who spoke in this manner concerning the overthrow of the Assyrians and of Nineveh: “Nineveh will be a pool of water in motion, || So will all her people be troubled, and tossed, || And go away by flight, || While they say to one another, Stand, stand still, || Seize their gold and silver, || For there will be no one to wish them well, || For they will rather save their lives than their money; For a terrible contention will possess them with one another, || And lamentation, and loosing of the members, || And their faces will be perfectly black with fear. And there will be the den of lions, || And the mother of the young lions! God says to you, Nineveh, they will deface you, || And the lion will no longer go out from you || To give laws to the world.” And indeed, this prophet prophesied many other things besides these concerning Nineveh, which I do not think necessary to repeat, and I omit them here, so that I may not appear troublesome to my readers; all these things happened concerning Nineveh one hundred and fifteen years afterward: so this may suffice to have spoken of these matters.

CHAPTER 12

How on the Death of Jotham, Ahaz Reigned in His Stead; Against Whom Rezin, King of Syria, and Pekah, King of Israel, Made War; And How Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, Came to the Assistance of Ahaz, and Laid Syria Waste, and Removing the Damascenes Into Media, Placed Other Nations in Their Place.

1. Now Jotham died when he had lived forty-one years, and of them reigned sixteen, and was buried in the tombs of the kings; and the kingdom came to his son Ahaz, who proved most impious toward God and a transgressor of the laws of his country. He imitated the kings of Israel, and raised altars in Jerusalem, and offered sacrifices on them to idols; to which he also offered his own son as a burnt-offering, according to the practices of the Canaanites. His other actions were also of the same sort. Now as he was going on in this mad way, Rezin, the king of Syria and Damascus, and Pekah, the king of Israel, who were now at peace with one another, made war with him; and when they had driven him into Jerusalem, they besieged that city [for] a long time, making only a small progression on account of the strength of its walls; and when the king of Syria had taken the city [of] Elath, on the Red Sea, and had slain the inhabitants, he populated it with Syrians; and when he had slain those in the [other] garrisons, and the Jews in their neighborhood, and had driven away much prey, he returned back to Damascus with his army. Now when the king of Jerusalem knew that the Syrians had returned home, he, supposing himself a match for the king of Israel, drew out his army against him, and joining battle with him, was beaten; and this happened because God was angry with him on account of his many and great outrages. Accordingly, one hundred and twenty thousand of his men were slain by the Israelites that day, whose general, Amaziah by name, slew Zechariah, the king’s son, in his conflict with Ahaz, as well as the governor of the kingdom, whose name was Azricam. He also carried Elkanah, the general of the troops of the tribe of Judah, into captivity. They also carried the women and children of the tribe of Benjamin captives; and when they had obtained a great deal of prey, they returned to Samaria.

2. Now there was one Obed, who was a prophet at that time in Samaria; he met the army in front of the city walls, and with a loud voice told them that they had obtained the victory not by their own strength, but by reason of the anger God had against King Ahaz. And he complained that they were not satisfied with the good success they had had against him, but were so bold as to make captives out of their countrymen, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He also gave them counsel to let them go home without doing them any harm, because if they did not obey God herein, they would be punished. So the people of Israel came together to their assembly and considered these matters, when a man whose name was Berechiah, and who was one of chief reputation in the government, stood up, and the others with him, and said, “We will not allow the citizens to bring these prisoners into the city, lest we all be destroyed by God; we have enough of our own sins that we have committed against Him, as the prophets assure us; nor ought we therefore to introduce the practice of new crimes.” When the soldiers heard that, they permitted them to do what they thought best. So, the aforementioned men took the captives, and let them go, and took care of them, and gave them provisions, and sent them to their own country, without doing them any harm. However, these four went along with them, and led them as far as Jericho, which is not far from Jerusalem, and returned to Samaria.

3. Hereon King Ahaz, having been so thoroughly beaten by the Israelites, sent to Tiglath-Pileser, king of the Assyrians, and requested assistance from him in his war against the Israelites, and Syrians, and Damascenes, with a promise to send him much money; he also sent him great presents at the same time. Now this king, on the reception of those ambassadors, came to assist Ahaz, and made war on the Syrians, and laid their country waste, and took Damascus by force, and slew Rezin their king, and transplanted the people of Damascus into the Upper Media, and brought a colony of Assyrians, and planted them in Damascus. He also afflicted the land of Israel and took many captives out of it. While he was doing thus with the Syrians, King Ahaz took all the gold that was in the king’s treasures, and the silver, and what was in the temple of God, and what precious gifts were there, and he carried them with him, and came to Damascus, and gave it to the king of Assyria, according to his agreement. So he confessed that he owed him thanks for all he had done for him and returned to Jerusalem. Now this king was so foolish and thoughtless of what was for his own good, that he would not cease worshiping the Syrian gods when he was beaten by them, but he went on in worshiping them, as though they would obtain him the victory; and when he was beaten again, he began to honor the gods of the Assyrians; and he seemed more desirous to honor any other gods than his own paternal and true God, whose anger was the cause of his defeat; indeed, he proceeded to such a degree of disdain and contempt [of God’s worship], that he shut up the temple entirely, and forbade them to bring in the appointed sacrifices, and took away the gifts that had been given to it. And when he had offered these indignities to God, he died, having lived thirty-six years, and of them reigned sixteen; and he left his son Hezekiah for his successor.

CHAPTER 13

How Pekah Died by the Treachery of Hoshea, Who Was Subdued by Shalmaneser Shortly After; And How Hezekiah Reigned Instead of Ahaz; And What Actions of Piety and Justice He Did.

1. About the same time Pekah, the king of Israel, died by the treachery of a friend of his, whose name was Hoshea, who retained the kingdom nine years’ time, but was a wicked man and a despiser of the Divine worship; and Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, made an expedition against him, and overcame him (which must have been because he did not have God favorable nor supportive toward him), and brought him into submission, and ordered him to pay an appointed tribute. Now, in the fourth year of the reign of Hoshea, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, began to reign in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abijah, a citizen of Jerusalem. His nature was good, and righteous, and religious, for when he came to the kingdom, he thought that nothing was [more of] a priority, or more necessary, or more advantageous to himself and to his subjects, than to worship God. Accordingly, he called the people together, and the priests, and the Levites, and made a speech to them, and said, “You are not ignorant [of] how, by the sins of my father, who transgressed that sacred honor which was due to God, you have had experience of many and great miseries, while you were corrupted in your mind by him and were induced to worship those which he supposed to be gods; I therefore exhort you who have learned by miserable experience how dangerous a thing impiety is, to immediately put that out of your memory, and to purify yourselves from your former pollutions, and to open the temple to these priests and Levites who are convened here, and to cleanse it with the accustomed sacrifices, and to recover all to the ancient honor which our fathers paid to it; for by this means we may render God favorable [toward us], and He will cease the anger he has had toward us.”

2. When the king had said this, the priests opened the temple; and when they had set the vessels of God in order and cast out what was impure, they laid the accustomed sacrifices on the altar. The king also sent to the country that was under him and called the people to Jerusalem to celebrate the Celebration of Unleavened Bread, for it had been suspended [for] a long time, on account of the wickedness of the aforementioned kings. He also sent to the Israelites and exhorted them to cease their present way of living, and return to their ancient practices, and to worship God, because he gave them permission to come to Jerusalem and to celebrate, all in one body, the Celebration of Unleavened Bread; and this he said was by way of invitation only, and to be done of their own goodwill, and for their own advantage, and not out of obedience to him, because it would make them happy. But the Israelites, on the coming of the ambassadors, and on their laying before them what they had been instructed from their own king, were so far from complying with that, that they ridiculed the ambassadors and mocked them as fools: they also insulted the prophets, which gave them the same exhortations and foretold what they would suffer if they did not return to the worship of God, insomuch that they finally caught them and slew them; nor did this degree of transgressing suffice [for] them, but they had more wicked schemes than what have been described: nor did they cease, before God, as a punishment for their impiety, brought them under their enemies, but [they were] more [impious] hereafter. However, there were many of the tribe of Manasseh, and of Zebulon, and of Issachar, who were obedient to what the prophets exhorted them to do and returned to the worship of God. Now all these came running to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah, that they might worship God [there].

3. When these men had come, King Hezekiah went up into the temple, with the rulers and all the people, and offered for himself seven bulls, and as many rams, with seven lambs, and as many kids of the goats. The king also himself, and the rulers, laid their hands on the heads of the sacrifices and permitted the priests to complete their sacred offices. So they both slew the sacrifices and burnt the burnt-offerings, while the Levites stood around them, with their musical instruments, and sang hymns to God, and played on their psalteries, as they were instructed by David to do, and this while the rest of the priests returned the music and sounded the trumpets which they had in their hands; and when this was done, the king and the multitude threw themselves down on their face and worshiped God. He also sacrificed seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. He also granted the multitude sacrifices to feast on: six hundred oxen and three thousand other cattle; and the priests performed all things according to the Law. Now the king was so pleased with this, that he feasted with the people and returned thanks to God; but as the Celebration of Unleavened Bread had now come when they had offered that sacrifice which is called the Passover, they then offered other sacrifices for seven days. When the king had bestowed on the multitude, besides what they sanctified of themselves, two thousand bulls and seven thousand other cattle, the same thing was done by the rulers; for they gave them one thousand bulls and one thousand and forty other cattle. Nor had this festival been so well observed from the days of King Solomon, as it was now first observed with great splendor and magnificence; and when the festival had ended, they went out into the country, and purged it, and cleansed the city of all the pollution of the idols. The king also gave an order, at his own direction, that the daily sacrifices should be offered and according to the Law; and he appointed that the tithes and the first-fruits should be given by the multitude to the priests and Levites, that they might constantly attend to the Divine service and never be removed from the worship of God. Accordingly, the multitude brought together all sorts of their fruits to the priests and the Levites. The king also made garners and receptacles for these fruits, and distributed them to every one of the priests and Levites, and to their children and wives; and thus they returned to their old form of Divine worship. Now when the king had settled these matters after the manner already described, he made war on the Philistines, and beat them, and took possession himself of all the enemy’s cities, from Gaza to Gath; but the king of Assyria sent to him and threatened to overturn all his dominions, unless he would pay him the tribute which his father formerly paid him; but King Hezekiah was not concerned at his threats, but depended on his piety toward God, and on Isaiah the prophet, by whom he inquired and accurately knew all future events. And this much will suffice for the present concerning this King Hezekiah.

CHAPTER 14

How Shalmaneser Took Samaria by Force, and How He Transplanted the Ten Tribes Into Media and Brought the Nation of the Cutheans Into Their Country.

1. When Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, had it told [to] him that [Hoshea], the king of Israel, had privately sent to So, the king of Egypt, desiring his assistance against him, he was very angry and made an expedition against Samaria in the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea; but when he was not admitted [into the city] by the king, he besieged Samaria [for] three years, and took it by force in the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, and in the seventh year of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, and completely demolished the government of the Israelites, and transplanted all the people into Media and Persia, among whom he took King Hoshea alive; and when he had removed these people out of their land, he transplanted other nations out of Cuthah, a place so called (for there is [still] a river of that name in Persia), into Samaria, and into the country of the Israelites. So the ten tribes of the Israelites were removed out of Judea nine hundred and forty-seven years after their forefathers had come out of the land of Egypt and taken possession of the country themselves, but eight hundred years after Joshua had been their leader, and, as I have already observed, two hundred and forty years, seven months, and seven days after they had revolted from Rehoboam, the grandson of David, and had given the kingdom to Jeroboam. And such an end overtook the Israelites, when they had transgressed the laws and would not listen to the prophets, who foretold that this calamity would come on them if they would not cease their evil actions. What gave birth to these evil actions was that sedition which they raised against Rehoboam, the grandson of David, when they set up his servant Jeroboam to be their king, when, by sinning against God, and bringing them to imitate his bad example, made God to be their enemy, while Jeroboam underwent that punishment which he justly deserved.

2. And now the king of Assyria invaded all Syria and Phoenicia in a hostile manner. The name of this king is also set down in the archives of Tyre, for he made an expedition against Tyre in the reign of Eluleus; and Menander attests to it, who, when he wrote his Chronology and translated the archives of Tyre into the Greek language, gives us the following history: “One whose name was Eluleus reigned thirty-six years; this king, on the revolt of the Citteans, sailed to them and reduced them again into submission. The king of Assyria sent an army against these and in a hostile manner overran all Phoenicia, but soon made peace with them all and returned back; but Sidon, and Ace, and Palaetyrus revolted; and there were many other cities which delivered themselves up to the king of Assyria. Accordingly, when the Tyrians would not submit to him, the king returned and fell on them again, while the Phoenicians had furnished him with sixty ships and eight hundred men to row them; and when the Tyrians had come on them in twelve ships, and the enemy’s ships were dispersed, they took five hundred men prisoner, and the reputation of all the citizens of Tyre was thereby increased; but the king of Assyria returned and placed guards at their rivers and aqueducts, who would hinder the Tyrians from drawing water. This continued for five years; and the Tyrians still endured the siege and drank from the water they had out of the wells they dug.” And this is what is written in the Tyrian archives concerning Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria.

3. But now the Cutheans, who moved into Samaria (for that is the name they have been called by to this time, because they were brought out of the country called Cuthah, which is a country of Persia, and there is a river of the same name in it), each of them, according to their nations, which were in number five, brought their own gods into Samaria, and by worshiping them, as was the custom of their own countries, they provoked Almighty God to be angry and displeased at them, for a plague seized them, by which they were destroyed; and when they found no cure for their miseries, they learned by the oracle that they ought to worship Almighty God, as the method for their deliverance. So they sent ambassadors to the king of Assyria and desired him to send them some of those priests of the Israelites whom he had taken captive. And when he therefore sent them, and the people were taught the laws and the holy worship of God by them, they worshiped Him in a respectful manner, and the plague immediately ceased; and indeed, they continue to make use of the very same customs to this very time and are called in the Hebrew tongue Cutheans, but in the Greek tongue, Samaritans. And when they see the Jews in prosperity, they pretend that they are changed, and allied to them, and call them countrymen, as though they were derived from Joseph, and had by that means an original alliance with them; but when they see them falling into a humble state, they say [that] they are [in] no way related to them, and that the Jews have no right to expect any kindness or marks of relation from them, but they declare that they are sojourners who come from other countries. But of these we will have a more seasonable opportunity to discuss later.

BOOK X

Containing the Interval of One Hundred and Eighty-Two and a Half Years. From the Captivity of the Ten Tribes to the First Year of Cyrus.

CHAPTER 1

How Sennacherib Made an Expedition Against Hezekiah; What Threats Rabshakeh Made to Hezekiah When Sennacherib Had Gone Against the Egyptians; How Isaiah the Prophet Encouraged Him; How Sennacherib, Having Failed [to Obtain] Victory in Egypt, Returned to Jerusalem from There; And How on His Finding His Army Destroyed, He Returned Home; And What Happened to Him Shortly Afterward.

1. It was now the fourteenth year of the government of Hezekiah, king of the two tribes, when the king of Assyria, whose name was Sennacherib, made an expedition against him with a great army and took all the cities of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin by force; and when he was ready to bring his army against Jerusalem, Hezekiah sent ambassadors to him beforehand and promised to submit and pay whatever tribute he should dictate. Hereon Sennacherib, when he heard of what offers the ambassadors made, resolved not to proceed in the war, but to accept the proposals that were made [to] him; and if he might receive three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, he promised that he would depart in a friendly manner; and he gave security on oath to the ambassadors that he would then do him no harm, but go away as he came. So Hezekiah submitted, and emptied his treasures, and sent the money, as supposing he should be freed from his enemy, and from any further distress regarding his kingdom. Accordingly, the Assyrian king took it, and yet had no regard for what he had promised; but while he himself went to the war against the Egyptians and Ethiopians, he left his general Rabshakeh, and two more of his principal commanders, with great forces, to destroy Jerusalem. The names of the two other commanders were Tartan and Rabsaris.

2. Now as soon as they had come near the walls, they pitched their camp, and sent messengers to Hezekiah, and desired that they might speak with him; but he did not come out to them himself for fear, but he sent three of his most intimate friends; the name of one was Eliakim, who was over the kingdom, and Shebna, and Joah the recorder. So these men came out and stood opposite the commanders of the Assyrian army; and when Rabshakeh saw them, he commanded them to go and speak to Hezekiah in the following manner, that: “Sennacherib, the great king, desires to know of him: who is it on whom he relies and depends in fleeing from his lord and being unwilling to hear him or admit his army into the city? Is it on account of the Egyptians, and in hopes that his army would be beaten by them? Whereon he lets him know that if this is what he expects, he is a foolish man, and like one who leans on a broken reed, while such a one will not only fall down, but will have his hand pierced and hurt by it. That he ought to know he makes this expedition against him by the will of God, who has granted this favor to him, that he will overthrow the kingdom of Israel, and that in the very same manner he will also destroy those that are his subjects.” When Rabshakeh had made this speech in the Hebrew tongue—for he was skillful in that language—Eliakim was afraid lest the multitude that heard him should be disturbed; so he desired him to speak in the Syrian tongue. But the general, understanding what he meant, and perceiving the fear that he was in, he made his answer with a greater and a louder voice, but in the Hebrew tongue, and said that “since they all heard what the king’s commands were, they should consider their own advantage in delivering themselves up to us; for it is plain that both you and your king dissuade the people from submitting by vain hopes, and so induce them to resist; but if you are courageous and think to drive our forces away, I am ready to deliver to you two thousand of these horses that are with me for your use, if you can set as many horsemen on their backs and show your strength; but what you do not have you cannot produce. Why do you therefore delay to deliver up yourselves to a superior force, who can take you without your consent? although it will be safer for you to deliver yourselves up voluntarily, while a forcible capture, when you are beaten, must appear more dangerous, and will bring further calamities on you.”

3. When the people, as well as the ambassadors, heard what the Assyrian commander said, they related it to Hezekiah, who therefore took off his royal apparel, and clothed himself with sackcloth, and took the attire of a mourner, and, after the manner of his country, fell on his face, and pleaded with God, and begged Him to assist them, now [that] they had no other hope of relief. He also sent some of his friends and some of the priests to the prophet Isaiah and desired that he would pray to God and offer sacrifices for their common deliverance, and so offer up supplications to Him, that He would have indignation at the expectations of their enemies and have mercy on His people. And when the prophet had done accordingly, an oracle came from God to him and encouraged the king and his friends that were around him; and he foretold that their enemies would be beaten without fighting and would go away in a humiliating manner—and not with that insolence which they now show, because God would take care that they should be destroyed. He also foretold that Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, would fail [in] his purpose against Egypt, and that when he came home, he would perish by the sword.

4. About the same time, the king of Assyria also wrote a letter to Hezekiah, in which he said he was a foolish man in supposing that he would escape from being his servant, since he had already subjugated many and great nations; and he threatened, that when he took him, he would utterly destroy him, unless he now opened the gates and willingly received his army into Jerusalem. When he read this letter, he despised it on account of the trust that he had in God; but he rolled up the letter and laid it up within the temple. And as he made his further prayers to God for the city and for the preservation of all the people, the prophet Isaiah said that God had heard his prayer, and that he would not be besieged at this time by the king of Assyria—that for the future he might be secure in not being disturbed by him at all; and that the people might go on peaceably, and without fear, with their farming and other affairs. But after a little while, the king of Assyria, when he had failed in his treacherous designs against the Egyptians, returned home without success, on the following occasion: he spent a long time in the siege of Pelusium; and when the banks that he had raised opposite the walls were of a great height, and when he was ready to make an immediate assault on them, but heard that Trihaka, king of the Ethiopians, was coming and bringing great forces to aid the Egyptians, and was resolved to march through the desert, and so to fall directly on the Assyrians, this King Sennacherib was disturbed at the news, and, as I said before, left Pelusium and returned back without success. Now concerning this Sennacherib, Herodotus also says, in the second book of his histories, how “this king came against the Egyptian king, who was the priest of Vulcan”; and that “as he was besieging Pelusium, he broke up the siege on the following occasion: this Egyptian priest prayed to God, and God heard his prayer and sent a judgment on the Arabian king.” But in this Herodotus was mistaken, when he called this king not king of the Assyrians, but of the Arabians; for he says that “a multitude of mice gnawed to pieces in one night both the bows and the rest of the armor of the Assyrians, and that it was on that account that the king, when he had no bows left, drew off his army from Pelusium.” And Herodotus does indeed give us this history; indeed, and Berossus, who wrote of the affairs of Chaldea, makes mention of this King Sennacherib, and that he ruled over the Assyrians, and that he made an expedition against all Asia and Egypt; and says thus:

5. “Now when Sennacherib was returning from his Egyptian war to Jerusalem, he found his army under his general Rabshakeh in danger [by a plague], for God had sent a pestilential disease on his army; and on the very first night of the siege, one hundred and eighty-five thousand, with their captains and generals, were destroyed. So the king was in a great dread and in a terrible agony at this calamity; and being in great fear for his whole army, he fled with the rest of his forces to his own kingdom, and to his city [of] Nineveh; and when he had abided there a little while, he was treacherously assaulted, and died by the hands of his elder sons, Adrammelech and Seraser, and was slain in his own temple, which was called Araske. Now these sons of his were driven away by the citizens on account of the murder of their father and went into Armenia, while Assarachoddas took the kingdom of Sennacherib.” And this proved to be the conclusion of this Assyrian expedition against the people of Jerusalem.

CHAPTER 2

How Hezekiah Was Sick and Ready to Die; And How God Bestowed on Him Fifteen Years [of] Longer Life [And Secured That Promise] by the Going back of the Shadow Ten Degrees.

1. Now King Hezekiah being thus delivered in a surprising manner from the dread he was in, offered thank-offerings to God with all his people, because nothing else had destroyed some of their enemies, and made the rest so fearful of undergoing the same fate that they departed from Jerusalem, but Divine assistance. Yet, while he was very zealous and diligent about the worship of God, he soon fell into a severe disease afterward, insomuch that the physicians despaired concerning him and expected no good outcome from his sickness, as neither did his friends: and besides the disease itself, there was a very melancholy circumstance that disordered the king, which was the consideration that he was childless, and was going to die, and leave his house and his government without a successor of his own line; so he was troubled at the thoughts of his condition, and grieved himself, and begged of God that He would prolong his life for a little while until he had some children and not allow him to depart this life before he had become a father. Hereon God had mercy on him and accepted his supplication, because the trouble he was under at his supposed death was not because he was soon to leave the advantages he enjoyed in the kingdom, nor did he pray that he might have a longer life given [to] him on that account, but in order to have sons that might receive the government after him. And God sent Isaiah the prophet and commanded him to inform Hezekiah that within three days’ time he would be cleared of his disease, and would survive it fifteen years, and that he would also have children. Now, on the prophet’s saying this, as God had commanded him, he could hardly believe it, both on account of the disease he was under, which was very severe, and by reason of the surprising nature of what was told him; so he desired that Isaiah would give him some sign or wonder, so that he might believe him in what he had said and perceive that he came from God; for things that are beyond expectation and greater than our hopes are made credible by actions of the same nature. And when Isaiah had asked him what sign he desired to be exhibited, he desired that he would make the shadow of the sun, which he had already made to go down ten steps [or degrees] in his house, to return again to the same place and to make it as it was before. And when the prophet prayed to God to exhibit this sign to the king, he saw what he desired to see, and was freed from his disease, and went up to the temple, where he worshiped God and made vows to Him.

2. It was at this time that the dominion of the Assyrians was overthrown by the Medes, but I will handle these things elsewhere. But the king of Babylon, whose name was Baladan, sent ambassadors to Hezekiah with presents and desired [that] he would be his ally and his friend. So he received the ambassadors gladly, and made them a feast, and showed them his treasures, and his armory, and the other wealth he had possession of in precious stones and in gold, and gave them presents to be carried to Baladan, and sent them back to him. On this, the prophet Isaiah came to him and inquired of him from where those ambassadors came; to which he replied that they came from Babylon, from the king; and that he had showed them all he had, that by the sight of his riches and forces he might thereby guess at [the abundance he was in] and be able to inform the king of it. But the prophet responded and said, “Know that after a little while, these riches of yours will be carried away to Babylon, and your posterity will be made eunuchs there, and lose their manhood, and be servants to the king of Babylon, for God foretold such things would come to pass.” On these words Hezekiah was troubled and said that he was himself unwilling that his nation should fall into such calamities; yet since it is not possible to alter what God had determined, he prayed that there might be peace while he lived. Berossus also makes mention of this Baladan, king of Babylon. Now as for this prophet, he was, by the confession of all, a divine and wonderful man in speaking truth; and out of the assurance that he had never written what was false, he wrote down all his prophecies and left them behind him in books, so that their accomplishment might be judged from the events by posterity: nor did this prophet do so alone, but the others, which were twelve in number, did the same. And whatsoever is done among us—whether it is good, or whether it is bad—comes to pass according to their prophecies; but we will speak of every one of these hereafter.

CHAPTER 3

How Manasseh Reigned After Hezekiah; And How When He Was in Captivity, He Returned to God, and Was Restored to His Kingdom, and Left It to [His Son] Amon.

1. When King Hezekiah had survived the aforementioned interval of time and had dwelt all that time in peace, he died, having completed fifty-four years of his life and reigned twenty-nine. But when his son Manasseh, whose mother’s name was Hephzibah, of Jerusalem, had taken the kingdom, he departed from the conduct of his father, and fell into a course of life quite contrary to it, and showed himself in his manners most wicked in all respects, and omitted no sort of impiety, but imitated those transgressions of the Israelites, by the commission of which against God they had been destroyed; for he was so bold as to defile the temple of God, and the city, and the whole country; for, by setting out from a contempt for God, he barbarically slew all the righteous men that were among the Hebrews; nor would he spare the prophets, for he slew some of them every day until Jerusalem had overflown with blood. So God was angry at these proceedings and sent prophets to the king and to the multitude, by whom He threatened the very same calamities to them which their brothers the Israelites, on the same offenses offered to God, were now under. But these men would not believe their words, by which belief they might have reaped the advantage of escaping all those miseries; yet they learned in earnest that what the prophets had told them was true.

2. And when they persevered in the same course of life, God raised up war against them from the king of Babylon and Chaldea, who sent an army against Judea and laid waste [to] the country; and he caught King Manasseh by treachery, and ordered him to be brought to him, and had him under his power to inflict what punishment he pleased on him. But it was then that Manasseh perceived what a miserable condition he was in, and considering himself the cause of [it] all, he pleaded with God to render his enemy humane and merciful to him. Accordingly, God heard his prayer and granted him what he prayed for. So Manasseh was released by the king of Babylon and escaped the danger he was in; and when he had come to Jerusalem, he endeavored, if it were possible, to cast out of his memory those former sins against God from which he now converted and to apply himself to a very religious life. He sanctified the temple, and purged the city, and for the remainder of his days he was intent on nothing but to return his thanks to God for His deliverance and to preserve Him propitious to him all his life long. He also instructed the multitude to do the same, as having very nearly experienced what a calamity he had fallen into by contrary conduct. He also rebuilt the altar and offered the legal sacrifices as Moses commanded. And when he had reestablished what concerned the Divine worship, as it ought to be, he took care of the security of Jerusalem: he not only repaired the old walls with great diligence, but added another wall to the former. He also built very lofty towers and strengthened the garrisoned places near the city, not only in other respects, but with provisions of all sorts that they wanted. And indeed, when he had changed his former course, he so led his life for the time to come, that from the time of his return to piety toward God he was deemed a blessed man and a pattern for imitation. Therefore, when he had lived sixty-seven years, he departed this life, having reigned fifty-five years, and was buried in his own garden; and the kingdom came to his son Amon, whose mother’s name was Meshulemeth, of the city of Jotbath.

CHAPTER 4

How Amon Reigned Instead of Manasseh; And After Amon, Josiah Reigned; He Was Both Righteous and Religious. As Also Concerning Huldah the Prophetess.

1. This Amon imitated those works of his father which he insolently did when he was young: so he had a conspiracy made against him by his own servants and was slain in his own house, when he had lived twenty-four years, and of them had reigned two. But the multitude punished those that slew Amon, and buried him with his father, and gave the kingdom to his son Josiah, who was eight years old. His mother was of the city of Boscath, and her name was Jedidah. He was of a most excellent disposition, and naturally virtuous, and followed the actions of King David, as a pattern and a rule to him in the whole conduct of his life. And when he was twelve years old, he gave demonstrations of his religious and righteous behavior, for he brought the people to a sober way of living and exhorted them to cease the opinion they had of their idols, because they were not gods, but [rather] to worship their own God. And by repeating the actions of his progenitors, he prudently corrected what they did wrong, like a very elderly man, and like one abundantly able to understand what was right to be done; and what he found they had done well, he had observed all over the country and imitated the same. And thus, he acted in following the wisdom and shrewdness of his own nature, and in compliance with the advice and instruction of the elders; for it was by following the laws that he succeeded so well in the order of his government and in piety with regard to the Divine worship. And this happened because the transgressions of the former kings were no longer seen, but completely vanished away; for the king went around the city and the whole country and cut down the groves which were devoted to strange gods and overthrew their altars; and if there were any gifts dedicated to them by his forefathers, he made them disgraceful and plucked them down; and by this means he brought the people back from their opinion about them to the worship of God. He also offered his accustomed sacrifices and burnt-offerings on the altar. Moreover, he ordained certain judges and overseers, that they might order the matters belonging to them individually, and have regard for justice above all things, and distribute it with the same concern they would have about their own soul. He also sent over all the country and desired such as pleased to bring gold and silver for the repairs of the temple, according to everyone’s inclinations and abilities. And when the money was brought in, he made one Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Shaphan the scribe, and Joab the recorder, and Eliakim the high priest, curators of the temple, and of the things entrusted to it; who made no delay, nor delayed the work at all, but prepared architects, and whatsoever was proper for those repairs, and set attentively to the work. So the temple was repaired by this means and became a public demonstration of the king’s piety.

2. But when he was now in the eighteenth year of his reign, he sent to Eliakim the high priest and gave an order that out of what money was surplus, he should cast cups, and dishes, and vials, for ministration [in the temple]; and besides [this], that they should bring all the gold or silver which was among the treasures and expend that also in making cups and similar vessels. But as the high priest was bringing out the gold, he came to the holy books of Moses that were laid up in the temple; and when he had brought them out, he gave them to Shaphan the scribe, who, when he had read them, came to the king and informed him that all was finished which he had ordered to be done. He also read over the books to him, who, when he had heard them read, tore his garment, and called for Eliakim the high priest, and for [Shaphan] the scribe, and for certain [others] of his most particular friends, and sent them to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum (which Shallum was a man of dignity, and of an eminent family), and commanded them to go to her and say that [he desired that] she would appease God and endeavor to render Him propitious toward them, because there was cause to fear, lest, on the transgression of the laws of Moses by their forefathers, they should be in peril of going into captivity and of being cast out of their own country; lest they should be in need of all things, and so end their days miserably. When the prophetess had heard this from the messengers that were sent to her by the king, she commanded them to go back to the king and say that “God had already given sentence against them, to destroy the people, and cast them out of their country, and deprive them of all the happiness they enjoyed, which sentence no one could set aside by any prayers of theirs, since it was passed on account of their transgressions of the laws and of their not having converted in such a long time, while the prophets had exhorted them to reform and had foretold the punishment that would ensue on their impious practices—which threatening God would certainly execute on them, so that they might be persuaded that He is God and had not deceived them in any respect as to what He had pronounced by His prophets; that yet, because Josiah was a righteous man, He would presently delay those calamities, but after his death, He would send on the multitude what miseries He had determined for them.

3. So these messengers, on this prophecy of the woman, came and told it to the king, whereon he sent to the people everywhere and ordered that the priests and the Levites should come together to Jerusalem; and he commanded that those of every age should also be present. And when they had gathered together, he first read to them the holy books; after which he stood on a pulpit in the midst of the multitude and compelled them to make a covenant, with an oath, that they would worship God and keep the laws of Moses. Accordingly, they willingly gave their assent and undertook to do what the king had recommended to them. So they immediately offered sacrifices, and that in an acceptable manner, and pleaded with God to be gracious and merciful to them. He also instructed the high priest, that if there remained in the temple any vessel that was dedicated to idols, or to foreign gods, they should cast it out. So when a great number of such vessels were gathered together, he burnt them, and scattered their ashes abroad, and slew the priests of the idols that were not of the family of Aaron.

4. And when he had done this in Jerusalem, he came into the country and utterly destroyed what buildings had been made therein by King Jeroboam in honor of strange gods and burnt the bones of the false prophets on that altar which Jeroboam first built—just as the prophet [Jadon], who came to Jeroboam when he was offering sacrifice, and when all the people heard him, foretold what would come to pass, namely, that a certain man of the house of David, Josiah by name, should do what is mentioned here. And it happened that those predictions took effect after three hundred and sixty-one years.

5. After these things, Josiah also went to such other Israelites as had escaped captivity and slavery under the Assyrians and persuaded them to desist from their impious practices and to cease the honors they paid to strange gods, but to rightly worship their own Almighty God and adhere to Him. He also searched the houses, and the villages, and the cities, out of a suspicion that somebody might have one idol or other in private; no, indeed—he took away the chariots [of the sun] that were set up in his royal palace, which his predecessors had framed, and whatsoever thing there was besides which they worshiped as a god. And when he had thus purged all the country, he called the people to Jerusalem, and there observed the Celebration of Unleavened Bread and that called the Passover. He also gave the people thirty thousand young kids of the goats and lambs for Passover sacrifices, and three thousand oxen for burnt-offerings. The principal of the priests also gave to the priests against the Passover two thousand and six hundred lambs; the principal of the Levites also gave to the Levites five thousand lambs and five hundred oxen, by which means there was a great abundance of sacrifices; and they offered those sacrifices according to the laws of Moses, while every priest explained the matter and ministered to the multitude. And indeed, there had been no other festival thus celebrated by the Hebrews from the times of Samuel the prophet; and the abundance of sacrifices was now the reason that all things were performed according to the laws and according to the custom of their forefathers. So after this, when Josiah had lived in peace—indeed, in riches and reputation also among all men—he ended his life in the following manner:

CHAPTER 5

How Josiah Fought with Neco [King of Egypt], and Was Wounded, and Died a Short Time Afterward; As Also How Neco Carried Jehoahaz, Who Had Been Made King, Into Egypt and Delivered the Kingdom to Jehoiakim; And Concerning Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

1. Now Neco, king of Egypt, raised an army and marched to the Euphrates River in order to fight with the Medes and Babylonians, who had overthrown the dominion of the Assyrians, for he had a desire to reign over Asia. Now when he had come to the city [of] Mendes, which belonged to the kingdom of Josiah, he brought an army to hinder him from passing through his own country, in his expedition against the Medes. Now Neco sent a herald to Josiah and told him that he did not make this expedition against him, but was making haste to the Euphrates and desired that he would not provoke him to fight against him, because he obstructed his march to the place where he had resolved to go. But Josiah did not permit this advice of Neco, but put himself into a posture to hinder him from his intended march. I suppose it was fate that pushed him on this conduct, that it might take an opportunity against him, for as he was setting his army in array and rode around in his chariot, from one wing of his army to another, one of the Egyptians shot an arrow at him and put an end to his eagerness for fighting; for being severely wounded, he command a retreat to be sounded for his army, and returned to Jerusalem, and died of that wound; and he was magnificently buried in the tomb of his fathers, when he had lived thirty-nine years and had reigned thirty-one of them. But all the people mourned greatly for him, lamenting and grieving on his account [for] many days; and Jeremiah the prophet composed an elegy to lament him, which is extant until this time also. Moreover, this prophet pronounced beforehand the miserable calamities that were coming on the city. He also left behind him in writing a description of that destruction of our nation which has recently happened in our days, and the taking of Babylon; nor was he the only prophet who delivered such predictions beforehand to the multitude, but so did Ezekiel also, who was the first person that wrote and left behind him in writing two books concerning these events. Now these two prophets were priests by birth, but of them Jeremiah dwelt in Jerusalem, from the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, until the city and temple were utterly destroyed. However, as for what happened to this prophet, we will relate it in its proper place.

2. On the death of Josiah, which we have already mentioned, his son, Jehoahaz by name, took the kingdom, being about twenty-three years old. He reigned in Jerusalem; and his mother was Hamutal, of the city [of] Libnah. He was an impious man and impure in his course of life; but as the king of Egypt returned from the battle, he sent for Jehoahaz to come to him at the city called Hamath, which belongs to Syria; and when he had come, he put him in bonds and delivered the kingdom to a brother of his, by the father’s side, whose name was Eliakim, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, and laid a tribute on the land of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold; and this sum of money Jehoiakim paid by way of tribute; but Neco carried away Jehoahaz into Egypt, where he died when he had reigned three months and ten days. Now Jehoiakim’s mother was called Zebudah, of the city [of] Rumah. He was of a wicked disposition and ready to do evil; nor was he either religious toward God, or good-natured toward men.

CHAPTER 6

How Nebuchadnezzar, When He Had Conquered the King of Egypt, Made an Expedition Against the Jews, and Slew Jehoiakim, and Made His Son Jehoiachin King.

1. Now in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, one whose name was Nebuchadnezzar took the government over the Babylonians, who at the same time went up with a great army to the city [of] Carchemish, which was at the Euphrates, on a determination he had made to fight with Neco king of Egypt, under whom all Syria then was. And when Neco understood the intention of the king of Babylon, and that this expedition was made against him, he did not despise his attempt, but hurried with a great band of men to the Euphrates to defend himself from Nebuchadnezzar; and when they had joined battle, he was beaten and lost many myriads [of his soldiers] in the battle. So the king of Babylon passed over the Euphrates and took all [of] Syria, as far as Pelusium, excepting Judea. But when Nebuchadnezzar had already reigned four years, which was the eighth of Jehoiakim’s government over the Hebrews, the king of Babylon made an expedition with mighty forces against the Jews, and required tribute from Jehoiakim, and threatened on his refusal to make war against him. He was frightened at his threatening, and bought his peace with money, and brought the tribute he was ordered to bring for three years.

2. But on the third year, on hearing that the king of the Babylonians made an expedition against the Egyptians, he did not pay his tribute; yet his hope was disappointed, for the Egyptians dared not fight at this time. And indeed, the prophet Jeremiah foretold every day how vainly they relied on their hopes from Egypt, and how the city would be overthrown by the king of Babylon, and Jehoiakim the king would be subdued by him. But what he thus spoke proved to be of no advantage to them, because there were none that would escape, for both the multitude and the rulers, when they heard him, had no concern for what they heard; but being displeased at what was said, as if the prophet were a diviner against the king, they accused Jeremiah, and bringing him before the court, they required that a sentence and a punishment might be given against him. Now all the rest gave their votes for his condemnation, but the elders refused, who prudently sent the prophet away from the court of [the prison], and persuaded the rest to do Jeremiah no harm; for they said that he was not the only person who foretold what would come to the city, but that Micah signified the same before him, as well as many others, none of which suffered anything from the kings that then reigned, but were honored as the prophets of God. So they placated the multitude with these words and delivered Jeremiah from the punishment to which he was condemned. Now when this prophet had written all his prophecies, and the people were fasting and assembled at the temple, on the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, he read the book he had composed of his predictions of what was to happen to the city, and the temple, and the multitude. And when the rulers heard of it, they took the book from him and commanded him and Baruch the scribe to go their ways, lest they should be discovered by someone or another; but they carried the book and gave it to the king; so he gave an order in the presence of his friends that his scribe should take it and read it. When the king heard what it contained, he was angry, and tore it, and cast it into the fire, where it was consumed. He also commanded that they should seek for Jeremiah and Baruch the scribe and bring them to him, that they might be punished. However, they escaped his anger.

3. Now, a short time afterward, the king of Babylon made an expedition against Jehoiakim, whom he received [into the city], and this out of fear of the prior predictions of this prophet, as supposing he should suffer nothing that was terrible, because he neither shut the gates, nor fought against him; yet when he had come into the city, he did not observe the covenants he had made, but he slew such as were in the flower of their age, and such as were of the greatest dignity, together with their king Jehoiakim, whom he commanded to be thrown from the walls, without any burial; and he made his son Jehoiachin king of the country and of the city: he also took the principal persons in dignity for captives, three thousand in number, and led them away to Babylon; among which was the prophet Ezekiel, who was then but young. And this was the end of King Jehoiakim, when he had lived thirty-six years and reigned eleven of them. But Jehoiachin succeeded him in the kingdom, whose mother’s name was Nehushta; she was a citizen of Jerusalem. He reigned three months and ten days.

CHAPTER 7

That the King of Babylon Changed His Mind from Making Jehoiachin King, and Took Him Away to Babylon, and Delivered the Kingdom to Zedekiah. This King Would Not Believe What Was Predicted by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but Joined Himself to the Egyptians, Who When They Came Into Judea, Were Vanquished by the King of Babylon; As Also What Happened to Jeremiah.

1. But a terror seized the king of Babylon, who had given the kingdom to Jehoiachin—and that immediately; he was afraid that he should bear him a grudge, because of his killing his father, and therefore should make the country revolt from him; therefore he sent an army and besieged Jehoiachin in Jerusalem; but because he was of a gentle and just disposition, he did not desire to see the city endangered on his account, but he took his mother and relatives, and delivered them to the commanders sent by the king of Babylon, and accepted their oaths, that neither should they suffer any harm, nor the city; which agreement they did not observe for a single year, for the king of Babylon did not keep it, but gave orders to his generals to take all that were in the city [as] captives, both the youth and the craftsmen, and bring them bound to him; their number was ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-two; as also Jehoiachin, and his mother and friends. And when these were brought to him, he kept them in custody, and appointed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, to be king; and made him take an oath that he would certainly keep the kingdom for him, and make no innovation, nor have any covenant of friendship with the Egyptians.

2. Now Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he took the government; and he had the same mother with his brother Jehoiakim, but was a despiser of justice and of his duty, for those of the same age with him were truly wicked around him, and the whole multitude did whatever unjust and insolent things they pleased, for which reason the prophet Jeremiah often came to him, and protested to him, and insisted that he must cease his impieties and transgressions, and take care of what was right, and neither give ear to the rulers (among whom were wicked men), nor give credit to their false prophets, who deluded them, as if the king of Babylon would make no more war against them, and as if the Egyptians would make war against him and conquer him, since what they said was not true and the events would not prove such [as they expected]. Now as for Zedekiah himself, while he heard the prophet speak, he believed him, and agreed to everything as true, and supposed it was for his advantage; but then his friends perverted him, and dissuaded him from what the prophet advised, and compelled him to do what they pleased. Ezekiel also foretold in Babylon what calamities were coming on the people, which when he heard, he sent accounts of them to Jerusalem. But Zedekiah did not believe their prophecies, for the following reason: it so happened that the two prophets agreed with one another in what they said as in all other things, that the city should be taken and Zedekiah himself should be taken captive; but Ezekiel disagreed with him, and said that Zedekiah should not see Babylon, while Jeremiah said to him that the king of Babylon should carry him away there in bonds; and because they did not both say the same thing as to this circumstance, he disbelieved what they both appeared to agree on and condemned them as not speaking truth therein, although all the things foretold [to] him did come to pass according to their prophecies, as we will show at a more fitting opportunity.

3. Now when Zedekiah had preserved the covenant of mutual assistance he had made with the Babylonians for eight years, he broke it and revolted to the Egyptians, in hopes, by their assistance, of overcoming the Babylonians. When the king of Babylon knew this, he made war against him: he laid his country waste, and took his fortified towns, and came to the city [of] Jerusalem itself to besiege it. But when the king of Egypt heard what circumstances his ally Zedekiah was in, he took a great army with him and came into Judea, as if he would raise the siege; on which the king of Babylon departed from Jerusalem, and met the Egyptians, and joined battle with them, and beat them; and when he had put them to flight, he pursued them and drove them out of all Syria. Now as soon as the king of Babylon had departed from Jerusalem, the false prophets deceived Zedekiah and said that the king of Babylon would not make war against him or his people anymore, nor remove them out of their own country into Babylon; and that those then in captivity would return with all those vessels of the temple of which the king of Babylon had plundered [from] that temple. But Jeremiah came among them, and prophesied what contradicted those predictions, and what proved to be true: that they did ill and deluded the king; that the Egyptians would be of no advantage to them, but that the king of Babylon would renew the war against Jerusalem, and besiege it again, and would destroy the people by famine, and carry away those that remained into captivity, and would take away what they had as spoils, and would carry off those riches that were in the temple; indeed, that, besides this, he would burn it, and utterly overthrow the city, and that they should serve him and his posterity [for] seventy years; that then the Persians and the Medes should put an end to their servitude and overthrow the Babylonians; “and that we will be dismissed, and return to this land, and rebuild the temple, and restore Jerusalem.” When Jeremiah said this, the greater part believed him; but the rulers and those that were wicked despised him, as one disordered in his senses. Now he had resolved to go elsewhere, to his own country, which was called Anathoth and was twenty stadia away from Jerusalem; and as he was going, one of the rulers met him, and seized him, and accused him falsely, as though he were going as a deserter to the Babylonians; but Jeremiah said that he accused him falsely and added that he was only going to his own country; but the other would not believe him, but seized him, and led him away to the rulers, and laid an accusation against him, under whom he endured all sorts of torments and tortures and was reserved to be punished; and this was the condition he was in for some time, while he suffered what I have already described unjustly.

4. Now in the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the king of Babylon made a second expedition against Jerusalem, and lay before it eighteen months, and besieged it with the utmost force. There also came on them two of the greatest calamities at the same time that Jerusalem was besieged: a famine and a pestilential disease, which made great havoc of them. And though the prophet Jeremiah was in prison, he did not rest, but cried out, and proclaimed aloud, and exhorted the multitude to open their gates and admit the king of Babylon, because if they did so, they would be preserved, and their entire families; but if they did not so, they would be destroyed; and he foretold that if anyone stayed in the city, he would certainly perish by one of these ways: either be consumed by the famine, or slain by the enemy’s sword; but that if he would flee to the enemy, he would escape death. Yet these rulers who heard did not believe him, even when they were in the midst of their severe calamities; but they came to the king, and in their anger informed him what Jeremiah had said, and accused him, and complained of the prophet as of a madman, and one that disheartened their minds, and by the denunciation of miseries weakened the eagerness of the multitude, who were otherwise ready to expose themselves to dangers for him, and for their country, while he, in a way of threatening, warned them to flee to the enemy, and told them that the city should certainly be taken and be utterly destroyed.

5. But for the king himself, he was not at all irritated against Jeremiah—such was his gentle and righteous disposition; yet, so that he might not be engaged in a quarrel with those rulers at such a time by opposing what they intended, he let them do with the prophet whatever they would; whereon, when the king had granted them such a permission, they presently came into the prison, and took him, and let him down with a cord into a pit full of mire, that he might be suffocated and die by himself. So he stood up to the neck in the mire which was all around him, and so continued; but there was one of the king’s servants, who was in high regard with him, an Ethiopian by descent, who told the king what a state the prophet was in, and said that his friends and his rulers had done evil in putting the prophet into the mire, and by that means scheming against him that he should suffer a death more bitter than that by his bonds only. When the king heard this, he converted of his having delivered up the prophet to the rulers and commanded the Ethiopian to take thirty men of the king’s guards, and cords with them, and whatever else they understood to be necessary for the prophet’s preservation, and to draw him up immediately. So the Ethiopian took the men he was ordered to take, and drew up the prophet out of the mire, and left him at liberty [in the prison].

6. But when the king had sent to call him privately, and inquired what he could say to him from God, which might be suitable to his present circumstances, and desired him to inform him of it, Jeremiah replied that he had something to say; but he additionally said [that] he would not be believed, nor, if he admonished them, would be listened to; “for,” he said, “your friends have determined to destroy me, as though I had been guilty of some wickedness; and where are those men now who deceived us and said that the king of Babylon would not come and fight against us anymore? but I am afraid now to speak the truth, lest you should condemn me to die.” And when the king had assured him on oath that he would neither himself put him to death, nor deliver him up to the rulers, he became bold on that assurance that was given him and gave him this advice: that he should deliver the city up to the Babylonians; and he said that it was God who prophesied this by him, that [he must do so] if he would be preserved and escape out of the danger he was in, and that [only] then neither would the city fall to the ground, nor would the temple be burned; but that [if he disobeyed], he would be the cause of these miseries coming on the citizens and of the calamity that would happen to his whole house. When the king heard this, he said that he would willingly do what he persuaded him to, and what he declared would be to his advantage, but that he was afraid of those of his own country that had fallen away to the Babylonians, lest he should be accused by them to the king of Babylon and be punished. But the prophet encouraged him and said he had no cause to fear such punishment, for he would not have the experience of any misfortune—if he would deliver everything up to the Babylonians—neither himself, nor his children, nor his wives, and that the temple would then continue unharmed. So when Jeremiah had said this, the king let him go and commanded him to betray what they had decided to none of the citizens, nor to tell any of these matters to any of the rulers, if they should have learned that he had been sent for, and should inquire of him what it was that he was sent for and what he had said to him, but to pretend to them that he pleaded with him that he might not be kept in bonds and in prison. And indeed, he said so to them; for they came to the prophet and asked him what advice it was that he came to give the king relating to them. And thus, I have finished what concerns this matter.

CHAPTER 8

How the King of Babylon Captured Jerusalem, and Burnt the Temple, and Removed the People of Jerusalem and Zedekiah to Babylon. As Also, Who They Were That Had Succeeded in the High Priesthood Under the Kings.

1. Now the king of Babylon was very intent and earnest on the siege of Jerusalem; and he erected towers on great banks of earth, and from them repelled those that stood on the walls; he also made a great number of such banks around the whole city, whose height was equal to those walls. However, those that were within endured the siege with courage and eagerness, for they were not discouraged, either by the famine, or by the pestilential disease, but were of cheerful minds in the prosecution of the war, although those miseries within also oppressed them, and they did not allow themselves to be terrified, either by the schemes of the enemy, or by their engines of war, but designed still different engines to oppose all the other additionally, until indeed there seemed to be an entire struggle between the Babylonians and the people of Jerusalem, which had the greater shrewdness and skill; the former party supposing they should be thereby too hard for the other, for the destruction of the city; the latter placing their hopes of deliverance in nothing else but in persevering in such inventions in opposition to the other, as might demonstrate the enemy’s engines were useless to them. And they endured this siege for eighteen months, until they were destroyed by the famine and by the darts which the enemy threw at them from the towers.

2. Now the city was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah. They were indeed only generals of the king of Babylon, to whom Nebuchadnezzar committed the care of the siege, for he himself abided in the city of Riblah. The names of these generals who ravaged and subdued Jerusalem, if anyone desires to know them, were these: Nergal Sharezer, Sangar Nebo, Rabsaris, Sarsechim, and Rabmag. And when the city was taken about midnight, and the enemy’s generals had entered into the temple, and when Zedekiah was aware of it, he took his wives, and his children, and his captains, and his friends, and fled out of the city with them, through the fortified ditch, and through the desert; and when certain of the deserters had informed the Babylonians of this, at dawn they made haste to pursue after Zedekiah, and overtook him not far from Jericho, and surrounded him. But for those friends and captains of Zedekiah who had fled out of the city with him, when they saw their enemies near them, they left him and dispersed themselves—some one way, and some another, and every one resolved to save himself; so the enemy took Zedekiah alive, when he was deserted by all but a few, with his children and his wives, and brought him to the king. When he had come, Nebuchadnezzar began to call him a wicked wretch, and a covenant-breaker, and one that had forgotten his former words, when he promised to caretake the country for him. He also reproached him for his ingratitude, that when he had received the kingdom from him who had taken it from Jehoiachin and given it to him, he had made use of the power he gave him against him that gave it; “but,” he said, “God is great, who hated that conduct of yours, and has brought you under us.” And when he had used these words to Zedekiah, he commanded his sons and his friends to be slain, while Zedekiah and the rest of the captains looked on; after which, he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him, and carried him to Babylon. And these things happened to him, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold to him, that he should be caught, and brought before the king of Babylon, and should speak to him face to face, and should see his eyes with his own eyes; and thus far did Jeremiah prophesy. But he was also made blind and brought to Babylon, but did not see it, according to the prediction of Ezekiel.

3. We have said this much, because it was sufficient to show the nature of God to such as are ignorant of it, that it is various, and acts many different ways, and that all events happen in a regular manner, in their proper season, and that it foretells what must come to pass. It is also sufficient to show the ignorance and incredulity of men, whereby they are not permitted to foresee anything that is future, and are, without any guard, exposed to calamities, so that it is impossible for them to avoid the experience of those calamities.

4. And after this manner, the kings of David’s race have ended their lives, being in number twenty-one, until the last king, who altogether reigned five hundred and fourteen years, and six months, and ten days; of whom Saul, who was their first king, retained the government twenty years, although he was not of the same tribe with the rest.

5. And it was now that the king of Babylon sent Nebuzaradan, the general of his army, to Jerusalem, to pillage the temple, who had it also in command to burn it and the royal palace, and to lay the city level with the ground, and to transplant the people into Babylon. Accordingly, he came to Jerusalem in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, and pillaged the temple, and carried out the vessels of God, both gold and silver, and particularly that large laver which Solomon dedicated, as also the pillars of brass, and their chapiters, with the golden tables and the candlesticks; and when he had carried these off, he set fire to the temple in the fifth month, the first day of the month, in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, and in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar: he also burnt the palace and overthrew the city. Now the temple was burnt four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days after it was built. It was then one thousand and sixty-two years, six months, and ten days from the departure out of Egypt; and from the Deluge to the destruction of the temple, the whole interval was one thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven years, six months, and ten days; but from the generation of Adam, until this happened to the temple, there were three thousand five hundred and thirteen years, six months, and ten days; so great was the number of years hereto belonging. And what actions were done during these years we have precisely related. But the general of the Babylonian king now overthrew the city to the very foundations, and removed all the people, and took for prisoners the high priest Seraiah, and Zephaniah the priest that was next to him, and the rulers that guarded the temple, who were three in number, and the eunuch who was over the armed men, and seven friends of Zedekiah, and his scribe, and sixty other rulers; all [of] which, together with the vessels which they had pillaged, he carried to the king of Babylon at Riblah, a city of Syria. So the king commanded the heads of the high priest and of the rulers to be cut off there; but he himself led all the captives and Zedekiah to Babylon. He also led the high priest Josedek away bound. He was the son of Seraiah the high priest, whom the king of Babylon had slain in Riblah, a city of Syria, as we just now related.

6. And now, because we have enumerated the succession of the kings, and who they were, and how long they reigned, I think it necessary to set down the names of the high priests, and who they were that succeeded one another in the high priesthood under the Kings. The first high priest then at the temple which Solomon built was Zadok; after him his son Achimas received that dignity; after Achimas was Azarias; his son was Joram, and Joram’s son was Isus; after him was Axioramus; his son was Phideas, and Phideas’ son was Sudeas, and Sudeas’ son was Juelus, and Juelus’ son was Jotham, and Jotham’s son was Urias, and Urias’ son was Nerias, and Nerias’ son was Odeas, and his son was Sallumus, and Sallumus’ son was Elcias, and his son [was Azarias, and his son] was Sareas, and his son was Josedek, who was carried captive to Babylon. All these received the high priesthood by succession, the sons from their father.

7. When the king had come to Babylon, he kept Zedekiah in prison until he died, and buried him magnificently, and dedicated the vessels he had pillaged out of the temple of Jerusalem to his own gods, and planted the people in the country of Babylon, but freed the high priest from his bonds.

CHAPTER 9

How Nebuzaradan Set Gedaliah over the Jews That Were Left in Judea, Which Gedaliah Was Shortly Afterward Slain by Ishmael; And How Johanan, After Ishmael Was Driven Away, Went Down Into Egypt with the People, Which People Nebuchadnezzar, When He Made an Expedition Against the Egyptians, Took Captive and Brought Away to Babylon.

1. Now the general of the army, Nebuzaradan, when he had carried the people of the Jews into captivity, left the poor and those that had deserted in the country, and made one, whose name was Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, a person of a noble family, their governor, which Gedaliah was of a gentle and righteous disposition. He also commanded them that they should cultivate the ground and pay an appointed tribute to the king. He also took Jeremiah the prophet out of prison and would have persuaded him to go along with him to Babylon, for he had been ordered by the king to supply him with whatever he wanted; and if he did not like to do so, he desired him to inform him where he resolved to dwell, that he might signify the same to the king. But the prophet had no mind to follow him, nor to dwell anywhere else, but would gladly live in the ruins of his country, and in the miserable remains of it. When the general understood what his purpose was, he ordered Gedaliah, whom he left behind, to take all possible care of him and to supply him with whatever he wanted. So when he had given him rich presents, he dismissed him. Accordingly, Jeremiah abided in a city of that country, which was called Mizpah, and desired of Nebuzaradan that he would set free his disciple Baruch, the son of Neriah, one of a very eminent family, and exceedingly skillful in the language of his country.

2. When Nebuzaradan had done thus, he hurried to Babylon. But as for those that fled away during the siege of Jerusalem and had been scattered over the country, when they heard that the Babylonians had gone away and had left a remnant in the land of Jerusalem, and those such as were to cultivate the same, they came together from all parts to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Now the rulers that were over them were Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah, and Seraiah, and others beside them. Now there was of the royal family one Ishmael, a wicked man, and very crafty, who, during the siege of Jerusalem, fled to Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, and abided with him during that time; and Gedaliah persuaded them, now [that] they were there, to stay with him and to have no fear of the Babylonians, for if they would cultivate the country, they would suffer no harm. This he assured them of by oath; and he said that they should have him for their patron, and that if any disturbance should arise, they should find him ready to defend them. He also advised them to dwell in any city, as every one of them pleased; and that they would send men along with his own servants, and rebuild their houses on the old foundations, and dwell there; and he admonished them beforehand, that they should make preparation, while the season lasted, of corn, and wine, and oil, that they might have wherewithal to feed on during the winter. When he had thus discoursed to them, he dismissed them, so that everyone might dwell in whatever place of the country he pleased.

3. Now when this report was spread abroad—as far as the nations that bordered on Judea—that Gedaliah kindly entertained those that came to him after they had fled away, on this [one] condition: that they should pay tribute to the king of Babylon, they also came readily to Gedaliah and inhabited the country. And when Johanan, and the rulers that were with him, observed the country and the humanity of Gedaliah, they were exceedingly enamored with him, and they told him that Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, had sent Ishmael to kill him by treachery, and secretly, that he might have the dominion over the Israelites, as being of the royal family; and they said that he might deliver himself from this treacherous design, if he would give them permission to slay Ishmael, and nobody should know it, for they told him they were afraid that, when he was killed by the other, the entire ruin of the remaining strength of the Israelites would ensue. But he professed that he did not believe what they said, when they told him of such a treacherous design in a man that had been well treated by him, because it was not probable that one who, under such a lack of all things, had failed of nothing that was necessary for him, should be found so wicked and ungrateful toward his benefactor, that when it would be an instance of wickedness in him not to save him, had he been treacherously assaulted by others, to endeavor, and that earnestly, to kill him with his own hands: that, however, if he ought to suppose this information to be true, it was better for himself to be slain by the other, than to destroy a man who fled to him for refuge, and entrusted his own safety to him, and committed himself to his disposal.

4. So Johanan, and the rulers that were with him, not being able to persuade Gedaliah, went away. But after the interval of thirty days was over, Ishmael came again to Gedaliah, to the city [of] Mizpah, and ten men with him; and when he had feasted Ishmael and those that were with him in a splendid manner at his table and had given them presents, he became disordered in drink, while he endeavored to be very cheery with them; and when Ishmael saw him in that case, and that he was drowned in his drinks to the degree of insensibility and had fallen asleep, he suddenly rose up with his ten friends and slew Gedaliah and those that were with him at the feast; and when he had slain them, he went out by night and slew all the Jews that were in the city, and also those soldiers which were left therein by the Babylonians. But the next day, eighty men came out of the country with presents to Gedaliah, none of them knowing what had happened to him; when Ishmael saw them, he invited them in to Gedaliah, and when they had come in, he shut up the court, and slew them, and cast their dead bodies down into a certain deep pit, that they might not be seen; but of these eighty men, Ishmael spared those that begged him not to kill them, until they had delivered up to him what riches they had concealed in the fields, consisting of their furniture, and garments, and corn: but he took captive the people that were in Mizpah, with their wives and children; among whom were the daughters of King Zedekiah, whom Nebuzaradan, the general of the army of Babylon, had left with Gedaliah. And when he had done this, he came to the king of the Ammonites.

5. But when Johanan and the rulers with him heard of what was done at Mizpah by Ishmael, and of the death of Gedaliah, they had indignation at it, and every one of them took his own armed men, and suddenly came to fight with Ishmael, and overtook him at the fountain in Hebron. And when those that were carried away captives by Ishmael saw Johanan and the rulers, they were very glad and looked on them as coming to their assistance; so they left him that had carried them captive and came over to Johanan: then Ishmael, with eight men, fled to the king of the Ammonites; but Johanan took those whom he had rescued out of the hands of Ishmael, and the eunuchs, and their wives and children, and came to a certain place called Mandara, and they abided there that day, for they had determined to move from there and go into Egypt, out of fear, lest the Babylonians should slay them, in case they continued in the country, and that out of anger at the slaughter of Gedaliah, who had been set over it by them for governor.

6. Now while they were under this deliberation, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and the rulers that were with him, came to Jeremiah the prophet and desired that he would pray to God, that because they were at an utter loss about what they ought to do, he would reveal it to them, and they swore that they would do whatsoever Jeremiah should say to them. And when the prophet said he would be their intercessor with God, it came to pass that after ten days God appeared to him and said that he should inform Johanan, and the other rulers, and all the people, that He would be with them while they continued in that country, and take care of them, and keep them from being hurt by the Babylonians, of whom they were afraid; but that He would desert them if they went into Egypt, and, out of this wrath against them, would inflict the same punishments on them which they knew their brothers had already endured. So when the prophet had informed Johanan and the people that God had foretold these things, he was not believed when he said that God commanded them to continue in the country; but they imagined that he said so to gratify Baruch, his own disciple, and denied God, and that he persuaded them to stay there, so that they might be destroyed by the Babylonians. Accordingly, both the people and Johanan disobeyed the counsel of God, which He gave them by the prophet, and moved into Egypt, and carried Jeremiah and Baruch along with him.

7. And when they were there, God signified to the prophet that the king of Babylon was about to make an expedition against the Egyptians, and commanded him to foretell to the people that Egypt would be taken, and the king of Babylon would slay some of them, and would take others captive and bring them to Babylon; which things came to pass accordingly; for on the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the twenty-third of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he made an expedition against Coele-Syria; and when he had taken possession of it himself, he made war against the Ammonites and Moabites; and when he had brought all these nations under subjection, he fell on Egypt in order to overthrow it; and he slew the king that then reigned and set up another; and he took those Jews that were there captives and led them away to Babylon. And such was the end of the nation of the Hebrews, as it has been delivered down to us, it having twice gone beyond the Euphrates; for the people of the ten tribes were carried out of Samaria by the Assyrians in the days of King Hoshea; after which the people of the two tribes that remained after Jerusalem was taken [were carried away] by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon and Chaldea. Now as for Shalmanezer, he removed the Israelites out of their country, and placed the nation of the Cutheans therein, who had formerly belonged to the inner parts of Persia and Media, but were then called Samaritans, by taking the name of the country to which they were moved; but the king of Babylon, who brought out the two tribes, placed no other nation in their country, by which means all Judea and Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to be a desert for seventy years; but the entire interval of time which passed from the captivity of the Israelites, to the carrying away of the two tribes, proved to be one hundred and thirty years, six months, and ten days.

CHAPTER 10

Concerning Daniel and What Happened to Him at Babylon.

1. But now Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took some of the most noble of the Jews that were children, and the relatives of Zedekiah their king, such as were remarkable for the beauty of their bodies, and the attractiveness of their countenances, and delivered them into the hands of tutors, and to the improvement to be made by them. He also made some of them to be eunuchs; which course he also took with those of other nations whom he had taken in the flower of their age, and provided them their diet from his own table, and had them instructed in the institutes of the country, and taught the learning of the Chaldeans; and they had now exercised themselves sufficiently in that wisdom which he had ordered they should apply themselves to. Now among these there were four of the family of Zedekiah, of most excellent dispositions, one of whom was called Daniel, another was called Ananias, another Misael, and the fourth Azarias; and the king of Babylon changed their names and commanded that they should make use of other names. Daniel he called Belteshazzar; Ananias, Shadrach; Misael, Meshach; and Azarias, Abednego. These the king held in high regard and continued to love, because of the very excellent temperament they had, and because of their application to learning and the progress they had made in wisdom.

2. Now Daniel and his countrymen had resolved to practice a strict diet, and to abstain from those kinds of food which came from the king’s table, and entirely to abstain from eating of all living creatures. So he came to Ashpenaz, who was that eunuch to whom the care of them was committed, and desired him to take and spend what was brought for them from the king, but to give them pulse and dates for their food, and anything else, besides the flesh of living creatures, that he pleased, because their inclinations were for that sort of food, and that they despised the other. He replied that he was ready to serve them in what they desired, but he suspected that they would be discovered by the king from their emaciated bodies and the alteration of their countenances, because it could not be avoided but their bodies and colors must be changed with their diet, especially while they would be clearly discovered by the finer appearance of the other children, who would fare better, and thus they should bring him into danger and cause him to be punished; yet they persuaded Arioch, who was thus fearful, to give them what food they desired for ten days, by way of trial; and in case the appearance of their bodies was not altered, to go on in the same way, as expecting that they should not be hurt thereby afterward; but if he saw them look emaciated and worse than the rest, he should reduce them to their former diet. Now when it appeared that they were so far from becoming worse by the use of this food, that they grew plumper and fuller in body than the rest, insomuch that he thought those who fed on what came from the king’s table seemed less plump and full, while those that were with Daniel looked as if they had lived in plenty and in all sorts of luxury, Arioch, from that time on, securely took himself what the king sent every day from his supper, according to custom, to the children, but gave them the aforementioned diet, while they had their souls in some measure more pure, and less burdened, and so fitter for learning, and had their bodies in better tune for hard labor; for they neither had the former oppressed and heavy with variety of meats, nor were the other effeminate on the same account; so they readily understood all the learning that was among the Hebrews, and among the Chaldeans, as especially did Daniel, who being already sufficiently skillful in wisdom, was very busy concerning the interpretation of dreams; and God manifested Himself to him.

3. Now two years after the destruction of Egypt, King Nebuchadnezzar saw a wonderful dream, the accomplishment of which God showed him in his sleep; but when he arose out of his bed, he forgot the accomplishment. So he sent for the Chaldeans, and magicians, and the prophets, and told them that he had seen a dream, and informed them that he had forgotten the accomplishment of what he had seen, and he commanded them to tell him both what the dream was, and what its meaning was; and they said that this was a thing impossible to be discovered by men; but they promised him that if he would explain to them what dream he had seen, they would tell him its meaning. Hereon he threatened to put them to death, unless they told him his dream; and he gave command to have them all put to death, since they confessed they could not do what they were commanded to do. Now when Daniel heard that the king had given a command that all the wise men should be put to death, and that among them himself and his three countrymen were in danger, he went to Arioch, who was captain of the king’s guards, and desired to know from him what the reason was why the king had given command that all the wise men, and Chaldeans, and magicians should be slain. So when he had learned that the king had had a dream, and had forgotten it, and that when they were commanded to inform the king of it, they had said they could not do it, and had thereby provoked him to anger, he desired of Arioch that he would go in to the king, and desire respite for the magicians for one night, and to put off their slaughter so long, for he hoped within that time to obtain, by prayer to God, the knowledge of the dream. Accordingly, Arioch informed the king of what Daniel desired. So the king commanded them to delay the slaughter of the magicians until he knew what Daniel’s promise would come to; but the young man retired to his own house, with his relatives, and pleaded with God that whole night to reveal the dream and thereby deliver the magicians and Chaldeans, with whom they were themselves to perish, from the king’s anger, by enabling him to declare his vision and to make manifest what the king had seen the night before in his sleep, but had forgotten it. Accordingly, God, out of pity for those that were in danger, and out of regard for the wisdom of Daniel, made known to him the dream and its interpretation, so that the king might also understand by him its meaning. When Daniel had obtained this knowledge from God, he arose very joyfully, and told it [to] his brothers, and made them glad and to hope well that they should now preserve their lives, of which they despaired before and had their minds full of nothing but the thoughts of dying. So, when he had with them returned thanks to God, who had pitied their youth, when it was day, he came to Arioch and desired him to bring him to the king, because he would reveal to him that dream which he had seen the night before.

4. When Daniel had come in to the king, he excused himself first, that he did not pretend to be wiser than the other Chaldeans and magicians, when, on their complete inability to reveal his dream, he was undertaking to inform him of it; for this was not by his own skill, or on account of his having better cultivated his understanding than the rest; but he said, “God has had pity on us when we were in danger of death, and when I prayed for the life of myself and of those of my own nation; He has made manifest to me both the dream and the interpretation thereof; for I was not less concerned for your glory than for the sorrow that we were by you condemned to die, while you so unjustly commanded men, both good and excellent in themselves, to be put to death, when you commanded them to do what was entirely above the reach of human wisdom, and required of them what was only the work of God. Therefore, as you in your sleep were attentive concerning those that would succeed you in the government of the whole world, God desired to show you all those that would reign after you, and to that end exhibited to you the following dream: you seemed to see a great image standing before you, the head of which proved to be of gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass, but the legs and the feet of iron; after which you saw a stone broken off from a mountain, which fell on the image, and threw it down, and broke it to pieces, and did not permit any part of it to remain whole; but the gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron, became smaller than meal, which, on the blast of a violent wind, was carried away by force and scattered abroad, but the stone increased to such a degree that the whole earth beneath it seemed to be filled with it. This is the dream which you saw, and its interpretation is as follows: the head of gold denotes you, and the kings of Babylon that have been before you; but the two hands and arms signify this, that your government will be dissolved by two kings; but another king that will come from the west, armed with brass, will destroy that government; and another government, that will be like to iron, will put an end to the power of the former and will have dominion over all the earth, on account of the nature of iron, which is stronger than that of gold, of silver, and of brass.” Daniel also declared the meaning of the stone to the king but I do not think proper to relate it, since I have only undertaken to describe things past or things present, but not things that are future; yet if anyone is so very desirous of knowing [the] truth, so as not to ignore such points of curiosity, and cannot curb his inclination for understanding the uncertainties of the future, and whether they will happen or not, let him be diligent in reading the Book of Daniel, which he will find among the sacred writings.

5. When Nebuchadnezzar heard this and recollected his dream, he was astonished at the nature of Daniel, and fell on his knee, and saluted Daniel in the manner that men worship God, and gave command that he should be sacrificed to as a god. And this was not all, for he also imposed the name of his own god on him, [Belteshazzar], and made him and his countrymen rulers of his whole kingdom; which countrymen of his happened to fall into great danger by the envy and malice [of their enemies], for they offended the king on the following occasion: he made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits, and set it in the great plain of Babylon; and when he was going to dedicate the image, he invited the principal men out of all the earth that was under his dominions, and commanded them, in the first place, that when they should hear the sound of the trumpet, they should then fall down and worship the image; and he threatened that those who did not so, should be cast into a fiery furnace. Therefore, when all the rest, on the hearing of the sound of the trumpet, worshiped the image, they relate that Daniel’s countrymen did not do it, because they would not transgress the laws of their country. So these men were convicted and immediately cast into the fire, but were saved by Divine Providence, and in a surprising manner escaped death, for the fire did not touch them; and I suppose that it did not touch, as if it reasoned with itself that they were cast into it without any fault of theirs, and that it was therefore too weak to burn the young men when they were in it. This was done by the power of God, who made their bodies so far superior to the fire that it could not consume them. It was this which recommended them to the king as righteous men, and men beloved of God, on which account they continued in high regard with him.

6. Shortly after this, the king again saw in his sleep another vision: how he would fall from his dominion, and feed among the wild beasts, and that when he had lived in this manner in the desert for seven years, he would recover his dominion again. When he had seen this dream, he called the magicians together again, and inquired of them about it, and desired them to tell him what it signified; but when none of them could find out the meaning of the dream, nor reveal it to the king, Daniel was the only person that explained it; and as he foretold, so it came to pass; for after he had continued in the wilderness the aforementioned interval of time, while no one dared attempt to seize his kingdom during those seven years, he prayed to God that he might recover his kingdom, and he returned to it. But let no one blame me for writing down everything of this nature, as I find it in our ancient books; for as to that matter, I have plainly assured those that think me defective in any such point or complain of my management, that I have told them in the beginning of this history that I intended to do no more than translate the Hebrew books into the Greek language, and promised them to explain those facts, without adding anything to them of my own, or taking anything away from there.

CHAPTER 11

Concerning Nebuchadnezzar and His Successors and How Their Government Was Dissolved by the Persians; And What Things Happened to Daniel in Media; And What Prophecies He Delivered There.

1. Now when King Nebuchadnezzar had reigned forty-three years, he ended his life. He was an active man and more fortunate than the kings that were before him. Now Berossus makes mention of his actions in the third book of his Chaldaic History, where he says this: “When his father Nebuchodonosor [(Nabopollassar)] heard that the governor whom he had set over Egypt and the places around Coele-Syria and Phoenicia had revolted from him, while he was himself no longer able to undergo the hardships [of war], he committed to his son Nebuchadnezzar, who was still but a youth, some parts of his army, and sent them against him. So when Nebuchadnezzar had given battle and fought with the rebel, he beat him, and reduced the country from under his subjection, and made it a branch of his own kingdom; but about that time it happened that his father Nebuchodonosor [Nabopollassar] fell ill and ended his life in the city [of] Babylon, when he had reigned twenty-one years; and when he was made aware, as he was in a short time, that his father Nebuchodonosor [(Nabopollassar)] was dead, and having settled the affairs of Egypt, and the other countries, as also those that concerned the captive Jews, and Phoenicians, and Syrians, and those of the Egyptian nations; and having committed the transport of them to Babylon to certain of his friends, together with the mass of his army, and the rest of their ammunition and provisions, he himself went hastily, accompanied with a few others, over the desert, and came to Babylon. So he took on himself the management of public affairs and of the kingdom which had been kept for him by one that was the principal of the Chaldeans, and he received the entire dominions of his father, and appointed that when the captives came, they should be settled as colonists in the most proper places of Babylonia; but then he adorned the temple of Belus, and the rest of the temples, in a magnificent manner, with the spoils he had taken in the war. He also added another city to that which was there from antiquity and rebuilt it, so that such as would besiege it hereafter might no longer turn the course of the river and thereby attack the city itself. He therefore built three walls around the inner city, and three others around that which was the outer, and he did this with burnt brick. And after he had, in a suitable manner, walled the city and gloriously adorned its gates, he built another palace in front of his father’s palace, but so that they joined to it—to describe whose vast height and immense riches it would perhaps be too much for me to attempt; yet as large and lofty as they were, they were completed in fifteen days. He also erected elevated places for walking, of stone, and made it resemble mountains, and built it so that it might be planted with all sorts of trees. He also erected what was called a hanging paradise, because his wife desired to have things like her own country, she having been bred up in the palaces of Media.” Megasthenes also, in his fourth book of his Accounts of India, makes mention of these things and thereby endeavors to show that this king [Nebuchadnezzar] exceeded Hercules in fortitude and in the greatness of his actions; for he says that he conquered a great part of Libya and Iberia. Diocles also, in the second book of his Accounts of Persia, mentions this king; as does Philostratus, in his Accounts both of India and of Phoenicia, say that this king besieged Tyre thirteen years, while at the same time Ethbaal reigned at Tyre. These are all the histories that I have found concerning this king.

2. But now, after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, his son Evil-Merodach succeeded [him] in the kingdom, who immediately set Jeconiah free and regarded him among his most intimate friends. He also gave him many presents and made him honorable above the rest of the kings that were in Babylon; for his father had not kept his faith with Jeconiah, when he voluntarily delivered himself up to him, with his wives and children, and his whole family, for the sake of his country, that it might not be taken by siege and utterly destroyed, as we stated before. When Evil-Merodach was dead, after a reign of eighteen years, his son Neglissar took the government, and retained it forty years, and then ended his life; and after him the succession in the kingdom came to his son Labosordacus, who continued in it in all but nine months; and when he was dead, it came to Belshazzar, who by the Babylonians was called Naboandelus: Cyrus, the king of Persia, and Darius, the king of Media, made war against him; and when he was besieged in Babylon, a wonderful and phenomenal vision occurred. He was sitting down at supper in a large room, and there were a great many vessels of silver, such as were made for royal entertainments, and he had his concubines and his friends with him; whereon he came to a resolution and commanded that those vessels of God which Nebuchadnezzar had plundered out of Jerusalem and had not made use of, but had put them into his own temple, should be brought out of that temple. He also grew so arrogant as to proceed to use them in the midst of his cups, drinking out of them and blaspheming against God. In the meantime, he saw a hand proceed out of the wall, and writing on the wall certain syllables; at which sight, being disturbed, he called the magicians and Chaldeans together, and all that sort of men that are among these barbarians and were able to interpret signs and dreams, so that they might explain the writing to him. But when the magicians said they could reveal nothing, nor understood it, the king was in a great disorder of mind and under great distress at this surprising occurrence; so he caused it to be proclaimed through all the country and promised that to him who could explain the writing and give the meaning concealed therein, he would give him a golden chain for his neck, and permission to wear a purple garment, as the kings of Chaldea did, and would bestow on him the third part of his own dominions. When this proclamation was made, the magicians ran together more earnestly and were very ambitious to find out the importance of the writing, but still hesitated about it as much as before. Now when the king’s grandmother saw him downcast at this situation, she began to encourage him and to say that there was a certain captive who came from Judea, a Jew by birth, but [who was] brought away from there by Nebuchadnezzar when he had destroyed Jerusalem, whose name was Daniel, a wise man, and one of great shrewdness in finding out what was impossible for others to discover, and what was known to God alone, who brought to light and answered such questions to Nebuchadnezzar as no one else was able to answer when they were consulted. She therefore desired that he would send for him, and inquire of him concerning the writing, and to condemn the unskillfulness of those that could not find their meaning, and this although what God signified thereby should be of a gloomy nature.

3. When Belshazzar heard this, he called for Daniel; and when he had discoursed to him what he had learned concerning him and his wisdom, and how a Divine Spirit was with him, and that he alone was fully capable of finding out what others would never have thought of, he desired him to declare to him what this writing meant; and if he did so, he would give him permission to wear purple, and to put a chain of gold around his neck, and would bestow on him the third part of his dominion as an honorary reward for his wisdom, so that he might thereby become illustrious to those who saw him, and who inquired on what occasion he obtained such honors. But Daniel desired that he would keep his gifts to himself, for what is the result of wisdom and of Divine revelation accepts no gifts and bestows its advantages on petitioners freely; but that he would still explain the writing to him, which denoted that he would soon die, and this because he had not learned to honor God and not to admit things above human nature, by what punishments his progenitor had undergone for the wrongs he had offered to God; and because he had completely forgotten how Nebuchadnezzar was removed to feed among wild beasts for his impieties and did not recover his former life among men and his kingdom, except on God’s mercy to him, after many supplications and prayers; who therefore praised God all the days of his life, as one of almighty power, and who takes care of mankind. [He also reminded him] how he had greatly blasphemed against God and had made use of His vessels among his concubines; that therefore God saw this, and was angry with him, and declared by this writing beforehand what a sad conclusion of his life he should come to. And he explained the writing thus: “Mene: This, if it is expounded in the Greek language, may signify a number, because God has numbered such a length of time for your life, and for your government, and that there remains but a small portion. Tekel: This signifies a weight and means that God has weighed your kingdom in a balance and finds it going down already. Parsin: This also, in the Greek tongue, denotes a fragment. God will therefore break your kingdom in pieces and divide it among the Medes and Persians.”

4. When Daniel had told the king that the writing on the wall signified these events, Belshazzar was in great sorrow and affliction, as was to be expected, when the interpretation was so heavy on him. However, he did not refuse what he had promised Daniel, although he had become a foreteller of misfortunes to him, but bestowed it all on him; as reasoning thus, that what he was to reward was peculiar to himself, and to fate, and did not belong to the prophet, but that it was the part of a good and just man to give what he had promised, although the events were of a gloomy nature. Accordingly, the king determined to do so. Now, after a little while, both himself and the city were taken by Cyrus, the king of Persia, who fought against him; for it was Belshazzar, under whom Babylon was taken, when he had reigned seventeen years. And this is the end of the posterity of King Nebuchadnezzar, as history informs us; but when Babylon was taken by Darius, and when he, with his relative Cyrus, had put an end to the dominion of the Babylonians, he was sixty-two years old. He was the son of Astyages and had another name among the Greeks. Moreover, he took Daniel the prophet, and carried him with him into Media, and honored him very greatly, and kept him with him, for he was one of the three presidents whom he set over his three hundred and sixty provinces, for Darius parted them into this many.

5. However, while Daniel was in such great dignity, and in such great favor with Darius, and was alone entrusted with everything by him, as having something divine in him, he was envied by the rest; for those that see others in greater honor than themselves with kings envy them; and when those that were grieved at the great favor Daniel was in with Darius sought for an opportunity against him, he provided them no opportunity at all, for he was above all the temptations of money, and despised bribery, and considered it a very dishonorable thing to take anything by way of reward, even when it might be justly given [to] him; he provided those that envied him not the least opening for an accusation. So when they could find nothing for which they might defame him to the king—nothing that was shameful or reproachful—and thereby deprive him of the honor he was in with him, they sought for some other method whereby they might destroy him. Therefore, when they saw that Daniel prayed to God three times a day, they thought they had obtained a cause by which they might ruin him; so they came to Darius and told him that the princes and governors had thought proper to allow the multitude a relaxation for thirty days, so that no one might offer a petition or prayer either to himself or to the gods, but that he who will transgress this decree will be cast into the den of lions and perish there.

6. Whereon the king, not being acquainted with their wicked scheme, nor suspecting that it was a plot of theirs against Daniel, said he was pleased with this decree of theirs, and he promised to confirm what they desired; he also published an edict to promulgate to the people that decree which the princes had made. Accordingly, all the rest took care not to transgress those injunctions and rested quietly; but Daniel had no regard for them, but, as he was accustomed, he stood and prayed to God in the sight of them all; but the princes having met with the opportunity they so earnestly sought to find against Daniel, presently came to the king, and accused him, that Daniel was the only person that transgressed the decree, while not [even] one of the rest dared pray to their gods. They made this discovery, not because of his impiety, but because they had watched him and observed him out of envy; for supposing that Darius did this out of a greater kindness to him than they expected, and that he was ready to grant him pardon for this contempt of his injunctions, and envying this very pardon to Daniel, they did not become more honorable toward him, but desired [that] he might be cast into the den of lions according to the law. So Darius, hoping that God would deliver him, and that he would undergo nothing that was terrible by the wild beasts, commanded him to endure this misfortune cheerfully. And when he was cast into the den, he put his seal to the stone that lay on the mouth of the den and went his way, but he passed all the night without food and without sleep, being in great distress for Daniel; but when it was day, he got up, and came to the den, and found the seal unbroken, which he had left the stone sealed with; he also opened the seal, and cried out, and called to Daniel, and asked him if he were alive. And as soon as he heard the king’s voice and said that he had suffered no harm, the king gave an order that he should be drawn up out of the den. Now when his enemies saw that Daniel had suffered nothing which was terrible, they would not acknowledge that he was preserved by God and by His providence; but they said that the lions had [already] been fully filled with food, and it was on that account, as they supposed, that the lions would not touch Daniel, nor come to him; and this they alleged to the king. But the king, out of an abhorrence of their wickedness, gave an order that they should throw in a great deal of meat to the lions; and when they had filled themselves, he gave another order that Daniel’s enemies should be cast into the den, so that he might learn whether the lions, now [that] they were full, would touch them or not. And it appeared plain to Darius, after the princes had been cast to the wild beasts, that it was God who preserved Daniel, for the lions spared none of them, but tore them all to pieces, as if they had been very hungry and wanted food. Therefore, I suppose it was not their hunger which had been shortly before satisfied with abundance of meat, but the wickedness of these men that provoked them [to devour the princes]; for perhaps it so pleases God that wickedness might, by even those irrational creatures, be considered a plain foundation for their punishment.

7. Therefore, when those that had thus intended to destroy Daniel by treachery were themselves destroyed, King Darius sent [letters] over all the country, and praised that God whom Daniel worshiped, and said that He was the only true God and had all power. He also held Daniel in very high regard and made him the principal of his friends. Now when Daniel had become so illustrious and famous, on account of the opinion men had that he was beloved of God, he built a tower at Ecbatana, in Media: it was a most elegant building, and wonderfully made, and it is still remaining, and preserved to this day; and to such as see it, it appears to have been recently built and to have been no older than that very day when anyone looks on it—it being so freshly flourishing, and beautiful, and no way grown old in such a long time; for buildings suffer the same as men do: they grow old as well as they, and by numbers of years their strength is dissolved and their beauty withered. Now they bury the kings of Media, of Persia, and Parthia in this tower to this day, and he who was entrusted with the care of it was a Jewish priest, which thing is also observed to this day. But it is fitting to give an account of what this man did, which is most admirable to hear, for he was so blessed as to have strange revelations made to him, and those as to one of the greatest of the prophets, insomuch, that while he was alive he had the esteem and applause both of the kings and of the multitude; and now [that] he is dead, he retains a remembrance that will never fail, for the several books that he wrote and left behind him are still read by us until this time; and from them we believe that Daniel conversed with God, for he not only prophesied of future events, as did the other prophets, but he also determined the time of their accomplishment. And while prophets used to foretell misfortunes, and on that account were disagreeable both to the kings and to the multitude, Daniel was to them a prophet of good things, and this to such a degree that by the agreeable nature of his predictions, he acquired the goodwill of all men; and by the accomplishment of them, he obtained the belief of their truth, and the opinion of [a sort of] divinity for himself, among the multitude. He also wrote and left behind him what made manifest the accuracy and undeniable veracity of his predictions, for he says that when he was in Susa, the metropolis of Persia, and went out into the field with his companions, there was a sudden motion and concussion of the earth, and that he was left alone by himself—his friends fleeing away from him—and that he was disturbed, and fell on his face, and on his two hands, and that a certain person touched him, and, at the same time, commanded him to rise and see what would happen to his countrymen after many generations. He also related, that when he stood up, he was shown a great ram, with many horns growing out of his head, and that the last was higher than the rest; and after this, he looked to the west and saw a male goat carried through the air from that quarter; and he rushed on the ram with violence, and struck him twice with his horns, and overthrew him to the ground, and trampled on him; and afterward, he saw a very great horn growing out of the head of the male goat, and when it was broken off, four horns grew up that were exposed to each of the four winds, and he wrote that out of them arose another lesser horn, which, as he said, waxed great; and God showed to him that it should fight against his nation, and take their city by force, and bring the temple worship to confusion, and forbid the sacrifices to be offered for one thousand two hundred and ninety[[-six]] days. Daniel wrote that he saw these visions in the Plain of Susa; and he has informed us that God interpreted the appearance of this vision after the following manner: He said that the ram signified the kingdoms of the Medes and Persians, and the horns those kings that were to reign in them; and that the last horn signified the last king, and that he would exceed all the kings in riches and glory; and the male goat signified that one would come and reign from the Greeks, who would twice fight with the Persian, and overcome him in battle, and would receive his entire dominion; and by the great horn which sprang out of the forehead of the male goat was meant the first king; and the springing up of four horns on its falling off, and the dispersion of every one of them to the four quarters of the earth, signified the successors that would arise after the death of the first king, and the partition of the kingdom among them, and that they would be neither his children, nor of his relatives, and they would reign over the habitable earth for many years; and from among them there would arise a certain king that would overcome our nation and their laws, and would take away their political government, and would spoil the temple and forbid the sacrifices to be offered for three years’ time. And indeed, it so came to pass that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel’s vision, and what he wrote many years before they came to pass. In the very same manner, Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country would be made desolate by them. This man left all these things in writing, as God had showed them to him, insomuch that such as read his prophecies and see how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honor with which God honored Daniel and may then discover how the Epicureans are in an error, who cast Providence out of human life and do not believe that God takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the universe is governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature, but say that the world is carried along of its own accord, without a ruler and a curator; which, were it destitute of a guide to conduct it, as they imagine, it would be like ships without captains, which we see drowned by the winds, or like chariots without drivers, which are overturned—so the world would be dashed to pieces by its being carried without Providence, and so perish, and come to nothing. So that, by the aforementioned predictions of Daniel, those men seem to me to greatly err from the truth, who determine that God exercises no providence over human affairs; for if that were the case, that the world went on by mechanical necessity, we should not see that all things would come to pass according to his prophecy. Now as for myself, I have so described these matters as I have found them and read them, but if anyone is inclined to another opinion about them, let him enjoy his different sentiments without any blame from me.

BOOK XI

Containing the Interval of Two Hundred and Fifty-Three Years and Five Months. From the First of Cyrus to the Death of Alexander the Great.

CHAPTER 1

How Cyrus, King of the Persians, Delivered the Jews Out of Babylon and Allowed Them to Return to Their Own Country and to Build Their Temple, for Which Work He Gave Them Money.

1. In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, which was the seventieth from the day that our people were removed out of their own land into Babylon, God pitied the captivity and calamity of these poor people, according as He had foretold to them 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 would build their temple and enjoy their ancient prosperity. And God provided them these things, for He stirred up the mind of Cyrus and made him write this throughout all [of] Asia: “Thus says Cyrus the king: Since God Almighty has appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that He is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship; for indeed, He foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build Him a house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea.”

2. 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 this to him in a secret vision: “My will is that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send My people back to their own land and build My temple.” This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this and admired the Divine power, an earnest desire and ambition seized him to fulfill what was so written; so he called for the most eminent Jews that were in Babylon and said to them that he gave them permission to go back to their own country and to rebuild their city, Jerusalem, and the temple of God, because he would be their supporter and would write to the rulers and governors that were in the neighborhood of their country of Judea, that they should contribute to them gold and silver for the building of the temple, and additionally, beasts for their sacrifices.

3. When Cyrus had said this to the Israelites, the rulers of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites and priests, went quickly to Jerusalem; yet many of them stayed at Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions; and when they had come there, 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 from ancient time—I mean this on the rebuilding of their city and the revival of the ancient practices relating to their worship. Cyrus also sent the vessels of God back to them 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 Sanabassar, that he might keep them until the temple was built; and when it was finished, he might deliver them to the priests and rulers of the multitude, for their being restored to the temple. Cyrus also sent a letter to the governors that were in Syria, the contents of which follow here:

King Cyrus to Sisinnes and Sathrabuzanes: Greetings.

“I have given permission to as many of the Jews that dwell in my country as desire to return to their own country, and to rebuild their city, and to build the temple of God at Jerusalem at the same place where it was before. I have also sent my treasurer Mithridates, and Zerubbabel, 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 width, 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 also require that the expenses for these things may be given out of my revenues. Moreover, I have also sent the vessels which King Nebuchadnezzar pillaged out of the temple, and have given them to Mithridates the treasurer, and to Zerubbabel 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 basins 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 one thousand other large vessels. I permit them to have the same honor which they were accustomed to have from their forefathers, as also for their small cattle, and for wine and oil, two hundred and five thousand and five hundred drachmas; and for wheat flour, twenty thousand and five hundred artabae; and I give an order that these expenses will be given [to] them out of the tributes due from Samaria. The priests will also offer these sacrifices according to the laws of Moses in Jerusalem; and when they offer them, they will pray to God for the preservation 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 will be hung on a cross and their possessions brought into the king’s treasury.”

And such was the significance of this letter. Now the number of those that came out of captivity to Jerusalem were forty-two thousand four hundred and sixty-two.

CHAPTER 2

How on the Death of Cyrus, the Jews Were Hindered in Building the Temple by the Cutheans and the Neighboring Governors; And How Cambyses Entirely Forbade the Jews to Do Any Such Thing.

1. When the foundations of the temple were being laid, and when the Jews were very zealous about building it, the neighboring nations, and especially the Cutheans, whom Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, had brought out of Persia and Media and had planted in Samaria when he carried away the people of Israel captive, pleaded with 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 of their temple. Now as these men were corrupted by them with money, they sold the Cutheans their interest for rendering this building a slow and careless work, for Cyrus, who was busy with other wars, knew nothing of all this; and it so happened that when he had led his army against the Massagetae, 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 a letter to Cambyses, whose contents were as follows: “To our lord Cambyses: We your servants, Rathumus the historiographer, and Semellius the scribe, and the rest that are your judges in Syria and Phoenicia, send greetings. It is fitting, O king, that you should know that those Jews which were carried to Babylon have 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 to your commands, but will resist kings, and will choose rather to rule over others than be ruled over themselves. Therefore, we thought it proper to write to you, O king, while the works regarding the temple are going on so quickly, and not to overlook this matter, that you may search into the books of your fathers, for you will find in them that the Jews have been rebels and enemies to kings, as their city has also been, which, for that reason, has been laid waste until now. We also thought proper to inform you of this matter, because you may otherwise perhaps be unaware of it, that if this city is once inhabited and entirely surrounded with walls, you will be excluded from your passage to Coele-Syria and Phoenicia.”

2. When Cambyses had read the letter, being naturally wicked, he was irritated at what they told him and wrote back to them as follows: “Cambyses the king, to Rathumus the historiographer, to Beeltethmus, to Semellius the scribe, and the rest that are in commission and dwelling in Samaria and Phoenicia in this manner: I have read the letter that was sent from you; and I gave an order that the books of my forefathers should be searched into, and it is found there that this city has always been an enemy to kings, and its inhabitants have raised seditions and wars. We are also aware that their kings have been powerful and tyrannical and have exacted tribute from Coele-Syria and Phoenicia. Therefore, I gave an order that the Jews will not be permitted to build that city, lest such trouble as they used to bring on kings is greatly increased.” When this letter was read, Rathumus, and Semellius the scribe, and their associates, immediately got 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 until the second year of the reign of Darius, for nine more years, for Cambyses reigned six years, and within that time overthrew Egypt, and when he had come back, he died at Damascus.

CHAPTER 3

How After the Death of Cambyses and the Slaughter of the Magi, but Under the Reign of Darius, Zerubbabel Was Superior to the Rest in the Solution of Problems and Thereby Obtained This Favor of the King: That the Temple Should Be Built.

1. After the slaughter of the Magi, who, on the death of Cambyses, attained 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 happened that about this time Zerubbabel, who had been made governor of the Jews that had been in captivity, came to Darius from Jerusalem; for there had been an old friendship between him and the king. He was also, with two others, thought worthy to be the king’s bodyguard; and he obtained that honor which he hoped for.

2. Now in the first year of the king’s reign, Darius feasted those that were around 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 one hundred and twenty-seven provinces. But when they had eaten and drunk to satiety, and abundantly, every one of them departed to go to bed at their own houses, and Darius the king went to bed; but after he had rested a brief part of the night, he awoke, and not being able to sleep anymore, he fell into conversation with his three bodyguards and promised that to him who should make an oration about points that he should inquire 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, and to drink in cups of gold, and to sleep on gold, and to have a chariot with bridles of gold, and a headdress of fine linen, and a chain of gold around his neck, and to sit next to himself on account of his wisdom; “and,” he says, “he will be called my cousin.” Now when he had promised to give them these gifts, he asked the first of them, “Whether wine was not the strongest?” The second, “Whether kings were not such?” And the third, “Whether women were not such? or whether truth was not the strongest of all?” When he had proposed that they should make their inquiries about these problems, he went back to sleep; but in the morning, he sent for his great men, his princes, and toparchs of Persia and Media, and set himself down in the place where he used to give audience, and commanded each of his bodyguards to declare what they thought proper concerning the proposed questions, in the hearing of them all.

3. Accordingly, the first of them began to speak of the strength of wine, and demonstrated it thus: “When,” he said, “I am to give my opinion of wine, O you men, I find that it exceeds everything, 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 it 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 suits wealthy men alone; even more—it makes them unaware of their commanders, 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 have become sober, and they have slept out their wine in the night, they arise without knowing anything they have done while drunk. I take these for signs of power, and by them discover that wine is the strongest and most unconquerable of all things.”

4. As soon as the first had given the aforementioned demonstrations of the strength of wine, he ceased; and the next to him began to speak about the strength of a king, and demonstrated that it was the strongest of all, and more powerful than anything else that appears to have any force or wisdom. He began his demonstration in the following manner and said, “They are men who govern all things; they force the earth and the sea to become profitable to them in what they desire, and kings rule over men and have authority over them. Now those who rule over that animal, which is the strongest and most powerful of all, must necessarily deserve to be considered unconquerable in power and force. For example, when these kings command their subjects to make wars and undergo dangers, they are listened 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; indeed, 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, and plow it, and when, after they have endured the labor and all the inconveniences of such works of farming, they 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 in the meantime he is satiated with all sorts of food and pleasures, and sleeps in quiet. He is guarded by such as watch, and such as are, as it were, bound to the place through fear, for no one dares leave him, even when he is asleep, nor does anyone go away and take care of his own affairs, but he considers this one thing the only work of necessity: to guard the king; and accordingly, he wholly devotes himself to this. How then can it be otherwise, but that it must appear that the king exceeds everything in strength, while such a great multitude obeys his injunctions?”

5. Now when this man had held his peace, the third of them, who was Zerubbabel, began to instruct them about women and about truth, who said this: “Wine is strong, as is the king also, whom all men obey, but women are superior to them in power; for it was a woman that brought the king into the world; and for those that plant the vines and make the wine, they are women who bear them and bring them up: nor indeed is there anything which we do not receive from them; for these women weave garments for us, and our household affairs are by their means taken care of and preserved in safety; nor can we live separate from women. And when we have gotten a great deal of gold and silver, and any other thing that is of great value and deserving regard, and see a beautiful woman, we leave all these things, and with open mouth fix our eyes on her attractive form and are willing to forsake what we have, that we may enjoy her beauty and acquire it for ourselves. We also leave father, and mother, and the earth that nourishes us, and frequently forget our dearest friends, for the sake of women; indeed, we are so daring as to lay down our lives for them. But what will chiefly make you take notice of the strength of women is this that follows: do we not take pains, and endure a great deal of trouble—and that both by land and sea—and when we have obtained something as the fruit of our labors, do we not bring them to the women, as to our mistresses, and bestow them on them? Indeed, I once saw the king, who is lord of so many people, stricken on the face by his concubine Apame, the daughter of Rabsases Themasius, and his diadem taken away from him and placed on her own head, while he endured it patiently; and when she smiled he smiled, and when she was angry he was sad; and according to the change of her passions, he flattered his wife and drew her to reconciliation by the great humiliation of himself to her, if at any time he saw her displeased at him.”

6. And when the princes and rulers looked on one another, he began to speak about truth; and he said, “I have already demonstrated how powerful women are; but both these women themselves, and the king himself, are weaker than truth; for although the earth is large, and the heavens high, and the course of the sun swift, yet all [of] these are moved according to the will of God, who is true and righteous, for which reason we also ought to regard truth to be the strongest of all things, and that what is unrighteous is of no force against it. Moreover, everything else that has any strength is mortal and short-lived, but truth is a thing that is immortal and perpetual. It provides us not indeed such a beauty as will wither away by time, nor such riches as may be taken away by fortune, but righteous rules and laws. It distinguishes them from injustice and puts what is unrighteous to rebuke.”

7. So when Zerubbabel had ceased his discourse about truth, and the multitude had cried out aloud that he had spoken the most wisely, and that it was truth alone that had immutable strength and such as never would wax old, the king commanded that he should ask for something over and above what he had promised, because he would give it [to] him because of his wisdom and that prudence wherein he exceeded the rest; “and you will sit with me,” said the king, “and will be called my cousin.” When he had said this, Zerubbabel reminded him of the vow he had made in case he should ever have the kingdom. Now this vow was to rebuild Jerusalem, and to build therein the temple of God; as also to restore the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged and carried to Babylon. “And this,” he said, “is that request which you now permit me to make, on account that I have been judged to be wise and understanding.”

8. So the king was pleased with what he had said, and arose and kissed him; and he wrote to the toparchs and governors and ordered them to lead Zerubbabel and those that were going with him to build the temple. He also sent letters to those rulers that were in Syria and Phoenicia to cut down and carry cedar trees from Lebanon to Jerusalem, and to assist him in building the city. He also wrote to them that all the captives who should go to Judea should be free; and he prohibited his deputies and governors to lay any king’s taxes on the Jews; he also permitted that they should have all that land which they could themselves take possession of without tributes. He also ordered the Idumeans, and Samaritans, and the inhabitants of Coele-Syria, to restore those villages which they had taken from the Jews; and that, besides all this, fifty talents should be given [to] them for the building of the temple. He also permitted them to offer their appointed sacrifices, and that whatever the high priest and the priests wanted, and those sacred garments wherein they used to worship God, should be made at his own expense; and that the musical instruments which the Levites used in singing hymns to God should be given [to] them. Moreover, he instructed them that portions of land should be given to those that guarded the city and the temple, as also a determinate sum of money every year for their maintenance; and additionally, he sent the vessels. And all that Cyrus intended to do before him relating to the restoration of Jerusalem, Darius also ordained should accordingly be done.

9. Now when Zerubbabel had obtained these grants from the king, he went out of the palace, and looking up toward the sky, he began to return thanks to God for the wisdom He had given him and the victory he had gained thereby, even in the presence of Darius himself; for he said, “I had not been thought worthy of these advantages, O Lord, unless You had been favorable toward me.” Therefore, when he had returned these thanks to God for the present circumstances he was in and had prayed to Him to provide him the same favor for the time to come, he came to Babylon and brought the good news to his countrymen of what grants he had obtained for them from the king; who, when they heard the same, also gave thanks to God that He restored the land of their forefathers to them again. So they committed themselves to drinking and eating, and for seven days they continued feasting and kept a festival for the rebuilding and restoration of their country. After this, they chose rulers [for] themselves, who should go up to Jerusalem, out of the tribes of their forefathers, with their wives, and children, and cattle, who traveled to Jerusalem with joy and pleasure, under the leading of those whom Darius sent along with them, and making a noise with songs, and pipes, and cymbals. The rest of the Jewish multitude also accompanied them with rejoicing.

10. And thus these men went—a certain and determinate number out of every family, though I do not think it proper to specifically recite the names of those families, that I may not remove the mind of my readers from the connection of the historical facts and make it hard for them to follow the coherence of my narrations; but the sum of those that went up, above the age of twelve years, of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, [[was four hundred and sixty-two myriads and eight thousand]]; the Levites were seventy-four; the number of the women and children mixed together was forty thousand seven hundred and forty-two; and besides these, there were one hundred and twenty-eight singers of the Levites, and one hundred and ten gatekeepers, and three hundred and ninety-two of the sacred ministers; there were also six hundred and sixty-two others besides these, who said they were of the Israelites, but were unable to show their genealogies; there were also some who were expelled out of the number and honor of the priests, as having married wives whose genealogies they could not produce, nor were they found in the genealogies of the Levites and priests; they were about five hundred and twenty-five; also, the multitude of servants that followed those that went up to Jerusalem were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven; the singing men and singing women were two hundred and forty-five; the camels were four hundred and thirty-five; the beasts used with the yoke were five thousand five hundred and twenty-five; and the governors of all this multitude thus numbered were Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, of the posterity of David, and of the tribe of Judah; and Jeshua, the son of Josedek the high priest; and besides these there were Mordecai and Serebeus, who were distinguished from the multitude, and were rulers, who also contributed one hundred pounds of gold and five thousand of silver. Therefore, by this means the priests and the Levites, and a certain portion of the entire people of the Jews that were in Babylon, came and dwelt in Jerusalem; but the rest of the multitude returned everyone to their own countries.

CHAPTER 4

How the Temple Was Built While the Cutheans Endeavored in Vain to Obstruct the Work.

1. Now in the seventh month after they had departed out of Babylon, both Jeshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor sent messengers in every direction and gathered together those that were in the country universally to Jerusalem, who came there very gladly. He then built the altar on the same place it had formerly been built, so that they might offer the appointed sacrifices on it to God, according to the laws of Moses. But while they did this, they did not please the neighboring nations, all of whom bore animosity toward them. They also observed the Celebration of Tabernacles at that time, as the legislator had ordained concerning it; and afterward, they offered sacrifices, and what were called the daily sacrifices, and the oblations proper for the Sabbaths, and for all the holy festivals. Those that had made vows also performed them and offered their sacrifices from the first day of the seventh month. They also began to build the temple and gave a great deal of money to the masons and to the carpenters, and what was necessary for the maintenance of the workmen. The Sidonians were also very willing and ready to bring the cedar trees from Lebanon, to bind them together, and to make a united float of them, and to bring them to the port of Joppa, for that was what Cyrus had commanded at first, and what was now done at the command of Darius.

2. In the second year of their coming to Jerusalem, as the Jews were there in the second month, the building of the temple continued rapidly; and when they had laid its foundations on the first day of the second month of that second year, they set, as overseers of the work, such Levites as were fully twenty years old; and Jeshua, and his sons and brothers, and Codmiel, the brother of Judas, the son of Aminadab, with his sons; and the temple, by the great diligence of those that had the care of it, was finished sooner than anyone would have expected. And when the temple was finished, the priests, adorned with their accustomed garments, stood with their trumpets, while the Levites and the sons of Asaph stood and sung hymns to God, according as David first of all appointed them to bless God. Now the priests and Levites, and the elder part of the families, recollecting with themselves how much greater and more luxurious the old temple had been, [and] seeing how what was now made was, on account of their poverty, inferior to that which had been built of old, considered with themselves how much their blessed state had sunk below what it had been of old, as well as their temple. Hereon they were discouraged, and unable to contain their grief, and proceeded so far as to lament and shed tears on those accounts; but the people in general were satisfied with their present condition; and because they were allowed to build themselves a temple, they desired nothing more, and neither regarded nor remembered, nor indeed tormented themselves at all with the comparison of that and the former temple, as if this was below their expectations; but the wailing of the old men and of the priests, on account of the deficiency of this temple, in their opinion, if compared with that which had been demolished, overcame the sounds of the trumpets and the rejoicing of the people.

3. But when the Samaritans, who were still enemies to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, heard the sound of the trumpets, they came running together and desired to know what the cause of this tumult was; and when they perceived that it was from the Jews, who had been carried captive to Babylon and were rebuilding their temple, they came to Zerubbabel and to Jeshua, and to the heads of the families, and desired that they would give them permission to build the temple with them, and to be partners with them in building it, for they said, “We worship their God, and especially pray to Him, and are desirous of their religious settlement, and this ever since Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria, transplanted us out of Cuthah and Media to this place.” When they said this, Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest, and the heads of the families of the Israelites, replied to them that it was impossible for them to permit them to be their partners, while they [only] had been appointed to build that temple at first by Cyrus, and now by Darius, although it was indeed lawful for them to come and worship there if they pleased, and that they could allow them nothing but that in common with them, which was common to them with all other men, to come to their temple and worship God there.

4. When the Cutheans heard this—for the Samaritans have that appellation—they had indignation at it, and persuaded the nations of Syria to desire of the governors, in the same manner as they had done formerly in the days of Cyrus, and again in the days of Cambyses afterward, to put a stop to the building of the temple and to endeavor to delay and prolong the Jews in their zeal concerning it. Now at this time Sisinnes, the governor of Syria and Phoenicia, and Sathrabuzanes, with certain others, came up to Jerusalem and asked the rulers of the Jews by whose grant it was that they built the temple in this manner, since it was more like a citadel than a temple, and for what reason it was that they built cloisters and walls—and those strong ones too—around the city. Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest replied to this that they were the servants of God Almighty; that this temple was built for Him by a king of theirs that lived in great prosperity, and one that exceeded all men in virtue; and that it continued a long time, but that because of their fathers’ impiety toward God, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians and of the Chaldeans, took their city by force, and destroyed it, and pillaged the temple, and burnt it down, and transplanted the people whom he had made captives, and removed them to Babylon; that Cyrus, who, after him, was king of Babylonia and Persia, wrote to them to build the temple, and committed the gifts, and vessels, and whatsoever Nebuchadnezzar had carried out of it, to Zerubbabel and Mithridates the treasurer, and gave an order to have them carried to Jerusalem, and to have them restored to their own temple when it was built; for he had sent to them to have that done quickly and commanded Sanabassar to go up to Jerusalem and to take care of the building of the temple; who, on receiving that letter from Cyrus, came and immediately laid its foundations; “and although it has been under construction from that time to this, it has not yet been finished by reason of the malice of our enemies. If you therefore want, and think it proper, write this account to Darius: that when he has consulted the records of the kings, he may find that we have told you nothing that is false about this matter.”

5. When Zerubbabel and the high priest had made this answer, Sisinnes and those that were with him did not resolve to hinder the building until they had informed King Darius of all this. So they immediately wrote to him about these affairs; but as the Jews were now terrified and afraid lest the king should change his decisions regarding the building of Jerusalem and of the temple, there were two prophets at that time among them, Haggai and Zechariah, who encouraged them, and commanded them to be of good cheer, and to suspect no discouragement from the Persians, for God foretold this to them. So, in dependence on those prophets, they earnestly applied themselves to building and did not pause [for even] one day.

6. Now Darius, when the Samaritans had written to him, and in their letter had accused the Jews—how they fortified the city, and built the temple more like a citadel than a temple, and said that their doings were not expedient for the king’s affairs; and additionally, they showed the letter of Cambyses, wherein he forbade them to build the temple—and when Darius thereby understood that the restoration of Jerusalem was not expedient for his affairs, and when he had read the letter that was brought [to] him from Sisinnes and those that were with him, he gave an order that what concerned these matters should be sought for among the royal records. Whereon a book was found at Ecbatana, in the tower that was in Media, wherein was written as follows: “Cyrus the king, in the first year of his reign, commanded that the temple should be built in Jerusalem; and the altar in height sixty cubits, and its breadth of the same, with three edifices of polished stone, and one edifice of stone of their own country; and he ordained that the expenses of it should be paid out of the king’s revenue. He also commanded that the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged [out of the temple], and had carried to Babylon, should be restored to the people of Jerusalem; and that the care of these things should belong to Sanabassar, the governor and president of Syria and Phoenicia, and his associates, so that they may not meddle with that place, but may permit the servants of God—the Jews and their rulers—to build the temple. He also ordained that they should assist them in the work; and that they should pay to the Jews, out of the tribute of the country where they were governors, on account of the sacrifices, bulls, and rams, and lambs, and kids of the goats, and fine flour, and oil, and wine, and all other things that the priests should suggest to them; and that they should pray for the preservation of the king and of the Persians; and that for such as transgressed any of these orders thus sent to them, he commanded that they should be caught, and hung on a cross, and their possessions confiscated for the king’s use. He also prayed to God against them, that if anyone attempted to hinder the building of the temple, God would strike him dead and thereby restrain his wickedness.”

7. When Darius had found this book among the records of Cyrus, he wrote an answer to Sisinnes and his associates, whose contents were these: “King Darius to Sisinnes the governor and to Sathrabuzanes: Greetings. Having found a copy of this letter among the records of Cyrus, I have sent it you; and I will that all things be done as is therein written. Farewell.” So when Sisinnes and those that were with him understood the intention of the king, they resolved to follow his directions entirely for the time to come. So they forwarded the sacred works and assisted the elders of the Jews and the princes of the Sanhedrin; and the structure of the temple was brought to completion with great diligence, by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, according to God’s commands, and by the injunctions of Cyrus and Darius the kings. Now the temple was built in seven years’ time. And in the ninth year of the reign of Darius, on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, which is by us called Adar, but by the Macedonians Dystrus, the priests, and Levites, and the other multitude of the Israelites offered sacrifices—as the renovation of their former prosperity after their captivity, and because they now had the temple rebuilt: one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve kids of the goats, according to the number of their tribes (for so many are the tribes of the Israelites), and this last for the sins of every tribe. The priests also and the Levites set the gatekeepers at every gate, according to the laws of Moses. The Jews also built the cloisters of the inner temple that were around the temple itself.

8. And as the Celebration of Unleavened Bread was at hand, in the first month, which, according to the Macedonians, is called Xanthicus, but according to us Nisan, all the people ran together out of the villages to the city and celebrated the festival, having purified themselves, with their wives and children, according to the law of their country; and they offered the sacrifice which was called the Passover, on the fourteenth day of the same month, and feasted [for] seven days, and spared no expense, but offered whole burnt-offerings to God and performed sacrifices of thanksgiving, because God had led them again to the land of their fathers, and to the laws belonging to that, and had rendered the mind of the king of Persia favorable to them. So these men offered the largest sacrifices on these accounts, and used great magnificence in the worship of God, and dwelt in Jerusalem, and made use of a form of government that was aristocratic, but mixed with an oligarchy, for the high priests were at the head of their affairs, until the posterity of the Hasmoneans set up a royal government; for before their captivity, and the dissolution of their polity, they at first had a royal government from Saul and David for five hundred and thirty-two years, six months, and ten days; but before those kings, such rulers governed them as were called judges and monarchs. Under this form of government, they continued for more than five hundred years after the death of Moses, and of Joshua their commander. And this is the account I had to give of the Jews who had been carried into captivity, but were delivered from it in the times of Cyrus and Darius.

9. But the Samaritans, being evil and enviously disposed toward the Jews, worked many troubles toward them, by reliance on their riches, and by their pretense that they were allied to the Persians, on account that they came from there; and whatsoever it was that they were ordered to pay the Jews by the king’s order out of their tributes for the sacrifices, they would not pay it. They also had the governors favorable toward them and supporting them for that purpose; nor did they spare to hurt them, either by themselves or by others, as far as they were able. So the Jews determined to send an envoy to King Darius, in favor of the people of Jerusalem, and in order to accuse the Samaritans. The ambassadors were Zerubbabel and four others of the rulers; and as soon as the king knew from the ambassadors the accusations and complaints they brought against the Samaritans, he gave them a letter to be carried to the governors and council of Samaria; the contents of which letter were these: “King Darius to Tanganas and Sambabas, the governors of the Sainaritans, [and] to Sadraces and Bobelo, and the rest of their fellow servants that are in Samaria: Zerubbabel, Ananias, and Mordecai, the ambassadors of the Jews, complain of you that you obstruct them in the building of the temple and do not supply them with the expenses which I commanded you to provide for the offering of their sacrifices. My will is therefore this: that on the reading of this letter, you supply them with whatsoever they want for their sacrifices, and that out of the royal treasury, of the tributes of Samaria, as the priest will desire, that they may not cease offering their daily sacrifices, nor praying to God for me and the Persians.” And these were the contents of that letter.

CHAPTER 5

How Xerxes, the Son of Darius, Was Well-Disposed Toward the Jews; As Also Concerning Ezra and Nehemiah.

1. On the death of Darius, his son Xerxes took the kingdom, who, as he inherited his father’s kingdom, so [also] inherited his piety toward God and honor of Him; for he did all things as suitably as his father relating to Divine worship, and he was exceedingly friendly to the Jews. Now about this time, a son of Jeshua, whose name was Joacim, was the high priest. Moreover, there was now in Babylon a righteous man, and one that enjoyed a great reputation among the multitude; he was the principal priest of the people, and his name was Ezra. He was very skillful in the laws of Moses and was well acquainted with King Xerxes. He had determined to go up to Jerusalem and to take with him some of those Jews that were in Babylon; and he desired that the king would give him a letter to the governors of Syria, by which they might know who he was. Accordingly, the king wrote the following letter to those governors: “Xerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest and reader of the Divine Law: Greetings. I think it [is] agreeable to that love which I bear to mankind, to permit those of the Jewish nation that are so inclined, as well as those of the priests and Levites that are in our kingdom, to go together to Jerusalem. Accordingly, I have given command for that purpose; and let everyone that has a mind go, according as it has seemed good to me, and to my seven counselors, and this for their review of the affairs of Judea, to see whether they are agreeable to the Law of God. Let them also take with them those presents which my friends and I have vowed, with all that silver and gold that is found in the country of the Babylonians, as dedicated to God, and let all this be carried to Jerusalem to God for sacrifices. Let it also be lawful for you and your brothers to make as many vessels of silver and gold as you please. You will also dedicate those holy vessels which have been given [to] you, and as many more as you intend to make, and will take the expenses out of the king’s treasury. I have, moreover, written to the treasurers of Syria and Phoenicia, that they take care of those affairs that Ezra the priest, and reader of the laws of God, is sent for. And so that God may not be at all angry with me or with my children, I grant all that is necessary for sacrifices to God, according to the Law, as far as one hundred cori of wheat. And I order you not to lay any treacherous imposition, or any tributes, on their priests or Levites, or sacred singers, or gatekeepers, or sacred servants, or scribes of the temple. And you, O Ezra, appoint judges according to the wisdom [given to you] from God, and those such as understand the Law, that they may judge in all Syria and Phoenicia; and instruct those also which are ignorant of it, so that if any one of your countrymen transgresses the Law of God, or that of the king, he may be punished, as not transgressing it out of ignorance, but as one that knows it indeed, but boldly despises and scorns it; and such may be punished by death, or by paying fines. Farewell.”

2. When Ezra had received this letter, he was very joyful, and began to worship God, and confessed that He had been the cause of the king’s great favor toward him, and that for the same reason he gave all the thanks to God. So he read the letter at Babylon to those Jews that were there; but he kept the letter itself and sent a copy of it to all those of his own nation that were in Media. And when these Jews had understood what piety the king had toward God, and what kindness he had for Ezra, they were all greatly pleased; indeed, many of them took their effects with them and came to Babylon, as being very desirous of going down to Jerusalem; but then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; therefore, there are only two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates until now and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers. Now there came a great number of priests, and Levites, and gatekeepers, and sacred singers, and sacred servants to Ezra. So he gathered together those that were in the captivity beyond Euphrates, and stayed there three days, and ordained a fast for them, that they might make their prayers to God for their preservation, that they might suffer no misfortunes along the way, either from their enemies, or from any other ill accident; for Ezra had said beforehand that he had told the king how God would preserve them, and so he had not thought [it] right to request that he would send horsemen to lead them. So when they had finished their prayers, they departed from the Euphrates on the twelfth day of the first month of the seventh year of the reign of Xerxes, and they came to Jerusalem on the fifth month of the same year. Now Ezra presented the sacred money to the treasurers, who were of the family of the priests: of silver, six hundred and fifty talents; vessels of silver, one hundred talents; vessels of gold, twenty talents; vessels of brass, that was more precious than gold, twelve talents by weight; for these presents had been made by the king and his counselors, and by all the Israelites that stayed at Babylon. So when Ezra had delivered these things to the priests, he gave to God, as the appointed sacrifices of whole burnt-offerings: twelve bulls on account of the common preservation of the people, ninety rams, seventy-two lambs, and twelve kids of the goats, for the remission of sins. He also delivered the king’s letter to the king’s officers, and to the governors of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia; and as they were obligated to do what was ordered by him, they honored our nation and were a support to them in all their necessities.

3. Now these things were truly done under the conduct of Ezra, and he succeeded in them because God considered him worthy of the success of his conduct, on account of his goodness and righteousness. But some time afterward, some people came to him and brought an accusation against certain of the multitude, and of the priests and Levites, who had transgressed their settlement, and dissolved the laws of their country by marrying strange wives, and had brought the family of the priests into confusion. These persons desired him to support the laws, lest God should take up a general anger against them all and reduce them to a calamitous condition again. Hereon he immediately tore his garment, out of grief, and pulled off the hair of his head and beard, and cast himself on the ground, because this crime had reached the principal men among the people; and realizing that if he should command them to cast out their wives, and the children they had by them, he would not be listened to, he continued lying on the ground. However, all the nobler sort came running to him, who also themselves wept and partook of the grief he was under for what had been done. So Ezra rose up from the ground, and stretched out his hands toward the sky, and said that he was ashamed to look toward it, because of the sins which the people had committed, while they had cast out of their memories what their fathers had undergone on account of their wickedness; and he pleaded with God, who had saved a seed and a remnant out of the calamity and captivity they had been in, and had restored them again to Jerusalem, and to their own land, and had compelled the kings of Persia to have compassion on them, that He would also forgive them [for] their sins they had now committed, which, although they deserved death, yet was it agreeable to the mercy of God to remit even to these the punishment due to them.

4. After Ezra had said this, he ceased praying; and when all those that came to him with their wives and children were under lamentation, one whose name was Jechonias, a principal man in Jerusalem, came to him and said that they had sinned in marrying strange wives; and he persuaded him to adjure them all to cast those wives out, and the children born of them, and that those should be punished who would not obey the Law. So Ezra listened to this advice and made the heads of the priests, and of the Levites, and of the Israelites, swear that they would put away those wives and children, according to the advice of Jechonias. And when he had received their oaths, he went in haste out of the temple into the chamber of Johanan, the son of Eliasib, and as he had thus far tasted nothing at all for grief, so he abided there that day. And when proclamation was made that all those of the captivity should gather themselves together to Jerusalem, and those that did not meet there in two or three days should be banished from the multitude, and that their possessions should be appropriated to the uses of the temple, according to the sentence of the elders, those that were of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin came together in three days, namely, on the twentieth day of the ninth month, which, according to the Hebrews, is called Tebeth, and according to the Macedonians, Apelleius. Now as they were sitting in the upper room of the temple, where the elders were also present, but were uneasy because of the cold, Ezra stood up, and accused them, and told them that they had sinned in marrying wives that were not of their own nation; but that now they would do a thing both pleasing to God, and advantageous to themselves, if they would put those wives away. Accordingly, they all cried out that they would do so; that, however, the multitude was great, and that the season of the year was winter, and that this work would require more than one or two days. “Let their rulers, therefore,” [they said,] “and those that have married strange wives, come here at a proper time, while the elders of every place—that are in unison to estimate the number of those that have thus married—are to be there also.” Accordingly, this was agreed by them, and they began the inquiry after those that had married strange wives on the first day of the tenth month, and continued the inquiry to the first day of the next month, and found a great many of the posterity of Jeshua the high priest, and of the priests, and Levites, and Israelites, who had a greater regard for the observation of the Law than for their natural affection, and they immediately cast out their wives and the children which were born of them. And in order to appease God, they offered sacrifices and slew rams as oblations to Him; but it does not seem to me to be necessary to set down the names of these men. So, when Ezra had reformed this sin regarding the marriages of the aforementioned persons, he reduced that practice to purity, so that it continued in that state for the time to come.

5. Now when they kept the Celebration of Tabernacles in the seventh month and almost all the people had come together to it, they went up to the open part of the temple, to the gate which looked eastward, and desired of Ezra that the laws of Moses might be read to them. Accordingly, he stood in the midst of the multitude and read them; and he did this from morning to noon. Now, by hearing the laws read to them, they were instructed to be righteous men for the present and for the future; but as for their past offenses, they were displeased at themselves and proceeded to shed tears on their account, as considering within themselves that if they had kept the Law, they would have endured none of these miseries which they had experienced. But when Ezra saw them in that disposition, he commanded them to go home and not weep, because it was a festival, and that they should not weep thereon, because it was not lawful to do so. He exhorted them rather to proceed immediately to feasting, and to do what was suitable for a feast, and what was agreeable for a day of joy; but to let their conversion and sorrow for their former sins be a security and guard to them, so that they would no longer fall into the same offenses. So on Ezra’s exhortation, they began to feast; and when they had done so for eight days, in their tabernacles, they departed to their own homes, singing hymns to God and returning thanks to Ezra for his reformation of what corruptions had been introduced into their settlement. So it came to pass, that after he had obtained this reputation among the people, he died an old man and was buried in a magnificent manner at Jerusalem. About the same time, it also so happened that Joacim, the high priest, died; and his son Eliasib succeeded [him] in the high priesthood.

6. Now there was one of those Jews that had been carried captive who was cupbearer to King Xerxes; his name was Nehemiah. As this man was walking near Susa, the metropolis of the Persians, he heard some strangers that were entering the city, after a long journey, speaking to one another in the Hebrew tongue; so he went to them and asked them where they came from. And when their answer was that they came from Judea, he began to inquire of them again in what state the multitude was, and in what condition Jerusalem was; and when they replied that they were in a bad state because their walls were thrown down to the ground, and that the neighboring nations did a great deal of mischief to the Jews, while in the daytime they overran the country, and pillaged it, and in the night caused them trouble, insomuch that not a few were led away captive out of the country, and out of Jerusalem itself, and that the roads were found full of dead men in the daytime. Hereon Nehemiah shed tears out of pity of the calamities of his countrymen; and, looking up toward the sky, he said, “How long, O Lord, will You overlook our nation, while it suffers such great miseries, and while we are made the prey and spoil of all men?” And while he stayed at the gate and lamented thus, someone told him that the king was going to sit down to supper; so he made haste, and went as he was, without washing himself, to minister to the king in his office of cup-bearer. But as the king was very pleasant after supper, and more cheerful than usual, he cast his eyes on Nehemiah, and seeing him look sad, he asked him why he was sad. Whereon he prayed to God to give him favor and provide him the power of persuading by his words; and he said, “How can I, O king, appear otherwise than thus, and not be in distress, while I hear that the walls of Jerusalem—the city where the tombs of my fathers are—are thrown down to the ground, and that its gates are consumed by fire? But do you grant me the favor to go and build its wall and to finish the building of the temple?” Accordingly, the king gave him a signal that he freely granted him what he asked and told him that he should carry a letter to the governors, so that they might pay him due honor and provide him whatever assistance he wanted and as he pleased. “Cease your sorrow then,” said the king, “and be cheerful in the performance of your office hereafter.” So Nehemiah worshiped God, and gave the king thanks for his promise, and cleared up his sad and gloomy countenance by the pleasure he had from the king’s promises. Accordingly, the king called for him the next day and gave him a letter to be carried to Adeus, the governor of Syria, and Phoenicia, and Samaria, wherein he sent to him to pay due honor to Nehemiah and to supply him with what he wanted for his building.

7. Now when he had come to Babylon and had taken with him many of his countrymen, who voluntarily followed him, he came to Jerusalem in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Xerxes. And when he had shown the letters to God [Himself], he gave them to Adeus and to the other governors. He also called together all the people to Jerusalem, and stood in the midst of the temple, and made the following speech to them: “You know, O Jews, that God has kept our fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in mind continually, and for the sake of their righteousness has not ceased caring for you. Indeed, He has assisted me in gaining this authority of the king to raise up our wall and finish what is lacking of the temple. I therefore desire you who well know the animosity our neighboring nations bear toward us, and that when once they are made aware that we are building in earnest, they will come on us and plot many ways of obstructing our works, that you will, in the first place, put your trust in God, as in Him that will assist us against their hatred, and to pause building neither night nor day, but to use all diligence and to hurry with the work, now [that] we have this exceptional opportunity for it.” When he had said this, he gave an order that the rulers should measure the wall and part the work of it among the people, according to their villages and cities, as everyone’s ability should require. And when he had added this promise, that he himself, with his servants, would assist them, he dissolved the assembly. So, the Jews prepared for the work (that is the name they are called by from the day that they came up from Babylon, which is taken from the tribe of Judah, which came to these places first, and from there both they and the country gained that appellation).

8. But now when the Ammonites, and Moabites, and Samaritans, and all that inhabited Coele-Syria, heard that the building continued swiftly, they took it heinously, and proceeded to lay snares for them and to hinder their intentions. They also slew many of the Jews and sought how they might destroy Nehemiah himself, by hiring some of the foreigners to kill him. They also put the Jews in fear, and disturbed them, and spread rumors abroad, as if many nations were ready to make an expedition against them, by which means they were harassed and had almost stopped the building. But none of these things could deter Nehemiah from being diligent about the work; he only set a number of men around him as his bodyguard, and so unweariedly persevered therein and was indifferent to any trouble, out of his desire to perfect this work. And thus, he attentively, and with great foresight, took care of his own safety—not that he feared death, but from this persuasion: that if he were dead, the walls for his citizens would never be raised. He also gave orders that the builders should keep their ranks and have their armor on while they were building. Accordingly, the mason had his sword on, as well as he that brought the materials for building. He also appointed that their shields should lie very near them; and he placed trumpeters at every five hundred feet and commanded them that if their enemies appeared, they should give notice of it to the people, so that they might fight in their armor and their enemies might not fall on them naked. He also went around the compass of the city by night, never being discouraged, neither about the work itself, nor about his own diet and sleep, for he made no use of those things for his pleasure, but out of necessity. And this trouble he underwent for two years and four months, for in such a length of time the wall was built, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Xerxes, in the ninth month. Now when the walls were finished, Nehemiah and the multitude offered sacrifices to God for the building of them, and they continued in feasting eight days. However, when the nations which dwelt in Syria heard that the building of the wall was finished, they had indignation at it. But when Nehemiah saw that the city was short of people, he exhorted the priests and the Levites that they should leave the country, and move themselves to the city, and remain there; and he built them houses at his own expenses; and he commanded that part of the people which were employed in cultivating the land to bring the tithes of their fruits to Jerusalem, so that the priests and Levites might have wherewithal [by which] they might live perpetually [and] not leave the Divine worship; they willingly listened to the constitutions of Nehemiah, by which means the city [of] Jerusalem came to be fuller of people than it was before. So, when Nehemiah had done many other excellent things and things worthy of commendation in a glorious manner, he came to a great age and then died. He was a man of a good and righteous disposition, and very ambitious to make his own nation happy; and he has left the walls of Jerusalem as a perpetual monument for himself. Now this was done in the days of Xerxes.

CHAPTER 6

Concerning Esther, and Mordecai, and Haman; And How in the Reign of Artaxerxes the Whole Nation of the Jews Was in Danger of Perishing.

1. After the death of Xerxes, the kingdom came to be transferred to his son Cyrus, whom the Greeks called Artaxerxes. When this man had obtained the government over the Persians, the whole nation of the Jews, with their wives and children, were in danger of perishing, the cause whereof we will declare in a short time; for it is proper, in the first place, to explain something relating to this king and how he came to marry a Jewish wife, who was also of the royal family herself, and who is reported to have saved our nation, for when Artaxerxes had taken the kingdom and had set governors over the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India even to Ethiopia, in the third year of his reign, he made a costly feast for his friends, and for the nations of Persia, and for their governors, such a one as was proper for a king to make, when he wanted to make a public demonstration of his riches, and this for one hundred and eighty days; after which he made a feast for other nations and for their ambassadors, at Shushan, for seven days. Now this feast was ordered in the following manner: he caused a tent to be pitched, which was supported by pillars of gold and silver, with curtains of linen and purple spread over them, so that it might provide room for many myriads to sit down. The cups with which the waiters ministered were of gold and adorned with precious stones, for pleasure and for sight. He also gave an order to the servants that they should not force them to drink by continually bringing them wine, as is the practice of the Persians, but to permit every one of the guests to enjoy himself according to his own inclination. Moreover, he sent messengers throughout the country and gave an order that they should have a remission of their labors and should keep a festival [for] many days, on account of his kingdom. In [the] same manner, Vashti the queen gathered her guests together and made them a feast in the palace. Now the king desired to show her, who exceeded all other women in beauty, to those that feasted with him, and he sent some to command her to come to his feast. But she, out of regard for the laws of the Persians, which forbid wives to be seen by strangers, did not go to the king; and although he repeatedly sent eunuchs to her, she nevertheless stayed away and refused to come, until the king was so greatly irritated that he stopped the entertainment, and rose up, and called for those seven who had the interpretation of the laws committed to them, and accused his wife, and said that he had been insulted by her, because when she was frequently summoned by him to his feast, she did not obey him [even] once. He therefore gave an order that they should inform him what could be done by the law against her. So one of them, whose name was Memucan, said that this insult was not offered to him alone, but to all the Persians who were in danger of leading their lives very poorly with their wives if they must be thus despised by them, “for none of their wives would have any reverence for their husbands if they had such an example of arrogance in the queen toward you who rule over all.” Accordingly, he exhorted him to punish her, who had been guilty of such a great insult to him, in a severe manner; and when he had so done, to proclaim to the nations what had been decreed about the queen. So the resolution was to put Vashti away and to give her dignity to another woman.

2. But the king, having been [very] fond of her, did not handle [the] separation well, and yet by the law he could not accept reconciliation; so he was under distress, as not having it in his power to do what he desired to do. But when his friends saw him so uneasy, they advised him to cast the memory of his wife, and his love for her, out of his mind, but to send abroad over all the habitable earth, and to search out for attractive virgins, and to take her whom he should best like for his wife, because his passion for his former wife would be quenched by the introduction of another, and the kindness he had for Vashti would be withdrawn from her and be placed on her that was with him. Accordingly, he was persuaded to follow this advice and gave an order to certain persons to choose out of the virgins that were in his kingdom those that were considered the most attractive. So, when a great number of these virgins were gathered together, a girl was found in Babylon, whose parents were both dead, and she was brought up with her uncle Mordecai, for that was her uncle’s name. This uncle was of the tribe of Benjamin and was one of the principal persons among the Jews. Now it proved that this girl, whose name was Esther, was the most beautiful of all the rest, and that the grace of her appearance drew the eyes of the spectators principally on her. So she was committed to one of the eunuchs to take care of her; and she was very carefully provided with sweet aromas, in great abundance, and with costly ointments, such as her body required to be anointed additionally; and this was used for six months by the virgins, who were four hundred in number. And when the eunuch thought the virgins had been sufficiently purified in the aforementioned time and were now suitable to go to the king’s bed, he sent one to be with the king every day. So when he had accompanied with her, he sent her back to the eunuch; and when Esther had come to him, he was pleased with her, and fell in love with the girl, and married her, and made her his lawful wife, and kept a wedding feast for her on the twelfth month of the seventh year of his reign, which was called Adar. He also sent angari, as they are called, or messengers, to every nation, and gave orders that they should keep a feast for his marriage, while he himself communed with the Persians and the Medes, and the principal men of the nations, for a whole month, on account of his marriage. Accordingly, Esther came to his royal palace, and he set a diadem on her head. And thus, Esther was married without making known to the king what nation she was derived from. Her uncle also moved from Babylon to Shushan and dwelt there, being around the palace every day and inquiring how the girl was doing, for he loved her as though she had been his own daughter.

3. Now the king had made a law that none of his own people should approach him unless he was [first] called [by the king] while he sat on his throne; and men, with axes in their hands, stood around his throne in order to punish such as approached him without being called. However, the king sat with a golden scepter in his hand, which he held out when he intended to save any one of those that approached him without being called, and he who touched it was free from danger. But we have sufficiently discussed this matter.

4. Sometime after this, [two eunuchs], Bigthan and Teresh, plotted against the king; and Barnabazus, the servant of one of the eunuchs, being a Jew by birth, was acquainted with their conspiracy and revealed it to the queen’s uncle; and Mordecai, by the means of Esther, made the conspirators known to the king. This troubled the king, but he discovered the truth and hanged the eunuchs on a cross, while at that time he gave no reward to Mordecai who had been the cause of his preservation. He only commanded the scribes to record his name in the records and commanded him to stay in the palace, as an intimate friend of the king.

5. Now there was one Haman, the son of Amedatha, an Amalekite by birth, that used to go in to the king; and the foreigners and Persians paid homage to him, as Artaxerxes had commanded that such honor should be paid to him; but Mordecai was so wise and so observant of his own country’s laws that he would not pay homage to the man. When Haman observed this, he inquired where he came from; and when he understood that he was a Jew, he had indignation at him and said within himself that whereas the Persians, who were free men, paid homage to him, this man, who was no better than a slave, does not submit to do so. And when he desired to punish Mordecai, he thought it too small a thing to request of the king that he alone might be punished; he rather determined to abolish the entire [Jewish] nation, for he was naturally an enemy to the Jews, because the nation of the Amalekites, of which he was; had been destroyed by them. Accordingly, he came to the king and accused them, saying, “There is a certain wicked nation, and it is dispersed over all the habitable earth that was under his dominion; a nation separate from others, unsociable, neither accepting the same sort of Divine worship that others do, nor using laws like the laws of others, at enmity with your people, and with all men, both in their manners and practices. Now, if you will be a benefactor to your subjects, you will give an order to utterly destroy them, and not leave the least remains of them, nor preserve any of them, either for slaves or for captives.” But so that the king might not be damaged by the loss of the tributes which the Jews paid him, Haman promised to give him forty thousand talents out of his own estate whensoever he pleased; and he said he would pay this money very willingly, so that the kingdom might be freed from such a misfortune.

6. When Haman had made this petition, the king both forgave him the money and granted him the men to do what he would with them. So Haman, having gained what he desired, immediately sent out a decree, as from the king, to all nations, the contents whereof were these: “Artaxerxes, the great king, to the rulers of the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia, sends this writing. Whereas I have governed many nations and obtained the dominions of all the habitable earth according to my desire, and have not been compelled to do anything that is insolent or cruel to my subjects by my power, but have shown myself temperate and gentle by taking care of their peace and good order, and have sought how they might enjoy those blessings for all time to come; and whereas I have been kindly informed by Haman, who, on account of his prudence and justice, is the first in my esteem, and in dignity, and only second to myself, because of his fidelity and constant goodwill to me; yet because there is a bad-natured nation intermixed with all mankind that is averse to our laws, and not subject to kings, and of a different conduct of life from others, that hates monarchy, and of a disposition that is pernicious to our affairs, I give an order that all these men, of whom Haman our second father has informed us, be destroyed, with their wives and children, and that none of them be spared, and that none prefer pity to them before obedience to this decree. And I will this to be executed on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month of this present year, so that when all that have enmity to us are destroyed—and this in one day—we may be allowed to lead the rest of our lives in peace hereafter.” Now when this decree was brought to the cities, and to the country, all were prepared for the destruction and complete annihilation of the Jews, against the day previously mentioned; and they were very hasty about it at Shushan, in particular. Accordingly, the king and Haman spent their time in feasting together with good cheer and wine, but the city was in turmoil.

7. Now when Mordecai was informed of what was done, he tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth, and sprinkled ashes on his head, and went around the city crying out that “a nation that had been injurious to no man was to be destroyed.” And he went on saying this as far as to the king’s palace, and there he stood, for it was not lawful for him to go into it in that attire. The same thing was done by all the Jews that were in the several cities wherein this decree was published, with lamentation and mourning, on account of the calamities pronounced against them. But as soon as certain persons had told the queen that Mordecai stood near the court in mourning attire, she was disturbed at this report and sent out such as should change his garments; but when he could not be induced to take off his sackcloth, because the despondent occasion that forced him to put it on had not yet ceased, she called the eunuch Acratheus, for he was then present, and sent him to Mordecai in order to know from him what unfortunate accident had happened to him, for which he was in mourning and would not take off the attire he had put on at her desire. Then Mordecai informed the eunuch of the cause of his mourning, and of the decree which was sent by the king into all the country, and of the promise of money whereby Haman brought the destruction of their nation. He also gave him a copy of what was proclaimed at Shushan, to be carried to Esther; and he instructed her to petition the king about this matter, and not to think it a dishonorable thing in her to put on a humble attire, for the safety of her nation, wherein she might denounce the ruin of the Jews, who were in danger of it; for Haman, whose dignity was only inferior to that of the king, had accused the Jews and had irritated the king against them. When she was informed of this, she sent to Mordecai again, and told him that she was not called by the king, and that he who goes in to him without being called, is to be slain, unless when he is willing to save anyone, he holds out his golden scepter to him; but that to whomsoever he does so, although he goes in without being called, that person is so far from being slain, that he obtains pardon and is entirely preserved. Now when the eunuch carried this message from Esther to Mordecai, he commanded him to also tell her that she must not only provide for her own preservation, but for the common preservation of her nation, because if she now neglected this opportunity, there would certainly arise help to them from God some other way, but she and her father’s house would be destroyed by those whom she now despised. But Esther sent the very same eunuch back to Mordecai [to desire him] to go to Shushan, and to gather the Jews that were there together to a congregation, and to fast and abstain from all sorts of food, on her account, and [to let him know that] she would do the same with her maidens: and then she promised that she would go to the king, although it was against the law, and that if she must die for it, she would not refuse it.

8. Accordingly, Mordecai did as Esther had instructed him and made the people fast; and he pleaded with God, together with them, not to overlook His nation, particularly at this time, when it was going to be destroyed; but that, as He had often provided for them before and forgiven them when they had sinned, so He would now deliver them from that destruction which was pronounced against them; for although it was not all the nation that had offended, yet they would [all] be so ingloriously slain, and that he was himself the cause of Haman’s wrath, “Because,” he said, “I did not worship him, nor could I endure to pay that honor to him which I used to pay to You, O Lord; for on his anger he has plotted this present trouble against those that have not transgressed Your laws.” The multitude offered up the same supplications and begged that God would provide for their deliverance and free the Israelites that were in all the earth from this calamity, which was now coming on them, for they had it [right] before their eyes and expected its coming. Accordingly, Esther made supplication to God after the manner of her country, by casting herself down on the earth, and putting on her mourning garments, and bidding farewell to meat, and drink, and all delicacies, for three days’ time; and she pleaded with God to have mercy on her, and make her words appear persuasive to the king, and render her appearance more beautiful than it was before, that both by her words and beauty she might succeed, for the averting of the king’s anger, in case he was at all irritated against her, and for the consolation of those of her own country, now [that] they were in the utmost danger of perishing; as also that He would excite a hatred in the king against the enemies of the Jews and those that had plotted their future destruction, if they proved to be despised by him.

9. When Esther had used this supplication for three days, she took off those garments, and changed her attire, and adorned herself as suited a queen, and took two of her handmaids with her—one of which supported her, as she gently leaned on her, and the other followed after and held up her large train (which swept along the ground) with the extremities of her fingers. And thus she came to the king, having a blushing redness in her face, with a pleasant agreeableness in her behavior; yet she went in to him with fear; and as soon as she had come near him, as he was sitting on his throne, in his royal apparel, which was a garment interwoven with gold and precious stones, which made him seem to her more terrible, especially when he looked at her somewhat severely and with an appearance on fire with anger, her joints failed her immediately, out of the dread she was in, and she fell down sideways in a swoon: but the king changed his mind, which happened, as I suppose, by the will of God, and was concerned for his wife, lest her fear should bring some very bad thing on her, and he leaped from his throne, and took her in his arms, and recovered her, by embracing her, and speaking tenderly to her, and exhorting her to be of good cheer, and not to suspect anything that was sad on account of her coming to him without being called, because that law was made for subjects, but that she, who was a queen, as well as he a king, might be entirely secure; and as he said this, he put the scepter into her hand and laid his rod on her neck, on account of the law, and so freed her from her fear. And after she had recovered herself by these encouragements, she said, “My lord, it is not easy for me, suddenly, to say what has happened, for as soon as I saw you to be great, and handsome, and terrible, my spirit departed from me, and I had no soul left in me.” And while it was with difficulty, and in a low voice, that she could say this much, the king was in great agony and disorder, and encouraged Esther to be of good cheer, and to expect better fortune, since he was ready, if occasion should require it, to grant her [even] half of his kingdom. Accordingly, Esther desired that he and his friend Haman would come to a banquet with her, for she said she had prepared a supper for him. He consented to it; and when they were there, as they were drinking, he commanded Esther to let him know what she desired, for she would not be disappointed though she should desire [even] half of his kingdom. But she put off revealing her petition until the next day, if he would come again, together with Haman, to her banquet.

10. Now when the king had promised to do so, Haman went away very glad, because he alone had the honor of dining with the king at Esther’s banquet, and because no one else partook of the same honor with kings but himself; yet when he saw Mordecai in the court, he was very much displeased, for he paid him no manner of respect when he saw him. So he went home and called for his wife Zeresh, and his friends, and when they had come, he showed them what honor he enjoyed not only from the king, but from the queen also, for as he alone had that day dined with her, together with the king, so he was also invited again for the next day; “yet,” he said, “I am not pleased to see Mordecai the Jew in the court.” Hereon his wife Zeresh advised him to give an order that a gallows should be made fifty cubits high, and that in the morning he should ask it of the king that Mordecai might be hanged thereon. So he commended her advice, and gave an order to his servants to prepare the gallows, and to place it in the court, for the punishment of Mordecai thereon, which was accordingly prepared. But God laughed to scorn the wicked expectations of Haman; and as He knew what the event would be, He was delighted at it, for that night He took away the king’s sleep; and as the king was not willing to lose the time of his lying awake, but to spend it in something that might be of advantage to his kingdom, he commanded the scribe to bring him the chronicles of the former kings, and the records of his own actions; and when he had brought them, and was reading them, one was found to have received a country on account of his excellent management on a certain occasion, and the name of the country was recorded; another was found to have had a present made [for] him on account of his fidelity; then the scribe came to Bigthan and Teresh, the eunuchs that had made a conspiracy against the king, which Mordecai had discovered; and when the scribe said no more but that, and was going on to another history, the king stopped him and inquired, “Why was it not added that Mordecai had a reward given [to] him?” And when he said there was no such addition, he commanded him to cease; and he inquired of those that were appointed for that purpose, what hour of the night it was; and when he was informed that it was already day, he gave an order that if they found any one of his friends having already come and standing before the court, they should tell him. Now it happened that Haman was found there, for he had come sooner than ordinary to petition the king to have Mordecai put to death; and when the servants said that Haman was before the court, he commanded them to call him in; and when he had come in, he said, “Because I know that you are my only sure friend, I desire you to give me advice of how I may honor one that I greatly love, and that in a manner suitable to my magnificence.” Now Haman reasoned within himself that what opinion he should give it would be for himself, since it was he alone who was beloved by the king: so he gave that advice which he thought of all else the best, for he said, “If you would truly honor a man whom you say you love, give an order that he may ride on horseback, with the same garment on which you wear, and with a gold chain around his neck, and let one of your intimate friends go before him and proclaim through the whole city that whosoever the king honors obtains this mark of his honor.” This was the advice which Haman gave, out of an assumption that such a reward would come to himself. Hereon the king was pleased with the advice, and said, “Therefore go, for you have the horse, the garment, and the chain; ask for Mordecai the Jew, and give him those things, and go before his horse and proclaim accordingly; for you are,” he said, “my intimate friend, and have given me good advice; be then the minister of what you have advised me to. This will be his reward from us, for preserving my life.” When he heard this order, which was entirely unexpected, he was confounded in his mind and did not know what to do. However, he went out and led the horse, and took the purple garment, and the golden chain for the neck, and finding Mordecai near the court, clothed in sackcloth, he commanded him to take that garment off and put the purple garment on. But Mordecai, not knowing the truth of the matter, but thinking that it was done in mockery, said, “O you wretch, the vilest of all mankind, do you thus laugh at our calamities?” But when he was satisfied that the king bestowed this honor on him for the deliverance he had secured him when he convicted the eunuchs who had conspired against him, he put on that purple garment which the king always wore, and put the chain around his neck, and got on horseback, and went around the city, while Haman went before and proclaimed, “This will be the reward which the king will bestow on everyone whom he loves and considers worthy of honor.” And when they had gone around the city, Mordecai went in to the king; but Haman went home, out of shame, and informed his wife and friends of what had happened, and this with tears, who said that he would never be able to be avenged of Mordecai, because God was with him.

11. Now while these men were thus talking to one another, Esther’s eunuchs hastened Haman away to come to supper; but one of the eunuchs, named Sabuchadas, saw the gallows that was fixed in Haman’s house and inquired of one of his servants for what purpose they had prepared it. So he knew that it was for the queen’s uncle, because Haman was about to petition the king that he might be punished; but at present he held his peace. Now when the king, with Haman, were at the banquet, he desired the queen to tell him what gifts she desired to obtain and assured her that she should have whatsoever she had intended. She then lamented the danger her people were in and said that she and her nation were given up to be destroyed, and that she, on that account, made her petition; that she would not have troubled him if he had only given an order that they should be sold into bitter servitude, for such a misfortune would not have been intolerable; but she desired that they might be delivered from such destruction. And when the king inquired of her whom was the author of this misery to them, she then openly accused Haman, and convicted him, that he had been the wicked instrument of this, and had formed this plot against them. When the king was hereon troubled and had gone hastily out of the banquet into the gardens, Haman began to intercede with Esther, and to implore her to forgive him, as to what he had offended, for he perceived that he was in a very bad situation. And as he had fallen on the queen’s bed and was making supplication to her, the king came in, and being still more provoked at what he saw, “O you wretch,” he said, “you vilest of mankind! Do you aim to force my wife?” And when Haman was astonished at this, and unable to speak one more word, Sabuchadas the eunuch came in and accused Haman, and said [that] he found a gallows at his house, prepared for Mordecai; for the servant told him thus much on his inquiry, when he was sent to him to call him to supper. He further said that the gallows was fifty cubits high: which, when the king heard, he determined that Haman should be punished after no other manner than that which had been devised by him against Mordecai; so he immediately gave an order that he should be hung on those gallows and be put to death after that manner. And from this I cannot but admire God and learn from His wisdom and His justice, not only in punishing the wickedness of Haman, but in so disposing it, that he should undergo the very same punishment which he had planned for another; as also because He thereby teaches others this lesson: that what mischiefs anyone prepares against another, he, without knowing of it, first plans it against himself.

12. Therefore Haman, who had unrestrainedly abused the honor he had from the king, was destroyed in this manner, and the king granted his estate to the queen. He also called for Mordecai (for Esther had informed him that she was a relative to him) and gave that ring to Mordecai which he had before given to Haman. The queen also gave Haman’s estate to Mordecai, and implored the king to deliver the nation of the Jews from the fear of death, and showed him what had been written over all the country by Haman the son of Ammedatha; for if her country was destroyed and her countrymen were to perish, she could not bear to live any longer herself. So the king promised her that he would not do anything that should be disagreeable to her, nor contradict what she desired, but he commanded her to write what she pleased about the Jews, in the king’s name, and seal it with his seal, and send it to all his kingdom, for those who read letters whose authority is secured by having the king’s seal to them would in no way contradict what was written therein. So, he commanded the king’s scribes to be sent for and to write to the nations, on the Jews’ behalf, and to his lieutenants and governors, that were over his one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia. Now the contents of this letter were these: “The great King Artaxerxes to our rulers, and those that are our faithful subjects: Greetings. There are many men who, on account of the greatness of the benefits bestowed on them, and because of the honor which they have obtained from the wonderful kind treatment of those that bestowed it, are not only injurious to their inferiors, but do not hesitate to do evil to those that have been their benefactors, as if they would take away gratitude from among men, and by their insolent abuse of such benefits as they never expected, they turn the abundance they have against those that are the authors of it, and they suppose they will lie concealed from God in that case and avoid that vengeance which comes from Him. Some of these men, when they have had the management of affairs committed to them by their friends, and bearing private malice of their own against some others, by deceiving those that have the power, persuade them to be angry at such as have done them no harm, until they are in danger of perishing, and this by laying accusations and defamations: nor is this state of things to be discovered by ancient examples, or such as we have learned by report only, but by some examples of such impudent attempts under our own eyes, so that it is not fitting to attend any longer to defamations and accusations, nor to the persuasions of others, but to determine what anyone knows of himself to have been really done, and to punish what justly deserves it, and to grant favors to such as are innocent. This has been the case of Haman, the son of Ammedatha, by birth an Amalekite, and alien from the blood of the Persians, who, when he was hospitably entertained by us and partook of that kindness which we bear to all men to such a great degree as to be called my father, and to be all along bowed to, and to have honor paid him by all in the second rank after the royal honor due to ourselves, he could not bear his good fortune, nor govern the magnitude of his prosperity with sound reason; indeed, he made a conspiracy against me and my life, who gave him his authority, by endeavoring to take away Mordecai, my benefactor and my savior, and by basely and treacherously requiring to have Esther, the partner of my life and of my dominion, brought to destruction; for he plotted by this means to deprive me of my faithful friends and transfer the government to others: but since I perceived that these Jews, that were by this pernicious fellow devoted to destruction, were not wicked men, but conducted their lives after the best manner, and were men dedicated to the worship of that God who has preserved the kingdom to me and to my ancestors, I do not only free them from the punishment which the former letter, which was sent by Haman, ordered to be inflicted on them, to which if you refuse obedience, you will do well; but I will that they have all honor paid to them. Accordingly, I have hanged the man that plotted such things against them, with his family, in front of the gates of Shushan—that punishment being sent on him by God, who sees all things. And I give you command that you publicly publish a copy of this letter throughout all my kingdom, that the Jews may be peacefully permitted to use their own laws, and that you assist them, so that at the same season to which their miserable estate belonged, they may defend themselves the very same day from unjust violence, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar; for God has made that day a day of salvation instead of a day of destruction for them; and may it be a good day to those that wish us well, and a memorial of the punishment of the conspirators against us: and I will that you take notice that every city and every nation that will disobey anything that is contained in this letter will be destroyed by fire and sword. However, let this letter be published throughout all the country that is under our obedience, and let all the Jews, by all means, be ready against the aforementioned day, so that they may avenge themselves on their enemies.”

13. Accordingly, the horsemen who carried the letters proceeded on the roads which they were to go with haste, but as for Mordecai, as soon as he had assumed the royal garment, and the crown of gold, and had put the chain around his neck, he went forth in a public procession; and when the Jews who were at Shushan saw him in such great honor with the king, they thought his good fortune was common to themselves also, and joy and a beam of salvation surrounded the Jews, both those that were in the cities, and those that were in the countries, on the publication of the king’s letters, insomuch that many [people] from other nations even circumcised their foreskin for fear of the Jews, so that they might thereby obtain safety for themselves; for on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which according to the Hebrews is called Adar, but according to the Macedonians, Dystrus, those that carried the king’s letter gave them notice that the same day wherein their danger was to have been, on that very day they should destroy their enemies. But now the rulers of the provinces, and the tyrants, and the kings, and the scribes, held the Jews in high regard, for the fear they were in of Mordecai forced them to act with discretion. Now when the royal decree had come to all the country that was subject to the king, it happened that the Jews at Shushan slew five hundred of their enemies; and when the king had told Esther the number of those that were slain in that city, but did not know well what had been done in the provinces, he asked her whether she would have anything further done against them, because it should be done accordingly: on which she desired that the Jews might be permitted to treat their remaining enemies in the same manner the next day—as also that they might hang the ten sons of Haman on the gallows. So the king permitted the Jews to do so, as desirous not to contradict Esther. So they gathered themselves together again on the fourteenth day of the month Dystrus and slew about three hundred of their enemies, but touched nothing of what riches they had. Now there were slain by the Jews that were in the country, and in the other cities, seventy-five thousand of their enemies, and these were slain on the thirteenth day of the month, and they kept the next day as a festival. In like manner, the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together and feasted on the fourteenth day and that [day] which followed it, from which it is that even now all the Jews that are in the habitable earth keep these days as a festival and send portions to one another. Mordecai also wrote to the Jews that lived in the kingdom of Artaxerxes to observe these days, and celebrate them as festivals, and to deliver them down to posterity, so that this festival might continue for all time to come, and that it might never be buried in oblivion; for since they were about to be destroyed on these days by Haman, they would do a right thing, on escaping the danger in them, and on them inflicting punishment on their enemies, to observe those days and give thanks to God on them, for which reason the Jews still keep the aforementioned days and call them the days of Purim. And Mordecai became a great and illustrious person with the king and assisted him in the government of the people. He also lived with the queen; so that the affairs of the Jews were, by their means, better than they could ever have hoped for. And this was the state of the Jews under the reign of Artaxerxes.

CHAPTER 7

How John Slew His Brother Jesus in the Temple; And How Bagoses Offered Many Injuries to the Jews; And What Sanballat Did.

1. When Eliasib the high priest was dead, his son Judas succeeded [him] in the high priesthood; and when he was dead, his son John took that dignity; on whose account it was also that Bagoses [(Bagoas)], the general of another Artaxerxes’ army [(Artaxerses II)], defiled the temple and imposed tributes on the Jews, so that out of the public stock, before they offered the daily sacrifices, they should pay fifty shekels for every lamb. Now Jesus was the brother of John, and was a friend of Bagoses, who had promised to gain him the high priesthood. In confidence of whose support, Jesus quarreled with John in the temple and so provoked his brother that in his anger his brother slew him. Now it was a horrible thing for John, when he was high priest, to perpetrate such a great crime, and so much the more horrible that there never was so cruel and impious a thing done, neither by the Greeks nor Barbarians. However, God did not neglect its punishment, but the people were enslaved on that very account, and the temple was defiled by the Persians. Now when Bagoses, the general of Artaxerxes’ army, knew that John, the high priest of the Jews, had slain his own brother Jesus in the temple, he came on the Jews immediately and began to say to them in anger, “Have you had the impudence to perpetrate a murder in your temple?” And as he was aiming to go into the temple, they forbade him to do so; but he said to them, “Am I not purer than he that was slain in the temple?” And when he had said these words, he went into the temple. Accordingly, Bagoses made use of this pretense and punished the Jews [for] seven years for the murder of Jesus.

2. Now when John had departed this life, his son Jaddua succeeded [him] in the high priesthood. He had a brother, whose name was Manasseh. Now there was one Sanballat, who was sent by Darius, the last king [of Persia], into Samaria. He was a Cuthean by birth; of which stock the Samaritans were also. This man knew that the city [of] Jerusalem was a famous city, and that their kings had caused a great deal of trouble for the Assyrians and the people of Coele-Syria, so that he willingly gave his daughter, whose name was Nicaso, to Manasseh in marriage, as thinking this alliance by marriage would be a pledge and security that the nation of the Jews would continue their goodwill toward him.

CHAPTER 8

Concerning Sanballat and Manasseh, and the Temple Which They Built on Mount Gerizim; As Also How Alexander Made His Entry Into the City [of] Jerusalem, and What Benefits He Bestowed on the Jews.

1. It was about this time that Philip, king of Macedon, was treacherously assaulted and slain at Egae by Pausanias, the son of Cerastes, who was derived from the family of Orestae, and his son Alexander succeeded him in the kingdom; who, passing over the Hellespont, overcame the generals of Darius’ army in a battle fought at Granicum. So he marched over Lydia, subdued Ionia, and overran Caria, and fell on the places of Pamphylia, as has been related elsewhere.

2. But the elders of Jerusalem, being very uneasy that the brother of Jaddua the high priest, though married to a foreigner, should be a partner with him in the high priesthood, quarreled with him, for they considered this man’s marriage a step toward such as should be desirous of transgressing concerning the marriage of [foreign] wives, and that this would be the beginning of a pluralistic society with foreigners, even though the offense of some concerning marriages, and their having married wives that were not of their own country, had [already] been a cause of their former captivity and of the miseries they then underwent; so they commanded Manasseh to divorce his wife, or not to approach the altar, the high priest himself joining with the people in their indignation against his brother and driving him away from the altar. Whereon Manasseh came to his father-in-law, Sanballat, and told him that although he loved his daughter Nicaso, yet he was not willing to be deprived of his priestly dignity on her account, which was the principal dignity in their nation and always continued in the same family. And then Sanballat promised him not only to preserve to him the honor of his priesthood, but to obtain for him the power and dignity of a high priest and would make him governor of all the places he himself now ruled, if he would keep his daughter for his wife. He also further told him that he would build him a temple like that at Jerusalem, on Mount Gerizim, which is the highest of all the mountains that are in Samaria; and he promised that he would do this with the approval of Darius the king. Manasseh was elevated with these promises and stayed with Sanballat on an assumption that he would gain [the] high priesthood, as bestowed on him by Darius, for it happened that Sanballat was then [old] in years. But there was now a great disturbance among the people of Jerusalem because many of those priests and Levites were entangled in such matches, for they all defected to Manasseh, and Sanballat provided them money and divided land among them for tillage, and habitations also, and all this in order to gratify his son-in-law [in] every way.

3. It was about this time that Darius heard how Alexander had passed over the Hellespont, and had beaten his lieutenants in the battle at Granicum, and was advancing [still] further; whereon he gathered together an army of horse[men] and foot[men] and determined that he would meet the Macedonians before they should assault and conquer all [of] Asia. So he passed over the Euphrates River, and came over Taurus, the Cilician mountain; and at Issus of Cilicia he waited for the enemy, as prepared to battle with him there. On this, Sanballat was glad that Darius had come down and told Manasseh that he would suddenly perform his promises to him, and this as soon as Darius should ever come back, after he had beaten his enemies; for not only him, but all those that were in Asia also, were persuaded that the Macedonians would not so much as come to a battle with the Persians, on account of their multitude. But the event proved otherwise than they expected, for the king joined battle with the Macedonians, and was beaten, and lost a great part of his army. His mother also, and his wife and children, were taken captives, and he fled into Persia. So Alexander came into Syria and took Damascus; and when he had obtained Sidon, he besieged Tyre, when he sent a letter to the Jewish high priest, to send him some auxiliaries and to supply his army with provisions; and that what presents he formerly sent to Darius, he would now send to him, and choose the friendship of the Macedonians, and that he would never relent of doing so. But the high priest answered the messengers that he had given his oath to Darius not to bear arms against him; and he said that he would not transgress this while Darius was in the land of the living. On hearing this answer, Alexander was very angry; and though he determined not to leave Tyre, which was about to be captured, yet as soon as he had taken it, he threatened that he would make an expedition against the Jewish high priest, and through him teach all men to whom they must keep their oaths. So when he had, with a good deal of pains during the siege, taken Tyre and had settled its affairs, he came to the city of Gaza and besieged both the city and him that was governor of the garrison, whose name was Babemeses.

4. But Sanballat thought he had now gained a proper opportunity to make his attempt, so he renounced Darius, and taking with him seven thousand of his own subjects, he came to Alexander; and finding him beginning the siege of Tyre, he said to him that he delivered these men up to him, who came out of places under his dominion and gladly accepted him for his lord instead of Darius. So, when Alexander had received him kindly, Sanballat therefore took courage and spoke to him about his present affair. He told him that he had a son-in-law, Manasseh, who was [the] brother to the high priest Jaddua, and that there were many others of his own nation, now with him, that were desirous to have a temple in the places subject to him; that it would be for the king’s advantage to have the strength of the Jews divided into two parts, lest when the nation is of one mind, and united, on any attempt for innovation, it prove troublesome to kings, as it had formerly proved to the kings of Assyria. Whereon Alexander gave Sanballat permission to do so, who used the utmost diligence, and built the temple, and made Manasseh the priest, and deemed it a great reward that his daughter’s children should have that dignity; but when the seven months of the siege of Tyre were over, and the two months of the siege of Gaza, Sanballat died. Now Alexander, when he had taken Gaza, made haste to go up to Jerusalem; and Jaddua the high priest, when he heard that, was in agony and terrified, as not knowing how he should meet the Macedonians, since the king was displeased at his prior disobedience. He therefore ordained that the people should make supplications, and should join with him in offering sacrifices to God, whom he pleaded with to protect that nation and to deliver them from the perils that were coming on them; whereon God warned him in a dream, which came on him after he had offered a sacrifice, that he should take courage, and adorn the city, and open the gates; that the rest should appear in white garments, but that he and the priests should meet the king in the attire proper to their order, without the dread of any ill consequences, which the providence of God would prevent. On which, when he rose from his sleep, he greatly rejoiced and declared to all the warning he had received from God. According to which dream he acted entirely, and so waited for the coming of the king.

5. And when he understood that he was not far from the city, he went out in procession, with the priests and the multitude of the citizens. The procession was venerable, and the manner of it different from that of other nations. It reached to a place called Sapha, which name, translated into Greek, signifies a prospect, for you have a prospect from there both of Jerusalem and of the temple. And when the Phoenicians and the Chaldeans that followed him thought they would have liberty to plunder the city and torment the high priest to death, which the king’s displeasure fairly promised them, the very reverse of it happened, for Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with his turban on his head, having the golden plate whereon the Name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that Name, and first saluted the high priest. The Jews also in unison, with one voice, saluted Alexander and surrounded him, whereon the kings of Syria and the rest were surprised at what Alexander had done and supposed him [to be] disturbed in his mind. However, Parmenio went up to him alone and asked him how it came to pass that, when all others adored him, he should adore the high priest of the Jews? To whom he replied, “I did not adore him, but that God who has honored him with His high priesthood; for I saw this very person in a dream, in this very attire, when I was at Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering within myself how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea there, for He would lead my army and give me dominion over the Persians; from which it is that, having seen no other in that attire, and now seeing this person in it, and remembering that vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army under the Divine leading, and will conquer Darius with it, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that all things will succeed according to what is in my own mind.” And when he had said this to Parmenio, and had given the high priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him, and he came into the city. And when he went up into the temple, he offered a sacrifice to God, according to the high priest’s direction, and treated both the high priest and the priests magnificently. And when the Book of Daniel was shown to him wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks would destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that he himself was the person intended. And as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present; but the next day he called them to him and commanded them to ask what favors they pleased of him, whereon the high priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of their forefathers and might pay no tribute on the seventh year. He granted all [that] they desired. And when they implored him that he would permit the Jews in Babylon and Media to enjoy their own laws also, he willingly promised to do hereafter what they desired. And when he said to the multitude that if any of them would enlist themselves in his army, on this condition, that they could continue under the laws of their forefathers and live according to them, [and] he was willing to take them with him, many were ready to accompany him in his wars.

6. So when Alexander had thus settled matters at Jerusalem, he led his army into the neighboring cities; and when all the inhabitants to whom he came received him with great kindness, the Samaritans, who then had Shechem for their metropolis (a city situated at Mount Gerizim and inhabited by apostates of the Jewish nation), seeing that Alexander had so greatly honored the Jews, determined to profess themselves Jews; for such is the disposition of the Samaritans, as we have already elsewhere declared, that when the Jews are in adversity, they deny that they are of relation to them, and then they confess the truth; but when they perceive that some good fortune has happened to them, they immediately pretend to have communion with them, saying that they belong to them and derive their genealogy from the posterity of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Accordingly, they made their address to the king with splendor and showed great eagerness in meeting him at a short distance from Jerusalem. And when Alexander had commended them, the Shechemites approached toward him, taking with them the troops that Sanballat had sent him, and they desired that he would come to their city and do honor to their temple also; to whom he promised that when he returned he would come to them. And when they petitioned that he would remit the tribute of the seventh year to them, because they only sowed thereon, he asked who they were that made such a petition; and when they said that they were Hebrews, but had the name of Sidonians, living at Shechem, he asked them again whether they were Jews; and when they said they were not Jews, “It was to the Jews,” he said, “that I granted that privilege; however, when I return, and am thoroughly informed by you of this matter, I will do what I will think proper.” And in this manner, he took leave of the Shechemites, but ordered that the troops of Sanballat should follow him into Egypt, because he planned to give them lands there, which he did shortly after in Thebais, when he ordered them to guard that country.

7. Now when Alexander was dead, the government was parted among his successors, but the temple on Mount Gerizim remained. And if anyone was accused by those of Jerusalem of having eaten common things, or of having broken the Sabbath, or of any other crime of the same nature, he fled away to the Shechemites and said that he was accused unjustly. It was about this time that Jaddua the high priest died, and his son Onias took the high priesthood. This was the state of the affairs of the people of Jerusalem at this time.

BOOK XII

Containing the Interval of One Hundred and Seventy Years. From the Death of Alexander the Great to the Death of Judas Maccabeus.

CHAPTER 1

How Ptolemy, the Son of Lagus, Took Jerusalem and Judea by Deceit and Treachery, and Carried Many from There, and Planted Them in Egypt.

1. Now when Alexander, king of Macedon, had put an end to the dominion of the Persians and had settled the affairs in Judea after the aforementioned manner, he ended his life. And as his government fell among many, Antigonus obtained Asia, Seleucus Babylon; and of the other nations which were there, Lysimachus governed the Hellespont, and Cassander possessed Macedonia; as did Ptolemy the son of Lagus seize Egypt. And while these princes ambitiously strove against one another—every one for his own principality—it came to pass that there were continual wars, and those [were] long-lasting wars too; and the cities were sufferers and lost a great many of their inhabitants in these times of distress, insomuch that all [of] Syria, by means of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, underwent the reverse of that designation of Savior which he then had. He also seized Jerusalem, and for that end made use of deceit and treachery, for as he came into the city on a Sabbath day, as if he would offer sacrifices, he, without any trouble, gained the city, while the Jews did not oppose him, for they did not suspect him to be their enemy; and he gained it thus, because they were free from suspicion of him, and because on that day they were at rest and quietness; and when he had gained it, he ruled over it in a cruel manner. Indeed, Agatharchides of Cnidus, who wrote the acts of Alexander’s successors, reproaches us with superstition, as if we, by it, had lost our liberty, where he says this: “There is a nation called the nation of the Jews, who inhabit a strong and great city named Jerusalem. These men took no care, but let it come into the hands of Ptolemy, as not willing to take up arms, and thereby they submitted to be under a hard master, by reason of their unseasonable superstition.” This is what Agatharchides relates of our nation. But when Ptolemy had taken a great many captives, both from the mountainous parts of Judea, and from the places around Jerusalem and Samaria, and the places near Mount Gerizim, he led them all into Egypt and settled them there. And as he knew that the people of Jerusalem were most faithful in the observation of oaths and covenants—and this from the answer they made to Alexander when he sent an envoy to them after he had beaten Darius in battle—so he distributed many of them into garrisons, and at Alexandria gave them equal privileges of citizens with the Macedonians themselves, and required of them to take their oaths, so that they would keep their fidelity to the posterity of those who committed these places to their care. Indeed, there were not a few other Jews who, of their own accord, went into Egypt, as invited by the goodness of the soil and by the liberality of Ptolemy. However, there were disorders among their posterity, with relation to the Samaritans, on account of their resolution to preserve that conduct of life which was delivered to them by their forefathers, and they therefore contended with one another, while those of Jerusalem said that their temple was holy and resolved to send their sacrifices there; but the Samaritans were resolved that they should be sent to Mount Gerizim.

CHAPTER 2

How Ptolemy Philadelphus Procured the Laws of the Jews to Be Translated Into the Greek Tongue, and Set Many Captives Free, and Dedicated Many Gifts to God.

1. When Alexander had reigned twelve years, and after him Ptolemy Soter forty years, Philadelphus then took the kingdom of Egypt and held it one short [of] forty years. He procured the Law to be interpreted and set free those that had come from Jerusalem into Egypt, and were in slavery there, who were one hundred and twenty thousand. The occasion was this: Demetrius Phalerius, who was the library keeper to the king, was now endeavoring, if it were possible, to gather together all the books that were in the habitable earth and buying whatsoever was valuable anywhere or agreeable to the king’s inclination (who was very earnestly set on collecting books), to which inclination of his Demetrius was zealously obedient. And when Ptolemy once asked him how many myriads of books he had collected, he replied that he had already [acquired] about twenty times ten thousand, but that, in a short time, he would have fifty times ten thousand. But he said he had been informed that there were many books of laws among the Jews worthy of inquiring after, and worthy of the king’s library, but which, being written in characters and in a dialect of their own, would cause no small pains in getting them translated into the Greek tongue; that the character in which they are written seems to be like to that which is the proper character of the Syrians, and that its sound, when pronounced, is like theirs also; and that this sound appears to be peculiar to themselves. Therefore, he said that nothing hindered why they might not get those books to be translated also; for while nothing is lacking that is necessary for that purpose, we may also have their books in this library. So the king thought that Demetrius was very zealous to obtain him an abundance of books, and that he suggested what was exceedingly proper for him to do; and therefore, he wrote to the Jewish high priest that he should act accordingly.

2. Now there was one Aristeas, who was among the king’s most intimate friends, and on account of his modesty very acceptable to him. This Aristeas resolved frequently, and that before now, to petition the king that he would set all the captive Jews in his kingdom free; and he thought this to be a convenient opportunity for making that petition. So he discoursed, in the first place, with the captains of the king’s guards, Sosibius of Tarentum, and Andreas, and persuaded them to assist him in what he was going to intercede with the king for. Accordingly, Aristeas embraced the same opinion with those that have been previously mentioned, and went to the king, and made the following speech to him: “It is not right for us, O king, to overlook things hastily, or to deceive ourselves, but [rather] to lay the truth open. For since we have determined not only to get the laws of the Jews transcribed, but interpreted also, for your satisfaction, by what means can we do this, while so many of the Jews are now slaves in your kingdom? Do then what will be agreeable to your generosity and to your good nature: free them from the miserable condition they are in, because that God who supports your kingdom was the author of their laws as I have learned by particular inquiry; for both these people, and we also, worship the same God: the framer of all things. We call him, and that truly, by the name of Zena [[or life]], because He breathes life into all men. Therefore, restore these men to their own country, and do this for the honor of God, because these men pay a uniquely excellent worship to Him. And know this also: that although I am not of relation to them by birth, nor one of the same country with them, yet I desire these favors to be done [for] them, since all men are the workmanship of God; and I am aware that He is well-pleased with those that do good. I therefore put up this petition to you: to do good to them.”

3. When Aristeas was saying this, the king looked on him with a cheerful and joyful countenance and said, “How many myriads do you suppose there are of such as want to be made free?” To which Andreas replied, as he stood by, and said, “A few more than ten times ten thousand.” The king made answer, “And is this a small gift that you ask, Aristeas?” But Sosibius, and the rest that stood by, said that he ought to offer such a thank-offering as was worthy of his greatness of soul, to that God who had given him his kingdom. With this answer he was very pleased and gave an order that when they paid the soldiers their wages, they should lay down [one hundred and] twenty drachmas for every one of the slaves. And he promised to publish a magnificent decree, about what they requested, which should confirm what Aristeas had proposed, and especially what God willed should be done; whereby he said he would not only set those free who had been led away captive by his father and his army, but those who were in this kingdom before, and those also, if any such there were, who had been brought away since. And when they said that their redemption money would amount to above four hundred talents, he granted it. A copy of which decree I have determined to preserve, that the generosity of this king may be made known. Its contents were as follows: “Let all those who were soldiers under our father, and who, when they overran Syria and Phoenicia, and laid waste Judea, took the Jews captive, and made them slaves, and brought them into our cities, and into this country, and then sold them—as also all those that were in my kingdom before them, and if there are any that have been recently brought there—free [them] by those that possess them; and let them accept [one hundred and] twenty drachmas for every slave. And let the soldiers receive this redemption money with their pay, but the rest out of the king’s treasury, for I suppose that they were made captives without our father’s consent, and against equity; and that their country was harassed by the insolence of the soldiers, and that, by removing them into Egypt, the soldiers have made a great profit by them. Therefore, out of regard for justice, and out of pity for those that have been overly tyrannized, contrary to equity, I command those that have such Jews in their service to set them at liberty, on the receipt of the aforementioned sum; and that no one use any deceit about them but obey what is here commanded. And I will, that they give in their names within three days after the publication of this edict, to such as are appointed to execute the same, and to produce the slaves before them also, for I think it will be for the advantage of my affairs. And let everyone that will [do so], report against those that do not obey this decree; and I will that their estates be confiscated into the king’s treasury.” When this decree was read to the king, it at first contained the rest that is here inserted, and omitted only those Jews that had formerly been brought, and those brought afterward, which had not been distinctly mentioned; so he added these clauses out of his humanity and with great generosity. He also gave an order that the payment, which was likely to be done in a hurry, should be divided among the king’s ministers, and among the officers of his treasury. When this was over, what the king had decreed was quickly brought to a conclusion; and this in no more than seven days’ time—the number of the talents paid for the captives being above four hundred and sixty, and this, because their masters required the [one hundred and] twenty drachmas for the children also, the king having, in effect, commanded that these should be paid for when he said in his decree that they should receive the aforementioned sum for every slave.

4. Now when this had been done after such a magnificent manner, according to the king’s inclinations, he gave an order to Demetrius to give him in writing his sentiments concerning the transcribing of the Jewish books; for no part of the administration is done rashly by these kings, but all things are managed with great circumspection. On which account I have subjoined a copy of these letters, and set down the multitude of the vessels sent as gifts [to Jerusalem], and the construction of every one, that the exactness of the craftsmen’s workmanship, as it appeared to those that saw them, and which workman made every vessel, may be made manifest, and this on account of the excellency of the vessels themselves. Now the copy of the letter was to this effect: “Demetrius to the great king. When you, O king, gave me an order concerning the collection of books that were lacking to fill your library, and concerning the care that ought to be taken about such as are imperfect, I have used the utmost diligence about those matters. And I let you know that we lack the books of the Jewish legislation, with some others; for they are written in the Hebrew characters, and being in the language of that nation, are unknown to us. It has also happened to them that they have been transcribed more carelessly than they ought to have been, because they have not had thus far royal care taken concerning them. Now it is necessary that you should have accurate copies of them. And indeed, this legislation is full of hidden wisdom, and entirely blameless, as being the legislation of God; for which reason it is, as Hecateus of Abdera says, that the poets and historians make no mention of it, nor of those men who lead their lives according to it, since it is a holy law, and ought not to be published by profane mouths. If then it pleases you, O king, you may write to the high priest of the Jews to send six of the elders out of every tribe—and those such as are most skillful in the laws—that by their means we may learn the clear and consistent sense of these books, and may obtain an accurate interpretation of their contents, and so may have such a collection of these as may be suitable to your desire.”

5. When this letter was sent to the king, he commanded that a letter should be drawn up for Eleazar, the Jewish high priest, concerning these matters; and that they should inform him of the release of the Jews that had been in slavery among them. He also sent fifty talents of gold for the making of large basins, and vials, and cups, and an immense quantity of precious stones. He also gave an order to those who had the custody of the chest that contained those stones, to give the craftsmen permission to choose out what sorts of them they pleased. He additionally appointed that one hundred talents in money should be sent to the temple for sacrifices, and for other uses. Now I will give a description of these vessels and the manner of their construction, but not until after I have set down a copy of the letter which was written to Eleazar the high priest, who had obtained that dignity on the following occasion: when Onias the high priest was dead, his son Simon became his successor. He was called Simon the Just because of both his piety toward God, and his kind disposition toward those of his own nation. When he was dead, and had left a young son, who was called Onias, Simon’s brother Eleazar, of whom we are speaking, took the high priesthood; and it was him to whom Ptolemy wrote, and that in the following manner: “King Ptolemy to Eleazar the high priest: Greetings. There are many Jews who now dwell in my kingdom, whom the Persians, when they were in power, carried away captive. These were honored by my father; some of them he placed in the army and gave them greater pay than ordinary; to others of them, when they came with him into Egypt, he committed his garrisons, and the guarding of them, so that they might be a terror to the Egyptians. And when I had taken the government, I treated all men with humanity, and especially those that are your fellow citizens, of whom I have set free above one hundred thousand that were slaves and paid the price of their redemption to their masters out of my own revenues; and those that are of a fit age, I have admitted into the number of my soldiers. And for such as are capable of being faithful to me, and proper for my court, I have put them in such a post as thinking this [kindness done to them] to be a very great and acceptable gift, which I devote to God for His providence over me. And as I am desirous to do what will be grateful to these, and to all the other Jews in the habitable earth, I have determined to acquire an interpretation of your law, and to have it translated out of Hebrew into Greek, and to be deposited in my library. You will therefore do well to choose out and send to me men of a good character, who are now elders in age, and six in number out of every tribe. These, by their age, must be skillful in the laws, and of abilities to make an accurate interpretation of them; and when this will be finished, I will think that I have done a work glorious to myself. And I have sent to you Andreas, the captain of my guard, and Aristeas, men whom I hold in very high regard; by whom I have sent those first-fruits which I have dedicated to the temple, and to the sacrifices, and to other uses, to the value of one hundred talents. And if you will send to us, to let us know what you would have further, you will do a thing acceptable to me.”

6. When this letter of the king was brought to Eleazar, he wrote an answer to it with all the respect possible: “Eleazar the high priest to King Ptolemy: Greetings. If you and your queen Arsinoe, and your children, are well, we are entirely satisfied. When we received your letter, we greatly rejoiced at your intentions; and when the multitude had gathered together, we read it to them, and thereby made them aware of the piety you have toward God. We also showed them the twenty vials of gold, and thirty of silver, and the five large basins, and the table for the Bread of the Presentation; as also the one hundred talents for the sacrifices and for the making of what will be necessary at the temple; which things Andreas and Aristeas, those most honored friends of yours, have brought us; and they are truly persons of an excellent character, and of great learning, and worthy of your virtue. Know then that we will gratify you in what is for your advantage, though we do what we did not used to do before, for we ought to make a return for the numerous acts of kindness which you have done for our countrymen. We immediately, therefore, offered sacrifices for you and your sister, with your children and friends; and the multitude made prayers, that your affairs may be to your mind, and that your kingdom may be preserved in peace, and that the translation of our law may come to the conclusion you desire and be for your advantage. We have also chosen six elders out of every tribe, whom we have sent, and the Law with them. It will be your part, out of your piety and justice, to send back the Law, when it has been translated, and to return those to us safely that bring it. Farewell.”

7. This was the reply which the high priest made. But it does not seem to me to be necessary to set down the names of the seventy[-two] elders who were sent by Eleazar and carried the Law, which yet were subjoined at the end of the letter. However, I thought it not improper to give an account of those very valuable and artificially designed vessels which the king sent to God, so that all may see how great a regard the king had for God; for the king allowed a vast deal of expenses for these vessels, and often came to the workmen, and viewed their works, and allowed nothing of carelessness or negligence to be any damage to their operations. And I will relate how rich they were as well as I am able, although perhaps the nature of this history may not require such a description; but I imagine I will thereby recommend the elegant taste and generosity of this king to those that read this history.

8. And I will first describe what belongs to the table. It was indeed in the king’s mind to make this table vastly large in its dimensions; but then he gave orders that they should learn what the magnitude of the table was which was already at Jerusalem, and how large it was, and whether there was a possibility of making one larger than it. And when he was informed how large that was which was already there, and that nothing hindered that a larger [one] might be made, he said that he was willing to have one made that should be five times as large as the present table; but his fear was that it might be then useless in their sacred ministrations by its excessively great size; for he desired that the gifts he presented them should not only be there for show, but should also be useful in their sacred ministrations. According to which reasoning—that the former table was made of such a moderate size for use, and not for lack of gold—he resolved that he would not exceed the former table in size, but would make it exceed it in the variety and elegancy of its materials. And as he was wise in observing the nature of all things, and in having a just notion of what was new and surprising, and where there was no sculptures, he would invent such as were proper by his own skill, and would show them to the workmen, he commanded that such sculptures should now be made, and that those which were delineated should be most accurately formed by a constant regard for their delineation.

9. Therefore, when the workmen had undertaken to make the table, they framed it two cubits [and a half] in length, one cubit in breadth, and one cubit and a half in height; and the entire structure of the work was of gold. They additionally made a crown of a hand-breadth around it, with wave-work wreathed around it, and with an engraving which imitated a cord and was admirably turned on its three parts; for as they were of a triangular figure, every angle had the same disposition of its sculptures, that when you turned them around, the very same form of them was turned around without any variation. Now that part of the crown-work that was enclosed under the table had its sculptures [made] very beautifully, but that part which went around on the outside was more elaborately adorned with [the] most beautiful ornaments, because it was exposed to sight and to the view of the spectators; for which reason it was that both those sides which were extant above the rest were acute, and none of the angles, which we previously told you were three, appeared less than another, when the table was turned around. Now into the cord-work thus turned were precious stones inserted in rows parallel to one another, enclosed in golden buttons, which had settings in them; but the parts which were on the side of the crown and were exposed to the sight, were adorned with a row of oval figures obliquely placed, of the most excellent sort of precious stones, which imitated rods laid close, and surrounded the table. But under these oval figures, thus engraved, the workmen had put a crown all around it, where the nature of all sorts of fruit was represented, insomuch that the bunches of grapes hung up. And when they had made the stones to represent all the kinds of fruit previously mentioned—and that each in its proper color—they made them fast with gold around the whole table. The same disposition of the oval figures, and of the engraved rods, was framed under the crown, so that the table might show the same appearance of variety and elegancy of its ornaments on each side, so that neither the position of the wave-work nor of the crown might be different, although the table were turned on the other side, but that the prospect of the same artificial designs might be extended as far as the feet; for there was made a plate of gold four fingers broad, through the entire breadth of the table, into which they inserted the feet, and then fastened them to the table by buttons and button-holes, at the place where the crown was situated, so that on whatever side of the table one should stand, it might exhibit the very same view of the exquisite workmanship and of the vast expenses bestowed on it: but on the table itself they engraved an ornamental pattern, inserting very valuable stones into it in the middle like stars, of various colors—the carbuncle and the emerald, each of which sent out agreeable rays of light to the spectators, with such stones of other sorts as were also most curious and best regarded as being most precious in their kind. Nearby this ornamental pattern, a texture of network ran around it, the middle of which appeared like a rhombus, into which were inserted rock-crystal and amber, which, by the great resemblance of the appearance they made, gave wonderful delight to those that saw them. The chapiters of the feet imitated the first buddings of lilies, while their leaves were bent and laid under the table, but so that the chives were seen standing upright within them. Their bases were made of a carbuncle; and the place at the bottom, which rested on that carbuncle, was one palm deep and eight fingers in breadth. Now they had engraved on it with a very fine tool, and with a great deal of pains, a branch of ivy and tendrils of the vine, sending forth clusters of grapes, so that you would guess they were [in] no way different from real tendrils; for they were so very thin, and so very far extended at their extremities, that they were moved with the wind, and made one believe that they were the product of nature, and not the representation of art. They also made the entire workmanship of the table appear to be threefold, while the joints of the various parts were so united together as to be invisible, and the places where they joined could not be distinguished. Now the thickness of the table was not less than half a cubit. So that this gift, by the king’s great generosity, by the great value of the materials, and the variety of its exquisite structure, and the craftsman’s skill in imitating nature with graying tools, was finally brought to perfection, while the king was very desirous that though in size it was not to be different from that which was already dedicated to God, yet that in exquisite workmanship, and the novelty of the designs, and in the splendor of its construction, it should far exceed it, and be more illustrious than that was.

10. Now there were two of the cisterns of gold, whose sculpture was of scale-work, from its basis to its belt-like circle, with various sorts of stones inlaid in the spiral circles. Next to which there was on it an ornamental pattern of a cubit in height; it was composed of stones of all sorts of colors. And next to this was the engraved rod-work; and next to that was a rhombus in a texture of network, drawn out to the brim of the basin, while small shields, made of stones, beautiful in their kind, and of four fingers’ depth, filled up the middle parts. Around the top of the basin were wreathed the leaves of lilies, and of the convolvulus, and the tendrils of vines in a circular manner. And this was the construction of the two cisterns of gold, each containing two measures. But those which were of silver were much brighter and more splendid than looking-glasses, and you might see in them the images that fell on them more plainly than in the other. The king also ordered thirty vials; those of which the parts that were of gold, and filled up with precious stones, were overshadowed with the leaves of ivy and of vines, artificially engraved. And these were the vessels that were brought to this perfection in an extraordinary manner, partly by the skill of the workmen, who were admirable in such fine work, but much more by the diligence and generosity of the king, who not only supplied the craftsmen abundantly, and with great generosity, with what they wanted, but he forbade public audiences for the time, and came and stood by the workmen, and saw the whole operation. And this was the cause why the workmen were so accurate in their performance, because they had regard for the king and for his great concern about the vessels, and so more determinedly kept close to the work.

11. And these were what gifts were sent by Ptolemy to Jerusalem and dedicated to God there. But when Eleazar the high priest had devoted them to God, and had paid due respect to those that brought them, and had given them presents to be carried to the king, he dismissed them. And when they had come to Alexandria, and Ptolemy heard that they had come, and that the seventy elders had also come, he presently sent for Andreas and Aristeas, his ambassadors, who came to him, and delivered him the letter which they brought [to] him from the high priest, and made an answer to all the questions he put to them by word of mouth. He then made haste to meet the elders that came from Jerusalem for the interpretation of the laws; and he gave command that everybody who came on other occasions should be sent away, which was a surprising thing and what he did not use to do; for those that were drawn there on such occasions used to come to him on the fifth day, but ambassadors at the month’s end. But when he had sent those away, he waited for these that were sent by Eleazar; but as the old men came in with the presents, which the high priest had given them to bring to the king, and with the membranes, on which they had their laws written in golden letters, he put questions to them concerning those books; and when they had taken off the covers wherein they were wrapped up, they showed him the membranes. So the king stood admiring the thinness of those membranes, and the exactness of the junctures, which could not be perceived (so precisely were they connected with one another); and he did this for a considerable time. He then said that he returned them thanks for coming to him, and still greater thanks to him that sent them; and, above all, to that God whose laws they appeared to be. Then the elders, and those that were present with them, cried out with one voice and wished all happiness to the king. On this, he fell into tears by the violence of the pleasure he had, it being natural to men to provide the same indications in great joy that they do under sorrows. And when he had commanded them to deliver the books to those that were appointed to receive them, he saluted the men, and said that it was but just to discourse, in the first place, of the errand they were sent for, and then to address himself to themselves. He promised, however, that he would make this day on which they came to him remarkable and eminent every year through the whole course of his life, for their coming to him, and the victory which he gained over Antigonus by sea, proved to be on the very same day. He also gave orders that they should dine with him and consigned that they should have excellent lodgings provided for them in the upper part of the city.

12. Now he that was appointed to take care of the reception of strangers, Nicanor by name, called for Dorotheus, whose duty it was to make provision for them, and commanded him to prepare for every one of them what should be obligatory for their diet and way of living; which thing was ordered by the king after this manner: he took care that those that belonged to every city, which did not use the same way of living, that all things should be prepared for them according to the custom of those that came to him, that, being feasted according to the usual method of their own way of living, they might be better pleased and might not be troubled by anything done for them from which they were naturally averse. And this was now done in the case of these men by Dorotheus, who was put into this office because of his great skill in such matters belonging to common life, for he took care of all such matters as concerned the reception of strangers and appointed them double seats for them to sit on, according as the king had commanded him to do; for he had commanded that half of their seats should be set at his right hand, and the other half behind his table, and took care that no respect should be omitted that could be shown them. And when they were thus set down, he commanded Dorotheus to minister to all those that had come to him from Judea, after the manner they used to be ministered to; for which reason he sent away their sacred heralds, and those that slew the sacrifices, and the rest that used to say grace; but called to one of those that had come to him, whose name was Eleazar, who was a priest, and desired him to say grace; who then stood in the midst of them and prayed that all prosperity might attend the king and those that were his subjects. On this, an acclamation was made by the whole company, with joy and a great noise; and when that was over, they fell to eating their supper and to the enjoyment of what was set before them. And at a short interval afterward, when the king thought a sufficient time had been interposed, he began to talk philosophically to them, and he asked every one of them a philosophical question and such a one as might give light in those inquiries; and when they had explained all the problems that had been proposed by the king about every point, he was well-pleased with their answers. This took up the twelve days in which they were treated; and he that pleases may learn the particular questions in that book of Aristeas, which he wrote on this very occasion.

13. And while not only the king, but the philosopher Menedemus also, admired them, and said that all things were governed by Providence, and that it was probable that it was there that such force or beauty was discovered in these men’s words, they then ceased asking anymore such questions. But the king said that he had gained very great advantages by their coming, because he had received this profit from them: that he had learned how he ought to rule his subjects. And he gave an order that everyone should have three talents given to them, and that those that were to lead them to their lodging should do it. Accordingly, when three days were over, Demetrius took them and went over the causeway [which was] seven stadia long: it was an embankment in the sea to an island. And when they had gone over the bridge, he proceeded to the northern parts, and showed them where they should meet, which was in a house that was built near the shore, and was a quiet place, and suitable for their discoursing together about their work. When he had brought them there, he implored them—now [that] they had all things around them which they wanted for the interpretation of their law—that they should allow nothing to interrupt them in their work. Accordingly, they made an accurate interpretation, with great zeal and great pains, and this they continued to do until the ninth hour of the day; after which time they relaxed and took care of their body, while their food was provided for them in great abundance; additionally, Dorotheus, at the king’s command, brought them a great deal of what was provided for the king himself. But in the morning, they came to the court and saluted Ptolemy, and then went away to their former place, where, when they had washed their hands and purified themselves, they committed themselves to the interpretation of the laws. Now when the Law was transcribed, and the labor of interpretation was over, which came to its conclusion in seventy-two days, Demetrius gathered all the Jews together to the place where the laws were translated, and where the interpreters were, and read them over. The multitude also approved of those elders that were the interpreters of the Law. They additionally commended Demetrius for his proposal, as the inventor of what was greatly [given] for their happiness; and they desired that he would give permission to their rulers to also read the Law. Moreover, they all, both the priest and the most ancient of the elders, and the principal men of their commonwealth, made it their request, that since the interpretation was happily completed, it might remain in the state it was now in and might not be altered. And when they all commended that determination of theirs, they instructed that if anyone observed either anything superfluous, or anything omitted, that he would take a view of it again, and have it laid before them, and corrected, which was a wise action of theirs, that when the thing was judged to have been done well, it might continue forever.

14. So the king rejoiced when he saw that his design of this nature was brought to perfection, to such great advantage; and he was chiefly delighted with hearing the laws read to him and was astonished at the deep meaning and wisdom of the legislator. And he began to discourse with Demetrius, “How did it come to pass, that when this legislation was so wonderful, no one, either of the poets or of the historians, made mention of it?” Demetrius answered that no one dared be so bold as to touch on the description of these laws, because they were Divine and venerable, and because some that had attempted it were afflicted by God. He also told him that “Theopompus was desirous of writing something about them, but was therefore disturbed in his mind for above thirty days’ time; and on some intermission of his disease, he appeased God [by prayer], as suspecting that his madness proceeded from that cause. No, indeed, he further saw in a dream that his disease befell him while he indulged too great a curiosity about Divine matters and was desirous of publishing them among common men; but when he ceased that attempt, he recovered his understanding again.” Moreover, he informed him of Theodectes, the tragic poet, concerning whom it was reported that “when in a certain dramatic representation he desired to make mention of things that were contained in the sacred books, he was afflicted with a darkness in his eyes; and on his being conscious of the cause of his disease, and appeasing God [by prayer], he was freed from that affliction.”

15. And when the king had received these books from Demetrius, as we have already stated, he adored them and gave an order that great care should be taken of them, so that they might remain uncorrupted. He also desired that the interpreters would frequently come to him from Judea—and that both on account of the respects that he would pay them, and on account of the presents he would make them; for he said it was now only just to send them away, although if, of their own accord, they would come to him hereafter, they should obtain all that their own wisdom might justly require, and what his generosity was able to give them. So he then sent them away and gave to every one of them three garments of the best sort, and two talents of gold, and a cup of the value of one talent, and the furniture of the room wherein they were feasted. And these were the things he presented to them. But by them he sent to Eleazar the high priest ten beds, with feet of silver, and the furniture belonging to them, and a cup of the value of thirty talents; and besides these, ten garments, and purple, and a very beautiful crown, and one hundred pieces of the finest woven linen; as also vials and dishes, and vessels for pouring, and two golden cisterns to be dedicated to God. He also desired him, by a letter, that he would give these interpreters permission, if any of them were desirous of coming to him, because he highly valued a conversation with men of such learning and would be very willing to lay out his wealth on such men. And this was what came to the Jews, and was much to their glory and honor, from Ptolemy Philadelphus.

CHAPTER 3

How the Kings of Asia Honored the Nation of the Jews and Made Them Citizens of Those Cities Which They Built.

1. The Jews also obtained honors from the kings of Asia when they became their auxiliaries, for Seleucus Nicator made them citizens in those cities which he built in Asia, and in the lower Syria, and in the metropolis itself, Antioch; and he gave them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians and Greeks, who were the inhabitants, insomuch that these privileges continue to this very day, an argument for which you have in this: that whereas the Jews do not make use of oil prepared by foreigners, they receive a certain sum of money from the proper officers belonging to their exercises as the value of that oil; which money, when the people of Antioch would have deprived them of [it], in the last war, Mucianus, who was then president of Syria, preserved it to them. And when, after that, the people of Alexandria and of Antioch, at the time that Vespasian and his son Titus governed the habitable earth, prayed that these privileges of citizens might be taken away, they did not obtain their request in which behavior anyone may discern the equity and generosity of the Romans, especially of Vespasian and Titus, who, although they had been at a great deal of pains in the war against the Jews, and were exasperated against them, because they did not deliver up their weapons to them, but continued the war to the very last, yet [still] did not take away any of their aforementioned privileges belonging to them as citizens, but restrained their anger and overcame the prayers of the Alexandrians and Antiochians, who were a very powerful people, insomuch that they did not yield to them, neither out of their favor to these people, nor out of their old grudge at those whose wicked opposition they had subdued in the war; nor would they alter any of the ancient favors granted to the Jews, but said that those who had borne arms against them and fought them had suffered punishment already, and that it was not just to deprive those that had not offended of the privileges they enjoyed.

2. We also know that Marcus Agrippa was of the same disposition toward the Jews: for when the people of Ionia were very angry at them and pleaded with Agrippa that they [alone], and themselves only, might have those privileges of citizens which Antiochus, the grandson of Seleucus (who by the Greeks was called The God), had bestowed on them, and desired that if the Jews were to be joint-partakers with them, they might be obligated to worship the gods they themselves worshiped: but when these matters were brought to trial, the Jews prevailed and obtained permission to make use of their own customs, and this under the patronage of Nicolaus of Damascus; for Agrippa gave sentence that he could not innovate. And if anyone has a mind to know this matter accurately, let him peruse the one hundred and twenty-third and one hundred and twenty-fourth books of the history of this Nicolaus. Now as for this determination of Agrippa, it is not to be admired very much, for at that time our nation had not made war against the Romans. But one may well be astonished at the generosity of Vespasian and Titus, that after such great wars and contests which they had from us, they should use such moderation. But I will now return to that part of my history from which I made the present digression.

3. Now it happened that in the reign of Antiochus the Great, who ruled over all Asia, that the Jews, as well as the inhabitants of Coele-Syria, suffered greatly and their land was severely harassed; for while he was at war with Ptolemy Philopater, and with his son, who was called Epiphanes, it happened that these nations were equally sufferers, both when he was beaten, and when he beat the others, so that they were very similar to a ship in a storm, which is tossed by the waves on both sides; and their situation was thus in the middle between Antiochus’ prosperity and its change to adversity. But finally, when Antiochus had beaten Ptolemy, he seized Judea; and when Philopater was dead, his son sent out a great army under Scopas, the general of his forces, against the inhabitants of Coele-Syria, who took many of their cities, and in particular our nation, which when he fell on them, went over to him. Yet it was not long afterward when Antiochus overcame Scopas in a battle fought at the fountains of Jordan and destroyed a great part of his army. But afterward, when Antiochus subdued those cities of Coele-Syria which Scopas had gotten into his possession, and Samaria with them, the Jews, of their own accord, went over to him, and received him into the city [of Jerusalem], and gave abundant provision to all his army and to his elephants, and readily assisted him when he besieged the garrison which was in the citadel of Jerusalem. Therefore, Antiochus thought it only just to repay the Jews’ diligence and zeal in his service. So, he wrote to the generals of his armies and to his friends, and gave testimony to the good behavior of the Jews toward him, and informed them what rewards he had resolved to bestow on them for their behavior. I will presently set down the letters themselves which he wrote to the generals concerning them, but will first produce the testimony of Polybius of Megalopolis, for he thus states in the sixteenth book of his history: “Now Scopas, the general of Ptolemy’s army, went in haste to the superior parts of the country, and in the wintertime overthrew the nation of the Jews.” He also says, in the same book, that “when Scopas was conquered by Antiochus, Antiochus received Batanea, and Samaria, and Abila, and Gadara”; and that, “a while afterward, those Jews that dwelt near that temple which was called Jerusalem came in to him; concerning which, although I have more to say, and particularly concerning the presence of God around that temple, yet I put off that history until another opportunity.” It is this which Polybius relates. But we will return to the series of the history when we have first produced the letters of King Antiochus.

King Antiochus to Ptolemy: Greetings.

“Since the Jews, on our first entrance on their country, demonstrated their friendship toward us, and when we came to their city [of Jerusalem], received us in a splendid manner, and came to meet us with their senate, and gave abundance of provisions to our soldiers and to the elephants, and joined with us in expelling the garrison of the Egyptians that were in the citadel, we have thought fitting to reward them, and to recover the condition of their city, which has been greatly depopulated by such misfortunes as have happened to its inhabitants, and to bring those that have been scattered abroad back to the city. And, in the first place, we have determined on account of their piety toward God, to bestow on them, as a pension, for their sacrifices of animals that are suitable for sacrifice, for wine, and oil, and frankincense, the value of twenty thousand pieces of silver, and [six] sacred artabrae of fine flour, with one thousand four hundred and sixty medimni of wheat, and three hundred and seventy-five medimni of salt. And these payments I would have fully paid them, as I have sent orders to you. I would also have the work around the temple finished, and the cloisters, and if there is anything else that ought to be rebuilt. And for the materials of wood, let it be brought to them out of Judea itself, and out of the other countries, and out of Lebanon tax free; and the same I would have observed as to those other materials which will be necessary, in order to render the temple more glorious; and let all of that nation live according to the laws of their own country; and let the senate, and the priests, and the scribes of the temple, and the sacred singers, be discharged from poll-tax, and the crown tax, and other taxes also; and so that the city might sooner recover its inhabitants, I grant a release from taxes for three years to its present inhabitants, and to such as will come to it, until the month Hyperberetus. We also release them for the future from a third part of their taxes, so that the losses they have sustained may be repaired. And all those citizens that have been carried away and have become slaves, we grant them and their children their freedom and give an order that their possessions be restored to them.”

4. And these were the contents of this letter. He also published a decree through all his kingdom in honor of the temple, which contained what follows: “It will be lawful for no foreigner to come within the limits around the temple, which thing is also forbidden to the Jews, unless to those who, according to their own custom, have purified themselves. Nor let any flesh of horses, or of mules, or of donkeys, be brought into the city, whether they are wild or tame; nor that of leopards, or foxes, or hares; and, in general, that of any animal which is forbidden for the Jews to eat. Nor let their skins be brought into it; nor let any such animal be bred up in the city. Let them only be permitted to use the sacrifices derived from their forefathers, with which they have been obligated to make acceptable atonements to God. And he that transgresses any of these orders, let him pay to the priests three thousand drachmas of silver.” Moreover, this Antiochus bore testimony to our piety and fidelity, in a letter of his, written when he was informed of a sedition in Phrygia and Lydia, at which time he was in the superior provinces, wherein he commanded Zeuxis, the general of his forces, and his most intimate friend, to send some of our nation out of Babylon into Phrygia. The letter was this:

King Antiochus to Zeuxis, His Father: Greetings.

“If you are in [good] health, it is well. I am also in [good] health. Having been informed that a sedition has arisen in Lydia and Phrygia, I thought that matter required great care; and on consulting with my friends what was right to be done, it has been thought proper to remove two thousand families of Jews, with their effects, out of Mesopotamia and Babylon, to the castles and places that lie most convenient; for I am persuaded that they will be well-disposed guardians of our possessions, because of their piety toward God, and because I know that my predecessors have borne witness to them, that they are faithful and do with eagerness what they are desired to do. I will, therefore, though it be a laborious work, that you remove these Jews, under a promise: that they will be permitted to use their own laws. And when you will have brought them to the aforementioned places, you will give every one of their families a place for building their houses and a portion of the land for their farming and for the plantation of their vines; and you will release them from paying taxes of the fruits of the earth for ten years; and let them have a proper quantity of wheat for the maintenance of their servants, until they receive bread-corn out of the earth; also let a sufficient share be given to such as minister to them in the necessities of life, that by enjoying the effects of our humanity, they may show themselves [all] the more willing and ready concerning our affairs. Likewise, take care of that nation, as far as you are able, so that they may not have any disturbance given to them by anyone.”

Now these testimonies which I have produced are sufficient to declare the friendship that Antiochus the Great bore to the Jews.

CHAPTER 4

How Antiochus Made an Alliance with Ptolemy, and How Onias Provoked Ptolemy Euergetes to Anger; And How Joseph Brought All Things Right Again and Entered into Friendship with Him; And What Other Things Were Done by Joseph and His Son Hyrcanus.

1. After this, Antiochus made a friendship and alliance with Ptolemy, and gave him his daughter Cleopatra for a wife, and yielded up to him Coele-Syria, and Samaria, and Judea, and Phoenicia, by way of dowry. And on the division of the taxes between the two kings, all the principal men framed the taxes of their several countries, and collecting the sum that was settled for them, paid the same to the [two] kings. Now at this time the Samaritans were in a flourishing condition and greatly distressed the Jews, cutting off parts of their land and carrying off slaves. This happened when Onias was high priest; for after Eleazar’s death, his uncle Manasseh took the priesthood, and after he had ended his life, Onias received that dignity. He was the son of Simon, who was called The Just: which Simon was the brother of Eleazar, as I said before. This Onias was one of little soul, and a great lover of money; and for that reason, because he did not pay that tax of twenty talents of silver, which his forefathers paid to these things out of their own estates, he provoked King Ptolemy Euergetes to anger, who was the father of Philopater. Euergetes sent an ambassador to Jerusalem, and complained that Onias did not pay his taxes, and threatened that if he did not receive them, he would seize their land and send soldiers to live on it. When the Jews heard this message of the king, they were confounded; but Onias was so sordidly covetous that nothing of this nature made him ashamed.

2. There was now one Joseph, young in age, but of great reputation among the people of Jerusalem for gravity, prudence, and justice. His father’s name was Tobias; and his mother was the sister of Onias the high priest, who informed him of the coming of the ambassador; for he was then sojourning at a village named Phicol, where he was born. Hereon he came to the city [of Jerusalem] and rebuked Onias for not taking care of the preservation of his countrymen, but bringing the nation into dangers by not paying this money. For which preservation of them, he told him he had received the authority over them and had been made high priest; but that, in case he was such a great lover of money so as to endure to see his country in danger on that account, and his countrymen suffer the greatest damages, he advised him to go to the king and petition him to remit either the whole or a part of the sum demanded. Onias’ answer was this: that he did not care for his authority, and that he was ready, if the thing was practical, to lay down his high priesthood; and that he would not go to the king, because he did not trouble himself at all about such matters. Joseph then asked him if he would not give him permission to go [as an] ambassador on behalf of the nation. He replied that he would give him permission. On this, Joseph went up into the temple, and called the multitude together to a congregation, and exhorted them not to be disturbed nor frightened, because of his uncle Onias’ carelessness, but desired them to be at rest, and not terrify themselves with fear about it; for he promised them that he would be their ambassador to the king and persuade him that they had done him no wrong. And when the multitude heard this, they returned thanks to Joseph. So he went down from the temple and treated Ptolemy’s ambassador in a hospitable manner. He also presented him with rich gifts, and feasted him magnificently for many days, and then sent him to the king before him, and told him that he would soon follow him; for he was now more willing to go to the king, by the encouragement of the ambassador, who earnestly persuaded him to come into Egypt, and promised him that he would take care that he should obtain everything that he desired from Ptolemy; for he was highly pleased with his frank and liberal temper, and with the gravity of his behavior.

3. When Ptolemy’s ambassador had come into Egypt, he told the king of the thoughtless temper of Onias and informed him of the goodness of the disposition of Joseph and that he was coming to him to excuse the multitude, as not having done him any harm, for he was their patron. In short, he was so very grand in his accolades on the young man that he inclined both the king and his wife Cleopatra to have a kindness for him before he came. So Joseph sent to his friends at Samaria, and borrowed money from them, and got ready what was necessary for his journey: garments, and cups, and beasts of burden, which amounted to about twenty thousand drachmas, and went to Alexandria. Now it happened that at this time all the principal men and rulers went up out of the cities of Syria and Phoenicia to bid for their taxes, for every year the king sold them to the men of the greatest power in every city. So, these men saw Joseph journeying on the way and laughed at him for his poverty and low estate. But when he came to Alexandria, and heard that King Ptolemy was at Memphis, he went up there to meet with him, which happened as the king was sitting in his chariot, with his wife, and with his friend Athenion, who was the very person who had been an ambassador at Jerusalem and had been entertained by Joseph. Therefore, as soon as Athenion saw him, he presently made him known to the king, how good and generous a young man he was. So Ptolemy saluted him first and desired him to come up into his chariot; and as Joseph sat there, he began to complain of the management of Onias, to which he answered, “Forgive him, on account of his age; for you certainly cannot be unacquainted with this: that old men and infants have their minds exactly alike; but you will have from us, who are young men, everything you desire, and will have no cause to complain.” With this good humor and pleasantry of the young man, the king was so delighted that he began already, as though he had had long experience of him, to have a still greater affection for him, insomuch that he commanded him to have his food in the king’s palace and be a guest at his own table every day. But when the king had come to Alexandria, the principal men of Syria saw him sitting with the king and were greatly offended at it.

4. And when the day came on which the king was to let out the taxes of the cities to farm, and those that were the principal men of dignity in their various countries were to bid for them, the sum of the taxes together, of Coele-Syria, and Phoenicia, and Judea, with Samaria, came to eight thousand talents. Hereon Joseph accused the bidders, as having agreed together to estimate the value of the taxes at too low a rate; and he promised that he would himself give twice as much for them: but for those who did not pay, he would send the king home [with] all their possessions; for this privilege was sold together with the taxes themselves. The king was pleased to hear that offer; and because it increased his revenues, he said he would confirm the sale of the taxes to him. But when he asked him this question: whether he had any sureties that would be bound for the payment of the money, he answered very pleasantly, “I will give such security, and those of persons good and responsible, and which you will have no reason to distrust.” And when he commanded him to name who they were, he replied, “I give you no other persons, O king, for my sureties, than yourself and your wife; and you will be security for both parties.” So Ptolemy laughed at the proposal and granted him the farming of the taxes without any sureties. This procedure was a painful grief to those that came from the cities into Egypt, who were utterly disappointed; and everyone returned to their own country with shame.

5. But Joseph took two thousand foot soldiers with him from the king, for he desired [that] he might have some assistance in order to force such as were rebellious in the cities to pay. And borrowing five hundred talents from the king’s friends at Alexandria, he made haste back into Syria. And when he was at Ashkelon and demanded the taxes of the people of Ashkelon, they refused to pay anything and also insulted him, on which he seized about twenty of the principal men, and slew them, and gathered what they had together, and sent it all to the king, and informed him what he had done. Ptolemy admired the prudent conduct of the man, and commended him for what he had done, and gave him permission to do as he pleased. When the Syrians heard of this, they were astonished; and having before them a sad example in the men of Ashkelon that were slain, they opened their gates, and willingly admitted Joseph, and paid their taxes. And when the inhabitants of Scythopolis attempted to offend him and would not pay him those taxes which they formerly used to pay, without disputing about them, he also slew the principal men of that city and sent their effects to the king. By this means he gathered great wealth together and made vast gains by this farming of the taxes; and he made use of what estate he had thus gotten in order to support his authority, as thinking it a piece of prudence to keep what had been the cause and foundation of his present good fortune; and this he did by the assistance of what he was already in possession of, for he privately sent many presents to the king, and to Cleopatra, and to their friends, and to all that were powerful around the court, and thereby purchased their goodwill to himself.

6. He enjoyed this good fortune for twenty-two years and had become the father of seven sons by one wife; he also had another son, whose name was Hyrcanus, by his brother Solymius’ daughter, whom he married on the following occasion. He once came to Alexandria with his brother, who had along with him a daughter already marriageable, in order to give her in wedlock to some of the Jews of chief dignity there. He then dined with the king, and falling in love with an actress that was of great beauty [there], and coming into the room where they feasted, he told his brother of it, and begged him, because a Jew is forbidden by their law to come near to a foreigner, to conceal his offense, and to be kind and obedient to him, and to give him an opportunity of fulfilling his desires. On which his brother willingly entertained the proposal of serving him, and adorned his own daughter, and brought her to him by night, and put her into his bed. And Joseph, being disordered with drink, did not know who she was, and so lay with his brother’s daughter; and he did this many times and loved her exceedingly; and he said to his brother that he loved this actress so well that he should run the risk of his life [if he must part with her], and yet probably the king would not give him permission [to take her with him]. But his brother commanded him to have no concern about that matter and told him he might enjoy her whom he loved without any danger and might have her for his wife; and he opened the truth of the matter to him and assured him that he chose rather to have his own daughter abused, than to overlook him and see him come to [public] disgrace. So Joseph commended him for his brotherly love, and married his daughter, and begot a son by her, whose name was Hyrcanus, as we stated before. And when his youngest son showed, at thirteen years old, a mind that was both courageous and wise, and was greatly envied by his brothers, as being of a genius much above them, and such a one as they might well envy, Joseph had once a mind to know which of his sons had the best disposition to virtue; and when he sent them separately to those that had then the best reputation for instructing youth, the rest of his children, by reason of their sloth and unwillingness to make an effort, returned to him foolish and uneducated. After them, he sent out the youngest, Hyrcanus, and gave him three hundred yoke of oxen, and commanded him to go two days’ journey into the wilderness and sow the land there, and yet kept back privately the yokes of the oxen that coupled them together. When Hyrcanus came to the place and found he had no yokes with him, he despised the drivers of the oxen, who advised him to send some to his father, to bring them some yokes; but thinking that he should not waste his time while they should be sent to bring him the yokes, he invented a kind of strategy, and what suited an age older than his own: for he slew ten yoke of the oxen, and distributed their flesh among the laborers, and cut their hides into several pieces, and made him yokes, and yoked the oxen together with them, by which means he sowed as much land as his father had appointed him to sow and returned to him. And when he had come back, his father was mightily pleased with his shrewdness, and commended the sharpness of his understanding, and his boldness in what he did. And he still loved him more, as if he were his only genuine son, while his brothers were very troubled at it.

7. But when someone told him that Ptolemy had a son [who was] just born, and that all the principal men of Syria, and the other countries subject to him, were to keep a festival on account of the child’s birthday, and went away in haste with great entourages to Alexandria, he was himself indeed hindered from going by old age; but he made trial of his sons, whether any of them would be willing to go to the king. And when the elder sons excused themselves from going, and said they were not courtiers good enough for such conversation, and advised him to send their brother Hyrcanus, he gladly listened to that advice, and called Hyrcanus, and asked him whether he would go to the king, and whether it was agreeable to him to go or not. And on his promise that he would go, and his saying that he should not want much money for his journey, because he would live modestly, and that ten thousand drachmas would be sufficient, he was pleased with his son’s prudence. After a little while, the son advised his father not to send his presents to the king from there, but to give him a letter to his steward at Alexandria, so that he might furnish him with money for purchasing what would be most excellent and most precious. So, thinking that the expense of ten talents would be enough for presents to be made [to] the king, and commending his son as giving him good advice, wrote to his steward Arion who managed all his money matters at Alexandria, which money was not less than three thousand talents on his account, for Joseph sent the money he received in Syria to Alexandria. And when the day appointed for the payment of the taxes to the king came, he wrote to Arion to pay them. So, when the son had asked his father for a letter to the steward and had received it, he made haste to Alexandria. And when he was gone, his brothers wrote to all the king’s friends that they should destroy him.

8. But when he had come to Alexandria, he delivered his letter to Arion, who asked him how many talents he would have (hoping he would ask for no more than ten, or a little more); he said he wanted one thousand talents. At this, the steward was angry and rebuked him, as one that intended to live extravagantly; and he let him know how his father had gathered together his estate by painstaking [effort] and resisting his inclinations, and he wished him to imitate the example of his father; he additionally assured him that he would only give him ten talents, and that for a present for the king also. The son was irritated at this and threw Arion into prison. But when Arion’s wife had informed Cleopatra of this, with her request, that she would rebuke the child for what he had done (for Arion was [held] in high regard with her), Cleopatra informed the king of it. And Ptolemy sent for Hyrcanus, and told him that he wondered, when he was sent to him by his father, that he had not yet come into his presence, but had laid the steward in prison. And he gave an order, therefore, that he should come to him and give an account of the reason for what he had done. And they report that the answer he made to the king’s messenger was this: that there was a law of his that forbade a child that was born to taste of the sacrifice before he had been at the temple and sacrificed to God. According to which way of reasoning he did not himself come to him in expectation of the present he was to make to him, as to one who had been his father’s benefactor; and that he had punished the slave for disobeying his commands, for it did not matter whether a master was little or great: “so that unless we punish such as these, you yourself may also expect to be despised by your subjects.” On hearing this answer, he laughed loudly and wondered at the great soul of the child.

9. When Arion was apprised that this was the king’s disposition, and that he had no way to help himself, he gave the child one thousand talents and was let out of prison. So after three days were over, Hyrcanus came and saluted the king and queen. They saw him with pleasure and feasted him in an obliging manner, out of the respect they bore to his father. So he came to the merchants privately and bought one hundred boys that had an education and were in the flower of their ages, each at a talent apiece; as also he bought one hundred maidens, each at the same price as the other. And when he was invited to feast with the king among the principal men in the country, he sat down [as] the lowest of them all, because he was little regarded, as a child still in [a young] age—and this by those who placed everyone according to their dignity. Now when all those that sat with him had laid the bones of the various parts on a heap before Hyrcanus (for they had themselves taken away the flesh belonging to them), until the table where he sat was filled full with them, Trypho, who was the king’s jester and was appointed for jokes and laughter at festivals, was now asked by the guests that sat at the table [to expose him to laughter]. So he stood by the king and said, “Do you not see, my lord, the bones that lie by Hyrcanus? by this similitude you may conjecture that his father made all Syria as bare as he has made these bones.” And the king was laughing at what Trypho said and asking of Hyrcanus how he came to have so many bones before him. He replied, “Very rightfully, my lord; for they are dogs that eat the flesh and the bones together, as these guests have done”—(looking in the meantime at those guests)—“for there is nothing before them; but they are men that eat the flesh and cast away the bones, as I, who am also a man, have now done.” On this, the king admired his answer, which was so wisely made, and commanded them to all make an acclamation, as a mark of their approbation of his jest, which was truly a witty one. On the next day, Hyrcanus went to every one of the king’s friends, and of the powerful men at court, and saluted them, but still inquired of the servants what present they would make the king on his son’s birthday; and when some said that they would give twelve talents, and that others of greater dignity would each give according to the quantity of their riches, he pretended to every one of them to be grieved that he was unable to bring such a large present; for he had no more than five talents. And when the servants heard what he said, they told their masters; and they rejoiced at the prospect that Joseph would be disapproved and would make the king angry by the tininess of his present. When the day came, the others, even those that brought the most, offered the king not above twenty talents; but Hyrcanus gave to every one of the one hundred boys and one hundred maidens that he had bought a talent apiece, for them to carry, and introduced them, the boys to the king, and the maidens to Cleopatra; everybody wondering at the unexpected richness of the presents, even the king and queen themselves. He also presented those that attended around the king with gifts to the value of a great number of talents, so that he might escape the danger he was in from them; for it was to these that Hyrcanus’ brothers had written to destroy him. Now Ptolemy admired the young man’s generosity and commanded him to ask what gift he pleased. But he desired nothing else to be done for him by the king [other] than to write to his father and brothers about him. So when the king had paid him very great respects, and had given him very large gifts, and had written to his father and his brothers, and all his commanders and officers, about him, he sent him away. But when his brothers heard that Hyrcanus had received such favors from the king and was returning home with great honor, they went out to meet him and to destroy him, and that with the awareness of their father, for he was angry at him for the [large] sum of money that he bestowed for presents and so had no concern for his preservation. However, Joseph concealed the anger he had at his son, out of fear of the king. And when Hyrcanus’ brothers came to fight him, he slew many others of those that were with them, as also two of his brothers themselves; but the rest of them escaped to their father at Jerusalem. But when Hyrcanus came to the city, where nobody would receive him, he was afraid for himself, and retreated beyond the Jordan River, and abided there, but compelling the barbarians to pay their taxes.

10. At this time Seleucus, who was called Soter, reigned over Asia, being the son of Antiochus the Great. And [now] Hyrcanus’ father, Joseph, died. He was a good man, and of great generosity, and brought the Jews out of a state of poverty and low estate, to one that was more splendid. He retained the farming of the taxes of Syria, and Phoenicia, and Samaria [for] twenty-two years. His uncle also, Onias, died [about this time], and left the high priesthood to his son Simeon. And when he was dead, his son Onias succeeded him in that dignity. It was to him that Areus, king of the Lacedemonians, sent an envoy with a letter; the copy whereof follows here:

Areus, King of the Lacedemonians, to Onias: Greetings.

“We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the Jews and the Lacedemonians are of one stock and are derived from the relatives of Abraham. It is only just therefore that you, who are our brothers, should send to us about any of your concerns as you please. We will also do the same thing, and regard your concerns as our own, and will look on our concerns as in common with yours. Demotoles, who brings you this letter, will bring your answer back to us. This letter is four-square; and the seal is an eagle, with a dragon in his claws.”

11. And these were the contents of the letter which was sent from the king of the Lacedemonians. But, on the death of Joseph, the people grew seditious on account of his sons. For whereas the elders made war against Hyrcanus, who was the youngest of Joseph’s sons, the multitude was divided, but the greater part joined with the elders in this war, as did Simon the high priest, by reason [that] he was of relation to them. However, Hyrcanus determined not to return to Jerusalem anymore, but seated himself beyond [the] Jordan, and was at perpetual war with the Arabians, and slew many of them, and took many of them captives. He also erected a strong castle, and built it entirely of white stone to the very roof, and had animals of a prodigious magnitude engraved on it. He also drew around it a great and deep canal of water. He also made caves of many stadia in length, by hollowing a rock that was near him; and then he made large rooms in it—some for feasting, and some for sleeping and living in. He also introduced a vast quantity of waters which ran along it, and which were very delightful and ornamental in the court. But he still made the entrances at the mouth of the caves so narrow that no more than one person could enter by them at once. And the reason why he built them after that manner was a good one: it was for his own preservation, lest he should be besieged by his brothers and run the risk of being caught by them. Moreover, he built courts of greater magnitude than ordinary, which he adorned with vastly large gardens. And when he had brought the place to this state, he named it Tyre. This place is between Arabia and Judea, beyond Jordan, not far from the country of Heshbon. And he ruled over those parts for seven years, even all the time that Seleucus was king of Syria. But when he was dead, his brother Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, took the kingdom. Ptolemy also, the king of Egypt, died, who was also called Epiphanes. He left two sons, and both young in age; the elder of which was called Philometor, and the youngest Physcon. As for Hyrcanus, when he saw that Antiochus had a great army, and feared lest he should be caught by him and brought to punishment for what he had done to the Arabians, he ended his life and slew himself with his own hand, while Antiochus seized all his possessions.

CHAPTER 5

How, on the Quarrels Against One Another Regarding the High Priesthood, Antiochus Made an Expedition Against Jerusalem, Took the City, and Pillaged the Temples, and Distressed the Jews; As Also How Many of the Jews Forsook the Laws of Their Country; And How the Samaritans Followed the Customs of the Greeks and Named Their Temple at Mount Gerizim The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius.

1. About this time, on the death of Onias the high priest, they gave the high priesthood to his brother Jesus, for that son which Onias left [(Onias IV)] was yet but an infant; and, in its proper place, we will inform the reader of all the circumstances that happened to this child. But this Jesus, who was the brother of Onias, was deprived of the high priesthood by the king, who was angry with him, and gave it to his younger brother, whose name was also Onias; for Simon had these three sons, to each of which the priesthood came, as we have already informed the reader. This Jesus changed his name to Jason, but Onias was called Menelaus. Now as the former high priest, Jesus, raised a sedition against Menelaus, who was ordained after him, the multitude were divided between them both. And the sons of Tobias took the part of Menelaus, but the greater part of the people assisted Jason; and by that means Menelaus and the sons of Tobias were distressed, and retired to Antiochus, and informed him that they were desirous to leave the laws of their country and the Jewish way of living according to them, and to follow the king’s laws and the Grecian way of living. Therefore, they desired his permission to build them a gymnasium at Jerusalem. And when he had given them permission, they also hid the circumcision of their genitals, so that even when they were naked, they might appear to be Greeks. Accordingly, they ceased all the customs that belonged to their own country and imitated the practices of the other nations.

2. Now Antiochus, on the agreeable situation of the affairs of his kingdom, resolved to make an expedition against Egypt, both because he had a desire to gain it, and because he despised the son of Ptolemy, as now weak and not yet of abilities to manage affairs of such consequence; so he came with great forces to Pelusium, and circumvented Ptolemy Philometor by treachery, and seized Egypt. He then came to the places around Memphis; and when he had taken them, he made haste to Alexandria in hopes of taking it by siege and of subduing Ptolemy, who reigned there. But he was driven not only from Alexandria, but out of all Egypt, by the declaration of the Romans, who commanded him to leave that country alone, as I have accordingly declared formerly elsewhere. I will now give a particular account of what concerns this king: how he subdued Judea and the temple; for in my former work, I mentioned those things very briefly and have therefore now thought it necessary to go over that history again, and that with great accuracy.

3. King Antiochus returning out of Egypt for fear of the Romans, made an expedition against the city [of] Jerusalem; and when he was there, in the one hundred and forty-third year of the kingdom of the Seleucidae, he took the city without fighting—those of his own party opening the gates to him. And when he had gotten possession of Jerusalem, he slew many of the opposite party; and when he had plundered it of a great deal of money, he returned to Antioch.

4. Now it came to pass, after two years, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, on the twenty-fifth day of that month which is by us called Chisleu, and by the Macedonians Apelleus, in the one hundred and fifty-third Olympiad, that the king came up to Jerusalem, and, pretending peace, he got possession of the city by treachery; at which time he spared not even those who admitted him into it, on account of the riches that lay in the temple; but, led by his covetous inclination (for he saw [that] there was a great deal of gold in it, and many ornaments that had been dedicated to it of very great value), and in order to plunder its wealth, he ventured to break the covenant he had made. So, he left the temple bare, and took away the golden candlesticks, and the golden altar [of incense], and table [of the Bread of the Presentation], and the altar [of burnt-offering]; and he did not abstain from even the veils, which were made of fine linen and scarlet. He also emptied it of its secret treasures and left nothing at all remaining; and by this means, he cast the Jews into great lamentation, for he forbade them to offer those daily sacrifices which they used to offer to God, according to the Law. And when he had pillaged the whole city, some of the inhabitants he slew, and some he carried away captive, together with their wives and children, so that the multitude of those captives that were taken alive amounted to about ten thousand. He also burnt down the finest buildings; and when he had overthrown the city walls, he built a citadel in the lower part of the city, for the place was high and overlooked the temple, on which account he fortified it with high walls and towers and put a garrison of Macedonians into it. However, in that citadel dwelt the impious and wicked part of the [Jewish] multitude, from whom it proved that the citizens suffered many and severe calamities. And when the king had built an idol altar on God’s altar, he slew swine on it, and so offered a sacrifice neither according to the Law, nor the Jewish religious worship in that country. He also compelled them to forsake the worship which they paid their own God and to adore those whom he took to be gods; and he made them build temples, and raise idol altars in every city and village, and offer swine on them every day. He also commanded them not to circumcise their sons and threatened to punish any that should be found to have transgressed his injunction. He also appointed overseers, who would compel them to do what he commanded. And indeed, there were many Jews who complied with the king’s commands, either voluntarily, or out of fear of the penalty that was pronounced. But the best men, and those of the noblest souls, did not regard him, but paid a greater respect to the customs of their country than concern as to the punishment which he threatened to the disobedient, on which account they underwent great miseries and bitter torments every day, for they were whipped with rods, and their bodies were torn to pieces and were crucified while they were still alive and breathed. They also strangled those women and their sons whom they had circumcised, as the king had appointed, hanging their sons around their necks as they were on the crosses. And if there were any sacred book of the Law found, it was destroyed, and those with whom they were found perished miserably also.

5. When the Samaritans saw the Jews under these sufferings, they no longer confessed that they were of their relatives, nor that the temple on Mount Gerizim belonged to Almighty God. This was according to their nature, as we have already shown. And they now said that they were a colony of Medes and Persians; and indeed, they were a colony of theirs. So, they sent ambassadors to Antiochus, and a letter, whose contents are these: “To King Antiochus the god, Epiphanes, a memorial from the Sidonians, who live at Shechem. Our forefathers, on certain frequent plagues, and as following a certain ancient superstition, had a custom of observing that day which by the Jews is called the Sabbath. And when they had erected a temple at the mountain called Gerizim, though without a name, they offered the proper sacrifices on it. Now, on the just treatment of these wicked Jews, those that manage their affairs, supposing that we were of relation to them and practiced as they do, make us liable to the same accusations, although we are originally Sidonians, as is evident from the public records. We therefore implore you, our benefactor and savior, to give an order to Apollonius, the governor of this part of the country, and to Nicanor, the procurator of your affairs, to give us no disturbance, nor to lay to our charge what the Jews are accused for, since we are aliens from their nation and from their customs; but let our temple, which at present has no name at all be named The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius. If this were once done, we should no longer be disturbed, but should be more intent on our own occupation with quietness, and so bring in a greater revenue to you.” When the Samaritans had petitioned for this, the king sent them back the following answer, in a letter: “King Antiochus to Nicanor. The Sidonians, who live at Shechem, have sent me the memorial enclosed. Therefore, when we were consulting with our friends about it, the messengers sent by them represented to us that they are [in] no way concerned with accusations which belong to the Jews, but choose to live after the customs of the Greeks. Accordingly, we declare them free from such accusations, and order that, agreeable to their petition, their temple be named The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius.” He also sent the same letter to Apollonius, the governor of that part of the country, in the forty-sixth year, and the eighteenth day of the month Hecatombeon

CHAPTER 6

How, on Antiochus’ Prohibition to the Jews to Make Use of the Laws of Their Country, Mattathias, the Son of Asamoneus, Alone Despised the King and Overcame the Generals of Antiochus’ Army; As Also Concerning the Death of Mattathias and the Succession of Judas.

1. Now at this time there was one whose name was Mattathias, who dwelt at Modin, the son of John, the son of Simeon, the son of Asamoneus, a priest of the order of Joarib, and a citizen of Jerusalem. He had five sons: John, who was called Gaddis, and Simon, who was called Matthes, and Judas, who was called Maccabeus, and Eleazar, who was called Auran, and Jonathan, who was called Apphus. Now this Mattathias lamented to his children the sad state of their affairs, and the ravage made in the city, and the plundering of the temple, and the calamities the multitude were under; and he told them that it was better for them to die for the laws of their country, than to live so ingloriously as they then did.

2. But when those that were appointed by the king had come to Modin, so that they might compel the Jews to do what they were commanded, and to urge those that were there to offer sacrifice, as the king had commanded, they desired that Mattathias, a person of the greatest character among them, both on other accounts, and particularly on account of such a numerous and so deserving a family of children, would begin the sacrifice, because his fellow citizens would follow his example, and because such a procedure would make him honored by the king. But Mattathias said he would not do it, and that if all the other nations would obey the commands of Antiochus, either out of fear, or to please him, yet neither he nor his sons would leave the religious worship of their country. But as soon as he had ended his speech, one of the Jews came into the midst of them and sacrificed as Antiochus had commanded. At which Mattathias had great indignation, and ran on him violently, with his sons, who had swords with them, and slew both the man himself that sacrificed, and Apelles the king’s general, who compelled them to sacrifice, with a few of his soldiers. He also overthrew the idol altar and cried out, “If,” he said, “anyone is zealous for the laws of his country and for the worship of God, let him follow me!” And when he had said this, he made haste into the desert with his sons and left all his possessions in the village. Many others did the same also, and fled with their children and wives into the desert, and dwelt in caves. But when the king’s generals heard this, they took all the forces they then had in the citadel at Jerusalem and pursued the Jews into the desert; and when they had overtaken them, they firstly endeavored to persuade them to convert, and to choose what was most for their advantage, and not put them to the necessity of expending them according to the law of war. But when they would not comply with their persuasions, but continued to be of a different mind, they fought against them on the Sabbath day, and they burnt them as they were in the caves, without resistance, and without so much as stopping up the entrances of the caves. And they avoided defending themselves on that day, because they were not willing to break in on the honor they owed the Sabbath, even in such distresses, for our law requires that we rest on that day. There were about one thousand, with their wives and children, who were suffocated and died in these caves; but many of those that escaped joined themselves to Mattathias and appointed him to be their ruler, who taught them to fight, even on the Sabbath day, and told them that unless they would do so, they would become their own enemies, by observing the Law [so rigorously], while their adversaries would still assault them on this day, and they would not then defend themselves, and that nothing could then hinder that they must all perish without fighting. This speech persuaded them. And this rule continues among us to this day, that if there is a necessity, we may fight on Sabbath days. So, Mattathias gathered a great army around him, and overthrew their idol altars, and slew those that broke the laws, even all that he could get under his power; for many of them were dispersed among the nations around them for fear of him. He also commanded that those boys which were not yet circumcised should be circumcised now; and he drove those away that were appointed to hinder their circumcision.

3. But when he had ruled one year and had fallen into a disease, he called for his sons, and set them around him, and said, “O my sons, I am going the way of all the earth; and I recommend to you my resolution and implore you not to be negligent in keeping it, but to be mindful of the desires of him who begot you, and brought you up, and to preserve the customs of your country, and to recover your ancient form of government, which is in danger of being overturned, and not to be carried away with those that, either by their own inclination, or out of necessity, betray it, but to become such sons as are worthy of me; to be above all force and necessity, and so to dispose your souls, as to be ready, when it will be necessary, to die for your laws, as aware of this: by the just reasoning that if God sees that you are so inclined, He will not overlook you, but will have a great value for your virtue, and will restore what you have lost to you again, and will return to you that freedom in which you will live quietly and enjoy your own customs. Your bodies are mortal and subject to fate, but they receive a sort of immortality, by the remembrance of what actions they have done. And I would have you so in love with this immortality, that you may pursue after glory, and that, when you have undergone the greatest difficulties, you may not hesitate, for such things, to lose your lives. I exhort you, especially, to agree with one another; and in what excellency any one of you exceeds another, to yield to him so far, and by that means to reap the advantage of every one’s own virtues. You [must] then regard Simon as your father, because he is a man of extraordinary prudence, and be governed by him in what counsels he gives you. Take Maccabeus for the general of your army, because of his courage and strength, for he will avenge your nation and will bring vengeance on your enemies. Admit among yourselves the righteous and religious and enhance their power.”

4. When Mattathias had thus discoursed to his sons and had prayed to God to be their aide and to recover to the people their former constitution, he died shortly afterward and was buried at Modin—all the people making great lamentation for him. Whereon his son Judas took on himself the administration of public affairs, in the one hundred and forty-sixth year; and thus, by the ready assistance of his brothers, and of others, Judas cast their enemies out of the country, and put those of their own country to death who had transgressed its laws, and purified the land of all the pollutions that were in it.

CHAPTER 7

How Judas Overthrew the Forces of Apollonius and Seron and Killed the Generals of Their Armies Themselves; And How When, a Little While Afterward, Lysias and Gorgias Were Beaten, He Went up to Jerusalem and Purified the Temple.

1. When Apollonius, the general of the Samaritan forces, heard this, he took his army and made haste to go against Judas, who met him, and joined battle with him, and beat him, and slew many of his men, and among them Apollonius himself, their general, whose sword being that which he happened then to wear, he seized and kept for himself; but he wounded more than he slew, and took a great deal of prey from the enemy’s camp, and went his way. But when Seron, who was [the] general of the army of Coele-Syria, heard that many had joined themselves to Judas, and that he had around him an army sufficient for fighting and for making war, he determined to make an expedition against him, as thinking it was right for him to endeavor to punish those that transgressed the king’s injunctions. He then gathered an army, as large as he was able, and joined to it the renegade and wicked Jews, and came against Judas. He came as far as Beth-Horon, a village of Judea, and pitched his camp there; on which Judas met him; and when he intended to battle with him, he saw that his soldiers were hesitant to fight, because their number was small, and because they lacked food, for they were fasting; [so] he encouraged them and said to them that victory and conquest of enemies are not derived from the multitude in armies, but in the exercise of piety toward God; and that they had the plainest instances in their forefathers, who, by their righteousness, exerting themselves on behalf of their own laws and their own children, had frequently conquered many myriads, for innocence is the strongest army. By this speech he induced his men to despise the multitude of the enemy and to fall on Seron. And on joining battle with him, he beat the Syrians; and when their general fell among the rest, they all ran away with speed, as thinking that to be their best way of escaping. So he pursued them to the plain and slew about eight hundred of the enemy; but the rest escaped to the region which lay near to the sea.

2. When King Antiochus heard of these things, he was very angry at what had happened, so he gathered all his own army, with many mercenaries whom he had hired from the islands, and took them with him, and prepared to break into Judea around the beginning of the spring. But when, on his mustering his soldiers, he perceived that his treasures were deficient, and there was a lack of money in them, for all the taxes were not paid by reason of the seditions there had been among the nations—he having been so generous and so liberal, that what he had was not sufficient for him—he therefore resolved to first go into Persia and collect the taxes of that country. Hereon he left one whose name was Lysias, who was in high regard with him, governor of the kingdom, as far as the bounds of Egypt, and of Lower Asia, and reaching from the Euphrates River, and committed to him a certain part of his forces, and of his elephants, and commanded him to bring up his son Antiochus with all possible care, until he came back; and that he should conquer Judea, and take its inhabitants for slaves, and utterly destroy Jerusalem, and abolish the whole nation. And when King Antiochus had entrusted these things to Lysias, he went into Persia; and in the one hundred and forty-seventh year, he passed over Euphrates and went to the superior provinces.

3. On this, Lysias chose Ptolemy, the son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor, and Gorgias, very powerful men among the king’s friends, and delivered to them forty thousand foot soldiers and seven thousand horsemen, and sent them against Judea, who came as far as the city [of] Emmaus, and pitched their camp in the plain country. There also came to them auxiliaries out of Syria and the surrounding country, as also many of the renegade Jews. And besides these, some merchants came to buy those that would be carried away [as] captives (having bonds with them to bind those that would be made prisoners), with that silver and gold which they were to pay for their price. And when Judas saw their camp, and how numerous their enemies were, he persuaded his own soldiers to be of good courage, and exhorted them to place their hopes of victory in God, and to make supplication to Him, according to the custom of their country, clothed in sackcloth, and to show what their usual habit of supplication was in the greatest dangers, “and thereby to prevail with God to grant you the victory over your enemies.” So he set them in their ancient order of battle used by their forefathers, under their captains of thousands and other officers, and dismissed such as were newly married, as well as those that had recently gained possessions, so that they might not fight in a cowardly manner, out of an inordinate love of life, in order to enjoy those blessings. When he had thus disposed his soldiers, he encouraged them to fight by the following speech, which he made to them: “O my fellow soldiers, no other time remains more opportune than the present for courage and disregard for dangers; for if you now fight bravely, you may recover your liberty, which, as it is a thing of itself agreeable to all men, so it proves to be to us much more desirable, by its providing us the liberty of worshiping God. Therefore, since you are in such circumstances at present, you must either recover that liberty, and so regain a happy and blessed way of living, which is that according to our laws and the customs of our country, or to submit to the most abusive sufferings; nor will any seed of your nation remain if you are beat in this battle. Therefore, fight valiantly; and understand that you must die, even if you do not fight; but believe that, besides such glorious rewards as those of the liberty of your country, of your laws, of your religion, you will then obtain everlasting glory. Prepare yourselves, therefore, and put yourselves into such an agreeable posture that you may be prepared to fight with the enemy as soon as it is day tomorrow morning.”

4. And this was the speech which Judas made to encourage them. But when the enemy sent Gorgias with five thousand foot[men] and one thousand horse[men], so that he might fall on Judas by night, and had certain of the renegade Jews as guides for that purpose, the son of Mattathias perceived it and resolved to fall on those enemies that were in their camp now [that] their forces were divided. When they had therefore dined in good time and had left many fires in their camp, he marched all night to those enemies that were at Emmaus, so that when Gorgias found no enemy in their camp, but suspected that they had retreated and had hidden themselves among the mountains, he resolved to go and seek them wheresoever they were. But about dawn, Judas appeared to those enemies that were at Emmaus, with only three thousand men—and those poorly armed, by reason of their poverty; and when he saw the enemy very well and skillfully fortified in their camp, he encouraged the Jews and told them that they ought to fight, although it were with their naked bodies, for God had sometimes of old given such men strength—and that against such as were more in number and [better] armed also—out of regard for their great courage. So he commanded the trumpeters to sound for the battle; and by thus falling on the enemies when they did not expect it, and thereby astonishing and disturbing their minds, he slew many of those that resisted him and went on pursuing the rest as far as Gadara, and the plains of Idumea, and Ashdod, and Jamnia; and there fell about three thousand of these. Yet Judas exhorted his soldiers not to be too desirous of the spoils, for they must still have a contest and battle with Gorgias and the forces that were with him; but that when they had finally overcome them, then they might securely plunder the camp, because they were the only enemies remaining, and they expected no others. And just as he was speaking to his soldiers, Gorgias’ men looked down into that army which they left in their camp and saw that it was overthrown and the camp burnt, for the smoke that arose from it showed them, even when they were a great way off, what had happened. When those that were with Gorgias therefore understood that things were in this posture and perceived that those that were with Judas were ready to fight them, they were also frightened and put to flight; but then Judas, as though he had already beaten Gorgias’ soldiers without fighting, returned and seized the spoils. He took a great quantity of gold, and silver, and purple, and blue, and then returned home with joy and singing hymns to God for their good success; for this victory greatly contributed to the recovery of their liberty.

5. Hereon Lysias was confounded at the defeat of the army which he had sent, and the next year he gathered sixty thousand chosen men. He also took five thousand horsemen and fell on Judea; and he went up to the hill country of Beth-Zur, a village of Judea, and pitched his camp there, where Judas met him with ten thousand men; and when he saw the great number of his enemies, he prayed to God that He would assist him, and joined battle with the first of the enemy that appeared, and beat them, and slew about five thousand of them, and thereby became terrible to the rest of them. No, indeed, Lysias observing the great spirit of the Jews, how they were prepared to die rather than lose their liberty, and being afraid of their desperate way of fighting, as if it were real strength, he took the rest of the army back with him, and returned to Antioch, where he listed foreigners into the service, and prepared to fall on Judea with a greater army.

6. Therefore, when the generals of Antiochus’ armies had been beaten so often, Judas assembled the people together and told them that after these many victories which God had given them, they ought to go up to Jerusalem, and purify the temple, and offer the appointed sacrifices. But as soon as he, with the whole multitude, had come to Jerusalem, and found the temple deserted, and its gates burnt down, and plants growing in the temple of their own accord, on account of its desertion, he and those that were with him began to lament and were greatly confounded at the sight of the temple; so he selected some of his soldiers and gave them an order to fight against those guards that were in the citadel, until he should have purified the temple. When he had therefore carefully purged it, and had brought in new vessels, the candlestick, the table [of the Bread of the Presentation], and the altar [of incense], which were made of gold, he hung up the veils at the gates, and added doors to them. He also took down the altar [of burnt-offering] and built a new one of stones that he gathered together, and not of such as were hewn with iron tools. So on the twenty-fifth day of the month Chisleu, which the Macedonians call Apelleus, they lighted the lamps that were on the candlestick, and offered incense on the altar [of incense], and laid the loaves on the table [of the Bread of the Presentation], and offered burnt-offerings on the new altar [of burnt-offering]. Now it so happened that these things were done on the very same day on which their Divine worship had fallen off and was reduced to a profane and common use, after three years’ time, for so it was that the temple was made desolate by Antiochus, and so continued for three years. This desolation happened to the temple in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month Apelleus, and on the one hundred and fifty-third Olympiad: but it was dedicated anew, on the same day, the twenty-fifth of the month Apelleus, on the one hundred and forty-eighth year, and on the one hundred and fifty-fourth Olympiad. And this desolation came to pass according to the prophecy of Daniel, which was given four hundred and eight years before; for he declared that the Macedonians would dissolve that worship [for some time].

7. Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple for eight days and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon; but he feasted them on very rich and splendid sacrifices; and he honored God and delighted them by hymns and psalms. Indeed, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs, when, after a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their worship, that they made it a law for their posterity that they should keep a festival, on account of the restoration of their temple worship, for eight days. And from that time to now, we celebrate this festival and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and [it] was from there that the name was given to that festival. Judas also rebuilt the walls around the city, and raised towers of great height against the incursions of enemies, and set guards therein. He also fortified the city [of] Beth-Zur, so that it might serve as a citadel against any distresses that might come from our enemies.

CHAPTER 8

How Judas Subdued the Surrounding Nations; And How Simon Beat the People of Tyre and Ptolemais; And How Judas Overcame Timotheus, and Forced Him to Flee Away, and Did Many Other Things After Joseph and Azarias Had Been Beaten.

1. When these things were over, the nations around the Jews were very troubled by the revival of their power, and rose up together, and destroyed many of them, as gaining advantage over them by laying snares for them and making secret conspiracies against them. Judas made continual expeditions against these men and endeavored to restrain them from those incursions and to prevent the mischiefs they did to the Jews. So he fell on the Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, at Acrabattene, and slew a great many of them, and took their spoils. He also shut up the sons of Bean, that laid in wait for the Jews; and he set down around them, and besieged them, and burnt their towers, and destroyed the men [that were in them]. After this, he went from there in haste against the Ammonites, who had a great and a numerous army, of which Timotheus was the commander. And when he had subdued them, he seized the city [of] Jazer, and took their wives and their children captive, and burnt the city, and then returned into Judea. But when the neighboring nations understood that he had returned, they gathered in great numbers in the land of Gilead, and came against those Jews that were at their borders, who then fled to the garrison of Dathema, and sent to Judas to inform him that Timotheus was endeavoring to capture the place where they had fled. And as these letters were being read, other messengers came out of Galilee, who informed him that the inhabitants of Ptolemais, and of Tyre and Sidon, and strangers of Galilee, had gathered together.

2. Accordingly, Judas, on considering what was best to be done with relation to the necessity both these situations required, gave an order that his brother Simon should take three thousand chosen men and go to the assistance of the Jews in Galilee, while he and another of his brothers, Jonathan, made haste into the land of Gilead with eight thousand soldiers. And he left Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, to be over the rest of the forces; and he urged them to guard Judea very carefully and to fight no battles with any persons whomsoever until his return. Accordingly, Simon went into Galilee, and fought the enemy, and put them to flight, and pursued them to the very gates of Ptolemais, and slew about three thousand of them, and took the spoils of those that were slain, and those Jews whom they had made captives, with their equipment, and then returned home.

3. Now as for Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan, they passed over the Jordan River; and when they had gone three days journey, they came to the Nabateans, who came to meet them peaceably, and who told them how the affairs of those in the land of Gilead stood and how many of them were in distress and driven into garrisons and into the cities of Galilee; and they exhorted him to make haste to go against the foreigners and to endeavor to save his own countrymen out of their hands. To this exhortation Judas listened and returned to the wilderness; and he firstly fell on the inhabitants of Bosor, and took the city, and beat the inhabitants, and destroyed all the males, and all that were able to fight, and burnt the city. Nor did he stop even when night came on, but he journeyed in it to the garrison where the Jews happened to then be surrounded and where Timotheus lay around the place with his army. And Judas came on the city in the morning; and when he found that the enemy was making an assault on the walls, and that some of them brought ladders, on which they might get on those walls, and that others brought engines [to batter them], he commanded the trumpeter to sound his trumpet, and he encouraged his soldiers to cheerfully undergo dangers for the sake of their brothers and relatives; he also parted his army into three bodies and fell on the backs of their enemies. But when Timotheus’ men perceived that it was Maccabeus that was on them, of both whose courage and good success in war they had formerly had sufficient experience, they were put to flight; but Judas followed them with his army and slew about eight thousand of them. He then turned aside to a city of the foreigners called Malle, and took it, and slew all the males, and burnt the city itself. He then removed from there, and overthrew Casphom, and Bosor, and many other cities of the land of Gilead.

4. But not long after this, Timotheus prepared a great army, and took many others as auxiliaries, and induced some of the Arabians, by the promise of rewards, to go with him in this expedition, and came with his army beyond the brook, near the city [of] Raphon; and he encouraged his soldiers, if it came to a battle with the Jews, to fight courageously and to hinder their passing over the brook, for he said to them beforehand that “if they come over it, we will be beaten.” And when Judas heard that Timotheus prepared himself to fight, he took all his own army and went in haste against his enemy Timotheus; and when he had passed over the brook, he fell on his enemies, and some of them met him, whom he slew, and others of them he so terrified that he compelled them to throw down their arms and flee; and some of them escaped; but some of them fled to what was called the Temple of Carnaim and hoped to thereby preserve themselves; but Judas took the city, and slew them, and burnt the temple, and so used several ways of destroying his enemies.

5. When he had done this, he gathered the Jews together, with their children and wives, and the possessions that belonged to them, and was going to bring them back into Judea; but as soon as he had come to a certain city, whose name was Ephron, that lay on the road (and it was not possible for him to go any other way, so he was not willing to go back again), he then sent to the inhabitants and desired that they would open their gates and permit them to go on their way through the city; for they had closed up the gates with stones and cut off their passage through it. And when the inhabitants of Ephron would not agree to this proposal, he encouraged those that were with him, and surrounded the city, and besieged it, and, lying around it by day and night, took the city, and slew every male in it, and burnt it all down, and so obtained a way through it; and the multitude of those that were slain was so great that they went over the dead bodies. So they came over [the] Jordan and arrived at the great plain, near which is situated the city [of] Beth-Shan, which is called by the Greeks Scythopolis. And going away hastily from there, they came into Judea, singing psalms and hymns as they went, and indulging such tokens of mirth as are usual in triumphs of victory. They also offered thank-offerings, both for their good success, and for the preservation of their army, for not one of the Jews was slain in these battles.

6. But as for Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, whom Judas left [as] generals, at the same time when Simon was in Galilee fighting against the people of Ptolemais, and Judas himself, and his brother Jonathan, were in the land of Gilead, these men also affected the glory of being courageous generals in war, for which they took the army that was under their command and came to Jamnia. There Gorgias, the general of the forces of Jamnia, met them; and on joining battle with him, they lost two thousand of their army, and fled away, and were pursued to the very borders of Judea. And this misfortune happened to them by their disobedience to what injunctions Judas had given them (not to fight with anyone before his return). For besides the rest of Judas’ wise counsels, one may well wonder at this concerning the misfortune that happened to the forces commanded by Joseph and Azarias, which he understood would happen if they broke any of the injunctions he had given them. But Judas and his brothers did not cease fighting with the Idumeans, but pressed on them on all sides, and took the city of Hebron from them, and demolished all its fortifications, and set all its towers on fire, and burnt the country of the foreigners and the city [of] Marissa. They also came to Ashdod, and took it, and laid it waste, and took away a great deal of the spoils and prey that were in it, and returned to Judea.

CHAPTER 9

Concerning the Death of Antiochus Epiphanes. How Antiochus Eupator Fought Against Judas, and Besieged Him in the Temple, and Afterward Made Peace with Him and Departed; Of Alcimus and Onias.

1. It was about this time that King Antiochus, as he was going over the upper countries, heard that there was a very rich city in Persia called Elymais and a very rich temple of Diana therein, and that it was full of all sorts of donations dedicated to it, as also weapons and breastplates, which, on inquiry, he found had been left there by Alexander, the son of Philip, king of Macedonia. And being incited by these motives, he went in haste to Elymais, and assaulted it, and besieged it. But as those that were in it were not terrified at his assault, nor at his siege, but opposed him very courageously, he was beaten off his hopes; for they drove him away from the city and went out and pursued after him, insomuch that he fled away as far as Babylon and lost a great many of his army. And when he was grieving for this disappointment, some persons told him of the defeat of his commanders whom he had left behind him to fight against Judea, and what strength the Jews had already obtained. When this concern about these affairs was added to the former, he was confounded; and by the anxiety he was in, fell into a disease, which, as it lasted a great while, and as his pains increased on him, so he finally perceived he would die in a short time; so he called his friends to him, and told them that his disease was severe on him, and additionally confessed that this calamity was sent on him for the miseries he had brought on the Jewish nation, while he plundered their temple and despised their God; and when he had said this, he gave up the spirit. From this one may wonder at Polybius of Megalopolis, who, though otherwise a good man, yet says that “Antiochus died because he had a purpose to plunder the temple of Diana in Persia”; for the purposing to do a thing, but not actually doing it, is not worthy of punishment. But if Polybius could think that Antiochus thus lost his life on that account, it is much more probable that this king died on account of his sacrilegious plundering of the temple in Jerusalem. But we will not contend about this matter with those who may think that the cause assigned by this Polybius of Megalopolis is nearer the truth than that assigned by us.

2. However, Antiochus, before he died, called for Philip, who was one of his companions, and made him the guardian of his kingdom; and gave him his diadem, and his garment, and his ring, and urged him to carry them and deliver them to his son Antiochus; and he desired him to take care of his education and to preserve the kingdom for him. This Antiochus died in the one hundred and forty-ninth year; but it was Lysias that declared his death to the multitude, and appointed his son Antiochus to be king (of whom he presently had the care), and called him Eupator.

3. It was at this time that the garrison in the citadel of Jerusalem, with the Jewish renegades, did a great deal of harm to the Jews; for the soldiers that were in that garrison suddenly rushed out and destroyed such as were going up to the temple in order to offer their sacrifices, for this citadel adjoined to and overlooked the temple. When these misfortunes had often happened to them, Judas resolved to destroy that garrison; whereon he gathered all the people together and vigorously besieged those that were in the citadel. This was in the one hundred and fiftieth year of the dominion of the Seleucidae. So he made engines of war, and erected bulwarks, and very zealously pressed on to take the citadel. But there were not a few of the renegades who were in the place that went out by night into the country, and gathered some other wicked men like themselves, and went to Antiochus the king, and desired of him that he would not allow them to be neglected under the great hardships that lay on them from those of their own nation; and this because their sufferings had come about on his father’s account, while they left the religious worship of their fathers and preferred that which he had commanded them to follow: that there was danger lest the citadel, and those appointed to garrison it by the king, should be taken by Judas and those that were with him, unless he would send them aid. When Antiochus, who was but a child, heard this, he was angry, and sent for his captains and his friends, and gave an order that they should gather an army of mercenaries together, with such men also of his own kingdom as were of an age fit for war. Accordingly, an army was collected of about one hundred thousand footmen, and twenty thousand horsemen, and thirty-two elephants.

4. So the king took this army, and marched hastily out of Antioch with Lysias, who had command of the whole, and came to Idumea, and from there went up to the city [of] Beth-Zur, a city that was strong and not to be taken without great difficulty. He set around this city and besieged it. And while the inhabitants of Beth-Zur courageously opposed him, and rallied against him, and burnt his engines of war, a great deal of time was spent in the siege. But when Judas heard of the king’s coming, he raised the siege of the citadel, and met the king, and pitched his camp in certain straits, at a place called Beth-Zechariah, at the distance of seventy stadia from the enemy; but the king soon drew his forces from Beth-Zur and brought them to those straits. And as soon as it was day, he put his men in array for battle and made his elephants follow one another through the narrow passes, because they could not be set beside one another. Now around every elephant there were one thousand footmen and five hundred horsemen. The elephants also had high towers [on their backs] and archers [in them]. And he also made the rest of his army to go up the mountains and put his friends before the rest; and he gave orders for the army to shout aloud, and so he attacked the enemy. He also exposed to sight their golden and brazen shields, so that a glorious splendor was sent from them; and when they shouted, the mountains echoed back [thunderously]. When Judas saw this, he was not terrified, but received the enemy with great courage and slew about six hundred of the first ranks. But when his brother Eleazar, whom they called Auran, saw the tallest of all the elephants armed with royal breastplates, and supposed that the king was on him, he attacked him with great quickness and bravery. He also slew many of those that were around the elephant, and scattered the rest, and then went under the belly of the elephant, and struck him, and slew him; so the elephant fell on Eleazar, and by his weight crushed him to death. And thus this man came to his end, when he had first courageously destroyed many of his enemies.

5. But Judas, seeing the strength of the enemy, retreated to Jerusalem and prepared to endure a siege. As for Antiochus, he sent part of his army to Beth-Zur, to besiege it, and with the rest of his army he came against Jerusalem; but the inhabitants of Beth-Zur were terrified at his strength; and seeing that their provisions grew scarce, they delivered themselves up on the security of oaths that they would suffer no hard treatment from the king. And when Antiochus had thus taken the city, he did them no other harm than sending them out naked. He also placed a garrison of his own in the city. But as for the temple of Jerusalem, he laid it siege [for] a long time, while those within bravely defended it; for whatsoever engines the king set against them, they set other engines again to oppose them. But then their provisions failed them—what fruits of the ground they had laid up were spent, and the land not being plowed that year, continued unsowed, because it was the seventh year, on which, by our laws, we are obligated to let it lie uncultivated. And additionally, so many of the besieged ran away for lack of necessities, that only a few were left in the temple.

6. And these happened to be the circumstances of such as were besieged in the temple. But then, because Lysias, the general of the army, and Antiochus the king, were informed that Philip was coming on them out of Persia and was endeavoring to gain the management of public affairs for himself, they came into these sentiments: to leave the siege and to make haste to go against Philip; yet they resolved not to let this be known to the soldiers or to the officers, but the king commanded Lysias to speak openly to the soldiers and the officers, without saying a word about the business of Philip, and to hint to them that the siege would be very long; that the place was very strong; that they were already in need of provisions; that many affairs of the kingdom lacked regulation; and that it was much better to make an alliance with the besieged, and to become friends to their whole nation, by permitting them to observe the laws of their fathers, while they broke out into this war only because they were deprived of them, and so to depart home. When Lysias had discoursed thus to them, both the army and the officers were pleased with this resolution.

7. Accordingly, the king sent to Judas and to those that were besieged with them, and promised to give them peace, and to permit them to make use of, and live according to, the laws of their fathers; and they gladly received his proposals; and when they had gained security on oath for their performance, they went out of the temple. But when Antiochus came into it and saw how strong the place was, he broke his oaths and ordered his army that was there to pull down the walls to the ground; and when he had so done, he returned to Antioch. He also carried with him Onias the high priest, who was also called Menelaus; for Lysias advised the king to slay Menelaus, if he would have the Jews be quiet and cause him no further disturbance, for this man was the origin of all the trouble the Jews had done them, by persuading his father to compel the Jews to leave the religion of their fathers. So the king sent Menelaus to Berea, a city of Syria, and there had him put to death, when he had been high priest [for] ten years. He had been a wicked and impious man; and, in order to get the government for himself, had compelled his nation to transgress their own laws. After the death of Menelaus, Alcimus, who was also called Jacimus, was made high priest. But when King Antiochus found that Philip had already taken possession of the government himself, he made war against him, and subdued him, and took him, and slew him. Now as for Onias, the son of the high priest, who, as we previously informed you, was left [as] a child when his father died, when he saw that the king had slain his uncle Menelaus, and given the high priesthood to Alcimus, who was not of the high priestly stock, but was induced by Lysias to transfer that dignity from his family to another house, he fled to Ptolemy, king of Egypt; and when he found [that] he was [held] in high regard with him and with his wife Cleopatra, he desired and obtained a place in the Nomus of Heliopolis, wherein he built a temple similar to that at Jerusalem; of which we will therefore give an account hereafter, in a place more proper for it.

CHAPTER 10

How Bacchides, the General of Demetrius’ Army, Made an Expedition Against Judea and Returned Without Success; And How Nicanor Was Sent Shortly Afterward Against Judas and Perished, Together with His Army; As Also Concerning the Death of Alcimus and the Succession of Judas.

1. About the same time, Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, fled away from Rome, and captured Tripoli, a city of Syria, and set the diadem on his own head. He also gathered certain mercenary soldiers together, and entered into his kingdom, and was joyfully received by all, who delivered themselves up to him. And when they had taken Autiochus, the king, and Lysias, they brought them to him alive; both which were immediately put to death by the command of Demetrius, when Antiochus had reigned two years, as we have already related elsewhere. But there were now many of the wicked Jewish renegades that came together to him, and with them Alcimus the high priest, who accused the whole nation, and particularly Judas and his brothers, and said that they had slain all his friends, and that those in his kingdom that were of his party, and waited for his return, were put to death by them; that these men had banished them from their own country and caused them to be sojourners in a foreign land; and they desired that he would send one of his own friends and learn from him what trouble Judas’ party had done.

2. At this, Demetrius was very angry, and sent Bacchides, a friend of Antiochus Epiphanes, a good man, and one that had been entrusted with all Mesopotamia, and gave him an army, and committed Alcimus the high priest to his care; and he gave him an order to slay Judas and those that were with him. So Bacchides hurried and went out of Antioch with his army; and when he had come into Judea, he sent to Judas and his brothers to discourse with them about a covenant of friendship and peace, for he intended to take him by treachery. But Judas did not give credit to him, for he saw that he came with such a great army as men do not bring when they come to make peace, but to make war. However, some of the people acquiesced in what Bacchides caused to be proclaimed; and supposing they would undergo no considerable harm from Alcimus, who was their countryman, they went over to them; and when they had received oaths from both of them that neither they themselves, nor those of the same sentiments, would come to any harm, they entrusted themselves with them. But Bacchides did not trouble himself with the oaths he had taken, but slew sixty of them, although, by not keeping his faith with those that first went over, he deterred all the rest, who had intentions to go over to him, from doing it. But as he had gone out of Jerusalem and was at the village called Beth-Zetho, he sent out, and caught many of the deserters, and some of the people also, and slew them all; and he commanded all that lived in the country to submit to Alcimus. So, he left him there with some part of the army, so that he might have the means to keep the country in obedience, and returned to King Demetrius at Antioch.

3. But Alcimus desired to have the dominion more firmly assured to him; and understanding that if he could bring it about that the multitude should be his friends, he would [then] govern with greater security, he spoke kind words to them all and discoursed to each of them in an agreeable and pleasant manner, by which means he quickly had a great body of men and an army around him, although the greater part of them were of the wicked and the deserters. With these, whom he used as his servants and soldiers, he went all over the country and slew all that he could find of Judas’ party. But when Judas saw that Alcimus had already become great and had destroyed many of the good and holy men of the country, he also went all over the country and destroyed those that were of the other party. But when Alcimus saw that he was unable to oppose Judas, nor was equal to him in strength, he resolved to apply himself to King Demetrius for his assistance; so he came to Antioch, and irritated him against Judas, and accused him, alleging that he had undergone a great many miseries by his means, and that he would cause more trouble unless he was prevented and brought to punishment, which must be done by sending a powerful force against him.

4. So Demetrius, being already of [the] opinion that it would be a pernicious thing to his own affairs to overlook Judas now [that] he was becoming so great, sent Nicanor against him, the most kind and most faithful of all his friends; for it was he who fled away with him from the city of Rome. He also gave him as many forces additionally as he thought sufficient for him to conquer Judas and commanded him not to spare the nation at all. When Nicanor had come to Jerusalem, he did not resolve to fight Judas immediately, but judged it better to get him into his power by treachery; so he sent him a message of peace and said there was no necessary reason for them to fight and endanger themselves; and that he would give him his oath that he would do him no harm, for he only came with some friends, in order to let him know what King Demetrius’ intentions were and what opinion he had of their nation. When Nicanor had delivered this message, Judas and his brothers complied with him, and suspecting no deceit, they gave him assurances of friendship and received Nicanor and his army; but while he was saluting Judas, and they were talking together, he gave a certain signal to his own soldiers, on which they were to seize Judas; but he perceived the treachery, and ran back to his own soldiers, and fled away with them. So, on this discovery of his purpose, and of the snares laid for Judas, Nicanor determined to make open war with him, and gathered his army together, and prepared for fighting him; and on joining battle with him at a certain village called Capharsalama, he beat Judas [[or Nicanor]] and forced him to flee to that citadel which was at Jerusalem.

5. And when Nicanor came down from the citadel to the temple, some of the priests and elders met him and saluted him; and they showed him the sacrifices which they offered to God for the king: on which he blasphemed and threatened them that unless the people would deliver Judas up to him, on his return he would pull down their temple. And when he had thus threatened them, he departed from Jerusalem. But the priests fell into tears out of grief at what he had said and pleaded with God to deliver them from their enemies; but now for Nicanor, when he had gone out of Jerusalem and was at a certain village called Beth-Horon, he pitched his camp there, another army out of Syria having joined him. And Judas pitched his camp at Adasa, another village, which was thirty stadia away from Beth-Horon, having no more than one thousand soldiers. And when he had encouraged them not to be dismayed at the multitude of their enemies, nor to regard how many they were against whom they were going to fight, but to consider who they themselves were and for what great rewards they endangered themselves, and to attack the enemy courageously, he led them out to fight, and joining battle with Nicanor, which proved to be a severe one, he overcame the enemy and slew many of them; and at last Nicanor himself, as he was fighting gloriously, fell: on whose fall the army did not stay, but when they had lost their general, they were put to flight and threw down their arms. Judas also pursued them, and slew them, and gave notice by the sound of the trumpets to the neighboring villages that he had conquered the enemy; which, when the inhabitants heard, they put on their armor hastily, and met their enemies face-to-face as they were running away, and slew them, insomuch that not one of them escaped out of this battle, who were in number nine thousand. This victory happened to fall on the thirteenth day of that month which by the Jews is called Adar and by the Macedonians Dystrus; and the Jews thereon celebrate this victory every year and regard it as a festival day. After this, the Jewish nation was, for a while, free from wars and enjoyed peace; but afterward, they returned to their former state of wars and dangers.

6. But now, as the high priest Alcimus was resolving to pull down the wall of the sanctuary, which had been there from ancient times and had been built by the holy prophets, he was suddenly stricken by God and fell down. This strike made him fall down speechless on the ground; and undergoing torments for many days, he finally died when he had been high priest four years. And when he was dead, the people bestowed the high priesthood on Judas, who hearing of the power of the Romans, and that they had conquered Galatia, and Iberia, and Carthage, and Libya in war—and that, besides these, they had subdued Greece and their kings Perseus, and Philip, and Antiochus the Great also—he resolved to enter into a covenant of friendship with them. Therefore, he sent some of his friends to Rome: Eupolemus the son of John, and Jason the son of Eleazar, and desired by them that the Romans would assist them, and be their friends, and would write to Demetrius that he would not fight against the Jews. So the senate received the ambassadors that came from Judas to Rome, and discoursed with them about the errand on which they came, and then granted them a covenant of assistance. They also made a decree concerning it and sent a copy of it into Judea. It was also laid up in the capital and engraved in brass. The decree itself was this: “The decree of the senate concerning a covenant of assistance and friendship with the nation of the Jews. It will not be lawful for any that are subject to the Romans to make war with the nation of the Jews, nor to assist those that do so, either by sending them corn, or ships, or money; and if any attack is made on the Jews, the Romans will assist them, as far as they are able; and again, if any attack is made on the Romans, the Jews will assist them. And if the Jews intend to add to, or to take away anything from, this covenant of assistance, that will be done with the common consent of the Romans. And whatsoever addition will thus be made, it will be of force.” This decree was written by Eupolemus the son of John, and by Jason the son of Eleazar, when Judas was high priest of the nation, and his brother Simon was [the] general of the army. And this was the first covenant that the Romans made with the Jews and was managed after this manner.

CHAPTER 11

That Bacchides Was Again Sent Out Against Judas; And How Judas Fell as He Was Courageously Fighting.

1. But when Demetrius was informed of the death of Nicanor, and of the destruction of the army that was with him, he sent Bacchides again with an army into Judea, who marched out of Antioch, and came into Judea, and pitched his camp at Arbela, a city of Galilee; and having besieged and taken those that were there in caves (for many of the people fled into such places), he departed and made all the haste he could to Jerusalem. And when he had learned that Judas had pitched his camp at a certain village whose name was Beth-Zetho, he led his army against him: they were twenty thousand footmen and two thousand horsemen. Now Judas had no more soldiers than one thousand. When these saw the multitude of Bacchides’ men, they were afraid, and left their camp, and all fled away, excepting eight hundred. Now when Judas was deserted by his own soldiers and the enemy pressed on him and gave him no time to gather his army together, he was inclined to fight with Bacchides’ army, although he only had eight hundred men with him; so he exhorted these men to undergo the danger courageously and encouraged them to attack the enemy. And when they said they were not a body sufficient to fight such a great army, and advised that they should retreat now and save themselves, and that when he had gathered his own men together, then he would fall on the enemy afterward, his answer was this: “Do not let the sun ever see such a thing: that I should show my back to the enemy; and although this is the time that will bring me to my end and I must die in this battle, I would rather stand in it courageously and bear whatsoever comes on me, than by now running away, bring reproach on my great former actions, or tarnish their glory.” This was the speech he made to those that remained with him, whereby he encouraged them to attack the enemy.

2. But Bacchides drew his army out of their camp and put them in array for the battle. He set the horsemen on both the wings, and the light soldiers and the archers he placed before the whole army, but he was himself on the right wing. And when he had thus put his army in order for battle and was going to join battle with the enemy, he commanded the trumpeter to give a signal of battle and the army to make a shout and to fall on the enemy. And when Judas had done the same, he joined battle with them; and as both sides fought valiantly, and the battle continued until sunset, Judas saw that Bacchides and the strongest part of the army was in the right wing, and therefore took the most courageous men with him, and ran on that part of the army, and fell on those that were there, and broke their ranks, and drove them into the middle, and forced them to run away, and pursued them as far as to a mountain called Aza; but when those of the left wing saw that the right wing was put to flight, they surrounded Judas, and pursued him, and came behind him, and took him into the middle of their army; so being unable to flee, but surrounded with enemies, he stood still, and he and those that were with him fought; and when he had slain a great many of those that came against him, he was at last wounded himself, and fell and gave up the spirit, and died in a way comparable to his famous former actions. When Judas was dead, those that were with him had no one whom they could regard [as their commander]; but when they saw themselves deprived of such a general, they fled. But Simon and Jonathan, Judas’ brothers, received his dead body by a treaty from the enemy, and carried it to the village of Modin, where their father had been buried, and buried him there while the multitude lamented him [for] many days and performed the usual solemn rites of a funeral for him. And this was the end that Judas came to. He had been a man of valor and a great warrior, and mindful of the commands of their father Mattathias, and had undergone all difficulties, both in doing and suffering, for the liberty of his countrymen. And when his character was so excellent [while he was alive], he left behind him a glorious reputation and memorial, by gaining freedom for his nation and delivering them from slavery under the Macedonians. And when he had retained the high priesthood [for] three years, he died.

BOOK XIII

Containing the Interval of Eighty-Two Years. From the Death of Judas Maccabeus to the Death of Queen Alexandra.

CHAPTER 1

How Jonathan Took the Government After His Brother Judas; And How He, Together with His Brother Simon, Waged War Against Bacchides.

1. By what means the nation of the Jews recovered their freedom when they had been brought into slavery by the Macedonians, and what struggles, and what great battles, Judas, the general of their army, ran through, until he was slain as he was fighting for them, has been related in the preceding book; but after he was dead, all the wicked, and those that transgressed the laws of their forefathers, sprang up again in Judea, and grew on them, and distressed them on every side. A famine also assisted their wickedness and afflicted the country, until not a few, who by reason of their lack of necessities, and because they were unable to bear up against the miseries that both the famine and their enemies brought on them, deserted their country and went to the Macedonians. And now Bacchides gathered those Jews together who had apostatized from their forefathers’ customary way of living, and chose to live like their neighbors, and committed the care of the country to them, who also caught the friends of Judas, and those of his party, and delivered them up to Bacchides, who when he had, in the first place, tortured and tormented them at his pleasure, he, by that means, finally killed them. And when this calamity of the Jews had become so great, as they had never had experience of the like since their return out of Babylon, those that remained of the companions of Judas, seeing that the nation was ready to be destroyed in a miserable manner, came to his brother Jonathan and desired [of] him that he would imitate his brother and that care which he took of his countrymen, for whose liberty in general he also died, and that he would not permit the nation to be without a governor, especially in those destructive circumstances wherein it now was. And when Jonathan said that he was ready to die for them and was indeed considered no inferior to his brother, he was appointed to be the general of the Jewish army.

2. When Bacchides heard this and was afraid that Jonathan might be very troublesome to the king and the Macedonians, as Judas had been before him, he sought how he might slay him by treachery. But this intention of his was not unknown to Jonathan, nor to his brother Simon; but when these two were informed of it, they took all their companions and presently fled into that wilderness which was nearest to the city; and when they had come to a lake called Asphar, they abided there. But when Bacchides was aware that they were in a poor state and were in that place, he hurried to fall on them with all his forces, and pitching his camp beyond [the] Jordan, he recruited his army. But when Jonathan knew that Bacchides was coming on him, he sent his brother John, who was also called Gaddis, to the Nabatean Arabs, so that he might lodge his equipment with them until the battle with Bacchides should be over, for they were the Jews’ friends. And the sons of Ambri laid an ambush for John from the city [of] Medaba, and seized him and those that were with him, and plundered all that they had with them. They also slew John and all his companions. However, they were sufficiently punished for what they now did by John’s brothers, as we will presently relate.

3. But when Bacchides knew that Jonathan had pitched his camp among the lakes of [the] Jordan, he observed when their Sabbath day came and then assaulted him, [as supposing he would not fight on the Sabbath]: but he exhorted his companions [to fight] and told them that their lives were at stake, since they were surrounded by the river, and by their enemies, and had no way to escape, for their enemies pressed on them in front, and the river was behind them. So after he had prayed to God to give them the victory, he joined battle with the enemy, of whom he overthrew many; and as he saw Bacchides coming up boldly to him, he stretched out his right hand to strike him; but the other foreseeing and avoiding the strike, Jonathan leaped into the river with his companions, and swam over it, and by that means escaped beyond [the] Jordan while the enemies did not pass over that river; but Bacchides presently returned to the citadel at Jerusalem, having lost about two thousand of his army. He also fortified many cities of Judea, whose walls had been demolished: Jericho, and Emmaus, and Beth-Horon, and Bethel, and Timna, and Pharatho, and Tecoa, and Gazara, and built towers in every one of these cities, and surrounded them with strong walls that were also very large, and put garrisons into them, so that they might flow out of them and cause trouble to the Jews. He also fortified the citadel at Jerusalem more than all the rest. Moreover, he took the sons of the principal Jews as pledges, and shut them up in the citadel, and in that manner guarded it.

4. About the same time, someone came to Jonathan and to his brother Simon, and told them that the sons of Ambri were celebrating a marriage and bringing the bride from the city [of] Gabatha, who was the daughter of one of the illustrious men among the Arabians, and that the girl was to be led with pomp, and splendor, and much riches: so Jonathan and Simon thinking this appeared to be the fittest time for them to avenge the death of their brother, and that they had forces sufficient for receiving satisfaction from them for his death, they made haste to Medaba and lay in wait among the mountains for the coming of their enemies; and as soon as they saw them conducting the virgin, and her bridegroom, and such a great company of their friends with them as was to be expected at this wedding, they attacked out of their ambush, and slew them all, and took their ornaments, and all the prey that then followed them, and so returned and received this satisfaction for their brother John from the sons of Ambri; for as well those sons themselves, as their friends, and wives, and children that followed them, perished, being about four hundred in number.

5. However, Simon and Jonathan returned to the lakes of the river and abided there. But Bacchides, when he had secured all Judea with his garrisons, returned to the king; and it was then that the affairs of Judea were quiet for two years. But when the deserters and the wicked saw that Jonathan and those that were with him lived in the country very quietly, by reason of the peace, they sent to King Demetrius and excited him to send Bacchides to seize Jonathan, which they said was to be done without any trouble, and in one night’s time; and that if they fell on them before they were aware, they might slay them all. So the king sent Bacchides, who, when he had come into Judea, wrote to all his friends, both Jews and auxiliaries, that they should seize Jonathan and bring him to him; and when, on all their endeavors, they were unable to seize Jonathan, for he was aware of the snares they laid for him and very carefully guarded against them, Bacchides was angry at these deserters, as having imposed on him, and on the king, and slew fifty of their leaders: whereon Jonathan, with his brother, and those that were with him, retired to Beth-Hogla, a village that lay in the wilderness, out of his fear of Bacchides. He also built towers in it, and surrounded it with walls, and took care that it should be safely guarded. On hearing this, Bacchides led his own army along with him, and also took his Jewish auxiliaries, and came against Jonathan, and made an assault on his fortifications, and besieged him [for] many days; but Jonathan did not abate of his courage at the zeal Bacchides used in the siege, but courageously opposed him. And while he left his brother Simon in the city to fight with Bacchides, he secretly went out himself into the country, and gathered a great body of men together of his own party, and fell on Bacchides’ camp in the nighttime, and destroyed a great many of them. His brother Simon also knew of this falling on them, because he perceived that the enemies were slain by him; so he attacked them, and burnt the engines which the Macedonians used, and made a great slaughter of them. And when Bacchides saw himself surrounded with enemies, and some of them in front and some behind him, he fell into despair and distress of mind, as confounded at the unexpected failure of this siege. However, he vented his displeasure at these misfortunes on those deserters who sent for him from the king, as having deluded him. So he intended to finish this siege in a decent manner, if it were possible for him to do so, and then to return home.

6. When Jonathan understood his intentions, he sent ambassadors to him about a covenant of friendship and mutual assistance, and that they might restore those they had taken captive on both sides. So Bacchides thought this [was] a pretty decent way of retiring home and made a covenant of friendship with Jonathan, when they swore that they would no longer make war against one another. Accordingly, he restored the captives, and took his own men with him, and returned to the king at Antioch; and after his departure, he never came into Judea again. Then Jonathan took the opportunity of this quiet state of things and went and lived in the city [of] Michmash; and he governed the multitude there, and punished the wicked and ungodly, and by that means purged the nation of them.

CHAPTER 2

How Alexander [Balas], in His War with Demetrius, Granted Jonathan Many Advantages, and Appointed Him to Be High Priest, and Persuaded Him to Assist Him Even Though Demetrius Promised Him Greater Advantages on the Other Side. Concerning the Death of Demetrius.

1. Now in the one hundred and sixtieth year, it happened that Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, came up into Syria and took Ptolemais, the soldiers within having betrayed it to him; for they were at enmity with Demetrius, on account of his insolence and difficulty of access; for he shut himself up in a palace of his that had four towers which he had built himself, not far from Antioch, and admitted nobody. He was additionally slothful and negligent about the public affairs, whereby the hatred of his subjects was [all] the more kindled against him, as we have related elsewhere already. Therefore, when Demetrius heard that Alexander was in Ptolemais, he took his whole army and led it against him; he also sent ambassadors to Jonathan about a covenant of mutual assistance and friendship, for he resolved to be with Alexander beforehand, lest the other should discuss with him first and gain assistance from him; and he did this out of the fear he had lest Jonathan should remember how poorly Demetrius had formerly treated him, and should join with him in this war against him. He therefore gave orders that Jonathan should be allowed to raise an army, and should have armor made, and should receive back those hostages of the Jewish nation whom Bacchides had imprisoned in the citadel of Jerusalem. When this good fortune had happened to Jonathan, by the concession of Demetrius, he came to Jerusalem and read the king’s letter in the audience of the people and of those that kept the citadel. When these were read, these wicked men and deserters, who were in the citadel, were greatly afraid, on the king’s permission to Jonathan to raise an army and to receive back the hostages. So, he delivered every one of them to his own parents. And thus Jonathan made his abode at Jerusalem, renewing the city to a better state and reforming the buildings as he pleased, for he gave orders that the walls of the city should be rebuilt with square stones, so that it might be more secure from their enemies. And when those that kept the garrisons that were in Judea saw this, they all left them, and fled to Antioch, excepting those that were in the city [of] Beth-Zur and those that were in the citadel of Jerusalem, for the greater part of these were of the wicked Jews and deserters, and on that account, these did not deliver up their garrisons.

2. When Alexander knew what promises Demetrius had made Jonathan, and additionally knew his courage, and what great things he had done when he fought the Macedonians, and additionally, what hardships he had undergone by the means of Demetrius, and of Bacchides, the general of Demetrius’ army, he told his friends that he could not at present find anyone else that might provide him better assistance than Jonathan, who was both courageous against his enemies, and had a particular hatred against Demetrius, as having both suffered many hard things from him, and acted many hard things against him. Therefore, if they were of [the] opinion that they should make him their friend against Demetrius, it was more for their advantage to invite him to assist them now than at another time. It therefore being determined by him and his friends to send to Jonathan, he wrote this letter to him: “King Alexander to his brother Jonathan: Greetings. We have long ago heard of your courage and your fidelity, and for that reason have sent to you, to make a covenant of friendship and mutual assistance with you. We therefore ordain you this day the high priest of the Jews, and that you be called my friend. I have also sent you, as presents, a purple robe and a golden crown, and desire that, now [that] you are honored by us, you will respect us also in like manner.”

3. When Jonathan had received this letter, he put on the priestly robe at the time of the Celebration of Tabernacles, four years after the death of his brother Judas, for at that time no high priest had been made. So he raised great forces and had an abundance of armor made ready. This greatly grieved Demetrius when he heard of it, and made him blame himself for his slowness, that he had not prevented Alexander, and gotten the goodwill of Jonathan, but had given him time to do so. However, he also himself wrote a letter to Jonathan and to the people, the contents whereof are these: “King Demetrius to Jonathan, and to the nation of the Jews: Greetings. Since you have preserved your friendship for us, and when you have been tempted by our enemies, you have not joined yourselves to them, I both commend you for your fidelity, and exhort you to continue in the same disposition, for which you will be repaid and receive rewards from us; for I will free you from the greatest part of the tributes and taxes which you formerly paid to the kings—my predecessors—and to myself; and I now set you free from those tributes which you have ever paid; and additionally, I forgive you the tax on salt, and the value of the crowns which you used to offer to me, and instead of the third part of the fruits [of the field], and the half of the fruits of the trees, I relinquish my part of them from this day; and as for the poll-tax, which ought to be given to me for every head of the inhabitants of Judea, and of the three toparchies that adjoin to Judea—Samaria, and Galilee, and Perea—that I relinquish to you from this time and for all time to come. I also decree that the city of Jerusalem be holy and inviolable, and free from the tithe, and from the taxes, to its utmost bounds. And I so far relinquish my title to the citadel, so as to permit Jonathan your high priest to possess it, so that he may place such a garrison in it as he approves of for fidelity and goodwill to himself, so that they may keep it for us. I also make free all those Jews who have been made captives and slaves in my kingdom. I also give an order that the beasts of the Jews not be pressed for our service; and let their Sabbaths, and all their festivals, and three days before each of them, be free from any imposition. In the same manner, I set free the Jews that are inhabitants of my kingdom and order that no injury be done [to] them. I also give permission to such of them as are willing to enlist themselves in my army, that they may do it, and those as far as thirty thousand; which Jewish soldiers, wheresoever they go, will have the same pay that my own army has; and I will place some of them in my garrisons, and some as my own bodyguards, and as rulers over those that are in my court. I also give them permission to use the laws of their forefathers and to observe them; and I decree that they have power over the three toparchies that are added to Judea; and it will be in the power of the high priest to take care that no Jew will have any other temple for worship but only that at Jerusalem. I also bequeath, out of my own revenues, yearly, for the expenses about the sacrifices, one hundred and fifty thousand [drachmas]; and what money is to spare, I decree that it will be your own. I also release to you those ten thousand drachmas which the kings received from the temple, because they appertain to the priests that minister in that temple. And whosoever will fly to the temple at Jerusalem, or to the places belonging to that, or who owe the king money, or are there on any other account, let them be set free, and let their goods be in safety. I also give you permission to repair and rebuild your temple, and that all be done at my expenses. I also allow you to build the walls of your city, and to erect high towers, and that they be erected at my charge. And if there is any fortified town that would be convenient for the Jewish country to have very strong, let it be so built at my [own] expenses.”

4. This was what Demetrius promised and granted to the Jews by this letter. But King Alexander raised a great army of mercenary soldiers and of those that deserted to him out of Syria and made an expedition against Demetrius. And when it had come to a battle, the left wing of Demetrius put those who opposed them to flight, and pursued them a great way, and slew many of them, and spoiled their camp; but the right wing, where Demetrius happened to be, was beaten; and as for all the rest, they ran away. But Demetrius fought courageously and slew a great many of the enemy; but as he was in the pursuit of the rest, his horse carried him into a deep bog, where it was hard to get out, and there it happened that on his horse’s falling down, he could not escape being killed; for when his enemies saw what had happened to him, they returned back, and surrounded Demetrius, and they all threw their darts at him; but he, now being on foot, fought bravely. But finally, he received so many wounds that he was unable to bear up any longer, but fell. And this is the end that Demetrius came to, when he had reigned eleven years, as we have related elsewhere.

CHAPTER 3

The Friendship That Was Between Onias and Ptolemy Philometor; And How Onias Built a Temple in Egypt Similar to That at Jerusalem.

1. But then the son of Onias the high priest, who was of the same name with his father, and who fled to King Ptolemy, who was called Philometor, now lived at Alexandria, as we have said already. When this Onias saw that Judea was oppressed by the Macedonians and their kings, out of a desire to purchase to himself a memorial and perpetual fame, he resolved to send to King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra, to ask permission of them that he might build a temple in Egypt similar to that at Jerusalem and might ordain Levites and priests out of their own stock. The chief reason why he desired to do so was that he relied on the prophet Isaiah, who lived above six hundred years before, and foretold that there certainly was to be a temple built to Almighty God in Egypt by a man that was a Jew. Onias was elevated with this prediction and wrote the following letter to Ptolemy and Cleopatra: “Having done many and great things for you in the affairs of the war, by the assistance of God, and that in Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, I finally came with the Jews to Leontopolis, and to other places of your nation, where I found that the greatest part of your people had temples in an improper manner, and that on this account they bore animosity against one another, which happens to the Egyptians by reason of the multitude of their temples, and the difference of opinions about Divine worship. Now I found a very fitting place in a castle that has its name from the country Diana; this place is full of materials of several sorts and replenished with sacred animals; I therefore desire that you will grant me permission to purge this holy place, which belongs to no master, and has fallen down, and to build a temple to Almighty God there, after the pattern of that in Jerusalem, and of the same dimensions, that may be for the benefit of yourself, and your wife and children, so that those Jews which dwell in Egypt may have a place where they may come and meet together in mutual harmony with one another and be submissive to your advantages; for the prophet Isaiah foretold that there should be an altar in Egypt to the Lord God; and he prophesied many other such things relating to that place.”

2. And this was what Onias wrote to King Ptolemy. Now anyone may observe his piety, and that of his sister and wife Cleopatra, by that letter which they wrote in answer to it; for they laid the blame and the transgression of the Law on the head of Onias. And this was their reply: “King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra to Onias: Greetings. We have read your petition, wherein you desire permission to be given you to purge that temple which has fallen down at Leontopolis, in the Nomus of Heliopolis, and which is named from the country Bubastis; on which account we cannot but wonder that it should be pleasing to God to have a temple erected in a place so unclean, and so full of sacred animals. But since you say that Isaiah the prophet foretold this long ago, we give you permission to do it, if it may be done according to your law, and so that we may not appear to have at all offended God herein.”

3. So Onias took the place, and built a temple, and an altar to God, indeed similar to that in Jerusalem, but smaller and poorer. I do not think it proper for me now to describe its dimensions or its vessels, which have already been described in my seventh book of the Wars of the Jews. However, Onias found other Jews like himself, together with priests and Levites, that performed Divine service there. But we have said enough about this temple.

4. Now it came to pass that the Alexandrian Jews and those Samaritans who paid their worship to the temple that was built in the days of Alexander at Mount Gerizim, now made a sedition against one another and disputed about their temples before Ptolemy himself, the Jews saying that, according to the laws of Moses, the temple was to be built at Jerusalem, and the Samaritans saying that it was to be built at Gerizim. They therefore desired the king to sit with his friends, and hear the debates about these matters, and punish those with death who were baffled. Now Sabbeus and Theodosius managed the argument for the Samaritans, and Andronicus, the son of Messalamus, for the people of Jerusalem; and they took an oath by God and the king to make their demonstrations according to the Law; and they desired of Ptolemy, that whomsoever he should find that transgressed what they had sworn to, he would put him to death. Accordingly, the king took several of his friends into the council and sat down in order to hear what the pleaders said. Now the Jews that were at Alexandria were in great concern for those men, whose lot it was to contend for the temple at Jerusalem; for they took it very poorly that any should take away the reputation of that temple, which was so ancient and so celebrated all over the habitable earth. Now when Sabbeus and Theodosius had given permission to Andronicus to speak first, he began to demonstrate out of the Law, and out of the successions of the high priests, how everyone in succession from his father had received that dignity and ruled over the temple, and how all the kings of Asia had honored that temple with their donations, and with the most splendid gifts dedicated to it. But as for that at Gerizim, he made no account of it and regarded it as if it had [almost] never existed. By this speech, and other arguments, Andronicus persuaded the king to determine that the temple at Jerusalem was built according to the laws of Moses, and to put Sabbeus and Theodosius to death. And these were the events that happened to the Jews at Alexandria in the days of Ptolemy Philometor.

CHAPTER 4

How Alexander Honored Jonathan in an Extraordinary Manner; And How Demetrius, the Son of Demetrius, Overcame Alexander and Made a Covenant of Friendship with Jonathan.

1. Demetrius being thus slain in battle, as we have related above, Alexander took the kingdom of Syria and wrote to Ptolemy Philometor that he desired his daughter in marriage; and he said it was only just that he should be joined in affinity to one that had now received the principality of his forefathers, and had been promoted to it by God’s providence, and had conquered Demetrius, and that was on other accounts not unworthy of being related to him. Ptolemy received this proposal of marriage gladly and wrote him an answer, saluting him on account of his having received the principality of his forefathers and promising him that he would give him his daughter in marriage; and he assured him that he was coming to meet him at Ptolemais and desired that he would meet him there, for he would accompany her from Egypt so far and would there marry his child to him. When Ptolemy had written this, he immediately came to Ptolemais and brought his daughter Cleopatra along with him; and as he found Alexander there before him, as he desired him to come, he gave him his child in marriage, and for her portion gave her as much silver and gold as suited such a king to give.

2. When the wedding was over, Alexander wrote to Jonathan the high priest and desired him to come to Ptolemais. So, when he came to these kings and had made them magnificent presents, he was honored by them both. Alexander also compelled him to take off his own garment, and to take a purple garment, and made him sit with him in his throne, and commanded his captains that they should go with him into the middle of the city and proclaim that it was not permitted to anyone to speak against him, or to give him any disturbance. And when the captains had done this, those that were prepared to accuse Jonathan, and who bore him animosity, when they saw the honor that was done him by proclamation, and that by the king’s order, ran away and were afraid lest some trouble should happen to them. Indeed, King Alexander was so very kind to Jonathan that he set him down as the principal of his friends.

3. But then, on the one hundred and sixty-fifth year, Demetrius, the son of Demetrius, came from Crete with a great number of mercenary soldiers, which Lesthenes, the Cretan, brought him, and sailed to Cilicia. This thing cast Alexander into great concern and distress when he heard it, so he made haste immediately out of Phoenicia and came to Antioch, so that he might put matters in a safe posture there before Demetrius should come. He also left Apollonius Daus [as] governor of Coele-Syria, who coming to Jamnia with a great army, sent to Jonathan the high priest and told him that it was not right that he alone should live at rest, and with authority, and not be subject to the king; that this thing had made him a reproach among all men, that he had not yet made him subject to the king. “Do not, therefore, deceive yourself, and sit still among the mountains, and pretend to have forces with you; but if you have any dependence on your strength, come down into the plain, and let our armies be compared together, and the event of the battle will demonstrate which of us is the most courageous. However, take notice that the most valiant men of every city are in my army, and that these are the very men who have always beaten your progenitors; but let us have the battle in such a place of the country where we may fight with weapons, and not with stones, and where there may be no place where those that are beaten may flee.”

4. Jonathan was [greatly] irritated with this; and choosing out ten thousand of his soldiers himself, he went out of Jerusalem in haste, with his brother Simon, and came to Joppa, and pitched his camp on the outside of the city, because the people of Joppa had shut their gates against him, for they had a garrison in the city put there by Apollonius. But when Jonathan was preparing to besiege them, they were afraid he would take them by force, and so they opened the gates to him. But Apollonius, when he heard that Joppa was taken by Jonathan, took three thousand horsemen and eight thousand footmen and came to Ashdod; and departing from there, he made his journey silently and slowly, and going up to Joppa, he made [his journey] as if he was retreating from the place, and so he drew Jonathan into the plain, as valuing himself highly on his horsemen, and having his hopes of victory principally in them. However, Jonathan attacked and pursued Apollonius to Ashdod; but as soon as Apollonius perceived that his enemy was in the plain, he came back and battled with him. But Apollonius had laid one thousand horsemen in ambush in a valley, so that they might be seen by their enemies as behind them; which when Jonathan perceived [it], he was under no consternation, but ordering his army to stand in a square battle-array, he gave them a charge to fall on the enemy on both sides and set them to face those that attacked them both in front and behind; and while the fight lasted until the evening, he gave part of his forces to his brother Simon and ordered him to attack the enemies; but for himself, he charged those that were with him to cover themselves with their armor and receive the darts of the horsemen, who did as they were commanded, so that the enemy’s horsemen, while they threw their darts until they had no more left, did them no harm, for the darts that were thrown did not enter into their bodies, being thrown on the shields that were united and conjoined together, the closeness of which easily overcame the force of the darts, and they flew around without any effect. But when the enemy grew careless in throwing their darts from morning until late at night, Simon perceived their weariness and fell on the body of men before him; and because his soldiers showed great eagerness, he put the enemy to flight. And when the horsemen saw that the footmen ran away, neither did they stay themselves, but they being very weary by the duration of the fight until the evening, and their hope from the footmen being greatly gone, they ran away dishonorably, and also in great confusion, until they were separated from one another and scattered over all the plain. On which Jonathan pursued them as far as Ashdod, and slew a great many of them, and compelled the rest, in despair of escaping, to flee to the temple of Dagon, which was at Ashdod; but Jonathan took the city on the first onset and burnt it and the villages around it; nor did he abstain from the temple of Dagon itself, but burnt it also, and destroyed those that had fled to it. Now the entire multitude of the enemies that fell in the battle and were consumed in the temple were eight thousand. When Jonathan had therefore overcome such a great army, he departed from Ashdod and came to Ashkelon; and when he had pitched his camp outside the city, the people of Ashkelon came out and met him, bringing him hospitable presents and honoring him; so he accepted their kind intentions and returned from there to Jerusalem with a great deal of prey, which he brought there when he conquered his enemies. But when Alexander heard that Apollonius, the general of his army, was beaten, he pretended to be glad of it, because he had fought with his friend and ally Jonathan against his directions. Accordingly, he sent to Jonathan and gave testimony to his worth; and he gave him honorary rewards, as a golden button, which it is the custom to give the king’s relatives, and allowed him [to have] Ekron and its toparchy for his own inheritance.

5. It was about this time that King Ptolemy, who was called Philometor, led an army, part by the sea, and part by land, and came to Syria, to the assistance of Alexander, who was his son-in-law; and accordingly, all the cities received him willingly, as Alexander had commanded them to do, and led him as far as Ashdod, where they all made loud complaints about the temple of Dagon, which was burnt, and accused Jonathan of having laid it waste, and destroyed the country adjoining with fire, and slain a great number of them. Ptolemy heard these accusations, but said nothing. Jonathan also went to meet Ptolemy as far as Joppa, and obtained hospitable presents from him—and those glorious in their kinds, with all the marks of honor; and when he had led him as far as the river called Eleutherus, he returned again to Jerusalem.

6. But as Ptolemy was at Ptolemais, he was very near to a most unexpected destruction; for a treacherous scheme was laid for his life by Alexander, by the means of Ammonius, who was his friend; and as the treachery was very plain, Ptolemy wrote to Alexander and required of him that he should bring Ammonius to appropriate punishment, informing him what snares had been laid for him by Ammonius, and desiring that he might be accordingly punished for it. But when Alexander did not comply with his demands, he perceived that it was he himself who laid the trap and was very angry at him. Alexander had also formerly been on very bad terms with the people of Antioch, for they had suffered very much by his means; yet Ammonius finally underwent the punishment his insolent crimes had deserved, for he was killed in a reproachful manner, like a woman, while he endeavored to conceal himself in feminine attire, as we have related elsewhere.

7. Hereon Ptolemy blamed himself for having given his daughter in marriage to Alexander, and for the covenant he had made with him to assist him against Demetrius; so he dissolved his relationship with him, and took his daughter away from him, and immediately sent to Demetrius, and offered to make a covenant of mutual assistance and friendship with him, and agreed with him to give him his daughter in marriage, and to restore him to the principality of his fathers. Demetrius was well pleased with this envoy, and accepted his assistance, and of the marriage of his daughter. But Ptolemy had still one more hard task to do, and that was to persuade the people of Antioch to receive Demetrius, because they were greatly displeased at him, on account of the injuries his father Demetrius had done [to] them; yet he brought this about, for as the people of Antioch hated Alexander on Ammonius’ account, as we have already shown, they were easily prevailed with to cast him out of Antioch; who, thus expelled out of Antioch, came into Cilicia. Ptolemy then came to Antioch and was made king by its inhabitants and by the army, so that he was forced to put on two diadems: the one of Asia, the other of Egypt; but being naturally a good and righteous man, and not desirous of what belonged to others, and besides these dispositions, being also a wise man in reasoning about future events, he determined to avoid the envy of the Romans; so he called the people of Antioch together to an assembly, and persuaded them to receive Demetrius, and assured them that he would not be mindful of what they did to his father in case he should now be compelled by them; and he undertook that he would himself be a good overseer and governor to him and promised that he would not permit him to attempt any bad actions; but that, for his own part, he was satisfied with the kingdom of Egypt. By which discourse he persuaded the people of Antioch to receive Demetrius.

8. But now Alexander made haste with a numerous and great army, and came out of Cilicia into Syria, and burnt the country belonging to Antioch, and pillaged it; whereon Ptolemy, and his son-in-law Demetrius, brought their army against him (for he had already given him his daughter in marriage), and beat Alexander, and put him to flight; and accordingly, he fled into Arabia. Now it happened in the time of the battle that Ptolemy’ horse, on hearing the noise of an elephant, bucked him off his back and threw him on the ground; on the sight of which mishap, his enemies fell on him, and gave him many wounds on his head, and brought him into danger of death; for when his guards got him up, he was so greatly injured that for four days’ time he was unable to either understand or speak. However, Zabdiel, a prince among the Arabians, cut off Alexander’s head and sent it to Ptolemy, who recovering from his wounds, and returning to his understanding, on the fifth day, heard at once a most agreeable hearing, and saw a most agreeable sight, which were the death and the head of Alexander; yet shortly after his joy for the death of Alexander, with which he was so greatly satisfied, he also departed this life. Now Alexander, who was called Balas, reigned over Asia [for] five years, as we have related elsewhere.

9. But when Demetrius, who was styled Nicator, had taken the kingdom, he was so wicked as to treat Ptolemy’s soldiers very harshly, neither remembering the covenant of mutual assistance that was between them, nor that he was his son-in-law and relative by Cleopatra’s marriage to him; so the soldiers fled from his wicked treatment to Alexandria; but Demetrius kept his elephants. But Jonathan the high priest levied an army out of all Judea, and attacked the citadel at Jerusalem, and besieged it. It was held by a garrison of Macedonians and by some of those wicked men who had deserted the customs of their forefathers. At first, these men despised the attempts of Jonathan for taking the place, as depending on its strength; but some of those wicked men went out by night, and came to Demetrius, and informed him that the citadel was besieged, who was irritated with what he heard, and took his army, and came from Antioch against Jonathan. And when he was at Antioch, he wrote to him, and commanded him to come to him quickly to Ptolemais: on which Jonathan did not pause the siege of the citadel, but took with him the elders of the people, and the priests, and carried with him gold, and silver, and garments, and a great number of presents of friendship, and came to Demetrius, and presented him with them, and thereby pacified the king’s anger. So, he was honored by him and received from him the confirmation of his high priesthood, as he had possessed it by the grants of the kings, his predecessors. And when the Jewish deserters accused him, Demetrius was so far from giving credit to them, that when he petitioned him that he would demand no more than three hundred talents for the tribute of all Judea, and the three toparchies of Samaria, and Perea, and Galilee, he complied with the proposal and gave him a letter confirming all those grants, whose contents were as follows: “King Demetrius to his brother Jonathan and to the nation of the Jews: Greetings. We have sent you a copy of that letter which we have written to our relative Lasthenes, so that you may know its contents: King Demetrus to Lasthenes our father: Greetings. I have determined to return thanks and to show favor to the nation of the Jews, which has observed the rules of justice in our concerns. Accordingly, I remit to them the three prefectures, Apherima, and Lydda, and Ramatha, which have been added to Judea out of Samaria, with their accessories; as also what the kings, my predecessors, received from those that offered sacrifices in Jerusalem, and what are due from the fruits of the earth, and of the trees, and what else belongs to us, with the salt-pits and the crowns that used to be presented to us. Nor will they be compelled to pay any of those taxes from this time to all the future. Therefore, take care that a copy of this letter is taken and given to Jonathan, and is set up in an prominent place of their holy temple.” And these were the contents of this writing. And now when Demetrius saw that there was peace everywhere, and that there was no danger, nor fear of war, he disbanded the greatest part of his army, and diminished their pay, and even retained in pay no others than such foreigners as came up with him from Crete and from the other islands. However, this gained him animosity and hatred from the soldiers, on whom he bestowed nothing from this time, while the kings before him used to pay them in time of peace as they did before, so that they might have their goodwill, and that they might be very prepared to undergo the difficulties of war if any occasion should require it.

CHAPTER 5

How Trypho, After He Had Beaten Demetrius, Delivered the Kingdom to Antiochus, the Son of Alexander, and Gained Jonathan for His Assistant; And Concerning the Actions and Envoys of Jonathan.

1. Now there was a certain commander of Alexander’s forces, an Apanemian by birth, whose name was Diodotus and was also called Trypho, who took notice of the animosity the soldiers bore to Demetrius, and went to Malchus the Arabian, who brought up Antiochus, the son of Alexander, and told him what animosity the army bore Demetrius, and persuaded him to give him Antiochus, because he would make him king and restore the kingdom of his father to him. At first, Malchus opposed him in this attempt, because he could not believe him; but when Trypho pressed hard on him for a long time, he over-persuaded him to comply with Trypho’s intentions and requests. And this was the state Trypho was now in.

2. But Jonathan the high priest, being desirous to get clear of those that were in the citadel of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish deserters, and wicked men, as well as of those in all the garrisons in the country, sent presents and ambassadors to Demetrius and implored him to remove his soldiers from the strongholds of Judea. Demetrius responded that after the war, which he was now deeply engaged in, was over, he would not only grant him that, but greater things than that also; and he desired [that] he would send him some assistance and informed him that his army had deserted him. So Jonathan selected three thousand of his soldiers and sent them to Demetrius.

3. Now the people of Antioch hated Demetrius, both on account of what trouble he had himself done them, and because they were also his enemies on account of his father Demetrius, who had greatly abused them; so they watched for some opportunity which they might lay hold of to fall on him. And when they were informed of the assistance that was coming to Demetrius from Jonathan, and considered at the same time that he would raise a numerous army unless they prevented him and seized him, they immediately took their weapons, and surrounded his palace in the way of a siege, and seizing all the ways of getting out, they sought to subdue their king. And when he saw that the people of Antioch had become his bitter enemies and that they were thus in arms, he took the mercenary soldiers which he had with them and those Jews who were sent by Jonathan and assaulted the Antiochians; but he was overpowered by them, for they were many myriads, and was beaten. But when the Jews saw that the Antiochians were superior, they went up to the top of the palace and shot at them from there; and because they were so distant from them by their height, so that they suffered nothing on their side, but performed great execution on the others, as fighting from such an elevation, they drove them out of the adjoining houses and immediately set them on fire, whereon the flame spread itself over the whole city and burnt it all down. This happened by reason of the closeness of the houses and because they were generally built of wood. So the Antiochians, when they were unable to help themselves, nor to stop the fire, were put to flight. And as the Jews leaped from the top of one house to the top of another and pursued them after that manner, it happened there that the pursuit was so very surprising. But when the king saw that the Antiochians were busy in saving their children and their wives, and so did not fight any longer, he fell on them in the narrow passages, and fought them, and slew a great many of them, until at last they were forced to throw down their arms and deliver themselves up to Demetrius. So he forgave them [for] their insolent behavior and put an end to the sedition; and when he had given rewards to the Jews out of the rich spoils he had obtained and had returned them thanks as the cause of his victory, he sent them away to Jerusalem to Jonathan, with an ample testimony of the assistance they had provided him. Yet he proved [to be] a wicked man to Jonathan afterward and broke the promises he had made; and he threatened that he would make war on him, unless he would pay all that tribute which the Jewish nation owed to the first kings [of Syria]. And he would have done this if Trypho had not hindered him and diverted his preparations against Jonathan to a concern for his own preservation; for he now returned out of Arabia into Syria with the child Antiochus (for in age he was only a youth) and put the diadem on his head; and as all the forces that had left Demetrius, because they had no pay, came to his assistance, he made war on Demetrius, and joining battle with him, overcame him in the fight, and took from him both his elephants and the city [of] Antioch.

4. Demetrius, on this defeat, retreated into Cilicia; but the child Antiochus sent ambassadors and a letter to Jonathan, and made him his friend and confederate, and confirmed to him the high priesthood, and yielded up to him the four prefectures which had been added to Judea. Moreover, he sent him vessels, and cups of gold, and a purple garment, and gave him permission to use them. He also presented him with a golden button, and styled him one of his principal friends, and appointed his brother Simon to be the general over the forces, from the Ladder of Tyre to Egypt. So Jonathan was so pleased with these grants made [to] him by Antiochus, that he sent ambassadors to him and to Trypho, and professed himself to be their friend and confederate, and said he would join with him in a war against Demetrius, informing him that he had made no proper returns for the kindness he had done him, because when he had received many marks of kindness from him, when he stood in great need of them, he, for such good returns, had repaid him with further injuries.

5. So Antiochus gave Jonathan permission to raise himself a numerous army out of Syria and Phoenicia and to make war against Demetrius’ generals; whereon he went in haste to the various cities, which indeed received him splendidly, but put no forces into his hands. And when he came from there to Ashkelon, the inhabitants of Ashkelon came and brought him presents and met him in a splendid manner. He exhorted them and every one of the cities of Coele-Syria to forsake Demetrius, and to join with Antiochus, and, in assisting him, to endeavor to punish Demetrius for what offenses he had been guilty of against themselves; and he told them there were many reasons for their procedure, if they intended to do so. And when he had persuaded those cities to promise their assistance to Antiochus, he came to Gaza in order to induce them to be friends to Antiochus also; but he found the inhabitants of Gaza much more alienated from him than he expected, for they had shut their gates against him; and although they had deserted Demetrius, they had not resolved to join themselves to Antiochus. This provoked Jonathan to besiege them and to harass their country, for as he set a part of his army around Gaza itself, so with the rest he overran their land, and spoiled it, and burnt what was in it. When the inhabitants of Gaza saw themselves in this state of affliction, and that no assistance came to them from Demetrius, that what distressed them was at hand, but what should profit them was still at a great distance, and it was uncertain whether it would come at all or not, they thought it would be prudent conduct to cease any further continuance with them and to cultivate friendship with the other; so they sent to Jonathan and professed [that] they would be his friends and provide him assistance: for such is the temper of men, that before they have had the trial of great afflictions, they do not understand what is for their advantage, but when they find themselves under such afflictions, then they change their minds, and what would have been better for them to have done before they had been damaged at all, they choose to do, but not until after they have suffered such damages. However, he made a covenant of friendship with them, and took hostages from them for their performance of it, and sent these hostages to Jerusalem, while he himself went over all the country, as far as Damascus.

6. But when he heard that the generals of Demetrius’ forces had come to the city [of] Kedesh with a numerous army (the place lies between the land of the Tyrians and Galilee), for they supposed they should hereby draw him out of Syria, in order to preserve Galilee, and so that he would not overlook the Galileans who were his own people, when war was made on them, he went to meet them, having left Simon in Judea, who raised as great an army as he was able out of the country, and then set down before Beth-Zur, and besieged it—that being the strongest place in all Judea; and a garrison of Demetrius’ kept it, as we have already related. But as Simon was raising banks, and bringing his engines of war against Beth-Zur, and was very earnest about the siege of it, the garrison was afraid lest the place should be taken by Simon by force and they be put to the sword; so they sent to Simon and desired the security of his oath that they would come to no harm from him, and that they would leave the place and go away to Demetrius. Accordingly, he gave them his oath and banished them from the city, and he put a garrison of his own therein.

7. But Jonathan departed from Galilee and from the waters which are called Gennesar [(Gennesaret)], for he was previously encamped there, and came into the plain that is called Asor without knowing that the enemy was there. When Demetrius’ men therefore knew a day beforehand that Jonathan was coming against them, they laid an ambush in the mountain, who were to assault him suddenly, while they themselves met him with an army in the plain; which army, when Jonathan saw [it] prepared to engage him, he also made his own soldiers ready for the battle as well as he was able; but those that were laid in ambush by Demetrius’ generals being behind them, the Jews were afraid lest they should be caught in the midst between two bodies and perish, so they ran away in haste, and indeed, all the rest abandoned Jonathan; but there were a few, about fifty in number, who stayed with him, and with them Mattathias, the son of Absalom, and Judas, the son of Chapseus, who were commanders of the whole army. These marched boldly and like desperate men against the enemy, and so pushed them, so that by their courage, they frightened them, and with their weapons in their hands, they put them to flight. And when those soldiers of Jonathan that had retreated saw the enemy giving way, they gathered after their flight and pursued them with great violence; and they did this as far as Kedesh, where the camp of the enemy lay.

8. Jonathan, having thus obtained a glorious victory and slain two thousand of the enemy, returned to Jerusalem. So, when he saw that all his affairs prospered according to his mind, by the providence of God, he sent ambassadors to the Romans, being desirous of renewing that friendship which their nation formerly had with them. He instructed the same ambassadors that, as they came back, they should go to the Spartans and reminded them of their friendship and relation. So, when the ambassadors came to Rome, they went into their senate and said what they were commanded by Jonathan the high priest to say, how he had sent them to confirm their friendship. The senate then confirmed what had been formerly decreed concerning their friendship with the Jews and gave them letters to carry to all the kings of Asia and Europe, and to the governors of the cities, so that they might safely lead them to their own country. Accordingly, as they returned, they came to Sparta and delivered the letter which they had received from Jonathan to them; a copy of which follows here: “Jonathan the high priest of the Jewish nation, and the senate, and body of the people of the Jews, to the ephori, and senate, and people of the Lacedemonians: Greetings. If you are well, and both your public and private affairs are agreeable to your mind, it is according to our wishes. We are also well. When in former times a letter was brought to Onias, who was then our high priest, from Areus, who at that time was your king, by Demoteles, concerning the relation that was between us and you, a copy of which is here subjoined, we both joyfully received the letter and were well pleased with Demoteles and Areus, although we did not need such a demonstration, because we were satisfied about it from the sacred writings, yet we did not think [it] right to first begin the claim of this relation to you, lest we should seem too premature in taking the glory for ourselves which is now given [to] us by you. It is a long time since this relation of ours to you has been renewed; and when we, on holy and festival days, offer sacrifices to God, we pray to Him for your preservation and victory. As for ourselves, although we have had many wars that have surrounded us by reason of the covetousness of our neighbors, yet we did not determine to be troublesome either to you, or to others that were related to us; but since we have now overcome our enemies and have opportunity to send Numenius the son of Antiochus, and Antipater the son of Jason, who are both honorable men belonging to our senate, to the Romans, we gave them this letter to you also, so that they might renew that friendship which is between us. You will therefore do well yourselves to write to us and send us an account of what you stand in need of from us, since we are inclined in all things to act according to your desires.” So the Lacedemonians received the ambassadors kindly, and made a decree of friendship and mutual assistance, and sent it to them.

9. At this time there were three sects among the Jews who had different opinions concerning human actions: one was called the sect of the Pharisees, another the sect of the Sadducees, and the other the sect of the Essenes. Now for the Pharisees, they say that some actions, but not all, are the work of fate, and some of them are in our own power, and that they are liable to fate, but are not caused by fate. But the sect of the Essenes affirm that fate governs all things, and that nothing happens to men but what is according to its determination. And for the Sadducees, they take away fate, and say there is no such thing, and that the events of human affairs are not at its disposal; but they suppose that all our actions are in our own power, so that we are the causes of what is good ourselves and receive what is evil from our own folly. However, I have given a more exact account of these opinions in the second book of the Jewish War.

10. But now the generals of Demetrius being willing to reverse the defeat they had had, gathered a greater army together than they had before and came against Jonathan; but as soon as he was informed of their coming, he suddenly went to meet them, to the country of Hamath, for he resolved to give them no opportunity of coming into Judea; so he pitched his camp at fifty stadia’s distance from the enemy and sent out spies to take a view of their camp and after what manner they were encamped. When his spies had given him complete information and had seized some of them by night, who told him the enemy would soon attack him, he, thus apprised beforehand, provided for his security, and placed watchmen beyond his camp, and kept all his forces armed all night; and he gave them a command to be of good courage and to have their minds prepared to fight in the nighttime if they should be obligated to do so, lest their enemy’s plans should seem concealed from them. But when Demetrius’ commanders were informed that Jonathan knew what they intended, their counsels were disordered, and it alarmed them to find that the enemy had discovered their intentions; nor did they expect to overcome them any other way, now [that] they had failed in the snares they had laid for them; for should they risk an open battle, they did not think they would be a match for Jonathan’s army, so they resolved to flee; and having lighted many fires, so that when the enemy saw them they might suppose they were still there, they retreated. When Jonathan came to battle with them in the morning in their camp, and found it deserted, and understood [that] they had fled, he pursued them; yet he could not overtake them, for they had already passed over the river Eleutherus and were out of danger. So when Jonathan had returned from there, he went into Arabia, and fought against the Nabateans, and drove away a great deal of their prey, and took [many] captives, and came to Damascus, and sold off what he had taken there. It was about the same time that his brother Simon went over all Judea and Palestine, as far as Ashkelon, and fortified the strongholds; and when he had made them very strong, both in the edifices erected, and in the garrisons placed in them, he came to Joppa; and when he had taken it, he brought a great garrison into it, for he heard that the people of Joppa were inclined to deliver up the city to Demetrius’ generals.

11. When Simon and Jonathan had finished these affairs, they returned to Jerusalem, where Jonathan gathered all the people together and took counsel to restore the walls of Jerusalem, and to rebuild the wall that surrounded the temple, which had been thrown down, and to make the places adjoining stronger by very high towers; and besides that, to build another wall in the midst of the city, in order to exclude the marketplace from the garrison, which was in the citadel, and by that means to hinder them from any surplus of provisions; and moreover, to make the fortresses that were in the country much stronger and more defensible than they were before. And when these things were approved of by the multitude, as rightly proposed, Jonathan himself took care of the building that belonged to the city and sent Simon away to make the fortresses in the country more secure than before. But Demetrius passed over [the Euphrates] and came into Mesopotamia, as still desirous to retain that country, as well as Babylon; and when he should have obtained the dominion of the upper provinces, to lay a foundation for recovering his entire kingdom; for those Greeks and Macedonians who dwelt there frequently sent ambassadors to him and promised that if he would come to them, they would deliver themselves up to him and assist him in fighting against Arsaces, the king of the Parthians. So he was elevated with these hopes and came hastily to them as having resolved that if he had once overthrown the Parthians and secured an army of his own, he would make war against Trypho and banish him from Syria; and the people of that country received him with great eagerness. So, he raised forces, with which he fought against Arsaces, and lost all his army, and was himself taken alive, as we have related elsewhere.

CHAPTER 6

How Jonathan Was Slain by Treachery; And Therefore, How the Jews Made Simon Their General and High Priest; What Courageous Actions He Also Performed—Especially Against Trypho.

1. Now when Trypho knew what had happened to Demetrius, he was no longer firm to Antiochus, but plotted by subtlety to kill him and then take possession of his kingdom; but the fear that he was in of Jonathan was an obstacle to his scheme, for Jonathan was a friend to Antiochus, for which reason he first resolved to take Jonathan out of the way, and then to set about his scheme relating to Antiochus; but judging it best to take him off by deceit and treachery, he came from Antioch to Beth-Shan, which by the Greeks is called Scythopolis, at which place Jonathan met him with forty thousand chosen men, for he thought that he came to fight him; but when he perceived that Jonathan was prepared to fight, he attempted to gain him by presents and kind treatment, and gave an order to his captains to obey him, and by these means desired to give assurance of his goodwill, and to take away all suspicions out of his mind, so that he might make him careless and inconsiderate and might take him when he was unguarded. He also advised him to dismiss his army, because there was no reason for bringing it with him when there was no war, but all was at peace. However, he desired him to retain a few around him and go with him to Ptolemais, because he would deliver the city up to him and would bring all the fortresses that were in the country under his dominion; and he told him that he came with those very plans.

2. Yet Jonathan did not suspect anything at all by his management, but believed that Trypho gave him this advice out of [genuine] kindness and with a sincere plan. Accordingly, he dismissed his army, and retained no more than three thousand of them with him, and left two thousand in Galilee; and he himself, with one thousand, came with Trypho to Ptolemais. But when the people of Ptolemais had shut their gates, as it had been commanded by Trypho to do, he took Jonathan alive and slew all that were with him. He also sent soldiers against those two thousand that were left in Galilee, in order to destroy them; but those men having heard the report of what had happened to Jonathan, they prevented the execution; and before those that were sent by Trypho came, they covered themselves with their armor and went away out of the country. Now when those that were sent against them saw that they were ready to fight for their lives, they gave them no disturbance, but returned back to Trypho.

3. But when the people of Jerusalem heard that Jonathan was taken, and that the soldiers who were with him were destroyed, they deplored his sad fate; and there was earnest inquiry made about him by everybody, and a great and just fear fell on them, and made them sad, lest, now [that] they were deprived of the courage and conduct of Jonathan, the nations around them should bear them animosity; and as they were before quiet on account of Jonathan, they should now rise up against them, and by making war with them, should force them into the utmost dangers. And indeed, what they suspected truly happened to them, for when those nations heard of the death of Jonathan, they began to make war with the Jews as now destitute of a governor; and Trypho himself gathered an army and had an intention to go up to Judea and make war against its inhabitants. But when Simon saw that the people of Jerusalem were terrified at the circumstances they were in, he desired to make a speech to them and thereby to render them more resolute in opposing Trypho when he should come against them. He then called the people together into the temple and began thus to encourage them there: “O my countrymen, you are not ignorant that our father, myself, and my brothers, have ventured to risk our [very] lives, and that willingly, for the recovery of your liberty; since I therefore have such abundant examples before me, and we of our family have determined among ourselves to die for our laws and our Divine worship, there will be no terror so great as to banish this resolution from our souls, nor to introduce in its place a love of life and a contempt of glory. Therefore, follow me with eagerness wheresoever I will lead you, as not destitute of such a captain as is willing to suffer and to do the greatest things for you; for neither am I better than my brothers that I should be sparing of my own life, nor so far worse than they as to avoid and refuse what they thought the most honorable of all things—I mean, to undergo death for your laws, and for that worship of God which is peculiar to you; I will therefore give such proper demonstrations as will show that I am their own brother; and I am so bold as to expect that I will avenge their blood on our enemies, and deliver you all with your wives and children from the injuries they intend against you, and, with God’s assistance, to preserve your temple from destruction by them; for I see that these nations hold you in contempt, as being without a governor, and that they are encouraged to make war against you.”

4. By this speech of Simon he inspired the multitude with courage; and as they had been previously disheartened through fear, they were now raised to a good hope of better things, insomuch that the whole multitude of the people cried out all at once that Simon should be their leader, and that instead of his brothers Judas and Jonathan, he should have the government over them; and they promised that they would readily obey him in whatever he would command them. So he immediately gathered all his own soldiers that were fit for war, and made haste in rebuilding the walls of the city and strengthening them by very high and strong towers, and sent a friend of his—one Jonathan, the son of Absalom—to Joppa, and gave him an order to banish the inhabitants from the city, for he was afraid lest they should deliver up the city to Trypho; but he himself stayed to secure Jerusalem.

5. But Trypho departed from Ptolemais with a great army, and came into Judea, and brought Jonathan with him in bonds. Simon also met him with his army at the city [of] Adida, which is on a hill, and beneath it lies the plains of Judea. And when Trypho knew that Simon was made their governor by the Jews, he sent to him, and would have imposed on him by deceit and treachery, and desired, if he would have his brother Jonathan released, that he would send him one hundred talents of silver and two of Jonathan’s sons as hostages, so that when he will be released, he may not make Judea revolt from the king; for at present he was kept in bonds on account of the money he had borrowed from the king and now owed it to him. But Simon was aware of the craft of Trypho; and although he knew that if he gave him the money he would lose it, and that Trypho would not set his brother free and additionally would deliver the sons of Jonathan to the enemy, yet because he was afraid that he should have a defamation raised against him among the multitude as the cause of his brother’s death if he neither gave the money, nor sent Jonathan’s sons, he gathered his army together and told them what offers Trypho had made; and he added this: that the offers were ensnaring and treacherous, and yet that it was more eligible to send the money and Jonathan’s sons, than to be liable to the imputation of not complying with Trypho’s offers, and thereby refusing to save his brother. Accordingly, Simon sent the sons of Jonathan and the money; but when Trypho had received them, he did not keep his promise, nor set Jonathan free, but took his army, and went all around the country, and resolved to afterward go to Jerusalem by the way of Idumea, while Simon went opposite him with his army, and all along pitched his own camp opposite his.

6. But when those that were in the citadel had sent to Trypho and pleaded with him to make haste, and come to them, and to send them provisions, he prepared his cavalry as though he would be at Jerusalem that very night; but such a great quantity of snow fell in the night that it covered the roads and made them so deep that there was no passing, especially for the cavalry. This hindered him from coming to Jerusalem; whereon Trypho departed from there and came into Coele-Syria, and falling vehemently on the land of Gilead, he slew Jonathan there; and when he had given an order for his burial, he returned to Antioch himself. However, Simon sent some to the city [of] Basca to bring away his brother’s bones, and he buried them in their own city [of] Modin; and all the people made great lamentation over him. Simon also erected a very large monument for his father and his brothers, of white and polished stone, and raised it [to] a great height and so as to be seen a long way off, and made cloisters around it, and set up pillars, which were of one stone apiece; it was a wonderful work to see. Moreover, he also built seven pyramids for his parents and his brothers, one for each of them, which were made very surprising, both for their size and beauty, and which have been preserved to this day; and we know that it was Simon who bestowed so much zeal about the burial of Jonathan and the building of these monuments for his relations. Now Jonathan died when he had been high priest [for] four years and had also been the governor of his nation. And these were the circumstances that concerned his death.

7. But Simon, who was made high priest by the multitude, on the very first year of his high priesthood, set his people free from their slavery under the Macedonians and permitted them to pay tribute to them no longer; which liberty and freedom from tribute they obtained after one hundred and seventy years of the kingdom of the Assyrians, which was after Seleucus, who was called Nicator, gained dominion over Syria. Now the affection of the multitude toward Simon was so great that in their contracts with one another, and in their public records, they wrote, “In the first year of Simon the benefactor and ethnarch of the Jews”; for under him they were very happy and overcame the enemies that were around them, for Simon overthrew the city [of] Gazara, and Joppa, and Jamnia. He also took the citadel of Jerusalem by siege and cast it down to the ground, so that it might no longer be a place of refuge for their enemies when they took it, to cause them harm, as it had been until now. And when he had done this, he thought it their best path and most for their advantage to level the very mountain itself on which the citadel happened to stand, so that the temple might be higher than it. And indeed, when he had called the multitude to an assembly, he persuaded them to have it so demolished, and this by reminding them what miseries they had suffered by its garrison and the Jewish deserters, and what miseries they might hereafter suffer in case any foreigner should obtain the kingdom and put a garrison into that citadel. This speech induced the multitude to compliance, because he exhorted them to do nothing but what was for their own good: so they all set themselves to the work, and leveled the mountain, and in that work spent both day and night without any intermission, which cost them three whole years before it was removed and brought to an equal level with the plain of the rest of the city. After this, the temple was the highest of all the buildings, now [that] the citadel, as well as the mountain whereon it stood, were demolished. And these actions were thus performed under Simon.

CHAPTER 7

How Simon Confederated Himself with Antiochus the Pious and Made War Against Trypho, and Shortly Afterward, Against Cendebeus, the General of Antiochus’ Army; As Also How Simon Was Murdered by His Son-in-Law Ptolemy, and That by Treachery.

1. Now a little while after Demetrius had been carried into captivity, Trypho, his governor, destroyed Antiochus, the son of Alexander, who was also called The God, and this when he had [only] reigned four years, although he claimed that he died under the hands of the surgeons. He then sent his friends, and those that were most intimate with him, to the soldiers and promised that he would give them a great deal of money if they would make him king. He hinted to them that Demetrius was made a captive by the Parthians, and that Demetrius’ brother Antiochus, if he came to be king, would do them a great deal of harm, in way of revenge for their revolting from his brother. So the soldiers, in expectation of the wealth they would get by bestowing the kingdom on Trypho, made him their ruler. However, when Trypho had gained the management of affairs, he demonstrated his disposition to be wicked; for while he was a private person, he cultivated familiarity with the multitude, and pretended toward great moderation, and so drew them on craftily to whatsoever he pleased; but when he had once taken the kingdom, he laid aside any further disguise and was the true Trypho, which behavior made his enemies superior to him; for the soldiers hated him and revolted from him to Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius, who was then shut up in Seleucia with her children. But as Antiochus, the brother of Demetrius, who was called Soter, was not admitted by any of the cities on account of Trypho, Cleopatra sent to him, and invited him to marry her, and to take the kingdom. The reasons why she made this invitation were these: that her friends persuaded her to it, and that she was afraid for herself, in case some of the people of Seleucia should deliver the city up to Trypho.

2. As Antiochus had now come to Seleucia, and his forces increased every day, he marched to fight Trypho; and having beaten him in the battle, he banished him from Upper Syria into Phoenicia, and pursued him there, and besieged him in Dora, which was a difficult fortress to be captured, where he had fled. He also sent ambassadors to Simon the Jewish high priest about a covenant of friendship and mutual assistance, who readily accepted the invitation and sent to Antiochus great sums of money and provisions for those that besieged Dora, and thereby supplied them very abundantly, so that for a little while he was looked on as one of his most intimate friends; but Trypho still fled from Dora to Apamea, where he was taken during the siege and put to death when he had reigned [only] three years.

3. However, Antiochus forgot the kind assistance that Simon had provided him in his necessity, by reason of his covetous and wicked disposition, and committed an army of soldiers to his friend Cendebeus, and sent him at once to ravage Judea and to seize Simon. When Simon heard of Antiochus breaking his covenant with him, although he was now [aged] in years, yet, provoked with the unjust treatment he had met with from Antiochus, and taking a resolution brisker than his age could well bear, he went like a young man to act as general of his army. He also sent his sons ahead among the hardiest of his soldiers, and he himself marched on with his army another way, and laid many of his men in ambushes in the narrow valleys between the mountains; nor did he fail of success in any one of his attempts, but was too difficult for his enemies in every one of them. So, he led the rest of his life in peace and also made an alliance with the Romans himself.

4. Now he was the ruler of the Jews eight years in all, but at a feast, came to his end. It was caused by the treachery of his son-in-law Ptolemy, who also caught his wife, and two of his sons, and kept them in bonds. He also sent some to kill John, the third son, whose name was Hyrcanus; but the young man perceiving them coming, avoided the danger he was in from them, and made haste into the city [of Jerusalem], as relying on the goodwill of the multitude, because of the benefits they had received from his father, and because of the hatred the same multitude bore to Ptolemy, so that when Ptolemy was endeavoring to enter the city by another gate, they drove him away, as having already admitted Hyrcanus.

CHAPTER 8

Hyrcanus Receives the High Priesthood and Banishes Ptolemy from the Country. Antiochus Makes War Against Hyrcanus and Afterward Makes an Alliance with Him.

1. So Ptolemy retired to one of the fortresses that was above Jericho, which was called Dagon. But Hyrcanus having taken the high priesthood that had been his father’s before, and in the first place propitiated God by sacrifices, he then made an expedition against Ptolemy; and when he made his attacks on the place, in other points he was too difficult for him, but was rendered weaker than him by the pity he had for his mother and brothers, and by that only, for Ptolemy brought them on the wall, and tormented them in the sight of all, and threatened that he would throw them down headlong, unless Hyrcanus would stop the siege. And as he thought that so far as he relaxed as to the siege and taking of the place, so much favor did he show to those that were dearest to him by preventing their misery, his zeal about it was cooled. However, his mother spread out her hands, and begged of him that he would not grow careless on her account, but indulge his indignation so much the more, and that he would do his utmost to take the place quickly, in order to get their enemy under his power, and then to avenge on him what he had done to those that were dearest to himself; for death would be sweet to her, though with torment, if that enemy of theirs might yet be brought to punishment for his wicked dealings to them. Now when his mother said this, he resolved to take the fortress immediately; but when he saw her beaten and torn to pieces, his courage failed him, and he could not but sympathize with what his mother suffered, and was thereby overcome. And as the siege was drawn out into length by this means, that year on which the Jews used to rest came on; for the Jews observe this rest every seventh year, as they do every seventh day; so that Ptolemy, being released from the war for this reason, slew the brothers of Hyrcanus and his mother; and when he had done so, he fled to Zeno, who was called Cotylas, who was then the tyrant of the city [of] Philadelphia.

2. But Antiochus, being very troubled by the miseries that Simon had brought on him, invaded Judea in the fourth year of his reign, and the first year of the principality of Hyrcanus, in the one hundred and sixty-second Olympiad. And when he had burnt the country, he shut up Hyrcanus in the city, which he surrounded with seven encampments; but he just did nothing at first, because of the strength of the walls, and because of the valor of the besieged, although they were once in need of water, which yet they were delivered from by a large shower of rain, which fell at the setting of the Pleiades. However, around the north part of the wall, where it happened [that] the city was level with the outward ground, the king raised one hundred towers of three stories high and placed bodies of soldiers on them; and as he made his attacks every day, he cut a double ditch, deep and broad, and confined the inhabitants within it as within a wall; but the besieged resolved to make frequent assaults out; and if the enemy was not anywhere on their guard, they fell on them and did them a great deal of trouble; and if they perceived them, they then retreated into the city with ease. But because Hyrcanus discerned the inconvenience of such a great number of men in the city, while the provisions were [all] the sooner spent by them, and yet, as is natural to suppose, those great numbers did nothing, he separated the useless part, and excluded them out of the city, and retained only that part which were in the flower of their age and fit for war. However, Antiochus would not let those that were excluded go away, who therefore wandering around between the walls, and consuming away by famine, died miserably; but when the Celebration of Tabernacles was at hand, those that were within pitied their condition and received them in again. And when Hyrcanus sent to Antiochus and desired [that] there might be a truce for seven days, because of the festival, he gave way to this piety toward God and made that truce accordingly. And besides that, he sent in a magnificent sacrifice—bulls with their horns gilded, with all sorts of sweet spices, and with cups of gold and silver. So those that were at the gates received the sacrifices from those that brought them, and led them to the temple, Antiochus meanwhile feasting his army, which was a quite different conduct from Antiochus Epiphanes, who, when he had taken the city, offered swine on the altar and sprinkled the temple with the broth of their flesh in order to violate the laws of the Jews and the religion they derived from their forefathers; for which reason our nation made war with him and would never be reconciled to him; but [as] for this Antiochus, all men called him Antiochus the Pious, for the great zeal he had about religion.

3. Accordingly, Hyrcanus took this moderation of his kindly; and when he understood how religious he was toward the Deity, he sent an envoy to him and desired that he would restore the settlements they received from their forefathers. So he rejected the counsel of those that would have him utterly destroy the nation, by reason of their way of living, which was to others unsociable, and did not regard what they said. But being persuaded that all they did was out of a religious mind, he answered the ambassadors that if the besieged would deliver up their arms, and pay tribute for Joppa and the other cities which bordered on Judea, and admit a garrison of his, on these terms he would no longer make war against them. But the Jews, although they were content with the other conditions, did not agree to admit the garrison, because they could not associate with other people, nor converse with them; yet they were willing, instead of the admission of the garrison, to give him hostages and five hundred talents of silver, of which they paid down three hundred and sent the hostages immediately, which King Antiochus accepted. One of those hostages was Hyrcanus’ brother. But he still broke down the fortifications that surrounded the city. And on these conditions, Antiochus broke up the siege and departed.

4. But Hyrcanus opened the tomb of David, who excelled all other kings in riches, and took three thousand talents out of it. He was also the first of the Jews that, relying on this wealth, maintained foreign troops. There was also a covenant of friendship and mutual assistance made between them, on which Hyrcanus admitted him into the city, and furnished him with whatsoever his army wanted in great plenty, and with great generosity, and marched along with him when he made an expedition against the Parthians. Nicolaus of Damascus is a witness of this for us, who in his history writes this: “When Antiochus had erected a trophy at the river Lycus, on his conquest of Indates, the general of the Parthians, he stayed there two days. It was at the desire of Hyrcanus the Jew, because it was such a festival derived to them from their forefathers, whereon the Law of the Jews did not allow them to travel.” And truly, he did not speak falsely in saying so; for that festival, which we call Pentecost, then happened to be the next day to the Sabbath. Nor is it lawful for us to journey, either on the Sabbath day, or on a festival day. But when Antiochus joined battle with Arsaces, the king of Parthia, he lost a great part of his army and was himself slain; and his brother Demetrius succeeded [him] in the kingdom of Syria, by the permission of Arsaces, who freed him from his captivity at the same time that Antiochus attacked Parthia, as we have formerly related elsewhere.

CHAPTER 9

How, After the Death of Antiochus, Hyrcanus Made an Expedition Against Syria and Made an Alliance with the Romans. Concerning the Death of King Demetrius and Alexander.

1. But when Hyrcanus heard of the death of Antiochus, he presently made an expedition against the cities of Syria, hoping to find them destitute of fighting men and of such as were able to defend them. However, it was not until the sixth month that he took Medaba—and that not without the greatest distress of his army. After this, he took Samega and the neighboring places; and besides these, Shechem, and Gerizim, and the nation of the Cutheans, who dwelt at the temple which resembled that temple which was at Jerusalem, and which Alexander permitted Sanballat, the general of his army, to build for the sake of Manasseh, who was [the] son-in-law to Jaddua the high priest, as we have formerly related; which temple was now deserted [for] two hundred years after it was built. Hyrcanus also took Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and he permitted them to stay in that country if they would circumcise their genitals and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision and of the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time this therefore happened to them: that they were hereafter none other than Jews.

2. But Hyrcanus the high priest desired to renew that covenant of friendship they had with the Romans. Accordingly, he sent an envoy to them; and when the senate had received their letter, they made a covenant of friendship with them, in the following manner: “Fanius, the son of Marcus, the praetor, gathered the senate together on the eighth day before the Ides of February, in the senate-house, when Lucius Manlius, the son of Lucius, of the Mentine tribe, and Gaius Sempronius, the son of Gaius, of the Falernian tribe, were present. The occasion was that the ambassadors sent by the people of the Jews—Simon, the son of Dositheus, and Apollonius, the son of Alexander, and Diodorus, the son of Jason—who were good and virtuous men, had something to propose about that covenant of friendship and mutual assistance which subsisted between them and the Romans, and about other public affairs, who desired that Joppa, and the havens, and Gazara, and the springs [of the Jordan], and the several other cities and countries of theirs, which Antiochus had taken from them in the war, contrary to the decree of the senate, might be restored to them; and that it might not be lawful for the king’s troops to pass through their country and the countries of those that are subject to them; and that what attempts Antiochus had made during that war, without the decree of the senate, might be made void; and that they would send ambassadors, who should take care that restitution be made [to] them of what Antiochus had taken from them, and that they should make an estimate of the [area of the] country that had been laid waste in the war; and that they would grant them letters of protection to the kings and free people for their quiet return home. It was therefore decreed, as to these points, to renew their covenant of friendship and mutual assistance with these good men, and who were sent by a good and a friendly people.” But as for the letters desired, their answer was that the senate would consult about that matter when their own affairs would give them allowance; and that they would endeavor, for the time to come, that no similar injury should be done to them; and that their praetor Fanius should give them money out of the public treasury to bear their expenses home. And thus Fanius dismissed the Jewish ambassadors, and gave them money out of the public treasury, and gave the decree of the senate to those that were to lead them and to take care that they should return home in safety.

3. And thus stood the affairs of Hyrcanus the high priest. But as for King Demetrius, who intended to make war against Hyrcanus, there was no opportunity nor room for it while both the Syrians and the soldiers bore animosity toward him, because he was a bad man. But when they had sent ambassadors to Ptolemy, who was called Physcon, so that he would send them one of the family of Seleucus, in order to take the kingdom, and he had sent them Alexander, who was called Zebina, with an army, and there had been a battle between them, Demetrius was beaten in the fight and fled to his wife Cleopatra at Ptolemais; but his wife would not receive him. He went from there to Tyre and was caught there; and when he had suffered much from his enemies before his death, he was slain by them. So Alexander took the kingdom and made a covenant with Hyrcanus, who yet, when he afterward fought with Antiochus the son of Demetrius, who was called Grypus, was also beaten in the fight and slain.

CHAPTER 10

How on the Quarrel Between Antiochus Grypus and Antiochus Cyzicenus About the Kingdom, Hyrcanus Took Samaria and Utterly Demolished It; And How Hyrcanus Joined Himself to the Sect of the Sadducees and Left That of the Pharisees.

1. When Antiochus had taken the kingdom, he was afraid to make war against Judea, because he heard that his brother by the same mother, who was also called Antiochus, was raising an army against him out of Cyzicum; so he stayed in his own land and resolved to prepare himself for the attack he expected from his brother, who was called Cyzicenus, because he had been brought up in that city. He was the son of Antiochus, who was called Soter, who died in Parthia. He was the brother of Demetrius, the father of Grypus; for it had so happened that one and the same Cleopatra was married to two who were brothers, as we have related elsewhere. But Antiochus Cyzicenus coming into Syria, continued many years at war with his brother. Now Hyrcanus lived in peace all this time, for after the death of Antiochus, he revolted from the Macedonians, nor did he pay them the least regard any longer, either as their subject or their friend; but his affairs were in a very improving and flourishing condition in the times of Alexander Zebina, and especially under these brothers, for the war which they had with one another gave Hyrcanus the opportunity of enjoying himself in Judea quietly, insomuch that he acquired an immense quantity of money. However, when Antiochus Cyzicenus distressed his land, he then openly showed what he meant. And when he saw that Antiochus was destitute of Egyptian auxiliaries, and that both he and his brother were in a poor condition in the struggles they had with one another, he despised them both.

2. So he made an expedition against Samaria, which was a very strong city, of whose present name Sebaste, and its rebuilding by Herod, we will speak at a proper time; but he made his attack against it and besieged it with a great deal of effort, for he was greatly displeased with the Samaritans for the injuries they had done to the people of Merissa, a colony of the Jews, and confederate with them, and this in compliance to the kings of Syria. When he had therefore drawn a ditch and built a double wall around the city, which was eighty stadia long, he set his sons Antigonus and Aristobulus over the siege, which brought the Samaritans to such great distress by famine that they were forced to eat what was not usually eaten and to call for Antiochus Cyzicenus to help them, who readily came to their assistance, but was beaten by Aristobulus; and when he was pursued as far as Scythopolis by the two brothers, he got away. So they returned to Samaria and shut them up again within the wall, until they were forced to send for the same Antiochus a second time to help them, who procured about six thousand men from Ptolemy Lathyrus, which were sent [to] them without his mother’s consent, who had then in a manner turned him out of his government. With these Egyptians, Antiochus at first overran and ravaged the country of Hyrcanus after the manner of a robber, for he dared not meet him face-to-face to fight with him, as not having an army sufficient for that purpose, but only from this assumption: that by thus harassing his land, he would force Hyrcanus to raise the siege of Samaria; but because he fell into snares and lost many of his soldiers therein, he went away to Tripoli and committed the prosecution of the war against the Jews to Callimander and Epicrates.

3. But as for Callimander, he attacked the enemy too rashly, and was put to flight, and immediately destroyed; and as for Epicrates, he was such a lover of money, that he openly betrayed Scythopolis, and other places near it, to the Jews, but was unable to make them raise the siege of Samaria. And when Hyrcanus had taken that city, which was not done until after a year’s siege, he was not satisfied with doing that only, but he demolished it entirely, and brought streams to it to drown it, for he dug such hollows as might let the water run under it; indeed, he took away the very marks that there had ever been such a city there. Now a very surprising thing is related of this high priest Hyrcanus: how God came to discourse with him; for they say that on the very same day on which his sons fought with Antiochus Cyzicenus, he was alone in the temple, as high priest, offering incense, and heard a voice [say] that his sons had just then overcome Antiochus. And he openly declared this before all the multitude on his coming out of the temple; and it accordingly proved true; and the affairs of Hyrcanus were in this posture.

4. Now it so happened at this time that not only were those Jews who were at Jerusalem and in Judea in prosperity, but also those of them that were at Alexandria, and in Egypt, and Cyprus; for Cleopatra the queen was in conflict with her son Ptolemy, who was called Lathyrus, and appointed for her generals Chelcias and Ananias, the sons of that Onias who built the temple in the prefecture of Heliopolis similar to that at Jerusalem, as we have related elsewhere. Cleopatra entrusted these men with her army and did nothing without their advice, as Strabo of Cappadocia attests, when he says this: “Now the greater part, both those that came to Cyprus with us and those that were sent there afterward, immediately revolted to Ptolemy; only those that were called Onias’ party, being Jews, remained faithful, because their countrymen Chelcias and Ananias were in chief favor with the queen.” These are the words of Strabo.

5. However, this prosperous state of affairs moved the Jews to envy Hyrcanus; but they that were the worst disposed toward him were the Pharisees, who were one of the sects of the Jews, as we have informed you already. These have such great power over the multitude that when they say anything against the king, or against the high priest, they are presently believed. Now Hyrcanus was a disciple of theirs and greatly beloved by them. And when he once invited them to a feast, and entertained them very kindly, when he saw them in good humor, he began to say to them that they knew he desired to be a righteous man and to do all things whereby he might please God, which was also the profession of the Pharisees. However, he desired that if they observed him offending in any point, and going out of the right way, they would call him back and correct him. On which occasion they attested to his being entirely virtuous; with which commendation he was well pleased. But there was still one of his guests there, whose name was Eleazar, a man of a bad temper and delighting in seditious practices. This man said, “Since you desire to know the truth: if you will be righteous in earnest, lay down the high priesthood and satisfy yourself with the civil government of the people.” And when he desired to know for what reason he ought to lay down the high priesthood, the other replied, “We have heard it from old men that your mother had been a captive under the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.” This story was false, and Hyrcanus was provoked against him; and all the Pharisees had a very great indignation against him.

6. Now there was one Jonathan, a very great friend of Hyrcanus, but of the sect of the Sadducees, whose notions are quite contrary to those of the Pharisees. He told Hyrcanus that Eleazar had cast such a reproach on him, according to the common sentiments of all the Pharisees, and that this would be made manifest if he would only ask them the question: what punishment did they think this man deserved? for he might depend on it, that the reproach was now laid on him with their approval, if they were for punishing him as his crime deserved. So, the Pharisees responded that he deserved stripes and bonds, but that it did not seem right to punish reproaches with death. And indeed, the Pharisees, even on other occasions, are not apt to be severe in punishments. At this gentle sentence, Hyrcanus was very angry and thought that this man reproached him by their approval. It was this Jonathan who chiefly irritated him and influenced him so far that he made him leave the party of the Pharisees, and abolish the decrees they had imposed on the people, and to punish those that observed them. From this source arose that hatred which he and his sons met with from the multitude: but of these matters we will speak hereafter. What I would now explain is this: that the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the laws of Moses; and it is for that reason that the Sadducees reject them and say that we are [only] to regard those observances to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers. And it is concerning these things that great disputes and differences have arisen among them, while the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich and do not have the populace affectionate toward them, but the Pharisees have the multitude on their side. But concerning these two sects, and that of the Essenes, I have handled [them] accurately in the second book of Jewish affairs.

7. But when Hyrcanus had put an end to this sedition, he lived happily after that, and administered the government in the best manner for thirty-one years, and then died, leaving five sons behind him. He was regarded by God worthy of three of the greatest privileges: the government of his nation, the dignity of the high priesthood, and prophecy; for God was with him and enabled him to know future events and to foretell this in particular, that, as to his two eldest sons, he foretold that they would not continue long in the government of public affairs—whose unhappy catastrophe will be worth our description, so that we may then learn how very much inferior they were to their father’s blessedness.

CHAPTER 11

How Aristobulus, When He Had Taken the Government, First of All Put a Diadem on His Head and Was Most Barbarically Cruel to His Mother and His Brothers; And How, After He Had Slain Antigonus, He Himself Died.

1. Now when their father Hyrcanus was dead, the eldest son Aristobulus, intending to change the government into a kingdom, for so he resolved to do, first of all put a diadem on his head four hundred and eighty-one years and three months after the people had been delivered from the Babylonian slavery and were returned to their own country again. This Aristobulus loved his next brother Antigonus and treated him as his equal, but he held the others in bonds. He also cast his mother into prison, because she disputed the government with him; for Hyrcanus had left her to be mistress of all. He also proceeded to that degree of barbarity, as to kill her in prison with hunger; indeed, he was alienated from his brother Antigonus by defamations and added him to the rest whom he slew; yet he seemed to have an affection for him and made him a partner with him in the kingdom above the rest. Those defamations he at first did not give credit to, partly because he loved him, and so did not give heed to what was said against him, and partly because he thought the reproaches were derived from the envy of the relaters. But when Antigonus had once returned from the army, and that feast was then at hand when they make tabernacles for [God’s honor], it happened that Aristobulus had fallen sick, and that Antigonus went up most splendidly adorned, and with his soldiers around him in their armor, to the temple to celebrate the feast and to put up many prayers for the recovery of his brother, when some wicked persons, who had a great mind to raise a difference between the brothers, made use of this opportunity of the pompous appearance of Antigonus and of the great actions which he had done, and went to the king, and spitefully aggravated the pompous show of his at the feast, and pretended that all these circumstances were unlike those of a private person—that these actions were indications of a posturing for royal authority; and that his coming with a strong body of men must be with an intention to kill him; and that his way of reasoning was this: that it was a silly thing in him, while it was in his power to reign himself, to look on it as a great favor that he was honored with a lower dignity by his brother.

2. Aristobulus yielded to these imputations, but took care both that his brother should not suspect him, and that he himself might not run the risk of his own safety; so he ordered his guards to lie in a certain place that was underground and dark (he himself then lying sick in the tower which was called Antonia); and he commanded them that in case Antigonus came in to him unarmed, they should not touch anybody, but if armed, they should kill him; yet he sent to Antigonus and desired that he would come unarmed; but the queen, and those that joined with her in the plot against Antigonus, persuaded the messenger to tell him the direct opposite: how his brother had heard that he had made himself a fine suit of armor for war and desired him to come to him in that armor, so that he might see how fine it was. So Antigonus suspecting no treachery, but depending on the goodwill of his brother, came to Aristobulus armed, as he used to be, with his entire armor, in order to show it to him; but when he had come to a place which was called Strato’s Tower, where the passage happened to be exceedingly dark, the guards slew him: which death of his demonstrates that nothing is stronger than envy and defamation, and that nothing more unquestionably divides the goodwill and natural affections of men than those passions. But here one may take time to wonder at one Judas, who was of the sect of the Essenes, and who never missed the truth in his predictions; for this man, when he saw Antigonus passing by the temple, cried out to his companions and friends, who abided with him as his scholars in order to learn the art of foretelling things to come, that, “It was good for him to die now, since he had spoken falsely about Antigonus, who is still alive, and I see him passing by, although he had foretold he would die at the place called Strato’s Tower that very day, while yet the place is six hundred stadia away, where he had foretold he would be slain; and still, a great part of this day is already past, so that he was in danger of proving [to be] a false prophet.” As he was saying this—and that in a melancholy mood—the news came that Antigonus was slain in a place underground, which itself was also called Strato’s Tower, or of the same name with that Caesarea which is seated at the sea. This event put the prophet into great distress.

3. But Aristobulus immediately regretted this slaughter of his brother, on which account his disease increased on him, and he was disturbed in his mind, on the guilt of such wickedness, insomuch that his entrails were corrupted by his intolerable pain, and he vomited blood: at which time one of the servants that attended on him and was carrying his blood away, did, by Divine Providence, as I cannot but suppose, slip down and spill part of his blood at the very place where there were spots of Antigonus’ blood, there slain, still remaining; and when a cry was made by the spectators, as if the servant had shed the blood on that place on purpose, Aristobulus heard it and inquired what the matter was; and as they did not answer him, he was [even] more earnest to know what it was, it being natural for men to suspect that what is thus concealed is very bad: so on his threatening and forcing them by terrors to speak, they finally told him the truth, whereon he shed many tears, in that distress of mind which arose from his consciousness of what he had done, and gave a deep groan, and said, “I am not therefore, I perceive, to be concealed from God, in the impious and horrid crimes I have been guilty of, but a sudden punishment is coming on me for shedding the blood of my family. And now, O you most impudent body of mine! How long will you retain a soul that ought to die, in order to appease the ghosts of my brother and my mother? Why do you not give it all up at once? And why do I deliver up my blood drop by drop to those whom I have so wickedly murdered?” In saying these final words, he died, having reigned one year. He was called a lover of the Grecians, and had conferred many benefits on his own country, and made war against Iturea, and added a great part of it to Judea, and compelled the inhabitants, if they would remain in that country, to be circumcised and to live according to the Jewish laws. He was naturally a man of candor, and of great modesty, as Strabo bears witness, in the name of Timagenes, who says this: “This man was a person of candor and very serviceable to the Jews, for he added a country to them, and obtained a part of the nation of the Itureans for them, and bound them to them by the bond of the circumcision of their genitals.”

CHAPTER 12

How Alexander, When He Had Taken the Government, Made an Expedition Against Ptolemais and Then Raised the Siege Out of Fear of Ptolemy Lathyrus; And How Ptolemy Made War Against Him, Because He Had Sent to Cleopatra to Persuade Her to Make War Against Ptolemy, and Yet Pretended to Be in Friendship with Him When He Beat the Jews in the Battle.

1. When Aristobulus was dead, his wife Salome, who was called Alexandra by the Greeks, released his brothers from prison (for Aristobulus had kept them in bonds, as we have said already) and made Alexander Janneus king, who was the superior in age and in moderation. This child happened to be hated by his father as soon as he was born and could never be permitted to come into his father’s sight until he died. The occasion of which hatred is thus reported: when Hyrcanus chiefly loved the two eldest of his sons, Antigonus and Aristobulus, God appeared to him in his sleep, of whom he inquired which of his sons should be his successor. On God’s representing to him the countenance of Alexander, he was grieved that he was to be the heir of all his goods and allowed him to be brought up in Galilee. However, God did not deceive Hyrcanus, for after the death of Aristobulus, he certainly took the kingdom; and one of his brothers, who affected the kingdom, he slew; and the other, who chose to live a private and quiet life, he held in high regard.

2. When Alexander Janneus had settled the government in the manner that he judged best, he made an expedition against Ptolemais; and having overcome the men in battle, he shut them up in the city, and set around it, and besieged it; for of the maritime cities there remained only Ptolemais and Gaza to be conquered, besides Strato’s Tower and Dora, which were held by the tyrant Zoilus. Now while Antiochus Philometor and Antiochus, who was called Cyzicenus, were making war against one another and destroying one another’s armies, the people of Ptolemais could have no assistance from them; but when they were distressed with this siege, Zoilus, who possessed Strato’s Tower and Dora, and maintained a legion of soldiers, and, on occasion of the contest between the kings, affected tyranny himself, came and brought some small assistance to the people of Ptolemais; nor indeed did the kings have such a friendship for them, as that they should hope for any advantage from them. Both [of] those kings were in the case of wrestlers, who finding themselves deficient in strength and yet being ashamed to yield, put off the fight by laziness and by lying still as long as they can. The only hope they had remaining was from the kings of Egypt, and from Ptolemy Lathyrus, who now held Cyprus, and who came to Cyprus when he was driven from the government of Egypt by his mother Cleopatra. So, the people of Ptolemais sent to this Ptolemy Lathyrus and desired him to come as a confederate, to deliver them, now [that] they were in such danger, out of the hands of Alexander. And as the ambassadors gave him hopes that if he would pass over into Syria, he would have the people of Gaza on the side of those of Ptolemais—as also, they said that Zoilus, and besides these the Sidonians, and many others, would assist them—so he was elated at this and prepared his fleet as soon as possible.

3. But in this interval Demenetus, one that was of abilities to persuade men to do as he would have them, and a leader of the populace, made those of Ptolemais change their opinions; and he said to them that it was better to run the risk of being subject to the Jews, than to admit of evident slavery by delivering themselves up to a master; and besides that, to not only have a war at present, but to expect a much greater war from Egypt, for Cleopatra would not overlook an army raised by Ptolemy for himself out of the neighborhood, but would come against them with a great army of her own, and this because she was also laboring to banish her son from Cyprus; that as for Ptolemy, if his hopes failed, he could still retreat to Cyprus, but that they would be left in the greatest danger possible. Now Ptolemy, although he had heard of the change that was made in the people of Ptolemais, yet still went on with his voyage, and came to the country called Sycamine, and stationed his army there on shore. This army of his, with all the horse[men] and foot[men] together, were about thirty thousand, with which he marched near to Ptolemais and pitched his camp there. But when the people of Ptolemais neither received his ambassadors, nor would hear what they had to say, he was very greatly concerned.

4. But when Zoilus and the people of Gaza came to him and desired his assistance, because their country was laid waste by the Jews and by Alexander, Alexander raised the siege for fear of Ptolemy: and when he had drawn off his army into his own country, he used a strategy afterward, by privately inviting Cleopatra to come against Ptolemy, but publicly pretending to desire a covenant of friendship and mutual assistance with him and promising to give him four hundred talents of silver, [but] he desired that, by way of payment, he would remove the tyrant Zoilus and give his country to the Jews. And then indeed Ptolemy, with pleasure, made such a covenant of friendship with Alexander and subdued Zoilus; but afterward, when he heard that he had secretly sent to his mother Cleopatra, he broke the covenant with him, which he had even confirmed with an oath, and fell on him, and besieged Ptolemais, because it would not receive him. However, leaving his generals, with some part of his forces, to go on with the siege, he himself immediately went with the rest to lay Judea waste; and when Alexander understood this to be Ptolemy’s intention, he also gathered about fifty thousand soldiers out of his own country; indeed, as some writers have said: eighty thousand. He then took his army and went to meet Ptolemy; but Ptolemy fell on Asochis, a city of Galilee, and took it by force on the Sabbath day; and he took about ten thousand slaves and a great deal of other prey there.

5. He then tried to take Sepphoris, which was a city not far from that which was destroyed, but lost many of his men; yet he then went to fight with Alexander; which Alexander met him at the Jordan River, near a certain place called Saphoth, and pitched his camp near to the enemy. He however had eight thousand in the first rank, which he styled Hecatontomachi, having shields of brass. Those in the first rank of Ptolemy’s soldiers also had shields covered with brass. But Ptolemy’s soldiers were inferior to those of Alexander in other respects and were therefore more fearful of endangerment; but Philostephanus, the colonel, put great courage into them and ordered them to pass over the river, which was between their camps. Nor did Alexander think [it] right to hinder their passage over it, for he thought that if the enemy had once gotten the river on their back, that he should more easily take them [as] prisoners when they could not flee from the battle: in the beginning of which, the acts on both sides, with their hands, and with their eagerness, were alike, and a great slaughter was made by both armies; but Alexander was superior, until Philostephanus opportunely brought up the auxiliaries to help those that were giving way; but as there were no auxiliaries to provide help to that part of the Jews that gave way, it happened that they fled, and those near them did not assist them, but fled along with them. However, Ptolemy’s soldiers acted quite differently, for they followed the Jews and killed them, until those that slew them finally pursued after them when they had made them all run away, and slew them [for] so long that their weapons of iron were blunted, and their hands were quite tired with the slaughter; for the report was that thirty thousand men were then slain. Timagenes says they were fifty thousand. As for the rest, part of them were taken [as] captives, and the other part ran away to their own country.

6. After this victory, Ptolemy overran all the country; and when night came on, he abided in certain villages of Judea, which when he found [them] full of women and children, he commanded his soldiers to strangle them, and to cut them in pieces, and then to cast them into boiling cauldrons, and then to devour their limbs as sacrifices. This command was given so that such as fled from the battle and came to them might suppose their enemies were cannibals and eat men’s flesh and might on that account be even more terrified at them on such a sight. And both Strabo and Nicholaus [of Damascus] affirm that they used these people after this manner, as I have already related. Ptolemy also took Ptolemais by force, as we have declared elsewhere.

CHAPTER 13

How Alexander, on the Alliance of Mutual Defense Which Cleopatra Had Agreed with Him, Made an Expedition Against Coele-Syria and Utterly Overthrew the City of Gaza; And How He Slew Many Myriads of Jews That Rebelled Against Him. Also Concerning Antiochus Grypus, Seleucus, Antiochus Cyzicenus, and Antiochus Pious, and Others.

1. When Cleopatra saw that her son had grown great, and laid Judea waste without disturbance, and had gotten the city of Gaza under his power, she no longer resolved to overlook what he did when he was almost at her gates; and she concluded that now [that] he was so much stronger than before, he would be very desirous of the dominion over the Egyptians; but she immediately marched against him, with a fleet at sea and an army of foot[men] on land, and made the Jews Chelcias and Ananias generals of her whole army, while she sent the greatest part of her riches, her grandchildren, and her testament, to the people of Cos. Cleopatra also ordered her son Alexander to sail with a great fleet to Phoenicia; and when that country had revolted, she came to Ptolemais; and because the people of Ptolemais did not receive her, she besieged the city; but Ptolemy went out of Syria and made haste to Egypt, supposing that he would find it destitute of an army, and soon take it, although his hopes failed. At this time Chelcias, one of Cleopatra’s generals, happened to die in Coele-Syria, as he was in pursuit of Ptolemy.

2. When Cleopatra heard of her son’s attempt, and that his Egyptian expedition did not succeed according to his expectations, she sent part of her army there and drove him out of that country; so when he had returned out of Egypt again, he abided during the winter at Gaza, in which time Cleopatra took the garrison that was in Ptolemais by siege, as well as the city; and when Alexander came to her, he gave her presents and such marks of respect as were but proper, since under the miseries he endured by Ptolemy he had no other refuge but her. Now there were some of her friends who persuaded her to seize Alexander, and to overrun and take possession of the country, and not to sit still and see such a multitude of brave Jews subject to one man. But Ananias’ counsel was contrary to theirs, who said that she would do an unjust action if she deprived a man that was her ally of that authority which belonged to him—and this a man who is related to us, “for,” he said, “I would not have you ignorant of this: that what you do in justice to him will make all [of] us that are Jews to be your enemies.” Cleopatra complied with this desire of Ananias and did no harm to Alexander, but made a covenant of mutual assistance with him at Scythopolis, a city of Coele-Syria.

3. So when Alexander was delivered from the fear he was in of Ptolemy, he presently made an expedition against Coele-Syria. He also took Gadara after a siege of ten months. He also took Amathus, a very strong fortress belonging to the inhabitants above Jordan, where Theodorus, the son of Zeno, had his chief treasure and what he considered most precious. This Zeno fell on the Jews unexpectedly, and slew ten thousand of them, and seized Alexander’s equipment. Yet this misfortune did not terrify Alexander, but he made an expedition on the maritime parts of the country, Raphia and Anthedon (the name of which King Herod afterward changed to Agrippas), and even took that by force. But when Alexander saw that Ptolemy had retreated from Gaza to Cyprus, and his mother Cleopatra had returned to Egypt, he grew angry at the people of Gaza, because they had invited Ptolemy to assist them, and besieged their city, and ravaged their country. But as Apollodotus, the general of the army of Gaza, fell on the camp of the Jews by night with two thousand foreign [troops] and ten thousand of his own forces, while the night lasted, those of Gaza prevailed, because the enemy was made to believe that it was Ptolemy who attacked them; but when day had come on, and that mistake was corrected, and the Jews knew the truth of the matter, they came back again, and fell on those of Gaza, and slew about one thousand of them. But as those of Gaza stoutly resisted them and would not yield for either their lack of anything, nor for the great multitude that were slain (for they would rather suffer any hardship whatsoever than come under the power of their enemies), Aretas, king of the Arabians, a person then very illustrious, encouraged them to go on with eagerness and promised them that he would come to their aid; but it happened that before he came, Apollodotus was slain, for his brother Lysimachus envying him for the great reputation he had gained among the citizens, slew him, and gathered the army, and delivered the city up to Alexander, who, when he came in at first, lay quiet, but afterward set his army on the inhabitants of Gaza, and gave them permission to punish them; so some went one way, and some went another, and slew the inhabitants of Gaza; yet they were not of cowardly hearts, but opposed those that came to slay them and slew as many of the Jews; and some of them, when they saw themselves deserted, burnt their own houses, so that the enemy might get none of their spoils; indeed, some of them, with their own hands, slew their children and their wives, having no other way but this of avoiding slavery for them; but the senators, who were five hundred in all, fled to Apollo’s temple (for this attack happened to be made as they were sitting), whom Alexander slew; and when he had utterly overthrown their city, he returned to Jerusalem, having spent a year in that siege.

4. About this very time, Antiochus, who was called Grypus, died. His death was caused by Heracleon’s treachery, when he had lived forty-five years and had reigned twenty-nine. His son Seleucus succeeded him in the kingdom, and made war with Antiochus, his father’s brother, who was called Antiochus Cyzicenus, and beat him, and took him prisoner, and slew him. But after a while, Antiochus, the son of Cyzicenus, who was called Pious, came to Aradus, and put the diadem on his own head, and made war with Seleucus, and beat him, and drove him out of all Syria. But when he fled out of Syria, he came to Mopsuestia again and levied money on them; but the people of Mopsuestia had indignation at what he did, and burnt down his palace, and slew him, together with his friends. But when Antiochus, the son of Cyzicenus, was king of Syria, Antiochus, the brother of Seleucus, made war on him and was overcome and destroyed—he and his army. After him, his brother Philip put on the diadem and reigned over some part of Syria; but Ptolemy Lathyrus sent for his fourth brother Demetrius, who was called Eucerus, from Cnidus, and made him king of Damascus. Antiochus vehemently opposed both of these brothers, but presently died; for when he had come as an auxiliary to Laodice, queen of the Gileadites, when she was making war against the Parthians, and he was fighting courageously, he fell, while Demetrius and Philip governed Syria, as has been related elsewhere.

5. As for Alexander, his own people were seditious against him, for at a festival which was then celebrated, when he stood on the altar and was going to sacrifice, the nation rose on him, and pelted him with citrons [which they had in their hands, because] the Law of the Jews required that at the Celebration of Tabernacles everyone should have branches of the palm tree and citron tree; which thing we have related elsewhere. They also reviled him, as derived from a captive, and so unworthy of his dignity and of sacrificing. At this, he was in a rage and slew about six thousand of them. He also built a partition-wall of wood around the altar and the temple, as far as that partition within which it was only lawful for the priests to enter; and by this means he obstructed the multitude from coming at him. He also maintained foreigners of Pisidiae and Cilicia; for as to the Syrians, he was at war with them, and so made no use of them. He also overcame the Arabians, such as the Moabites and Gileadites, and made them bring tribute. Moreover, he demolished Amathus, while Theodorus dared not fight with him; but as he had joined battle with Obedas, king of the Arabians, and fell into an ambush in the places that were rugged and difficult to be traveled over, he was thrown down into a deep valley, by the multitude of the camels at Gadara, a village of Gilead, and barely escaped with his life. From there he fled to Jerusalem, where, besides his other failure, the nation insulted him, and he fought against them for six years and slew no fewer than fifty thousand of them. And when he desired that they would desist from their animosity toward him, they hated him so much more, on account of what had already happened; and when he had asked them what he ought to do, they all cried out that he ought to kill himself. They also sent to Demetrius Eucerus and desired him to make an alliance of mutual defense with them.

CHAPTER 14

How Demetrius Eucerus Overcame Alexander and Yet in a Short Time Retreated Out of the Country for Fear; As Also How Alexander Slew Many of the Jews and Thereby Got Clear of His Troubles. Concerning the Death of Demetrius.

1. So, Demetrius came with an army, and took those that invited him, and pitched his camp near the city [of] Shechem; on which Alexander, with his six thousand two hundred mercenaries, and about twenty thousand Jews, who were of his party, went against Demetrius, who had three thousand horsemen and forty thousand footmen. Now there were great endeavors used on both sides—Demetrius trying to bring off the mercenaries that were with Alexander, because they were Greeks, and Alexander trying to bring off the Jews that were with Demetrius. However, when neither of them could persuade them to do so, they came to a battle and Demetrius was the conqueror, in which all of Alexander’s mercenaries were killed, when they had given demonstration of their fidelity and courage. A great number of Demetrius’ soldiers were also slain.

2. Now as Alexander fled to the mountains, six thousand of the Jews hereon came together [from Demetrius] to him out of pity at the change of his fortune, on which Demetrius was afraid and retreated out of the country; after which the Jews fought against Alexander, and being beaten, were slain in great numbers in the various battles which they had; and when he had shut up the most powerful of them in the city [of] Bethome, he besieged them therein; and when he had taken the city and gotten the men into his power, he brought them to Jerusalem and did one of the most barbaric actions in the world to them: for as he was feasting with his concubines, in the sight of all the city, he ordered about eight hundred of them to be crucified; and while they were living, he ordered the throats of their children and wives to be cut before their eyes. This was indeed by way of revenge for the injuries they had done [to] him, which punishment was yet of an inhuman nature, though we suppose that he had been never so greatly distressed, as indeed he had been, by his wars with them, for by their means he had come to the greatest degree of endangerment, both of his life and of his kingdom, while they were not satisfied by themselves to fight against him alone, but also introduced foreigners for the same purpose; indeed, they finally reduced him to that degree of necessity that he was forced to deliver the land of Moab and Gilead back to the king of Arabia, which he had subdued, and the places that were in them, so that they might not join with them in the war against him, as they had done ten thousand other things that tended to insult and reproach him. However, this barbarity seems to have been without any necessity, on which account he bore the name of a Thracian among the Jews whereon the soldiers that had fought against him, being about eight thousand in number, ran away by night and remained fugitives all the time that Alexander lived, who being now freed from any further disturbance from them, reigned the rest of his time in the utmost tranquility.

3. But when Demetrius had departed from Judea, he went to Berea and besieged his brother Philip, having ten thousand footmen and one thousand horsemen with him. However, Strato, the tyrant of Berea, the confederate of Philip, called in Zizon, the ruler of the Arabian tribes, and Mithridates Sinax, the ruler of the Parthians, who coming with a great number of forces, and besieging Demetrius in his encampment, into which they had driven them with their arrows, they compelled those that were with him by thirst to deliver themselves up. So, they took a great many spoils out of that country, as well as Demetrius himself, whom they sent to Mithridates, who was then king of Parthia; but as for those whom they took captives of the people of Antioch, they restored them to the Antiochians without any reward. Now Mithridates, the king of Parthia, held Demetrius in high honor, until Demetrius ended his life by sickness. So Philip, presently after the fight was over, came to Antioch, and took it, and reigned over Syria.

CHAPTER 15

How Antiochus, Who Was Called Dionysus, and After Him Aretas, Made Expeditions Into Judea; As Also How Alexander Took Many Cities and Then Returned to Jerusalem, and After a Sickness of Three Years, Died; And What Counsel He Gave to Alexandra.

1. After this, Antiochus, who was called Dionysus and was Philip’s brother, aspired to the dominion, and carne to Damascus, and gained the power into his hands, and there he reigned; but as he was making war against the Arabians, his brother Philip heard of it, and came to Damascus, where Milesius, who had been left governor of the citadel and the Damascenes themselves, delivered the city up to him; yet because Philip had become ungrateful to him and had bestowed on him nothing of that in hopes whereof he had received him into the city, but intended to have it believed that it was rather delivered up out of fear than by the kindness of Milesius, and because he had not rewarded him as he ought to have done, he became suspected by him, and so he was compelled to leave Damascus again; for Milesius caught him marching out into the Hippodrome, and imprisoned him in it, and kept Damascus for Antiochus [Eucerus], who, hearing how Philip’s affairs stood, returned from Arabia. He also came immediately and made an expedition against Judea with eight thousand armed footmen and eight hundred horsemen. So Alexander, out of fear of his coming, dug a deep ditch, beginning at Chabarzaba, which is now called Antipatris, to the sea of Joppa, on which part only his army could be brought against him. He also raised a wall, and erected wooden towers, and intermediate defensive positions, for one hundred and fifty stadia in length, and expected the coming of Antiochus there; but he soon burnt them all and made his army pass by that way into Arabia. The Arabian king [Aretas] at first retreated, but afterward appeared suddenly with ten thousand horsemen. Antiochus gave them the meeting and fought desperately; and indeed, when he had secured victory and was bringing some auxiliaries to that part of his army that was in distress, he was slain. When Antiochus had fallen, his army fled to the village [of] Cana, where the greatest part of them perished by famine.

2. After him, Aretas reigned over Coele-Syria, being called to the government by those that held Damascus, by reason of the hatred they bore toward Ptolemy Menneus. He also made an expedition there against Judea and beat Alexander in battle near a place called Adida; yet he, on certain conditions agreed on between them, retreated out of Judea.

3. But Alexander marched to the city [of] Dios again, and took it, and then made an expedition against Essa, where the best part of Zeno’s treasures was, and there he surrounded the place with three walls; and when he had taken the city by fighting, he marched to Golan and Seleucia; and when he had taken these cities, he, besides them, took that valley which is called The Valley of Antiochus, as also the fortress of Gamala. He also accused Demetrius, who was [the] governor of those places, of many crimes, and turned him out; and after he had spent three years in this war, he returned to his own country when the Jews joyfully received him on his good success.

4. Now at this time the Jews were in possession of the following cities that had belonged to the Syrians, and Idumeans, and Phoenicians: at the seaside, Strato’s Tower, Apollonia, Joppa, Jamnia, Ashdod, Gaza, Anthedon, Raphia, and Rhinocolura; in the middle of the country, near to Idumea, Adora and Marissa; near the country of Samaria, Mount Carmel, and Mount Tabor, Scythopolis, and Gadara; of the country of the Gaulonites, Seleucia and Gabala; in the country of Moab, Heshbon, and Medaba, Lemba, and Oronas, Gelithon, Zara, the valley of the Cilices, and Pella; the latter of which they utterly destroyed, because its inhabitants would not bear to change their religious rites for those peculiar to the Jews. The Jews also possessed others of the principal cities of Syria, which had been destroyed.

5. After this, King Alexander, although he fell into a disease by hard drinking and had a quartan fever, which held him three years, yet would not cease going out with his army, until he was quite spent with the labors he had undergone and died in the bounds of Ragaba, a fortress beyond Jordan. But when his queen saw that he was ready to die and no longer had any hopes of surviving, she came to him weeping and lamenting, and grieved herself and her sons on the desolate condition they should be left in, and said to him, “To whom do you thus leave me and my children, who are destitute of all other supports, and this when you know how much animosity your nation bears you?” But he gave her the following advice: that she need only follow what he would suggest to her in order to retain the kingdom securely with her children: that she should conceal his death from the soldiers until she should have taken that place; after this, she should go in triumph, as on a victory, to Jerusalem, and put some of her authority into the hands of the Pharisees; for they would commend her for the honor she had done them and would reconcile the nation to her, for he told her they had great authority among the Jews, both to do harm to such as they hated, and to bring advantages to those to whom they were affably disposed; for they are then believed best of all by the multitude when they speak any severe thing against others, though it be only out of envy at them. And he said that it was by their means that he had incurred the displeasure of the nation, whom he had indeed injured. “Therefore,” he said, “when you have come to Jerusalem, send for the leading men among them, and show them my body, and with great appearance of sincerity, give them permission to use it as they themselves please, whether they will dishonor the dead body by refusing it burial, as having severely suffered by my means, or whether in their anger they will offer any other abuse to that body. Also promise them that you will do nothing without them in the affairs of the kingdom. If you but say this to them, I will have the honor of a more glorious funeral from them than you could have made for me; and when it is in their power to abuse my dead body, they will do it no harm at all, and you will rule safely.” So, when he had given his wife this advice, he died, after he had reigned twenty-seven years and lived one short [of] fifty years.

CHAPTER 16

How Alexandra, by Gaining the Goodwill of the Pharisees, Retained the Kingdom [for] Nine Years, and Then, Having Done Many Glorious Actions, Died.

1. So Alexandra, when she had taken the fortress, acted as her husband had suggested to her, and spoke to the Pharisees, and put all things into their power, both as to the dead body, and as to the affairs of the kingdom, and thereby pacified their anger against Alexander and made them bear goodwill and friendship toward him, who then came among the multitude, and made speeches to them, and laid before them the actions of Alexander, and told them that they had lost a righteous king; and by the commendation they gave him, they brought them to grieve and to be in heaviness for him, so that he had a funeral more splendid than had any of the kings before him. Alexander left two sons behind him, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, but committed the kingdom to Alexandra. Now, as for these two sons, Hyrcanus was indeed unable to manage public affairs and delighted rather in a quiet life; but the younger, Aristobulus, was an active and bold man; and for this woman herself, Alexandra, she was loved by the multitude, because she seemed displeased at the offenses her husband had been guilty of.

2. So, she made Hyrcanus high priest, because he was the elder, but much more because he did not care to meddle with politics and permitted the Pharisees to do everything; to whom she also ordered the multitude to be obedient. She also restored again those practices which the Pharisees had introduced, according to the traditions of their forefathers, and which her father-in-law, Hyrcanus, had abrogated. So, she indeed had the name of the regent, but the Pharisees had the authority; for it was they who restored such as had been banished and set such as were prisoners at liberty, and to summarize: they differed in nothing from lords. However, the queen also took care of the affairs of the kingdom, and gathered a great body of mercenary soldiers, and increased her own army to such a degree that she became terrible to the neighboring tyrants and took hostages of them: and the country was entirely at peace, excepting the Pharisees, for they disturbed the queen and desired that she would kill those who persuaded Alexander to slay the eight hundred men; after which they cut the throat of one of them, Diogenes; and after him, they did the same to several, one after another, until the men that were the most powerful came into the palace, and Aristobulus with them, for he seemed to be displeased at what was done; and it appeared openly, that if he had an opportunity, he would not permit his mother to go on [doing] so. These reminded the queen what great dangers they had gone through, and great things they had done, whereby they had demonstrated the firmness of their fidelity to their master, insomuch that they had received the greatest marks of favor from him; and they begged of her that she would not utterly blast their hopes, as it now happened, that when they had escaped the dangers that arose from their [open] enemies, they were to be cut off at home by their [private] enemies, like brute beasts, without any help whatsoever. They also said that if their adversaries would be satisfied with those that had already been slain, they would take what had been done patiently, on account of their natural love for their governors; but if they must expect the same for the future also, they implored of her a dismissal from her service, for they could not bear to think of attempting any method for their deliverance without her, but would rather die willingly before the palace gate, in case she would not forgive them. And that it was a great shame, both for themselves and for the queen, that when they were neglected by her, they should come under the lash of her husband’s enemies; for Aretas, the Arabian king, and the monarchs, would give any reward, if they could get such men as foreign auxiliaries, to whom their very names, before their voices were heard, may perhaps be terrible; but if they could not obtain their second request, and if she had determined to prefer the Pharisees before them, they still insisted that she would place every one of them in her fortresses; for if some fatal demon has a constant spite against Alexander’s house, they would be willing to bear their part and to live in a private station there.

3. As these men said this and called on Alexander’s spirit for pity on those already slain and those in danger of it, all the bystanders broke out into tears. But Aristobulus chiefly made manifest what his sentiments were and used many reproachful expressions to his mother, [saying,] “No, indeed, the case is this: that they themselves have been the authors of their own calamities, who have permitted a woman who, against reason, was mad with ambition, to reign over them, when there were sons in the flower of their age fitter for it.” So Alexandra, not knowing what to do with any decency, committed the fortresses to them, all but Hyrcania, and Alexandrium, and Macherus, where her principal treasures were. After a little while also, she sent her son Aristobulus with an army to Damascus against Ptolemy, who was called Menneus, who was such a bad neighbor to the city; but he did nothing considerable there, and so returned home.

4. About this time, news was brought that Tigranes, the king of Armenia, had made an incursion into Syria with five hundred thousand soldiers and was coming against Judea. This news, as may well be supposed, terrified the queen and the nation. Accordingly, they sent him many and very valuable presents, as also ambassadors—and that as he was besieging Ptolemais; for Selene the queen, the same that was also called Cleopatra, then ruled over Syria, who had persuaded the inhabitants to exclude Tigranes. So, the Jewish ambassadors interceded with him and implored him that he should determine nothing that was severe about their queen or nation. He commended them for the respects they paid him at such a great distance and gave them good hopes of his favor. But as soon as Ptolemais was taken, news came to Tigranes that Lucullus, in his pursuit of Mithridates, could not come to him, who had fled into Iberia, but was laying waste Armenia and besieging its cities. Now when Tigranes knew this, he returned home.

5. After this, when the queen had fallen into a dangerous disease, Aristobulus resolved to attempt the seizing of the government; so he snuck away secretly by night, with only one of his servants, and went to the fortresses, wherein his friends, that were such from the days of his father, were settled; for as he had been displeased a great while at his mother’s conduct, so he was now much more afraid, lest, on her death, their whole family should be under the power of the Pharisees; for he saw the inability of his brother, who was to succeed in the government; nor was anyone conscious of what he was doing, but only his wife, whom he left at Jerusalem with their children. First of all, he came to Agaba, where Galestes was—one of the powerful men previously mentioned—and was received by him. When it was day, the queen perceived that Aristobulus had fled; and for some time she supposed that his departure was not in order to make any innovation; but when one after another messengers came with the news that he had secured the first place, the second place, and all the places, for as soon as one had begun they all submitted to his disposal, then it was that the queen and the nation were in the greatest panic, for they were aware that it would not be long before Aristobulus would be able to settle himself firmly in the government. What they were principally afraid of was this: that he would inflict punishment on them for the mad treatment his house had had from them. So they resolved to take his wife and children into custody and keep them in the fortress that was over the temple. Now there was a mighty confluence of people that came to Aristobulus from all parts, insomuch that he had a kind of royal attendances around him, for in a little more than fifteen days he acquired twenty-two strong places, which gave him the opportunity of raising an army from Lebanon, and Trachonitis, and the monarchs; for men are easily led by the greater number, and easily submit to them. And besides this, that by providing him their assistance, when he could not expect it, they, as well as he, should have the advantages that would come by his being king, because they had been the cause of his gaining the kingdom. Now the elders of the Jews, and Hyrcanus with them, went in to the queen and desired that she would give them her sentiments about the present posture of affairs, for Aristobulus was in effect lord of almost all the kingdom by possessing so many strongholds, and that it was absurd for them to take any counsel by themselves, however ill she was, while she was alive, and that the danger would be on them in a short time. But she commanded them to do what they thought proper to be done; that they still had many circumstances remaining in their favor: a nation in good heart, an army, and money in their various treasuries; for she had little concern about public affairs now, when the strength of her body already failed her.

6. Now a little while after she had said this to them, she died, when she had reigned nine years and had lived seventy-three in all. She was a woman who showed no signs of the weakness of her sex, for she was wise to the greatest degree in her ambition of governing, and she demonstrated by her doings, first, that her mind was fit for action, and [second], that sometimes men themselves show the little understanding they have by the frequent mistakes they make in point of government; for she always preferred the present to the future, and preferred the power of an imperious dominion above all things, and in comparison of that, had no regard for what was good or what was right. However, she brought the affairs of her house to such an unfortunate condition that she was the cause of the taking away [of] that authority from it—and that in a short time afterward, which she had obtained by a vast number of dangers and misfortunes, and this out of a desire of what does not belong to a woman, and all by a compliance in her sentiments with those that bore animosity toward their family, and by leaving the administration destitute of a proper support of great men; and, indeed, her management during her administration while she was alive was such as filled the palace after her death with calamities and disturbance. However, although this had been her way of governing, she preserved the nation in peace. And this is the conclusion of the affairs of Alexandra.

BOOK XIV

Containing the Interval of Thirty-Two Years. From the Death of Queen Alexandra to the Death of Antigonus.

CHAPTER 1

The War Between Aristobulus and Hyrcanus About the Kingdom; And How They Made an Agreement That Aristobulus Should Be King and Hyrcanus Live a Private Life; As Also How Hyrcanus Was Persuaded Shortly Afterward by Antipater to Flee to Aretas.

1. We have related the affairs of Queen Alexandra and her death in the preceding book and will now speak of what followed and was connected with those histories, declaring, before we proceed, that we have nothing so much at heart as this: that we may omit no facts, either through ignorance or laziness; for we are [now] on the history and explication of such things as the greatest part are unacquainted with because of their distance from our times; and we aim to do it with a proper beauty of style, insofar as that is derived from proper words harmonically disposed, and from such ornaments of speech as also may contribute to the pleasure of our readers, so that they may entertain the knowledge of what we write with some agreeable satisfaction and pleasure. But the principal scope that authors ought to aim at above all the rest is to speak accurately and to speak truly for the satisfaction of those that are otherwise unacquainted with such transactions and obligated to believe whatever these writers inform them of.

2. Hyrcanus then began his high priesthood on the third year of the one hundred and seventy-seventh Olympiad, when Quintus Hortensius and Quintus Metellus, who was called Metellus of Crete, were consuls at Rome, when Aristobulus presently began to make war against him; and as it came to a battle with Hyrcanus at Jericho, many of his soldiers deserted him and went over to his brother, on which Hyrcanus fled into the citadel, where Aristobulus’ wife and children were imprisoned by their mother, as we have said already, and attacked and overcame his adversaries that had fled there and lay within the walls of the temple. So, when he had sent a message to his brother about agreeing [to] the matters between them, he laid aside his enmity to him on these conditions: that Aristobulus should be king, [but] that he should live without meddling with public affairs and quietly enjoy the estate he had acquired. When they had agreed on these terms in the temple, and had confirmed the agreement with oaths, and giving one another their right hands, and embracing one another in the sight of the whole multitude, they departed; the one, Aristobulus, to the palace; and Hyrcanus, as a private man, to the former house of Aristobulus.

3. But there was a certain friend of Hyrcanus, an Idumean called Antipater, who was very rich and, in his nature, an active and seditious man, who was at enmity with Aristobulus and had differences with him on account of his goodwill toward Hyrcanus. It is true that Nicolaus of Damascus says that Antipater was of the stock of the principal Jews who came out of Babylon into Judea; but that assertion of his was to gratify Herod, who was his son, and who, by certain changes of fortune, came to be king of the Jews afterward, whose history we will give you in its proper place hereafter. However, this Antipater was at first called Antipas, and that was his father’s name also; of whom they relate this: that King Alexander and his wife made him general of all Idumea, and that he made a covenant of friendship with those Arabians, and Gazans, and Ashkelonites that were of his own party, and had, by many and large presents, made them his fast friends. But now this younger Antipater was suspicious of the power of Aristobulus and was afraid of some harm he might do him, because of his hatred toward him; so he stirred up the most powerful of the Jews, and talked against him to them privately, and said that it was unjust to overlook the conduct of Aristobulus, who had gotten the government unrighteously and banished his brother from it, who was the elder, and ought to retain what belonged to him by [the] privilege of his birth. And he perpetually made the same speeches to Hyrcanus and told him that his own life would be in danger, unless he guarded himself and was acquitted by Aristobulus, for he said that the friends of Aristobulus omitted no opportunity of advising him to kill him, as being then, and not before, sure to retain his principality. Hyrcanus gave no credit to these words of his, as being of a gentle disposition, and one that did not easily admit of defamations against other men. This temper of his not disposing him to meddle with public affairs, and lack of spirit, caused him to appear to spectators to be degenerate and unmanly, while Aristobulus was of a contrary temper, an active man, and one of a great and generous soul.

4. Therefore, since Antipater saw that Hyrcanus did not attend to what he said, he never ceased, day after day, to charge feigned crimes on Aristobulus and to defame him before him, as if he intended to kill him; and so, by urging him perpetually, he advised him and persuaded him to flee to Aretas, the king of Arabia; and he promised that if he would comply with his advice, he would also assist him himself [and go with him]. When Hyrcanus heard this, he said that it was for his advantage to flee away to Aretas. Now Arabia is a country that borders on Judea. However, Hyrcanus first sent Antipater to the king of Arabia in order to receive assurances from him that when he should come in the manner of a supplicant to him, he would not deliver him up to his enemies. So, Antipater having received such assurances, returned to Hyrcanus at Jerusalem. A while afterward, he took Hyrcanus, and snuck out of the city by night, and went a great journey, and came and brought him to the city called Petra, where the palace of Aretas was; and as he was a very familiar friend of that king, he persuaded him to bring Hyrcanus back into Judea, and he continued this persuasion every day without any intermission. He also proposed to make him presents on that account. Finally, he prevailed with Aretas in his suit. Moreover, Hyrcanus promised him that when he had been brought there and had received his kingdom, he would restore that country and those twelve cities which his father Alexander had taken from the Arabians, which were these: Medaba, Naballo, Libyas, Tharabasa, Agala, Athone, Zoar, Orone, Marissa, Rudda, Lussa, and Oruba.

CHAPTER 2

How Aretas and Hyrcanus Made an Expedition Against Aristobulus and Besieged Jerusalem; And How the Roman General Scaurus Raised the Siege. Concerning the Death of Onias.

1. After these promises had been given to Aretas, he made an expedition against Aristobulus with an army of fifty thousand horse[men] and foot[men] and beat him in the battle. And after that victory, when many went over to Hyrcanus as deserters, Aristobulus was left desolate and fled to Jerusalem, on which the king of Arabia took all his army, and made an assault on the temple, and besieged Aristobulus therein—the people still supporting Hyrcanus and assisting him in the siege, while none but the priests continued with Aristobulus. So Aretas united the forces of the Arabians and of the Jews together and pressed on the siege vigorously. As this happened at the time when the Celebration of Unleavened Bread was observed, which we call the Passover, the principal men among the Jews left the country and fled into Egypt. Now there was one whose name was Onias; he was a righteous man and beloved of God, who, in a certain drought, had prayed to God to put an end to the intense heat, and whose prayers God had heard and had sent them rain. This man had hidden himself, because he saw that this sedition would last a great while. However, they brought him to the Jewish camp and desired that as by his prayers he had once put an end to the drought, so he would in like manner make curses on Aristobulus and those of his faction. And when, on his refusal and the excuses that he made, he was still compelled by the multitude to speak, he stood up in the midst of them and said, “O God, the King of the whole world! since those that stand now with me are Your people, and those that are besieged are also Your priests, I implore You, that You will neither listen to the prayers of those against these, nor bring to effect what these pray against those.” Whereon such wicked Jews as stood around him, as soon as he had made this prayer, stoned him to death.

2. But God punished them immediately for their barbarity and took vengeance on them for the murder of Onias, in the following manner: while the priests and Aristobulus were besieged, it happened that the feast called the Passover had come, at which it is our custom to offer a great number of sacrifices to God; but those that were with Aristobulus wanted sacrifices, and desired that their countrymen outside would furnish them with such sacrifices, and assured them they should have as much money for them as they should desire; and when they required them to pay one thousand drachmas for each head of cattle, Aristobulus and the priests willingly undertook to pay for them accordingly, and those within let down the money over the walls and gave it [to] them. But when the others had received it, they did not deliver the sacrifices, but arrived at that height of wickedness as to break the assurances they had given and to be guilty of impiety toward God by not furnishing those that wanted them with sacrifices. And when the priests found [that] they had been cheated and that the agreements they had made were violated, they prayed to God that He would avenge them on their countrymen. Nor did He delay their punishment, but sent a strong and vehement storm of wind that destroyed the fruits of the whole country, until a modius of wheat was then bought for eleven drachmas.

3. In the meantime, Pompey sent Scaurus into Syria, while he was himself in Armenia and making war with Tigranes; but when Scaurus had come to Damascus and found that Lollius and Metellus had recently taken the city, he came hastily into Judea himself. And when he had come there, ambassadors came to him, both from Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, and both desired [that] he would assist them. And when both of them promised to give him money—Aristobulus four hundred talents, and Hyrcanus no less—he accepted Aristobulus’ promise, for he was rich, and had a great soul, and desired to obtain nothing but what was moderate; whereas the other was poor, and tenacious, and made incredible promises in hopes of greater advantages; for it was not the same thing to take a city that was exceedingly strong and powerful, as it was to banish some fugitives from the country, with a greater number of Nabateans, who were not a very warlike people. Therefore, he made an agreement with Aristobulus, for the reasons previously mentioned, and took his money, and raised the siege, and ordered Aretas to depart, or else he should be declared an enemy to the Romans. So Scaurus returned to Damascus again; and Aristobulus made war with Aretas and Hyrcanus with a great army, and fought them at a place called Papyron, and beat them in the battle, and slew about six thousand of the enemy, with whom Phalion, the brother of Antipater, also fell.

CHAPTER 3

How Aristobulus and Hyrcanus Came to Pompey in Order to Argue Who Ought to Have the Kingdom; And How on the Flight of Aristobulus to the Fortress Alexandrium, Pompey Led His Army Against Him and Ordered Him to Deliver up the Fortresses of Which He Had Taken Possession.

1. Shortly afterward, Pompey came to Damascus and marched over Coele-Syria, at which time ambassadors came to him from all Syria, and Egypt, and out of Judea also, for Aristobulus had sent him a great present, which was a golden vine of the value of five hundred talents. Now Strabo of Cappadocia mentions this present in these words: “An envoy also came out of Egypt, and a crown of the value of four thousand pieces of gold; and out of Judea there came another, whether you call it a vine or a garden; they call the thing Terpole, the Delight. However, we ourselves saw that present deposited at Rome, in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, with this inscription: The gift of Alexander, the king of the Jews. It was valued at five hundred talents; and the report is that Aristobulus, the governor of the Jews, sent it.”

2. A short time afterward, ambassadors came again to him, Antipater from Hyrcanus, and Nicodemus from Aristobulus; the latter of which also accused such as had taken bribes; first Gabinius, and then Scaurus—the one three hundred talents, and the other four hundred; by which procedure he made these two his enemies, besides those he had before. And when Pompey had ordered those that had controversies with one another to come to him in the beginning of the spring, he brought his army out of their winter quarters and marched into the country of Damascus; and as he went along, he demolished the citadel that was at Apamea, which Antiochus Cyzicenus had built, and took cognizance of the country of Ptolemy Menneus, a wicked man, and not less so than Dionysius of Tripoli, who had been beheaded, who was also his relation by marriage; yet he bought off the punishment of his crimes for one thousand talents, with which money Pompey paid the soldiers their wages. He also conquered the place called Lysias, of which Silas, a Jew, was tyrant. And when he had passed over the cities of Heliopolis and Chalcis and gotten over the mountain which is on the limit of Coele-Syria, he came from Pella to Damascus; and it was there that he heard the causes of the Jews, and of their governors Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, who were in conflict with one another, as also of the nation against them both, which did not desire to be under a royal government, because the form of government they received from their forefathers was that of subjection to the priests of that God whom they worshiped; and [they complained] that though these two were the posterity of priests, yet they sought to change the government of their nation to another form, in order to enslave them. Hyrcanus complained that although he was the elder brother, he was deprived of the privilege of his birth by Aristobulus, and that he had but a small part of the country under him—Aristobulus having taken away the rest from him by force. He also accused him, that the incursions which had been made into their neighbors’ countries, and the piracies that had been at sea, were owing to him; and that the nation would not have revolted, unless Aristobulus had been a man given to violence and disorder; and there were no fewer than one thousand Jews, of the highest regard among them, who confirmed this accusation; which confirmation was procured by Antipater. But Aristobulus alleged against him that it was Hyrcanus’ own temper, which was inactive, and on that account contemptible, which caused him to be deprived of the government; and that for himself, he was compelled to take it on him, for fear lest it should be transferred to others. And that as for his title [of king], it was none other than what his father had taken [before him]. He also called for witnesses of what he said, some persons who were both young and insolent, whose purple garments, fine heads of hair, and other ornaments, were detested [by the court], and which they appeared in, not as though they were to plead their cause in a court of justice, but as if they were marching in a pompous procession.

3. When Pompey had heard the causes of these two and had condemned Aristobulus for his violent procedure, he then spoke civilly to them and sent them away; and he told them that when he came into their country again, he would settle all their affairs after he had first taken a view of the affairs of the Nabateans. In the meantime, he ordered them to be quiet and treated Aristobulus civilly, lest he should make the nation revolt and hinder his return; which Aristobulus yet did; for without expecting any further determination, which Pompey had promised them, he went to the city [of] Delius and from there marched into Judea.

4. Pompey was angry at this [insolent] behavior, and taking with him that army which he was leading against the Nabateans, and the auxiliaries that came from Damascus and the other parts of Syria, with the other Roman legions which he had with him, he made an expedition against Aristobulus; but as he passed by Pella and Scythopolis, he came to Coreae, which is the first entrance into Judea when one passes over the midland countries, where he came to a most beautiful fortress that was built on the top of a mountain called Alexandrium, where Aristobulus had fled; and Pompey sent his commands to him there, that he should come to him. Accordingly, at the persuasions of many that he should not make war with the Romans, he came down; and when he had disputed with his brother about the right to the government, he went up again to the citadel, as Pompey gave him permission to do; and he did this two or three times, as flattering himself with the hopes of having the kingdom granted [to] him, so that he still pretended he would obey Pompey in whatsoever he commanded, although at the same time he retired to his fortress, so that he might not depress himself too low, and that he might be prepared for a war, in case it should prove as he feared: that Pompey would transfer the government to Hyrcanus. But when Pompey ordered Aristobulus to deliver up the fortresses he held and to send an injunction to their governors under his own hand for that purpose—for they had been forbidden to deliver them up on any other commands—he indeed submitted to do so; but he still retired in displeasure to Jerusalem and made preparation for war. Shortly after this, certain persons came out of Pontus and informed Pompey, as he was on the way and leading his army against Aristobulus, that Mithridates was dead and was slain by his son Pharnaces.

CHAPTER 4

How Pompey, When the Citizens of Jerusalem Shut Their Gates Against Him, Besieged the City and Took It by Force; As Also What Other Things He Did in Judea.

1. Now when Pompey had pitched his camp at Jericho (where the palm tree grows, and that balsam which is an ointment of all the most precious, which on any incision made in the wood with a sharp stone, distills out there like a juice), he marched to Jerusalem in the morning. Hereon Aristobulus relented of what he was doing, and came to Pompey, and [promised to] give him money, and received him into Jerusalem, and desired that he would stop the war and do what he pleased peaceably. So Pompey, on his request, forgave him, and sent Gabinius, and soldiers with him, to receive the money and the city; yet no part of this was performed, but Gabinius came back, being both excluded from the city and receiving none of the money promised, because Aristobulus’ soldiers would not permit the agreements to be executed. Pompey was very angry at this, and put Aristobulus into prison, and came to the city himself, which was strong on every side, excepting the north, which was not so well fortified, for there was a broad and deep ditch that surrounded the city and included the temple within it, which was itself surrounded with a very strong stone wall.

2. Now there was a sedition of the men that were within the city, who did not agree [regarding] what was to be done in their present circumstances, while some thought it best to deliver up the city to Pompey; but Aristobulus’ party exhorted them to shut the gates, because he was kept in prison. Now these prevented the others, and seized the temple, and cut off the bridge which reached from it to the city, and prepared themselves to endure a siege; but the others admitted Pompey’s army in and delivered up both the city and the king’s palace to him. So, Pompey sent his lieutenant Piso with an army, and placed garrisons both in the city and in the palace, to secure them, and fortified the houses that joined to the temple, and all those which were more distant and outside it. And in the first place, he offered terms of accommodation to those within; but when they would not comply with what was desired, he surrounded all the places thereabout with a wall, wherein Hyrcanus gladly assisted him on all occasions; but Pompey pitched his camp within [the wall], on the north part of the temple, where it was most practical; but even on that side there were great towers, and a ditch had been dug, and a deep valley encircled it around, for on the parts toward the city were precipices, and the bridge on which Pompey had gotten in was broken down. However, an embankment was raised, day by day, with a great deal of labor, while the Romans cut down materials for it from the surrounding places. And when this bank was sufficiently raised, and the ditch was filled up, though only poorly, by reason of its immense depth, he brought his mechanical engines and battering-rams from Tyre, and placing them on the bank, he battered the temple with the stones that were thrown against it. And had it not been our practice, from the days of our forefathers, to rest on the seventh day, this bank could never have been perfected, by reason of the opposition the Jews would have made; for though our law gives us permission then to defend ourselves against those that begin to fight with us and assault us, yet it does not permit us to meddle with our enemies while they do anything else.

3. Which thing, when the Romans understood [it], on those days which we call Sabbaths they threw nothing at the Jews, nor came to any pitched battle with them, but raised up their earthen banks and brought their engines into such forwardness that they might execute the [very] next day. And anyone may hence learn how very great piety we exercise toward God, and the observance of His laws, since the priests were not at all hindered from their sacred ministrations by their fear during this siege, but did still twice a day, in the morning and about the ninth hour, offer their sacrifices on the altar; nor did they omit those sacrifices, if any melancholy accident happened by the stones that were thrown among them; for although the city was taken on the third month, on the day of the fast, on the one hundred and seventy-ninth Olympiad, when Gaius Antonius and Marcus Tullius Cicero were consuls, and the enemy then fell on them and cut the throats of those that were in the temple; yet those that offered the sacrifices could not be compelled to run away, neither by the fear they were in of their own lives, nor by the number that were already slain, as thinking it better to suffer whatever came on them, at their very altars, than to omit anything that their laws required of them. And that this is not a mere brag, or an accolade to manifest a degree of our piety that was false, but is the real truth, I appeal to those that have written of the acts of Pompey; and, among them, to Strabo and Nicolaus [of Damascus]; and besides these two, Titus Livius, the writer of the Roman History, who will bear witness to this thing.

4. But when the battering-engine was brought near, the greatest of the towers was shaken by it, and fell down, and broke down a part of the fortifications, so the enemy poured in rapidly; and Cornelius Faustus, the son of Sylla, with his soldiers, first of all ascended the wall, and next to him Furius the centurion, with those that followed on the other part, while Fabius, who was also a centurion, ascended it in the middle, with a great body of men after him. But now all was full of slaughter; some of the Jews being slain by the Romans, and some by one another; indeed, there were some who threw themselves down the precipices, or put fire to their houses, and burnt them, as unable to bear the miseries they were under. Of the Jews there fell twelve thousand, but of the Romans very few. Absalom, who was at once both uncle and father-in-law to Aristobulus, was taken captive; and no small outrages were committed around the temple itself, which, in former ages, had been inaccessible, and seen by none; for Pompey went into it, and not a few of those that were with him also, and saw all that which it was unlawful for any other men to see but only for the high priests. There were in that temple the golden table, the holy candlestick, and the pouring vessels, and a great quantity of spices; and besides these there were among the treasures two thousand talents of sacred money: yet Pompey touched nothing of all this, on account of his regard for religion; and in this point he also acted in a manner that was worthy of his virtue. The next day he gave an order to those that had the care of the temple to cleanse it and to bring what offerings the Law required to God; and he restored the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, both because he had been useful to him in other respects, and because he hindered the Jews in the country from giving Aristobulus any assistance in his war against him. He also cut off those that had been the authors of that war and bestowed proper rewards on Faustus, and those others that mounted the wall with such eagerness; and he made Jerusalem a tributary to the Romans, and took away those cities of Coele-Syria which the inhabitants of Judea had subdued, and put them under the government of the Roman president, and confined the whole nation, which had elevated itself so high before, within its own bounds. Moreover, he rebuilt Gadara, which had been demolished shortly before, to gratify Demetrius of Gadara, who was his freedman, and restored the rest of the cities, Hippos, and Scythopolis, and Pella, and Dios, and Samaria, as also Marissa, and Ashdod, and Jamnia, and Arethusa, to their own inhabitants: these were in the inland parts. Besides those that had been demolished, and also of the maritime cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and Dora, and Strato’s Tower; the latter of which Herod rebuilt in a glorious manner, and adorned with havens and temples, and changed its name to Caesarea. All these Pompey left in a state of freedom and joined them to the province of Syria.

5. Now the causes of this misery which came on Jerusalem were Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, by raising a sedition against one another; for now we lost our liberty, and became subject to the Romans, and were deprived of that country which we had gained by our arms from the Syrians, and were compelled to restore it to the Syrians. Moreover, the Romans exacted of us, in a short time, above ten thousand talents; and the royal authority, which was a dignity formerly bestowed on those that were high priests, by the right of their family, became the property of private men. But we will deal with these matters in their proper places. Now Pompey committed Coele-Syria, as far as the Euphrates River and Egypt, to Scaurus, with two Roman legions, and then went away to Cilicia, and made haste to Rome. He also carried bound along with him Aristobulus and his children; for he had two daughters, and as many sons; the one of which ran away, but the younger, Antigonus, was carried to Rome, together with his sisters.

CHAPTER 5

How Scaurus Made a Covenant of Mutual Assistance with Aretas; And What Gabinius Did in Judea, After He Had Conquered Alexander, the Son of Aristobulus.

1. Scaurus now made an expedition against Petrea, in Arabia, and set all the places around it on fire, because of the great difficulty of access to it. And as his army was pinched by famine, Antipater furnished him with corn out of Judea, and with whatever else he wanted, and this at the command of Hyrcanus. And when he was sent to Aretas, as an ambassador by Scaurus, because he had lived with him formerly, he persuaded Aretas to give Scaurus a sum of money, to prevent the burning of his country, and undertook to be his surety for three hundred talents. So Scaurus, on these terms, ceased to make war any longer, which was done as much at Scaurus’ desire, as at the desire of Aretas.

2. Sometime after this, when Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, made an incursion into Judea, Gabinius came from Rome into Syria, as commander of the Roman forces. He did many considerable actions; and particularly made war with Alexander, since Hyrcanus was not yet able to oppose his power, but was already attempting to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, which Pompey had overthrown, although the Romans which were there restrained him from his plan. However, Alexander went over all the surrounding country, and armed many of the Jews, and suddenly gathered ten thousand armed footmen and fifteen hundred horsemen, and fortified Alexandrium, a fortress near to Coreae, and Macherus, near the mountains of Arabia. Gabinius therefore came on him, having sent Marcus Antonius, with other commanders, before. These armed such Romans as followed them; and, together with them, such Jews as were subject to them, whose leaders were Pitholaus and Malichus; and they also took their friends with them that were with Antipater, and met Alexander, while Gabinius himself followed with his legion. Hereon Alexander retired to the neighborhood of Jerusalem, where they fell on one another, and it came to a pitched battle, in which the Romans slew about three thousand of their enemies and took a similar number alive.

3. At which time Gabinius came to Alexandrium, and invited those that were in it to deliver it up on certain conditions, and promised that their former offenses would then be forgiven. But as a great number of the enemy had pitched their camp in front of the fortress, whom the Romans attacked, Marcus Antonius fought bravely, and slew a great number, and seemed to come away with the greatest honor. So Gabinius left part of his army there in order to take the place, and he himself went into other parts of Judea and gave an order to rebuild all the cities that he met with that had been demolished; at which time Samaria, Ashdod, Scythopolis, Anthedon, Raphia, and Dora were rebuilt; Marissa also, and Gaza, and many others in addition. And as the men acted according to Gabinius’ command, it came to pass that at this time these cities were securely inhabited, which had been desolate for a long time.

4. When Gabinius had done this in the country, he returned to Alexandrium; and when he urged on the siege of the place, Alexander sent an envoy to him, desiring that he would pardon his former offenses; he also delivered up the fortresses [of] Hyrcania and Macherus, and at last Alexandrium itself, which fortresses Gabinius demolished. But when Alexander’s mother, who was of the side of the Romans, as having her husband and other children at Rome, came to him, he granted her whatsoever she asked; and when he had settled matters with her, he brought Hyrcanus to Jerusalem and committed the care of the temple to him. And when he had ordained five councils, he distributed the nation into the same number of parts. So these councils governed the people: the first was at Jerusalem, the second at Gadara, the third at Amathus, the fourth at Jericho, and the fifth at Sepphoris in Galilee. So, the Jews were now freed from monarchy and were governed by an aristocracy.

CHAPTER 6

How Gabinius Caught Aristobulus After He Had Fled from Rome and Sent Him Back to Rome Again; And How the Same Gabinius, as He Returned from Egypt, Overcame Alexander and the Nabateans in Battle.

1. Now Aristobulus fled from Rome to Judea and set about the rebuilding of Alexandrium, which had been recently demolished. Hereon Gabinius sent soldiers against him, and for their commanders Sisenna, and Antonius, and Servilius, in order to hinder him from getting possession of the country and to capture him again. And indeed, many of the Jews ran to Aristobulus, on account of his former glory, as also because they would be glad for a revolution. Now there was one Pitholaus, a lieutenant at Jerusalem, who deserted to him with one thousand men, although a great number of those that came to him were unarmed; and when Aristobulus had resolved to go to Macherus, he dismissed those people, because they were unarmed; for they could not be useful to him in what actions for which he was going; but he took eight thousand that were armed with him and marched on; and as the Romans fell on them severely, the Jews fought valiantly, but were beaten in the battle; and when they had fought with eagerness, but were overborne by the enemy, they were put to flight; of whom about five thousand were slain and the rest being dispersed, tried, as well as they were able, to save themselves. However, Aristobulus still had above one thousand with him, and he fled to Macherus with them and fortified the place; and though he had had failure, he still had good hope for his affairs; but when he had struggled against the siege for two days’ time and had received many wounds, he was brought as a captive to Gabinius, with his son Antigonus, who also fled with him from Rome. And this was the fortune of Aristobulus, who was sent back to Rome again, and was retained in bonds there, having been both king and high priest for three years and six months, and was indeed an eminent person, and one of a great soul. However, the senate let his children go, on Gabinius’ writing to them that he had promised their mother so much when she delivered up the fortresses to him; and accordingly, they then returned into Judea.

2. Now when Gabinius was making an expedition against the Parthians and had already passed over [the] Euphrates, he changed his mind and resolved to return into Egypt in order to restore Ptolemy to his kingdom. This has also been related elsewhere. However, Antipater supplied his army, which he sent against Archelaus, with corn, and weapons, and money. He also made those Jews who were above Pelusium his friends and confederates, and they had been the guardians of the passes that led into Egypt. But when he came back out of Egypt, he found Syria in chaos, with seditions and troubles; for Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, having seized the government a second time by force, made many of the Jews revolt to him; and so he marched over the country with a great army, and slew all the Romans he could find, and proceeded to besiege the mountain called Gerizim, where they had retreated.

3. But when Gabinius found Syria in such a state, he sent Antipater, who was a prudent man, to those that were seditious, to try whether he could cure them of their madness and persuade them to return to a better mind; and when he came to them, he brought many of them to a sound mind and induced them to do what they ought to do, but he could not restrain Alexander, for he had an army of thirty thousand Jews, and met Gabinius, and joining battle with him, was beaten and lost ten thousand of his men around Mount Tabor.

4. So Gabinius settled the affairs which belonged to the city [of] Jerusalem, as was agreeable to Antipater’s inclination, and went against the Nabateans, and overcame them in battle. He also sent away in a friendly manner Mithridates and Orsanes, who were Parthian deserters that came to him, though the report went abroad that they had run away from him. And when Gabinius had performed great and glorious actions in his management of the affairs of war, he returned to Rome and delivered the government to Crassus. Now Nicolaus of Damascus and Strabo of Cappadocia both describe the expeditions of Pompey and Gabinius against the Jews, while neither of them say anything new which is not in the other.

CHAPTER 7

How Crassus Came Into Judea, and Pillaged the Temple, and Then Marched Against the Parthians and Perished with His Army. Also, How Cassius Obtained Syria, and Put a Stop to the Parthians, and Then Went up to Judea.

1. Now Crassus, as he was going on his expedition against the Parthians, came into Judea, and carried off the money that was in the temple, which Pompey had left, being two thousand talents, and was inclined to spoil it of all the gold belonging to it, which was eight thousand talents. He also took a beam, which was made of solid beaten gold, of the weight of three hundred minae, each of which weighed two and a half pounds. It was the priest who was guardian of the sacred treasures, and whose name was Eleazar, that gave him this beam, not out of a wicked scheme, for he was a good and a righteous man; but being entrusted with the custody of the veils belonging to the temple, which were of admirable beauty, and of very costly workmanship, and hung down from this beam, when he saw that Crassus was busy in gathering money, and he was in fear for all the ornaments of the temple, he gave him this beam of gold as a ransom for the whole, but this not until he had given his oath that he would remove nothing else out of the temple, but be satisfied with this only, which he should give him, being worth many myriads [of shekels]. Now this beam was contained in a wooden beam that was hollow, but was known to no others; but Eleazar alone knew it; yet Crassus took this beam away on the condition of touching nothing else that belonged to the temple, and then broke his oath, and carried away all the gold that was in the temple.

2. And let no one wonder that there was so much wealth in our temple, since all the Jews throughout the habitable earth, and those that worshiped God, indeed, even those of Asia and Europe, sent their contributions to it, and this from very ancient times. Nor is the size of these sums without its attestation; nor is that greatness owing to our vanity, as raising it without ground to such a great height; but there are many witnesses to it, and particularly Strabo of Cappadocia, who says this: “Mithridates sent to Cos and took the money which Queen Cleopatra had deposited there, as also eight hundred talents belonging to the Jews.” Now we have no public money but only what belongs to God; and it is evident that the Asian Jews removed this money out of fear of Mithridates, for it is not probable that those of Judea, who had a strong city and temple, should send their money to Cos; nor is it likely that the Jews who are inhabitants of Alexandria should do so either, since they were in no fear of Mithridates. And Strabo himself bears witness to the same thing in another place, that at the same time that Sylla passed over into Greece in order to fight against Mithridates, he sent Lucullus to put an end to a sedition that our nation, of whom the habitable earth is full, had raised in Cyrene, where he speaks thus: “There were four classes of men among those of Cyrene: that of citizens, that of farmers, the third of strangers, and the fourth of Jews. Now these Jews have already gotten into all cities; and it is hard to find a place in the habitable earth that has not admitted this tribe of men and is not possessed by them; and it has come to pass that Egypt and Cyrene, as having the same governors and a great number of other nations, imitate their way of living, and maintain great bodies of these Jews in a peculiar manner, and grow up to greater prosperity with them, and make use of the same laws with that nation also. Accordingly, the Jews have places assigned them in Egypt, wherein they inhabit, besides what is peculiarly allotted to this nation at Alexandria, which is a large part of that city. There is also an ethnarch allowed [for] them, who governs the nation, and distributes justice to them, and takes care of their contracts, and of the laws belonging to them, as if he were the ruler of a free republic. In Egypt, therefore, this nation is powerful, because the Jews were originally Egyptians, and because the land wherein they inhabit, since they went there, is near to Egypt. They also moved into Cyrene, because this land adjoined to the government of Egypt, as well as does Judea, or rather was formerly under the same government.” And this is what Strabo says.

3. So, when Crassus had settled all things as he himself pleased, he marched into Parthia, where both he himself and all his army perished, as has been related elsewhere. But Cassius, as he fled from Rome to Syria, took possession of it, and was an impediment to the Parthians, who by reason of their victory over Crassus made incursions on it. And as he came back to Tyre, he also went up into Judea, and fell on Taricheae, and presently took it, and carried away about thirty thousand Jews [as] captives; and he slew Pitholaus, who succeeded Aristobulus in his seditious practices, and that by the persuasion of Antipater, who proved to have great interest in him and was at that time also in great repute with the Idumeans: out of which nation he married a wife, who was the daughter of one of their eminent men, and her name was Cyprus, by whom he had four sons: Phasael, and Herod, who was afterward made king, and Joseph, and Pheroras; and a daughter [also], named Salome. This Antipater also cultivated a friendship and mutual kindness with other potentates, but especially with the king of Arabia, to whom he committed his children, while he fought against Aristobulus. So, Cassius moved his camp and marched to [the] Euphrates to meet those that were coming to attack him, as has been related by others.

4. But some time afterward, Caesar, when he had taken Rome—and after Pompey and the senate had fled beyond the Ionian Sea—freed Aristobulus from his bonds, and resolved to send him into Syria, and delivered two legions to him, so that he might set matters right, as being a powerful man in that country. But Aristobulus had no enjoyment of what he hoped for from the power that was given [to] him by Caesar, for those of Pompey’s party prevented it and destroyed him by poison; and those of Caesar’s party buried him. His dead body also lay, for a good while, embalmed in honey, until Antony sent it to Judea afterward and caused him to be buried in the royal tomb. But Scipio, on Pompey’s sending to him to slay Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, because the young man was accused of what offenses he had been guilty of at first against the Romans, cut off his head; and thus he died at Antioch. But Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, who was the ruler of Chalcis, under Mount Lebanon, took his brothers to him, and sent his son Philippion to Ashkelon to Aristobulus’ wife, and desired her to send her son Antigonus back with him, and her daughters; the one of which, whose name was Alexandra, Philippion fell in love with and married her, though afterward his father Ptolemy slew him, and married Alexandra, and continued to take care of her brothers.

CHAPTER 8

The Jews Become Confederates with Caesar When He Fought Against Egypt. The Glorious Actions of Antipater and His Friendship with Caesar. The Honors Which the Jews Received from the Romans and Athenians.

1. Now after Pompey was dead, and after that victory Caesar had gained over him, Antipater, who managed the Jewish affairs, became very useful to Caesar when he made war against Egypt, and that by the order of Hyrcanus; for when Mithridates of Pergamos was bringing his auxiliaries and was unable to continue his march through Pelusium, but was compelled to stay at Ashkelon, Antipater came to him, conducting three thousand of the Jews—armed men. He had also taken care [that] the principal men of the Arabians should come to his assistance; and it was on his account that all the Syrians assisted him also, as not willing to appear behind in their eagerness for Caesar, namely, Jamblicus the ruler, and his son Ptolemy, and Tholomy the son of Sohemus, who dwelt at Mount Lebanon, and almost all the cities. So Mithridates marched out of Syria and came to Pelusium; and when its inhabitants would not admit him, he besieged the city. Now Antipater distinguished himself here and was the first who plucked down a part of the wall, and so opened a way to the rest, whereby they might enter the city, and by this means Pelusium was taken. But it happened that the Egyptian Jews, who dwelt in the country called Onion, would not let Antipater and Mithridates, with their soldiers, pass to Caesar; but Antipater persuaded them to come over with their party, because he was of the same people with them, and that chiefly by showing them the letters of Hyrcanus the high priest, wherein he exhorted them to cultivate friendship with Caesar and to supply his army with money and all sorts of provisions which they wanted; and accordingly, when they saw Antipater and the high priest of the same sentiments, they did as they were desired. And when the Jews around Memphis heard that these Jews had come over to Caesar, they also invited Mithridates to come to them, so he came and received them also into his army.

2. And when Mithridates had gone over all Delta, as the place is called, he came to a pitched battle with the enemy, near the place called the Jewish Camp. Now Mithridates had the right wing, and Antipater the left; and when it came to a fight, that wing where Mithridates was gave way and was likely to suffer extremely, unless Antipater had come running to him with his own soldiers along the shore, when he had already beaten the enemy that opposed him; so he delivered Mithridates and put those Egyptians who had been too difficult for him to flight. He also took their camp and continued in the pursuit of them. He also recalled Mithridates, who had been defeated and had retreated a great way off; of whose soldiers eight hundred fell, but of Antipater’s fifty. So Mithridates sent an account of this battle to Caesar, and openly declared that Antipater was the author of this victory, and of his own preservation, insomuch that Caesar commended Antipater then, and made use of him all the rest of that war in the most dangerous undertakings; he also happened to be wounded in one of those engagements.

3. However, when Caesar, after some time, had finished that war and had sailed away for Syria, he honored Antipater greatly, and confirmed Hyrcanus in the high priesthood, and bestowed on Antipater the privilege of a citizen of Rome and a freedom from taxes everywhere; and it is reported by many that Hyrcanus went along with Antipater in this expedition and came into Egypt himself. And Strabo of Cappadocia bears witness to this, when he says this, in the name of Asinius: “After Mithridates had invaded Egypt, and with him Hyrcanus the high priest of the Jews.” Indeed, the same Strabo says this again, in another place, in the name of Hypsicrates, that “Mithridates at first went out alone; but that Antipater, who had the care of the Jewish affairs, was called by him to Ashkelon, and that he had gotten ready three thousand soldiers to go along with him and encouraged other governors of the country to go along with him also; and that Hyrcanus the high priest was also present in this expedition.” This is what Strabo says.

4. But Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, came to Caesar at this time, and lamented his father’s fate, and complained that it was by Antipater’s means that Aristobulus was taken away by poison and his brother was beheaded by Scipio, and he desired that he would take pity on him who had been banished from that principality which was due to him. He also accused Hyrcanus and Antipater as governing the nation by violence and offering injuries to himself. Antipater was present and made his defense as to the accusations that were laid against him. He demonstrated that Antigonus and his party were given to innovation and were seditious persons. He also reminded Caesar what difficult services he had undergone when he assisted him in his wars and discoursed about what he was a witness of himself. He added that Aristobulus was justly carried away to Rome, as one that was an enemy to the Romans and could never be brought to be a friend to them, and that his brother had no more than he deserved from Scipio, as being seized while committing robberies, and that this punishment was not inflicted on him in a way of violence or injustice by him that did it.

5. When Antipater had made this speech, Caesar appointed Hyrcanus to be high priest and gave Antipater what principality he himself should choose, leaving the determination to himself; so he made him procurator of Judea. He also gave Hyrcanus permission to raise up the walls of his own city, on his asking that favor of him, for they had been demolished by Pompey. And this grant he sent to the consuls at Rome, to be engraved in the Capitol. The decree of the senate was this that follows: “Lucius Valerius, the son of Lucius the praetor, referred this to the senate, on the Ides of December, in the temple of Concord. There were present at the writing of this decree Lucius Coponius, the son of Lucius of the Colline tribe, and Papirius of the Quirine tribe, concerning the affairs which Alexander, the son of Jason, and Numenius, the son of Antiochus, and Alexander, the son of Dositheus, ambassadors of the Jews, good and worthy men, proposed, who came to renew that covenant of goodwill and friendship with the Romans which existed before. They also brought a shield of gold, as a mark of confederacy, valued at fifty thousand pieces of gold; and they desired that letters might be given [to] them, directed both to the free cities and to the kings, so that their country and their havens might be at peace, and that no one among them might receive any harm. It therefore pleased [the senate] to make a covenant of friendship and goodwill with them, and to bestow on them whatsoever they stood in need of, and to accept the shield which was brought by them. This was done in the ninth year of Hyrcanus the high priest and ethnarch, in the month Panemus.” Hyrcanus also received honors from the people of Athens, as having been useful to them on many occasions. And when they wrote to him, they sent him this decree, as it follows here: “Under the prytaneia and priesthood of Dionysius, the son of Esculapius, on the fifth day of the latter part of the month Panemus, this decree of the Athenians was given to their commanders, when Agathocles was archon, and Eucles, the son of Menander of Alimusia, was the scribe. In the month Munychion, on the eleventh day of the prytaneia, a council of the presidents was held in the theater. Dorotheus the high priest, and the fellow presidents with him, put it to the vote of the people. Dionysius, the son of Dionysius, gave the sentence. Since Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, continues to bear goodwill to our people in general, and to every one of our citizens in particular, and treats them with all sorts of kindness, and when any of the Athenians come to him, either as ambassadors, or on any occasion of their own, he receives them in an obliging manner and sees that they are led back in safety, of which we have had several former testimonies, it is now also decreed, at the report of Theodosius, the son of Theodorus, and on reminding the people of the virtue of this man, and that his purpose is to do us all the good that is in his power, to honor him with a crown of gold, the usual reward according to the Law, and to erect his statue in brass in the temple of Demus and of the Graces; and that this present of a crown will be proclaimed publicly in the theater, in the Dionysian shows, while the new tragedies are being acted; and in the Panathenean, and Eleusinian, and Gymnastic shows also; and that the commanders will take care, while he continues in his friendship and preserves his goodwill toward us, to return all possible honor and favor to the man for his affection and generosity, so that by this treatment it may be apparent how our people receive the good kindly and repay them a suitable reward; and he may be induced to proceed in his affection toward us, by the honors we have already paid him. Ambassadors are also be chosen out of all the Athenians, who will carry this decree to him, and desire him to accept the honors we do him, and to always endeavor to be doing some good to our city.” And this will suffice us to have spoken regarding the honors that were paid by the Romans and the people of Athens to Hyrcanus.

CHAPTER 9

How Antipater Committed the Care of Galilee to Herod, and That of Jerusalem to Phasaelus; As Also How Herod, on the Jews’ Envy at Antipater, Was Accused Before Hyrcanus.

1. Now when Caesar had settled the affairs of Syria, he sailed away. And as soon as Antipater had led Caesar out of Syria, he returned to Judea. He then immediately raised up the wall which had been thrown down by Pompey; and by coming there, he pacified that tumult which had been in the country, and this by both threatening and advising them to be quiet; for if they would be of Hyrcanus’ side, they would live happily and lead their lives without disturbance and in the enjoyment of their own possessions; but if they were addicted to the hopes of what might come by innovation and aimed to gain wealth thereby, they should have him [as] a severe master instead of a gentle governor, and Hyrcanus a tyrant instead of a king, and the Romans, together with Caesar, their bitter enemies instead of rulers, for they would never bear him to be set aside whom they had appointed to govern. And when Antipater had said this to them, he himself settled the affairs of this country.

2. And seeing that Hyrcanus was of a slow and slothful temper, he made Phasaelus, his eldest son, governor of Jerusalem and of the places that were around it, but committed Galilee to Herod, his next son, who was then a very young man, for he was only fifteen years of age. But that youth of his was no impediment to him: that as he was a youth of great intellect, he presently met with an opportunity for distinguishing his courage, for finding that there was one Hezekiah, a captain of a band of robbers, who overran the neighboring parts of Syria with a great troop of them, he seized him and slew him, as well as a great number of the other robbers that were with him; for this action he was greatly beloved by the Syrians; for when they were very desirous to have their country freed from this nest of robbers, he purged it of them. So they sung songs in his commendation in their villages and cities, as having obtained them peace and the secure enjoyment of their possessions; and it was on this account that he became known to Sextus Caesar, who was a relation of the great Caesar, and was now president of Syria. Now Phasaelus, Herod’s brother, was moved with emulation at his actions, and envied the fame he had thereby gotten, and became ambitious not to be behind with him in deserving it. So he made the inhabitants of Jerusalem bear him the greatest goodwill while he held the city himself, but neither managed its affairs improperly, nor abused his authority therein. This conduct gained from the nation to Antipater such respect as is due to kings, and such honors as he might partake of if he were an absolute lord of the country. Yet this splendor of his did not, as frequently happens, in the least diminish in him that kindness and fidelity which he owed to Hyrcanus.

3. But now the principal men among the Jews, when they saw Antipater and his sons grow so much in the goodwill the nation bore to them and in the revenues which they received out of Judea and out of Hyrcanus’ own wealth, became hostile toward him; for indeed Antipater had contracted a friendship with the Roman emperors; and when he had prevailed with Hyrcanus to send them money, he took it to himself, and stole the intended present, and sent it as if it were his own and not Hyrcanus’ gift to them. Hyrcanus heard of his management, but took no concern for it; indeed, he was rather very glad for it. But the chief men of the Jews were therefore in fear, because they saw that Herod was a violent and bold man, and very desirous of acting tyrannically; so they came to Hyrcanus, and now accused Antipater openly, and said to him, “How long will you be quiet under such actions as are now done? Or do you not see that Antipater and his sons have already seized the government, and that it is only the name of a king which is given you? But you do not allow these things to be hidden from you, nor do you think to escape danger by being so careless of yourself and of your kingdom; for Antipater and his sons are not now stewards of your affairs: do not deceive yourself with such a notion; they are evidently absolute lords, for Herod, Antipater’s son, has slain Hezekiah and those that were with him, and has thereby transgressed our law, which has forbidden [anyone] to slay any man, even if he was a wicked man, unless he had first been condemned to suffer death by the Sanhedrin; yet he has been so insolent as to do this—and that without any authority from you.”

4. On Hyrcanus hearing this, he complied with them. The mothers of those that had been slain by Herod also raised his indignation, for those women remained in the temple every day, persuading the king and the people that Herod might undergo a trial before the Sanhedrin for what he had done. Hyrcanus was so moved by these complaints, that he summoned Herod to come to his trial for what was charged on him. Accordingly, he came; but his father had persuaded him not to come like a private man, but with a guard, for the security of his person; and that when he had settled the affairs of Galilee in the best manner he could for his own advantage, he should come to his trial, but still with a body of men sufficient for his security on his journey, yet so that he should not come with such a great force as might look like [he was] intimidating Hyrcanus, but still such a one as might not expose him naked and unguarded [to his enemies]. However, Sextus Caesar, president of Syria, wrote to Hyrcanus, and desired him to clear Herod, and dismiss him at his trial, and threatened him beforehand if he did not do it. This letter of his was the cause of Hyrcanus delivering Herod from suffering any harm from the Sanhedrin, for he loved him as his own son. But when Herod stood before the Sanhedrin, with his body of men around him, he frightened them all, and none of his former accusers dared bring any charge against him after that, but there was a deep silence and nobody knew what was to be done. When affairs stood thus, one whose name was Sameas, who was a righteous man, and for that reason above all fear, rose up and said, “O you that are assessors with me, and O you that are our king: I neither have ever myself known such a case, nor do I suppose that any one of you can name its parallel, that one who is called to take his trial by us ever stood in such a manner before us; but every one, whosoever he might be, that comes to be tried by this Sanhedrin, presents himself in a submissive manner, and like one that is in fear for himself and that endeavors to move us to compassion, with his hair disheveled and in a black and mourning garment: but this admirable man Herod, who is accused of murder, and called to answer such a heavy accusation, stands here clothed in purple, and with the hair of his head finely trimmed, and with his armed men around him, so that if we will condemn him by our law, he may slay us, and by overbearing justice may himself escape death. Yet I do not make this complaint against Herod himself; he is surely to be more concerned for himself than for the laws; but my complaint is against yourselves, and your king, who gave him a license to do so. However, take notice that God is great, and that this very man, whom you are going to absolve and dismiss for the sake of Hyrcanus, will one day punish both you and your king himself also.” Nor was Sameas mistaken in any part of this prediction, for when Herod had received the kingdom, he slew all the members of this Sanhedrin, and Hyrcanus himself also, excepting Sameas, for he had a great honor for him on account of his righteousness, and because, when the city was afterward besieged by Herod and Sosius, he persuaded the people to admit Herod into it and told them that for their sins they would not be able to escape his hands: which things will be related by us in their proper places.

5. But when Hyrcanus saw that the members of the Sanhedrin were ready to pronounce the sentence of death on Herod, he put off the trial to another day, and sent privately to Herod, and advised him to flee out of the city, because by this means he might escape. So he retreated to Damascus, as though he fled from the king; and when he had been with Sextus Caesar and had put his own affairs in a sure posture, he resolved to do this: that in case he were again summoned before the Sanhedrin to take his trial, he would not obey that summons. Hereon the members of the Sanhedrin had great indignation at this posture of affairs and endeavored to persuade Hyrcanus that all these things were against him, which state of matters he was not ignorant of, but his temper was so cowardly and so foolish that he was able to do nothing at all. But when Sextus had made Herod general of the army of Coele-Syria, for he sold him that post for money, Hyrcanus was in fear lest Herod should make war on him; nor was the effect of what he feared long in coming on him, for Herod came and brought an army along with him to fight with Hyrcanus, as being angry at the trial he had been summoned to undergo before the Sanhedrin; but his father Antipater, and his brother [Phasaelus], met him and hindered him from assaulting Jerusalem. They also pacified his vehement temper and persuaded him to do no overt action, but only to frighten them with threats, and to proceed no further against one who had given him the dignity he had: they also desired him not only to be angry that he was summoned and obligated to come to his trial, but to remember as well how he was dismissed without condemnation and how he ought to give Hyrcanus thanks for the same; and that he was not to regard only what was disagreeable to him and be unthankful for his deliverance. So they desired him to consider that since it is God that turns the scales of war, there is great uncertainty in the issue of battles, and that he therefore ought not to expect the victory when he should fight with his king, and him that had supported him, and bestowed many benefits on him, and had done nothing itself very severe to him; for his accusation, which was derived from malicious counselors and not from himself, had rather the suspicion of some severity, than anything really severe in it. Herod was persuaded by these arguments and believed that it was sufficient for his future hopes to have made a show of his strength before the nation and done no more to it—and the affairs of Judea were in this state at this time.

CHAPTER 10

The Honors That Were Paid [to] the Jews; And the Covenants That Were Made by the Romans and Other Nations with Them.

1. Now when Caesar had come to Rome, he was ready to sail into Africa to fight against Scipio and Cato, when Hyrcanus sent ambassadors to him and by them desired that he would ratify that covenant of friendship and mutual alliance which was between them. And it seems to me to be necessary here to give an account of all the honors that the Romans and their emperor paid to our nation, and of the covenants of mutual assistance they have made with it, so that all the rest of mankind may know what regard the kings of Asia and Europe have had for us, and that they have been abundantly satisfied by our courage and fidelity; for whereas many will not believe what has been written about us by the Persians and Macedonians, because those writings are not to be met with everywhere, nor lie in public places, but among us ourselves, and certain other barbaric nations, while there is no contradiction to be made against the decrees of the Romans, for they are laid up in the public places of the cities, and are still extant in the Capitol and engraved on pillars of brass; indeed, besides this, Julius Caesar made a pillar of brass for the Jews at Alexandria and publicly declared that they were citizens of Alexandria. Out of these proofs I will exhibit what I say and will now set down the decrees made both by the senate and by Julius Caesar, which relate to Hyrcanus and to our nation.

2. “Gaius Julius Caesar, imperator and high priest, and dictator the second time, to the magistrates, senate, and people of Sidon: Greetings. If you are in [good] health, it is well. I and the army are also well. I have sent you a copy of that decree, registered on the tables, which concerns Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, so that it may be laid up among the public records; and I will that it be openly proposed in a table of brass, both in Greek and in Latin. It is as follows: I, Julius Caesar, imperator the second time, and high priest, have made this decree with the approbation of the senate. Whereas Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander the Jew, has demonstrated his fidelity and diligence concerning our affairs—and this both now and in former times, both in peace and in war, as many of our generals have borne witness, and came to our assistance in the last Alexandrian war with fifteen hundred soldiers; and when he was sent by me to Mithridates, showed himself superior in valor to all the rest of that army—for these reasons I will that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, and his children, be ethnarchs of the Jews, and have the high priesthood of the Jews forever, according to the customs of their forefathers, and that he and his sons be our confederates, and that besides this, every one of them be reckoned among our particular friends. I also ordain that he and his children retain whatsoever privileges belong to the office of high priest, or whatsoever favors have been thus far granted them; and if at any time hereafter any questions arise about the Jewish customs, I will that he determine the same. And I do not think it proper that they should be obligated to find us winter quarters, or that any money should be required from them.”

3. “The decrees of Gaius Caesar, consul, containing what has been granted and determined, are as follows: that Hyrcanus and his children bear rule over the nation of the Jews and have the profits of the places bequeathed to them; and that he, as himself the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, defend those that are injured; and that ambassadors be sent to Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest of the Jews, that may discourse with him about a covenant of friendship and mutual assistance; and that a table of brass, containing the propositions, be openly proposed in the Capitol, and at Sidon, and Tyre, and Ashkelon, and in the temple, engraved in Roman and Greek letters: that this decree may also be communicated to the quaestors and praetors of the various cities and to the friends of the Jews; and that the ambassadors may have presents made [for] them; and that these decrees be sent everywhere.”

4. “Gaius Caesar—imperator, dictator, consul—has granted that out of regard for the honor, and virtue, and kindness of the man, and for the advantage of the senate and of people of Rome, Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, both he and his children, are high priests, and priests of Jerusalem and of the Jewish nation, by the same right, and according to the same laws, by which their progenitors have held the priesthood.”

5. “Gaius Caesar, consul the fifth time, has decreed that the Jews will possess Jerusalem and may surround that city with walls; and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, retains it in the manner he himself pleases; and that the Jews are allowed to deduct out of their tribute, every second year the land is let [in the Sabbatical period], a corus of that tribute; and that the tribute they pay will not be let to farm, nor will they always pay the same tribute.”

6. “Gaius Caesar, imperator the second time, has ordained that all the country of the Jews, excepting Joppa, must pay a tribute yearly for the city [of] Jerusalem, excepting the seventh, which they call the Sabbatical year, because thereon they neither receive the fruits of their trees, nor do they sow their land; and that they must pay their tribute in Sidon on the second year [of that Sabbatical period], the fourth part of what was sown: and besides this, they are to pay the same tithes to Hyrcanus and his sons which they paid to their forefathers; and that no one, neither president, nor lieutenant, nor ambassador, may raise auxiliaries within the bounds of Judea; nor may soldiers exact money from them for winter quarters, or under any other pretense; but that they are free from all sorts of injuries; and that whatsoever they will hereafter have, and are in possession of, or have bought, they will retain them all. It is also our pleasure that the city [of] Joppa, which the Jews originally had when they made a covenant of friendship with the Romans, will belong to them, as it formerly did; and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, and his sons, have as tribute of that city from those that occupy the land for the country, and for what they export every year to Sidon, twenty thousand six hundred and seventy-five modii every year, the seventh year, which they call the Sabbatical year, excepted, whereon they neither plow, nor receive the product of their trees. It is also the pleasure of the senate that as for the villages which are in the great plain, which Hyrcanus and his forefathers formerly possessed, Hyrcanus and the Jews have them with the same privileges with which they formerly also had them; and that the same original ordinances still remain in force which concern the Jews with regard to their high priests; and that they enjoy the same benefits which they have formerly had by the concession of the people and of the senate; and let them enjoy the same privileges in Lydda. It is also the pleasure of the senate that Hyrcanus the ethnarch, and the Jews, retain those places, countries, and villages which belonged to the kings of Syria and Phoenicia, the confederates of the Romans, and which they had bestowed on them as their free gifts. It is also granted to Hyrcanus, and to his sons, and to the ambassadors sent by them to us, that in the fights between single gladiators, and in those with beasts, they will sit among the senators to see those shows; and that when they desire an audience, they will be introduced into the senate by the dictator, or by the general of the horse; and when they have introduced them, their answers will be returned [to] them in ten days at the furthest, after the decree of the senate is made about their affairs.”

7. “Gaius Caesar, imperator, dictator the fourth time, and consul the fifth time, declared to be perpetual dictator, made this speech concerning the rights and privileges of Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews. Since those imperators that have been in the provinces before me have borne witness to Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews, and to the Jews themselves—and this before the senate and people of Rome when the people and senate returned their thanks to them—it is good that we now also remember the same and provide that a repayment be made to Hyrcanus, to the nation of the Jews, and to the sons of Hyrcanus, by the senate and people of Rome, and that [it be] suitable for what goodwill they have shown us and for the benefits they have bestowed on us.”

8. “Julius Gaius, praetor [(consul)] of Rome, to the magistrates, senate, and people of the Parians: Greetings. The Jews of Delos, and some other Jews that sojourn there, in the presence of your ambassadors, signified to us that by a decree of yours, you forbid them to make use of the customs of their forefathers and their way of sacred worship. Now it does not please me that such decrees should be made against our friends and confederates, whereby they are forbidden to live according to their own customs, or to bring in contributions for common suppers and holy festivals, while they are not forbidden to do so even at Rome itself; for even Gaius Caesar, our imperator and consul, in that decree wherein he forbade the Bacchanal rioters to meet in the city, yet permitted these Jews, and these only, both to bring in their contributions and to make their common suppers. Accordingly, when I forbid other Bacchanal rioters, I permit these Jews to gather themselves together, according to the customs and laws of their forefathers, and to persist therein. It will therefore be good for you that if you have made any decree against these friends and confederates of ours, to revoke the same, by reason of their virtue and kind disposition toward us.”

9. Now after Gaius was slain, when Marcus Antonius and Publius Dolabella were consuls, they both assembled the senate, and introduced Hyrcanus’ ambassadors into it, and discussed what they desired, and made a covenant of friendship with them. The senate also decreed to grant them all they desired. I add the decree itself, so that those who read the present work may have ready by them a demonstration of the truth of what we say. The decree was this:

10. “The decree of the senate, copied out of the treasury, from the public tables belonging to the quaestors, when Quintus Rutilius and Gaius Cornelius were quaestors, and taken out of the second table of the first class, on the third day before the Ides of April, in the temple of Concord. There were present at the writing of this decree: Lucius Calpurnius Piso of the Menenian tribe, Servius Papinius Potitus of the Lemonian tribe, Gaius Caninius Rebilius of the Terentine tribe, Publius Tidetius, Lucius Apulinus, the son of Lucius, of the Sergian tribe, Flavius, the son of Lucius, of the Lemonian tribe, Publius Platius, the son of Publius, of the Papyrian tribe, Marcus Acilius, the son of Marcus, of the Mecian tribe, Lucius Erucius, the son of Lucius, of the Stellatine tribe, Marcus Quintus Plancillus, the son of Marcus, of the Pollian tribe, and Publius Serius. Publius Dolabella and Marcus Antonius, the consuls, made this reference to the senate, so that as for those things which, by the decree of the senate, Gaius Caesar had adjudged concerning the Jews, and yet thus far that decree had not been brought into the treasury, it is our will, as it is also the desire of Publius Dolabella and Marcus Antonius, our consuls, to have these decrees put into the public tables and brought to the city quaestors, so that they may take care to have them put on the double tables. This was done before the fifth of the Ides of February, in the temple of Concord. Now the ambassadors from Hyrcanus the high priest were these: Lysimachus, the son of Pausanias, Alexander, the son of Theodorus, Patroclus, the son of Chereas, and Jonathan, the son of Onias.”

11. Hyrcanus also sent one of these ambassadors to Dolabella, who was then the prefect of Asia, and desired him to dismiss the Jews from military services, and to preserve to them the customs of their forefathers, and to permit them to live according to them. And when Dolabella had received Hyrcanus’ letter, without any further deliberation, he sent a letter to all the Asians, and particularly to the city of the Ephesians, the metropolis of Asia, concerning the Jews; a copy of which letter follows here:

12. “When Artemon was prytanis, on the first day of the month Leneon, Dolabella, imperator, to the senate, and magistrates, and people of the Ephesians: Greetings. Alexander, the son of Theodorus, the ambassador of Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, appeared before me to show that his countrymen could not go into their armies, because they are not allowed to bear arms, or to travel on the Sabbath days, nor to acquire [for] themselves thereon those sorts of food which they have been accustomed to eat from the times of their forefathers; I therefore grant them a freedom from going into the army, as the former prefects have done, and permit them to use the customs of their forefathers, in assembling together for sacred and religious purposes, as their law requires, and for collecting oblations necessary for sacrifices; and my will is that you write this to the different cities under your jurisdiction.”

13. And these were the concessions that Dolabella made to our nation when Hyrcanus sent an envoy to him. But Lucius the consul’s decree ran thus: “At my tribunal I have set these Jews, who are citizens of Rome, and follow the Jewish religious rites, and yet live at Ephesus, free from going into the army, on account of the superstition they are under. This was done before the twelfth of the calends of October, when Lucius Lentulus and Gaius Marcellus were consuls, in the presence of Titus Appius Balbus, the son of Titus, and lieutenant of the Horatian tribe; of Titus Tongius, the son of Titus, of the Crustumine tribe; of Quintus Resius, the son of Quintus; of Titus Pompeius Longinus, the son of Titus; of Gaius Servilius, the son of Gaius, of the Terentine tribe; of Bracchus the military tribune; of Publius Lucius Gallus, the son of Publius, of the Veturian tribe; of Gaius Sentius, the son of Gaius, of the Sabbatine tribe; of Titus Atilius Bulbus, the son of Titus, lieutenant and vice-praetor to the magistrates, senate, and people of the Ephesians: Greetings. The consul Lucius Lentulus freed the Jews that are in Asia from going into the armies, at my intercession for them; and when I had made the same petition some time afterward to the imperator Phanius, and to Lucius Antonius the vice-quaestor, I obtained that privilege for them also; and my will is that you take care that no one gives them any disturbance.”

14. The decree of the Delians: “The answer of the praetors, when Beotus was archon, on the twentieth day of the month Thargeleon. While the lieutenant Marcus Piso lived in our city, who was also appointed over the choice of the soldiers, he called us, and many of the other citizens, and gave an order that if there are any Jews here who are Roman citizens, no one is to give them any disturbance about going into the army, because Cornelius Lentulus, the consul, freed the Jews from going into the army on account of the superstition they are under; you are therefore obligated to submit to the praetor.” And the same decree was made by the Sardians about us also.

15. “Gaius Phanius, the son of Gaius, imperator and consul, to the magistrates of Cos: Greetings. I would have you know that the ambassadors of the Jews have been with me and desired [that] they might have those decrees which the senate had made about them, which decrees are subjoined here. My will is that you have a regard for and take care of these men, according to the senate’s decree, so that they may be safely conveyed home through your country.”

16. The declaration of the consul Lucius Lentulus: “I have dismissed those Jews who are Roman citizens, and who appear to me to have their religious rites, and to observe the laws of the Jews at Ephesus, on account of the superstition they are under. This act was done before the thirteenth of the calends of October.”

17. “Lucius Antonius, the son of Marcus, vice-quaestor, and vice-praetor, to the magistrates, senate, and people of the Sardians: Greetings. Those Jews that are our fellow citizens of Rome came to me and demonstrated that they had an assembly of their own, according to the laws of their forefathers, and this from the beginning, as also a place of their own, wherein they determined their suits and controversies with one another. Therefore, on their petition to me that these might be lawful for them, I gave an order that these privileges of theirs be preserved and they be permitted to do accordingly.”

18. The declaration of Marcus Publius, the son of Spurius, and of Marcus, the son of Marcus, and of Lucius, the son of Publius: “We went to the proconsul and informed him of what Dositheus, the son of Cleopatrida of Alexandria, desired: that if he thought [it] good, he would dismiss those Jews who were Roman citizens and were accustomed to observe the rites of the Jewish religion, on account of the superstition they were under. Accordingly, he dismissed them. This was done before the thirteenth of the calends of October.”

19. “In the month Quintilis, when Lucius Lentulus and Gaius Mercellus were consuls; and there were present: Titus Appius Balbus, the son of Titus, lieutenant of the Horatian tribe, Titus Tongius of the Crustumine tribe, Quintus Resius, the son of Quintus, Titus Pompeius, the son of Titus, Cornelius Longinus, Gaius Servilius Bracchus, the son of Gaius, a military tribune, of the Terentine tribe, Publius Clusius Gallus, the son of Publius, of the Veturian tribe, Gaius Teutius, the son of Gaius, a military tribune, of the Emilian tribe, Sextus Atilius Serranus, the son of Sextus, of the Esquiline tribe, Gaius Pompeius, the son of Gaius, of the Sabbatine tribe, Titus Appius Menander, the son of Titus, Publius Servilius Strabo, the son of Publius, Lucius Paccius Capito, the son of Lucius, of the Colline tribe, Aulus Furius Tertius, the son of Aulus, and Appius Menas. It was in the presence of these that Lentulus pronounced this decree: Before the tribunal I have dismissed those Jews that are Roman citizens and are accustomed to observe the sacred rites of the Jews at Ephesus, on account of the superstition they are under.”

20. “The magistrates of the Laodiceans to Gaius Rubilius, the son of Gaius, the consul: Greetings. Sopater, the ambassador of Hyrcanus the high priest, has delivered us a letter from you whereby he lets us know that certain ambassadors had come from Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews, and brought a letter written concerning their nation, wherein they desire that the Jews may be allowed to observe their Sabbaths and other sacred rites according to the laws of their forefathers, and that they may be under no command, because they are our friends and confederates, and that nobody may harm them in our provinces. Now although the Trallians present there contradicted them and were not pleased with these decrees, you still gave an order that they should be observed and informed us that you had desired to write this to us about them. We, therefore, in obedience to the orders we have received from you, have received the letter which you sent us and have laid it up by itself among our public records. And as for the other things about which you sent to us, we will take care that no complaint is made against us.”

21. “Publius Servilius, the son of Publius, of the Galban tribe, the proconsul, to the magistrates, senate, and people of the Milesians: Greetings. Prytanes, the son of Hermes, a citizen of yours, came to me when I was at Tralles, and held a court there, and informed me that you used the Jews in a way different from my opinion, and forbade them to celebrate their Sabbaths, and to perform the sacred rites received from their forefathers, and to manage the fruits of the land, according to their ancient custom; and that he had himself been the promulgator of your decree, according as your laws require: I would therefore have you know that on hearing the pleadings on both sides, I gave sentence that the Jews should not be prohibited to make use of their own customs.”

22. The decree of those of Pergamos: “When Cratippus was prytanis, on the first day of the month Desius, the decree of the praetors was this: Since the Romans, following the conduct of their ancestors, undertake dangers for the common safety of all mankind, and are ambitious to settle their confederates and friends in happiness and in firm peace, and since the nation of the Jews, and their high priest Hyrcanus, sent as ambassadors to them, Strato, the son of Theodatus, and Apollonius, the son of Alexander, and Enaus, the son of Antipater, and Aristobulus, the son of Amyntas, and Sosipater, the son of Philip, worthy and good men, who gave a particular account of their affairs, the senate therefore made a decree about what they had desired from them: that Antiochus the king, the son of Antiochus, should do no harm to the Jews, the confederates of the Romans; and that the fortresses, and the havens, and the country, and whatsoever else he had taken from them, should be restored to them; and that it may be lawful for them to export their goods out of their own havens; and that no king nor people may have permission to export any goods, either out of the country of Judea, or out of their havens, without paying customs, but only Ptolemy, the king of Alexandria, because he is our confederate and friend; and that, according to their desire, the garrison that is in Joppa may be banished. Now Lucius Pettius, one of our senators, a worthy and good man, gave an order that we should take care that these things should be done according to the senate’s decree; and that we should also take care that their ambassadors might return home in safety. Accordingly, we admitted Theodorus into our senate and assembly and took the letter from his hands, as well as the decree of the senate. And as he discoursed with great zeal about the Jews and described Hyrcanus’ virtue and generosity and how he was a benefactor to all men in common, and particularly to everybody that comes to him, we laid up the letter in our public records and made a decree ourselves that since we also are in confederacy with the Romans, we would do everything we could for the Jews, according to the senate’s decree. Theodorus also, who brought the letter, desired of our praetors that they would send Hyrcanus a copy of that decree, as also ambassadors, to signify to him the affection of our people toward him, and to exhort them to preserve and increase their friendship for us, and be ready to bestow other benefits on us, as justly expecting to receive proper repayments from us, and desiring them to remember that our ancestors were friendly to the Jews even in the days of Abraham, who was the father of all the Hebrews, as we have [also] found it set down in our public records.”

23. The decree of those of Halicarnassus: “When Memnon, the son of Orestidas by descent, but by adoption of Euonymus, was priest, on the . . . day of the month Aristerion, the decree of the people, on the representation of Marcus Alexander, was this: Since we always have a high regard for piety toward God and for holiness; and since we aim to follow the people of the Romans, who are the benefactors of all men, and what they have written to us about a covenant of friendship and mutual assistance between the Jews and our city, and that their sacred offices and accustomed festivals and assemblies may be observed by them; we have decreed that as many men and women of the Jews as are willing to do so, may celebrate their Sabbaths, and perform their holy offices, according to Jewish laws, and may make their prayer at the seaside, according to the customs of their forefathers; and if anyone, whether he is a magistrate or private person, hinders them from doing so, he will be liable to a fine, to be applied to the uses of the city.”

24. The decree of the Sardians: “This decree was made by the senate and people, on the representation of the praetors: Whereas those Jews who are fellow citizens and live with us in this city have always had great benefits heaped on them by the people, and have now come into the senate, and desired of the people that on the restitution of their law and their liberty by the senate and people of Rome, they may assemble together according to their ancient legal custom, and that we will not bring any suit against them about it, and that a place may be given [to] them where they may have their congregations, with their wives and children, and may offer, as did their forefathers, their prayers and sacrifices to God, the senate and people have now decreed to permit them to assemble together on the days formerly appointed, and to act according to their own laws; and that such a place be set apart for them by the praetors, for the building and inhabiting the same, as they will consider suitable for that purpose; and that those that take care of the provision for the city, will take care that such sorts of food as they consider suitable for their eating may be imported into the city.”

25. The decree of the Ephesians: “When Menophilus was prytanis, on the first day of the month Artemisius, this decree was made by the people: Nicanor, the son of Euphemus, pronounced it, on the representation of the praetors. Since the Jews that dwell in this city have petitioned Marcus Julius Pompeius, the son of Brutus, the proconsul, that they might be allowed to observe their Sabbaths and to act in all things according to the customs of their forefathers without impediment from anyone, the praetor has granted their petition. Accordingly, it was decreed by the senate and people, that in this affair that concerned the Romans, none of them should be hindered from keeping the Sabbath day, nor be fined for doing so, but that they may be allowed to do all things according to their own laws.”

26. Now there are many such decrees of the senate and imperators of the Romans—and those different from these before us—which have been made in favor of Hyrcanus and of our nation; as also, there have been more decrees of the cities, and rescripts of the praetors, to such letters as concerned our rights and privileges; and certainly such as are not hostile toward what we write may believe that they are all for this purpose, and that by the specimens which we have inserted [here]; for since we have produced evident marks that may still be seen of the friendship we have had with the Romans and demonstrated that those marks are engraved on columns and tables of brass in the Capitol, which are still in existence and preserved to this day, we have omitted to set them all down, as needless and disagreeable; for I cannot suppose anyone so perverse as not to believe the friendship we have had with the Romans, while they have demonstrated the same by such a great number of their decrees relating to us; nor will they doubt our fidelity as to the rest of those decrees, since we have shown the same in those we have produced, and we have thus sufficiently explained that friendship and confederacy we had with the Romans at those times.

CHAPTER 11

How Marcus Succeeded Sextus When He Had Been Slain by Bassus’ Treachery; And How, After the Death of Caesar, Cassius Came Into Syria and Distressed Judea; As Also How Malichus Slew Antipater and Was Himself Slain by Herod.

1. Now it so happened that about this very time the affairs of Syria were in great disorder, and this on the following occasion: Cecilius Bassus, one of Pompey’s party, laid a treacherous design against Sextus Ceasar, and slew him, and then took his army, and got the management of public affairs into his own hand; so there arose a great war around Apamea, while Ceasar’s generals came against him with an army of horsemen and footmen; to these Antipater also sent aid, and his sons with them, as calling to mind the kindnesses they had received from Caesar, and on that account he thought it [was] only just to require punishment for him, and to take vengeance on the man that had murdered him. And as the war was drawn out into a great length, Marcus came from Rome to take Sextus’ government on himself. But Caesar was slain by Cassius and Brutus in the senate-house, after he had retained the government three years and six months. This fact, however, is related elsewhere.

2. As the war that arose on the death of Caesar had now begun, and the principal men had all departed, some one way, and some another, to raise armies, Cassius came from Rome into Syria in order to receive the [army that lay in the] camp at Apamea; and having raised the siege, he brought over both Bassus and Marcus to his party. He then went over the cities, and gathered weapons and soldiers, and laid great taxes on those cities; and he chiefly oppressed Judea and exacted seven hundred talents from it: but Antipater, when he saw the state to be in such great consternation and disorder, he divided the collection of that sum and appointed his two sons to gather it; and so that part of it was to be exacted by Malichus, who was hostile toward him, and part by others. And because Herod did exact what is required of him from Galilee before others, he was in the greatest favor with Cassius; for he thought it a part of prudence to cultivate a friendship with the Romans and to gain their goodwill at the expense of others; whereas the curators of the other cities, with their citizens, were sold for slaves; and Cassius reduced four cities into a state of slavery, the two most powerful of which were Gophna and Emmaus; and, besides these, Lydia and Thamna. Indeed, Cassius was so very angry at Malichus that he would have killed him (for he assaulted him), had Hyrcanus, by means of Antipater, not sent him one hundred talents of his own, and thereby pacified his anger against him.

3. But after Cassius had gone out of Judea, Malichus laid snares for Antipater, as thinking that his death would be the preservation of Hyrcanus’ government; but his design was not unknown to Antipater, which when he perceived [it], he retreated beyond [the] Jordan and gathered an army, partly of Arabs, and partly of his own countrymen. However, Malichus, being one of great cunning, denied that he had laid any snares for him and made his defense with an oath, both to himself and his sons; and he said that while Phasaelus had a garrison in Jerusalem, and Herod had the weapons of war in his custody, he could never have a thought of any such thing. So Antipater, perceiving the distress that Malichus was in, was reconciled to him and made an agreement with him: this was when Marcus was president of Syria, who yet perceiving that this Malichus was making a disturbance in Judea, proceeded so far that he had almost killed him; but still, at the intercession of Antipater, he saved him.

4. However, Antipater [gave] little thought that by saving Malichus, he had saved his own murderer, for Cassius and Marcus had now gathered an army, and entrusted the entire care of it with Herod, and made him general of the forces of Coele-Syria, and gave him a fleet of ships, and an army of horsemen and footmen; and they promised him that after the war was over they would make him king of Judea; for a war had already begun between Antony and the younger Caesar: but as Malichus was most afraid of Antipater, he took him out of the way; and by the offer of money, persuaded the butler of Hyrcanus, with whom they were both to feast, to kill him by poison. This being done, and he having armed men with him, settled the affairs of the city. But when Antipater’s sons, Herod and Phasaelus, were acquainted with this conspiracy against their father and had indignation at it, Malichus denied everything and utterly renounced any knowledge of the murder. And thus Antipater died, a man that had distinguished himself for piety, and justice, and love for his country. And whereas one of his sons, Herod, immediately resolved to avenge their father’s death and was coming on Malichus with an army for that purpose, the elder of his sons, Phasaelus, thought it best rather to get this man into their hands by policy, lest they should appear to begin a civil war in the country; so he accepted Malichus’ defense for himself and pretended to believe him that he had had no hand in the violent death of his father Antipater, but erected a fine monument for him. Herod also went to Samaria; and when he found them in great distress, he revived their spirits and united their differences.

5. However, shortly after this, Herod, on the approach of a festival, came with his soldiers into the city, whereon Malichus was frightened and persuaded Hyrcanus not to permit him to come into the city. Hyrcanus complied; and, for a pretense of excluding him, alleged that a rout of strangers ought not to be admitted when the multitude were purifying themselves. But Herod had little regard for the messengers that were sent to him, and entered the city in the nighttime, and frightened Malichus; yet he suspended nothing of his former disguise, but [falsely] wept for Antipater and lamented him as a friend of his with a loud voice; but Herod and his friends thought it proper not to openly contradict Malichus’ hypocrisy, but to give him tokens of mutual friendship in order to prevent his suspicion of them.

6. However, Herod sent to Cassius and informed him of the murder of his father; who knowing what sort of man Malichus was as to his morals, sent him back word that he should avenge his father’s death; and he also sent privately to the commanders of his army at Tyre, with orders to assist Herod in the execution of a very just plan of his. Now when Cassius had taken Laodicea, they all went together to him and carried him garlands and money; and Herod thought that Malichus might be punished while he was there, but he was somewhat apprehensive of the thing and planned to make some great attempt; and because his son was then a hostage at Tyre, he went to that city, and resolved to steal him away privately, and to march from there into Judea; and as Cassius was in haste to march against Antony, he thought to bring the country to revolt and to gain the government for himself. But Providence opposed his counsels; and Herod being a shrewd man, and perceiving what his intention was, he sent a servant there beforehand, indeed, appearing to get a supper ready, for he had said before that he would feast them all there, but in reality, [he was sent] to the commanders of the army, whom he persuaded to go out against Malichus with their daggers. So they went out and met the man near the city, on the seashore, and stabbed him there. Whereon Hyrcanus was so astonished at what had happened, that his speech failed him; and when, after some difficulty, he had recovered himself, he asked Herod what the matter could be, and who it was that slew Malichus; and when he said that it was done by the command of Cassius, he commended the action; for Malichus was a very wicked man, and one that conspired against his own country. And this was the punishment that was inflicted on Malichus for what he wickedly did to Antipater.

7. But when Cassius had marched out of Syria, disturbances arose in Judea, for Felix, who was left at Jerusalem with an army, made a sudden attempt against Phasaelus, and the people themselves rose up in arms; but Herod went to Fabius, the prefect of Damascus, and desired to run to his brother’s assistance, but was hindered by a disease that seized him, until Phasaelus by himself had been too difficult for Felix, and had shut him up in the tower, and there, on certain conditions, dismissed him. Phasaelus also complained of Hyrcanus, that although he had received a great many benefits from them, yet he [still] supported their enemies; for Malichus’ brother had made many places to revolt and kept garrisons in them, and particularly Masada, the strongest fortress of them all. In the meantime, Herod had recovered from his disease, and came and took from Felix all the places he had gotten, and on certain conditions, dismissed him also.

CHAPTER 12

Herod Banishes Antigonus, the Son of Aristobulus, from Judea and Gains the Friendship of Antony, Who Had Now Come into Syria, by Sending Him Much Money, On Which Account He Would Not Admit Those That Would Have Accused Herod; And What It Was That Antony Wrote to the Tyrians on Behalf of the Jews.

1. Now Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, brought back into Judea Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, who had already raised an army, and had, by money, made Fabius to be his friend—and this because he was of relation to him. Marion also gave him assistance. He had been left by Cassius to tyrannize over Tyre, for this Cassius was a man that seized Syria and then kept it subjugated in the way of a tyrant. Marion also marched into Galilee, which lay in his neighborhood, and took three of its fortresses, and put garrisons into them to keep them. But when Herod came, he took all from him; but he dismissed the Tyrian garrison in a very civil manner; indeed, he made presents for some of the soldiers out of the goodwill he bore to that city. When he had dispatched these affairs and had gone to meet Antigonus, he joined battle with him, and beat him, and presently drove him out of Judea when he had just come into its borders. But when he had come to Jerusalem, Hyrcanus and the people put garlands around his head, for he had already contracted an affinity with the family of Hyrcanus by having espoused a descendant of his, and for that reason Herod took the greater care of him, as being to marry the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, and the granddaughter of Hyrcanus, by which wife he became the father of three male and two female children. He had also married another wife before this, out of a lower family of his own nation, whose name was Doris, by whom he had his eldest son Antipater.

2. Now Antonius and Caesar had beaten Cassius near Philippi, as others have related; but after the victory, Caesar went into Gaul [(Italy)], and Antony marched for Asia, who, when he had arrived at Bithynia, had ambassadors that met him from all parts. The principal men of the Jews also came there to accuse Phasaelus and Herod; and they said that Hyrcanus indeed had the appearance of reigning, but that these men had all the [real] power: but Antony paid great respect to Herod, who had come to him to make his defense against his accusers, on which account his adversaries could not so much as obtain a hearing, which favor Herod had gained from Antony by money. But still, when Antony had come to Ephesus, Hyrcanus the high priest, and our nation, sent an envoy to him, which carried a crown of gold with them and desired that he would write to the governors of the provinces to set those Jews free who had been carried captive by Cassius, and this without their having fought against him, and to restore them that country, which, in the days of Cassius, had been taken from them. Antony thought the Jews’ desires were just and immediately wrote to Hyrcanus and to the Jews. He also sent, at the same time, a decree to the Tyrians, the contents of which were to the same purpose.

3. “Marcus Antonius, imperator, to Hyrcanus the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews: Greetings. If you are in [good] health, it is well; I am also in [good] health with the army. Lysimachus, the son of Pausanias, and Josephus, the son of Menneus, and Alexander, the son of Theodorus, your ambassadors, met me at Ephesus, and have renewed the envoy which they had formerly been on at Rome, and have diligently acquitted themselves of the present envoy, which you and your nation have entrusted to them, and have fully declared the goodwill you have for us. I am therefore satisfied, both by your actions and your words, that you are well-disposed toward us; and I understand that your conduct of life is constant and religious: so I reckon you as our own. But when those that were adversaries to you, and to the Roman people, abstained neither from cities nor temples, and did not observe the agreement they had confirmed by oath, it was not only on account of our contest with them, but on account of all mankind in common, that we have taken vengeance on those who have been the authors of great injustice toward men and of great wickedness toward the gods; for the sake of which we suppose it was that the sun turned away his light from us, as unwilling to view the horrid crime they were guilty of in the case of Caesar. We have also overcome their conspiracies, which threatened the gods themselves, which Macedonia received, as it is a climate peculiarly proper for impious and insolent attempts; and we have overcome that confused band of men, half mad with spite against us, which they gathered at Philippi in Macedonia when they seized the places that were proper for their purpose, and, as it were, walled them around with mountains to the very sea, and where the passage was open only through a single gate. We gained this victory because the gods had condemned those men for their wicked enterprises. Now Brutus, when he had fled as far as Philippi, was imprisoned by us and became a partaker of the same perdition with Cassius; and now [that] these have received their punishment, we suppose that we may enjoy peace for the time to come and that Asia may be at rest from war. We therefore make that peace which God has given us common to our confederates also, insomuch that the body of Asia is now recovered out of that disease it was under by the means of our victory. I, therefore, bearing in mind both you and your nation, will take care of what may be for your advantage. I have also sent letters in writing to the various cities, that if any persons, whether freemen or bond-men, have been sold under the spear by Gaius Cassius or his subordinate officers, they may be set free. And I will that you kindly make use of the favors which I and Dolabella have granted you. I also forbid the Tyrians to use any violence with you; and for what places of the Jews they now possess, I order them to restore them. I have additionally accepted the crown which you sent me.”

4. “Marcus Antonius, imperator, to the magistrates, senate, and people of Tyre: Greetings. The ambassadors of Hyrcanus, the high priest and ethnarch [of the Jews], appeared before me at Ephesus and told me that you are in possession of part of their country which you entered on under the government of our adversaries. Since, therefore, we have undertaken a war for obtaining the government, and have taken care to do what was agreeable to piety and justice, and have brought to punishment those that had neither any remembrance of the kindnesses they had received, nor have kept their oaths, I will that you be at peace with those that are our confederates; as also, that what you have taken by the means of our adversaries will not be reckoned your own, but be returned to those from whom you took them; for none of them took their provinces or their armies by the gift of the senate, but they seized them by force and bestowed them by violence on such as became useful to them in their unjust proceedings. Since, therefore, those men have received the punishment due to them, we desire that our confederates may retain whatsoever it was that they formerly possessed without disturbance, and that you restore all the places which belong to Hyrcanus, the ethnarch of the Jews, which you have had, though it were but one day before Gaius Cassius began an unjustifiable war against us and entered into our province; nor use any force against him, in order to weaken him, that he may not be able to dispose of that which is his own; but if you have any contest with him concerning your respective rights, it will be lawful for you to plead your cause when we come on the places concerned, for we will alike preserve the rights and hear all the causes of our confederates.”

5. “Marcus Antonius, imperator, to the magistrates, senate, and people of Tyre: Greetings. I have sent you my decree, of which I will that you take care that it is engraved on the public tables, in Roman and Greek letters, and that it stands engraved in the most illustrious places, that it may be read by all. Marcus Antonius, imperator, one of the triumvirate over the public affairs, made this declaration: Since Gaius Cassius, in this revolt he has made, has pillaged that province which did not belong to him, and was held by garrisons encamped there while they were our confederates, and has spoiled that nation of the Jews that was in friendship with the Roman people, as in war, and since we have overcome his madness by arms, we now correct by our decrees and judicial determinations what he has laid waste, so that those things may be restored to our confederates. And as for what has been sold of the Jewish possessions—whether they are bodies or possessions—let them be released: the bodies into that state of freedom they were originally in, and the possessions to their former owners. I also will that he who will not comply with this decree of mine will be punished for his disobedience; and if such a one is caught, I will take care that the offenders suffer appropriate punishment.”

6. Antony wrote the same thing to the Sidonians, and the Antiochians, and the Arabians. We have produced these decrees, therefore, as marks for the future of the truth of what we have said, that the Romans had a great concern for our nation.

CHAPTER 13

How Antony Made Herod and Phasaelus Tetrarchs After They Had Been Accused to No Purpose; And How the Parthians, When They Brought Antigonus Into Judea, Took Hyrcanus and Phasaelus [as] Captives. [Also Concerning] Herod’s Flight and What Afflictions Hyrcanus and Phasaelus Endured.

1. After this, when Antony came into Syria, Cleopatra met him in Cilicia and brought him to fall in love with her. And now one hundred of the most powerful of the Jews also came to accuse Herod and those around him and set the men of the greatest eloquence among them to speak. But Messala contradicted them, on behalf of the young men, and all this in the presence of Hyrcanus, who was already Herod’s father-in-law. When Antony had heard both sides at Daphne, he asked Hyrcanus who they were that governed the nation best. He replied, “Herod and his friends.” Hereon Antony, by reason of the old hospitable friendship he had made with his father [Antipater], at that time when he was with Gabinius, he made both Herod and Phasaelus tetrarchs, and committed the public affairs of the Jews to them, and wrote letters to that purpose. He also bound fifteen of their adversaries; and he was going to kill them, but Herod obtained their pardon.

2. Yet these men did not remain quiet when they had come back, but one thousand of the Jews came to Tyre to meet him there, where the report was that he would come. But Antony was corrupted by the money which Herod and his brother had given him, and so he gave an order to the governor of the place to punish the Jewish ambassadors who were making innovations and to settle the government on Herod; but Herod went out hastily to them, and Hyrcanus was with him (for they stood on the shore near the city), and he commanded them to go their ways, because great trouble would happen to them if they went on with their accusation. But they did not acquiesce; whereon the Romans ran on them with their daggers, and slew some, and wounded more of them, and the rest fled away, and went home, and lay still in great consternation. And when the people made a clamor against Herod, Antony was so provoked by it that he slew the prisoners.

3. Now, in the second year, Pacorus, the king of Parthia’s son, and Barzapharnes, a commander of the Parthians, took possession of Syria themselves. Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, was also now dead, and his son Lysanius took his government and made a covenant of friendship with Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus; and in order to obtain it, made use of that commander who had great interest in him. Now Antigonus had promised to give the Parthians one thousand talents and five hundred women on condition they would take the government away from Hyrcanus, and bestow it on him, and additionally kill Herod. And although he did not give them what he had promised, the Parthians still made an expedition into Judea on that account and carried Antigonus with them. Pacorus went along the maritime parts, but the commander Barzapharnes through the midland. Now the Tyrians excluded Pacorus, but the Sidonians and those of Ptolemais received him. However, Pacorus sent a troop of horsemen into Judea to take a view of the state of the country and to assist Antigonus; and he also sent the king’s butler, of the same name with himself. So, when the Jews that dwelt around Mount Carmel came to Antigonus and were ready to march with him into Judea, Antigonus hoped to get some part of the country by their assistance. The place is called Drymi; and when some others came and met them, the men privately fell on Jerusalem; and when some more had come to them, they gathered in great numbers, and came against the king’s palace, and besieged it. But as Phasaelus’ [party] and Herod’s party came to the other’s assistance and a battle happened between them in the marketplace, the young men beat their enemies, and pursued them into the temple, and sent some armed men into the adjoining houses to keep them in, who yet being destitute of such as should support them, were burnt, and the houses with them, by the people who rose up against them. But Herod was avenged on these seditious adversaries of his shortly afterward, for this injury they had offered him, when he fought with them and slew a great number of them.

4. But while there were daily skirmishes, the enemy waited for the coming of the multitude out of the country to Pentecost, a celebration of ours so called; and when that day had come, many myriads of the people were gathered together around the temple, some in armor, and some without. Now those that came guarded both the temple and the city, excepting what belonged to the palace, which Herod guarded with a few of his soldiers; and Phasaelus had the charge of the wall, while Herod, with a body of his men, attacked the enemy, who lay in the suburbs, and fought courageously, and put many myriads to flight, some fleeing into the city, and some into the temple, and some into the outer fortifications, for there were some such fortifications in that place. Phasaelus also came to his assistance; yet Pacorus, the general of the Parthians, at the desire of Antigonus, was admitted into the city, with a few of his horsemen, under pretense indeed as if he would still the sedition, but in reality, to assist Antigonus in obtaining the government. And when Phasaelus met him and received him kindly, Pacorus persuaded him to go as ambassador to Barzapharnes himself, which was done fraudulently. Accordingly, Phasaelus, suspecting no harm, complied with his proposal, while Herod did not give his consent to what was done, because of the infidelity of these barbarians, but desired Phasaelus rather to fight those that had come into the city.

5. So, both Hyrcanus and Phasaelus went on the envoy; but Pacorus left with Herod two hundred horsemen, and ten men, who were called the freemen, and led the others on their journey; and when they were in Galilee, the governors of the cities there met them in their arms. Barzapharnes also received them at first with cheerfulness and made them presents, although afterward he conspired against them; and Phasaelus, with his horsemen, was led to the seaside. But when they heard that Antigonus had promised to give the Parthians one thousand talents and five hundred women to assist him against them, they soon had a suspicion of the barbarians. Moreover, there was one who informed them that snares were laid for them by night, while a guard came around them secretly; and they would have then been seized, had they not waited for the seizure of Herod by the Parthians that were around Jerusalem, lest, on the slaughter of Hyrcanus and Phasaelus, he should have an indication of it and escape out of their hands. And these were the circumstances they were now in; and they saw who they were that guarded them. Some persons would indeed have persuaded Phasaelus to flee away immediately on horseback and not stay any longer; and there was one Ophellius, who, above all the rest, was earnest with him to do so, for he had heard of this treachery from Saramalla, the richest of all the Syrians at that time, who also promised to provide him ships to carry him off; for the sea was close by them. But he had no mind to desert Hyrcanus, nor bring his brother into danger; but he went to Barzapharnes and told him he did not act justly when he made such a plan against them; for if he wanted money, he would give him more than Antigonus; and besides [this], that it was a horrible thing to slay those that came to him on the security of their oaths—and that when they had done them no injury. But the barbarian swore to him that there was no truth in any of his suspicions, but that he was troubled with nothing but false proposals, and then went away to Pacorus.

6. But as soon as he had gone away, some men came and bound Hyrcanus and Phasaelus, while Phasaelus greatly reproached the Parthians for their perjury. However, that butler who was sent against Herod had it in command to get him outside the walls of the city and seize him, but messengers had been sent by Phasaelus to inform Herod of the disloyalty of the Parthians. And when he knew that the enemy had seized them, he went to Pacorus, and to the most powerful of the Parthians, as to the lord of the rest, who, although they knew the whole matter, tried deceiving him in a cunning way and said that he ought to go out with them near the walls and meet those which were bringing him his letters, for they were not taken by his adversaries, but were coming to give him an account of the good success Phasaelus had had. Herod did not give credit to what they said, for he had heard that his brother was seized by others also; and the daughter of Hyrcanus, whose daughter he had espoused, was his monitor also [not to give credit to them], which made him still more suspicious of the Parthians; for although other people did not give heed to her, yet he believed her as a woman of very great wisdom.

7. Now while the Parthians were in consultation [regarding] what should be done—for they did not think it proper to make an open attempt on a person of his character—and while they put off the determination to the next day, Herod was under great disturbance of mind, and inclining rather to believe the reports he had heard about his brother and the Parthians, than to give heed to what was said on the other side, he determined that when the evening came on, he would make use of it for his escape and not make any further delay, as if the dangers from the enemy were not yet certain. Therefore, he departed with the armed men whom he had with him, and set his wives on the beasts, as also his mother, and sister, and her whom he was about to marry, [Mariamne], the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, with her mother, the daughter of Hyrcanus, and his youngest brother, and all their servants, and the rest of the multitude that was with him, and without the enemy’s knowledge, pursued his way to Idumea. Nor could any enemy of his who then saw him in this predicament be so hardhearted, but would have pitied his fortune, while the women drew along their infant children and left their own country, and their friends in prison, with tears in their eyes, and sad lamentations, and in expectation of nothing but what was of a downhearted nature.

8. But for Herod himself, he raised his mind above the miserable state he was in and was of good courage in the midst of his misfortunes; and as he passed along, he commanded every one of them to be of good cheer and not to give themselves up to sorrow, because that would hinder them in their escape, which was now the only hope of safety that they had. Accordingly, they tried to bear the calamity they were under with patience, as he exhorted them to do; yet once he was almost going to kill himself, on the overthrow of a wagon and the danger his mother was then in of being killed; and this on two accounts: because of his great concern for her, and because he was afraid lest, by this delay, the enemy should overtake him in the pursuit; but as he was drawing his sword and going to kill himself with it, those that were present restrained him, and being so many in number, were too strong for him; and they told him that he should not desert them and leave them [as] prey for their enemies, for it was not the part of a brave man to free himself from the distresses he was in and to overlook his friends that were also in the same distresses. So he was compelled to leave that horrid attempt alone, partly out of shame at what they said to him, and partly out of regard for the great number of those that would not permit him to do what he intended. So he encouraged his mother, and took all the care of her that time would allow, and proceeded on the way he proposed to go with the utmost haste—and that was to the fortress of Masada. And as he had many skirmishes with such of the Parthians as attacked him and pursued him, he was conqueror in them all.

9. Nor indeed was he free from the Jews all along as he was in his flight, for by the time he had gone sixty stadia out of the city and was on the road, they fell on him and fought hand to hand with him, whom he also put to flight and overcame, not like one that was in distress and in necessity, but like one that was exceptionally prepared for war and had what he needed in great abundance. And it was in this very place where he overcame the Jews that he some time afterward built a most excellent palace, and a city around it, and called it Herodium. And when he had come to Idumea, at a place called Thressa, his brother Joseph met him, and he then held a council to take advice about all his affairs and what was fitting to be done in his circumstances, since he had a great multitude that followed him, besides his mercenary soldiers, and the place Masada, where he proposed to flee, was too small to contain such a great multitude; so he sent away the greater part of his company, being above nine thousand, and commanded them to go, some one way, and some another, and so save themselves in Idumea, and gave them what would buy them provisions in their journey. But he took with him those that were the least encumbered, and were most intimate with him, and came to the fortress, and placed his wives and his followers there, being eight hundred in number, there being in the place a sufficient quantity of corn and water, and other necessities, and went directly for Petra, in Arabia. But when it was day, the Parthians plundered all [of] Jerusalem, and the palace, and abstained from nothing except Hyrcanus’ money, which was three hundred talents. A great deal of Herod’s money escaped, and principally all that the man had been so prudent so as to send into Idumea beforehand; nor indeed did what was in the city suffice the Parthians, but they went out into the country, and plundered it, and demolished the city [of] Marissa.

10. And thus Antigonus was brought back into Judea by the king of the Parthians and received Hyrcanus and Phasaelus for his prisoners; but he was greatly downcast because the women had escaped, whom he intended to have given [to] the enemy, as having promised they should have them, with the money, for their reward: but being afraid that Hyrcanus, who was under the guard of the Parthians, might have his kingdom restored to him by the multitude, he cut off his ears, and thereby took care that the high priesthood should never come to him anymore, because he was maimed, while the Law required that this dignity should belong to none but such as had all their members whole. But now one cannot but here admire the fortitude of Phasaelus, who, perceiving that he was to be put to death, did not think death any terrible thing at all; but to die thus by the means of his enemy, this he thought a most pitiable and dishonorable thing; and therefore, since he did not have his hands free, but the bonds he was in prevented him from killing himself thereby, he dashed his head against a great stone, and thereby took away his own life, which he thought to be the best thing he could do in such a distress as he was in, and thereby put it out of the power of the enemy to bring him to any death he pleased. It is also reported that when he had made a great wound in his head, Antigonus sent physicians to cure it, and, by ordering them to infuse poison into the wound, killed him. However, Phasaelus hearing, before he was fully dead, by a certain woman, that his brother Herod had escaped the enemy, underwent his death cheerfully, since he now left behind him one who would avenge his death and who was able to inflict punishment on his enemies.

CHAPTER 14

How Herod Got Away from the King of Arabia, and Made Haste to Go into Egypt, and from There Also Went Away in Haste to Rome; And How, by Promising a Great Deal of Money to Antony, He Obtained from the Senate and from Caesar to Be Made King of the Jews.

1. As for Herod, the great miseries he was in did not discourage him, but made him sharp in discovering surprising undertakings; for he went to Malchus, king of Arabia, whom he had formerly been very kind to, in order to receive something by way of payment now [that] he was in more than usual need of it, and he desired [that] he would let him have some money, either by way of loan, or as his free gift, on account of the many benefits he had received from him; for not knowing what had become of his brother, he was in haste to redeem him out of the hand of his enemies, as willing to give three hundred talents for the price of his redemption. He also took with him the son of Phasaelus, who was a child of but seven years of age, for this very reason, that he might be a hostage for the repayment of the money. But messengers came from Malchus to meet him, by whom he was desired to be gone, because the Parthians had laid a charge on him not to entertain Herod. This was only a pretense which he made use of, so that he might not be obligated to repay him what he owed him; and this he was further induced to do by the principal men among the Arabians, so that they might cheat him of what sums they had received from [his father] Antipater, and which he had committed to their trust. He responded that he did not intend to be troublesome to them by his coming there, but that he only desired to discourse with them about certain affairs that were of the greatest importance to him.

2. Hereon he resolved to go away and went very prudently [on] the road to Egypt; and it was then that he lodged in a certain temple, for he had left a great many of his followers there. On the next day, he came to Rhinocolura, and it was there that he heard what had happened to his brother. Though Malchus soon regretted what he had done and came running after Herod, but with no manner of success, for he had gone a very great distance and made haste into the road to Pelusium; and when the stationary ships that lay there hindered him from sailing to Alexandria, he went to their captains, by whose assistance, and that out of much reverence of and great regard for him, he was led into the city [of Alexandria] and was retained there by Cleopatra; yet she was unable to prevail with him to stay there, because he was making haste to Rome, even though the weather was stormy, and he was informed that the affairs of Italy were very tumultuous and in great disorder.

3. So he set sail from there to Pamphylia, and falling into a violent storm, he had much difficulty in escaping to Rhodes with the loss of the ship’s burden; and it was there that two of his friends, Sappinas and Ptolemeus, met with him; and as he found that city very greatly damaged in the war against Cassius, though he were in necessity himself, he did not neglect to do it a kindness, but did what he could to recover it to its former state. He also built a three-decked ship there, and set sail from there, with his friends, for Italy, and came to the port of Brundusium; and when he had come from there to Rome, he first related to Antony what had happened to him in Judea, and how his brother Phasaelus was seized by the Parthians and put to death by them, and how Hyrcanus was detained captive by them, and how they had made Antigonus king, who had promised them a sum of money, no less than one thousand talents, with five hundred women, who were to be of the principal families and of the Jewish stock; and that he had carried off the women by night; and that, by undergoing a great many hardships, he had escaped the hands of his enemies; as also, that his own relations were in danger of being besieged and taken, and that he had sailed through a storm and despised all these terrible dangers of it, in order to come, as soon as possible, to him, who was his only hope and aid at this time.

4. This account made Antony pity the change that had happened in Herod’s condition; and reasoning within himself that this was a common case among those that are placed in such great dignities, and that they are liable to the mutations that come from fortune, he was very ready to give him the assistance he desired, and this because he called to mind the friendship he had had with Antipater because Herod offered him money to make him king, as he had formerly given it [to] him to make him tetrarch, and chiefly because of his hatred toward Antigonus; for he took him to be a seditious person and an enemy to the Romans. Caesar was also the forwarder to raise Herod’s dignity and to give him his assistance in what he desired, on account of the toils of war which he had himself undergone with his father Antipater in Egypt, and of the hospitality [with which] he had treated him as well, and the kindness he had always shown him, as also to gratify Antony, who was very zealous for Herod. So, a senate was convocated, and Messala first, and then Atratinus, introduced Herod into it, and enlarged on the benefits they had received from his father, and reminded them of the goodwill he had borne to the Romans. At the same time, they accused Antigonus and declared him an enemy, not only because of his former opposition to them, but that he had now overlooked the Romans and taken the government from the Parthians. On this the senate was irritated, and Antony further informed them that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king. This seemed good to all the senators, and so they made a decree accordingly.

5. And this was the principal instance of Antony’s affection for Herod: that he not only procured him a kingdom which he did not expect (for he did not come with an intention to ask [for] the kingdom for himself, which he did not suppose the Romans would grant him, who used to bestow it on some of the royal family, but intended to desire it for his wife’s brother, who was [the] grandson by his father to Aristobulus, and to Hyrcanus by his mother), but that he procured it for him so suddenly that he obtained what he did not expect and departed out of Italy in so few days as seven in all. Afterward, Herod took care to have this young man [(the grandson)] slain, as we will show in its proper place. But when the senate was dissolved, Antony and Caesar went out of the senate house with Herod between them, and with the consuls and other magistrates before them, in order to offer sacrifices and to lay up their decrees in the Capitol. Antony also feasted Herod the first day of his reign. And thus, this man received the kingdom, having obtained it on the one hundred and eighty-fourth Olympiad, when Gaius Domithis Calvinus was consul the second time, and Gaius Asinius Pollio [the first time].

6. All this [occurred] while Antigonus besieged those that were in Masada, who had plenty of all other necessities, but were only in need of water insomuch that on this occasion Joseph, Herod’s brother, was planning to run away from it, with two hundred of his dependents, to the Arabians; for he had heard that Malchus regretted the offenses he had been guilty of with regard to Herod; but God, by sending rain in the nighttime, prevented his going away, for their cisterns were thereby filled, and he was under no necessity of running away on that account; but they were now of good courage, and [all] the more so, because the sending [of] that abundance of water which they had been in need of seemed [to be] a sign of Divine Providence; so they made an offensive, and fought hand to hand with Antigonus’ soldiers (with some openly, with some privately), and destroyed a great number of them. At the same time Ventidius, the general of the Romans, was sent out of Syria, to drive the Parthians out of it, and marched after them into Judea, in pretense indeed to aid Joseph; but in reality, the whole affair was no more than a strategy in order to get money from Antigonus; so they pitched their camp very near to Jerusalem, and stripped Antigonus of a great deal of money, and then he himself retreated with the greater part of the army; but, that the wickedness he had been guilty of might be found out, he left Silo there with a certain part of his soldiers, with whom Antigonus also cultivated an acquaintance, so that he might cause him no disturbance, and he was still hopeful that the Parthians would come again and defend him.

CHAPTER 15

How Herod Sailed Out of Italy to Judea and Fought with Antigonus; And What Other Things Happened in Judea About That Time.

1. By this time, Herod had sailed out of Italy to Ptolemais, and had gathered together no small army, both of strangers and of his own countrymen, and marched through Galilee against Antigonus. Silo also, and Ventidius, came and assisted him, being persuaded by Dellius, who was sent by Antony to assist in bringing Herod back. Now for Ventidius, he was employed in composing the disturbances that had been made in the cities by the means of the Parthians; and for Silo, he was indeed in Judea, but corrupted by Antigonus. However, as Herod went along, his army increased every day, and all Galilee, with some small exception, joined him; but as he was marching toward those that were in Masada (for he was obligated to endeavor to save those that were in that fortress now [that] they were besieged, because they were his relations), Joppa was a hindrance to him, for it was necessary for him to take that place first—it being a city in conflict with him—so that no stronghold might be left behind him in his enemies’ hands when he should go to Jerusalem. And when Silo made this a pretense for rising up from Jerusalem, and was therefore pursued by the Jews, Herod fell on them with a small body of men, and both put the Jews to flight and saved Silo, when he was very poorly able to defend himself; but when Herod had taken Joppa, he made haste to set free those of his family that were in Masada. Now of the people of the country, some joined him because of the friendship they had had with his father, and some because of the splendid appearance he made, and others by way of repayment for the benefits they had received from both of them; but the greatest number came to him in hopes of getting something from him afterward, if he were once firmly settled in the kingdom.

2. Herod now had a strong army; and as he marched on, Antigonus laid snares and ambushes in the passes and places most proper for them; but in truth, he thereby did little or no damage to the enemy. So Herod received those of his family out of Masada, and the fortress Ressa, and then went on for Jerusalem. The soldiers that were with Silo also accompanied him all along, as did many of the citizens, being afraid of his power; and as soon as he had pitched his camp on the west side of the city, the soldiers that were set to guard that part shot their arrows and threw their darts at him; and when some attacked in a crowd and came to fight hand to hand with the first ranks of Herod’s army, he gave orders that they should firstly make proclamation around the wall that he came for the good of the people and for the preservation of the city, and not to bear any old grudge at even his most open enemies, but ready to forget the offenses which his greatest adversaries had done [to] him. But Antigonus, by way of reply to what Herod had caused to be proclaimed, and this before the Romans, and before Silo also, said that they would not do justly, if they gave the kingdom to Herod, who was no more than a private man and an Idumean (a half Jew), whereas they ought to bestow it on one of the royal family, as their custom was; for in case they at present bear an animosity toward him, and had resolved to deprive him of the kingdom, as having received it from the Parthians, yet there were many others of his family that might take it by their law, and these such as had [in] no way offended the Romans; and being of the priestly family, it would be an unworthy thing to put them by. Now while they said this to one another and fell to reproaching one another on both sides, Antigonus permitted his own men that were on the wall to defend themselves, who using their bows and showing great eagerness against their enemies, easily drove them away from the towers.

3. And it was now that Silo discovered that he had taken bribes: for he set a good number of his soldiers to complain aloud of the need of provisions they were in, and to require money to buy them food, and that it was fitting to let them go into places proper for winter quarters, since the places near the city were a desert, by reason that Antigonus’ soldiers had carried everything away; so he set the army on departing and endeavored to march away; but Herod pressed Silo not to depart, and exhorted Silo’s captains and soldiers not to desert him, when Caesar, and Antony, and the senate had sent him there, because he would provide them plenty of all the things they wanted and easily obtain them a great abundance of what they required; after which request, he immediately went out into the country and left not the least pretense to Silo for his departure; for he brought an unexpected quantity of provisions and sent to those friends of his who inhabited around Samaria to bring down corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle, and all other provisions, to Jericho, so that there might be no lack of a supply for the soldiers for the time to come. Antigonus was aware of this and presently sent over the country such as might restrain and lie in ambush for those that went out for provisions. So these men obeyed the orders of Antigonus, and gathered a great number of armed men around Jericho, and sat on the mountains, and watched those that brought the provisions. However, Herod was not idle in the meantime, for he took ten bands of soldiers, of whom five were of the Romans, and five of the Jews, with some mercenaries among them, and with a number of horsemen, and came to Jericho; and as they found the city deserted, but that five hundred of them had settled themselves on the tops of the hills, with their wives and children, those he took and sent away; but the Romans fell on the city, and plundered it, and found the houses full of all sorts of good things. So the king left a garrison at Jericho, and came back again, and sent the Roman army to take their winter quarters in the countries that had come over to him—Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria. And so much did Antigonus gain of Silo for the bribes he gave him, that part of the army should be quartered at Lydda, in order to please Antony. So the Romans laid their weapons aside and lived in abundance of all things.

4. But Herod was not pleased with lying still, but sent out his brother Joseph against Idumea with two thousand armed footmen and four hundred horsemen, while he himself came to Samaria and left his mother and his other relations there, for they had already departed from Masada and gone into Galilee to take certain places which were held by the garrisons of Antigonus; and he passed on to Sepphoris, as God sent a snow, while Antigonus’ garrisons withdrew themselves, and he had a great abundance of provisions. He also went from there and resolved to destroy those robbers that dwelt in the caves and caused much trouble in the country; so he sent a troop of horsemen, and three companies of armed footmen, against them. They were very near to a village called Arbela; and on the fortieth day after, he himself came with his whole army: and as the enemy boldly launched an offensive on him, the left wing of his army gave way, but appearing with a body of men, he put those to flight who were already conquerors and recalled his men that ran away. He also pressed on his enemies and pursued them as far as the Jordan River, although they ran away by different roads. So he brought all [of] Galilee over to him, excepting those that dwelt in the caves, and distributed money to every one of his soldiers, giving them one hundred and fifty drachmas apiece, and much more to their captains, and sent them into winter quarters; at which time Silo came to him, and his commanders with him, because Antigonus would not give them provisions any longer, for he supplied them for no more than one month; indeed, he had sent to all the surrounding country and ordered them to carry off the provisions that were there and retreat to the mountains, so that the Romans might have no provisions to live on and so might perish by famine. But Herod committed the care of that matter to Pheroras, his youngest brother, and also ordered him to repair Alexandrium. Accordingly, he quickly made the soldiers abound with a great abundance of provisions and rebuilt Alexandrium, which had previously been desolate.

5. It was about this time that Antony remained some time in Athens, and that Ventidius, who was now in Syria, sent for Silo and commanded him to assist Herod, in the first place, to finish the present war, and then to send for their confederates for the war they were themselves engaged in; but as for Herod, he went in haste against the robbers that were in the caves and sent Silo away to Ventidius, while he marched against them. These caves were in mountains that were exceedingly steep, and in their middle were nothing but precipices, with certain entrances into the caves, and those caves were surrounded with sharp rocks, and the robbers lied concealed in these, with all their families around them; but the king caused certain chests to be made in order to destroy them, and to be hung down, bound around with iron chains, by an engine, from the top of the mountain, it not being possible to get up to them by reason of the sharp ascent of the mountains, nor to creep down to them from above. Now these chests were filled with armed men, who had long hooks in their hands, by which they might pull out such as resisted them, and then tumble them down, and kill them by doing so; but letting the chests down proved to be a matter of great danger, because of the vast depth they were to be let down, although they had their provisions in the chests themselves. But when the chests were let down, and not one of those in the mouths of the caves dared come near them, but lay still out of fear, some of the armed men girt on their armor, and took hold of the chain by both of their hands by which the chests were let down, and went into the mouths of the caves, because they fretted that such delay was made by the robbers not daring to come out of the caves; and when they were at any of those mouths, they first killed many of those that were in the mouths with their darts, and afterward pulled those to them that resisted them with their hooks, and tumbled them down the precipices, and afterward went into the caves, and killed many more, and then went into their chests again, and lay still there; but, on this, terror seized the rest when they heard the lamentations that were made, and they despaired of escaping. However, when the night came on, that put an end to the whole work; and as the king proclaimed pardon by a herald to such as delivered themselves up to him, many accepted the offer. The same method of assault was made use of the next day; and they went further, and got out in baskets to fight them, and fought them at their doors, and sent fire among them, and set their caves on fire, for there was a great deal of combustible matter within them. Now there was one old man who was caught within one of these caves, with seven children and a wife; these begged him to give them permission to go out and yield themselves up to the enemy; but he stood at the cave’s mouth and always slew that child of his who went out, until he had destroyed every one of them, and after that he slew his wife, and cast their dead bodies down the precipice, and himself after them, and so underwent death rather than slavery: but before he did this, he greatly reproached Herod with the deficiency of his family, although he was then king. Herod also saw what he was doing, and stretched out his hand, and offered him all manner of security for his life, by which means all these caves were finally subdued entirely.

6. And when the king had set Ptolemy over these parts of the country as his general, he went to Samaria with six hundred horsemen and three thousand armed footmen, as intending to fight Antigonus. But this command of the army still did not succeed well with Ptolemy, but those that had been troublesome to Galilee before attacked him and slew him; and when they had done this, they fled among the lakes and nearly inaccessible places, laying waste and plundering whatsoever they would come across in those places. But Herod soon returned and punished them for what they had done; for some of these rebels he slew, and others of them, who had fled to the strongholds, he besieged, and both slew them and demolished their strongholds. And when he had thus put an end to their rebellion, he laid a fine on the cities of one hundred talents.

7. In the meantime, Pacorus had fallen in battle, and the Parthians were defeated, when Ventidius sent Macheras to the assistance of Herod, with two legions and one thousand horsemen, while Antony encouraged him to make haste. But Macheras, at the instigation of Antigonus, without the approval of Herod, as being corrupted by money, went around to take a view of his affairs; but Antigonus suspecting this intention of his coming, did not admit him into the city, but kept him at a distance by throwing stones at him, and he plainly showed what he himself intended. But when Macheras was aware that Herod had given him good advice, and that he had made a mistake himself in not listening to that advice, he retreated to the city [of] Emmaus; and what Jews he met with, he slew them, whether they were enemies or friends, out of the rage he was in at what hardships he had undergone. The king was provoked at this conduct of his, and went to Samaria, and resolved to go to Antony regarding these affairs and to inform him that he stood in no need of such helpers who caused him more trouble than they did his enemies and that he was able to beat Antigonus himself. But Macheras followed him and desired that he would not go to Antony; or if he was resolved to go, that he would join his brother Joseph with them and let them fight against Antigonus. So, he was reconciled to Macheras on his earnest pleadings. Accordingly, he left Joseph there with his army, but instructed him to run no risks, nor to quarrel with Macheras.

8. But for his own part, he made haste to Antony (who was then at the siege of Samosata, a place on [the] Euphrates) with his troops, both horsemen and footmen, to be auxiliaries to him. And when he came to Antioch and met a great number of men gathered together there that were very desirous to go to Antony, but dared not venture to go out of fear, because the barbarians fell on men on the road and slew many, he encouraged them and became their leader on the road. Now when they were within two days’ march of Samosata, the barbarians had laid an ambush there to disturb those that came to Antony, and where the woods made the passes narrow, as they led to the plains, there they laid not a few of their horsemen, who were to lie still until those passengers had gone by into the open place. Now as soon as the first ranks had gone by (for Herod brought on the rear), those that lay in ambush, who were about five hundred, suddenly fell on them, and when they had put the foremost to flight, the king came riding hard, with the forces that were around him, and immediately drove the enemy back; by which means he made the minds of his own men courageous and emboldened them to go on, insomuch that those who ran away before now returned back and the barbarians were slain on all sides. The king also went on killing them and recovered all the equipment, among which were a great number of beasts of burden, and of slaves, and proceeded on in his march; and whereas there were a great number of those in the woods that attacked them and were near the passage that led into the plain, he made an offensive on these also with a strong body of men, and put them to flight, and slew many of them, and thereby rendered the way safe for those that came afterward; and these called Herod their savior and protector.

9. And when he was near to Samosata, Antony sent out his army in all their proper attire to meet him, in order to pay Herod this respect, and because of the assistance he had given him; for he had heard what attacks the barbarians had made on him [in Judea]. He was also very glad to see him there, as having been made acquainted with the great actions he had performed on the road. So, he entertained him very kindly and could not but admire his courage. Antony also embraced him as soon as he saw him, and saluted him in a most affectionate manner, and gave him the upper hand, as having himself recently made him a king; and in a short time, Antiochus delivered up the fortress, and on that account this war was at an end; then Antony committed the rest to Sosius, and gave him orders to assist Herod, and went to Egypt himself. Accordingly, Sosius sent two legions beforehand into Judea for the assistance of Herod, and he followed himself with the body of the army.

10. Now Joseph was already slain in Judea, in the following manner: he forgot what instruction his brother Herod had given him when he went to Antony; and when he had pitched his camp among the mountains, for Macheras had lent him five regiments, with these he went hastily to Jericho in order to reap the corn belonging to it; and as the Roman regiments were but newly raised and were unskillful in war, for they were largely collected out of Syria, he was attacked by the enemy, and caught in those places of difficulty, and was himself slain, as he was fighting bravely, and the whole army was lost, for there were six regiments slain. So, when Antigonus had gotten possession of the dead bodies, he cut off Joseph’s head, although his brother Pheroras would have redeemed it at the price of fifty talents. After which defeat, the Galileans revolted from their commanders, and took those of Herod’s party, and drowned them in the lake, and a great part of Judea became seditious; but Macheras fortified the place [called] Gitta, [in Samaria].

11. At this time messengers came to Herod and informed him of what had been done; and when he had come to Daphne by Antioch, they told him of the misfortune that had happened to his brother, which he yet expected, from certain visions that appeared to him in his dreams, which clearly foretold his brother’s death. So he hastened his march; and when he came to Mount Lebanon, he received about eight hundred of the men of that place, also already having one Roman legion with him, and he came to Ptolemais with these. He also marched from there by night with his army and proceeded along Galilee. It was here that the enemy met him, and fought him, and were beaten, and shut up in the same place of strength from where they had launched an offensive the day before. So he attacked the place in the morning, but by reason of a great storm that was then very violent, he was able to do nothing, but drew off his army into the neighboring villages; yet as soon as the other legion that Antony sent him had come to his assistance, those that were garrisoned in the place were afraid and deserted it in the nighttime. Then the king marched hastily to Jericho, intending to avenge himself on the enemy for the slaughter of his brother; and when he had pitched his tents, he made a feast for the principal commanders; and after this gathering was over, and he had dismissed his guests, he retired to his own chamber; and here one may see what kindness God had for the king, for the upper part of the house fell down when nobody was in it, and so killed none, insomuch that all the people believed that Herod was beloved of God, since he had escaped such a great and surprising danger.

12. But the next day, six thousand of the enemy came down from the tops of the mountains to fight the Romans, which greatly terrified them; and the soldiers that were in light armor came near and pelted the king’s guards that had come out with darts and stones, and one of them hit him on the side with a dart. Antigonus also sent a commander against Samaria, whose name was Pappus, with some forces, being desirous to show the enemy how powerful he was, and that he had men to spare in his war with them. He sat down to oppose Macheras, but Herod, when he had taken five cities, took such as were left in them, being about two thousand, and slew them, and burnt the cities themselves, and then returned to go against Pappus, who was encamped at a village called Isanas; and there many from Jericho and Judea ran into him, near to which places he was, and the enemy fell on his men—so brave were they at this time—and joined battle with them, but he beat them in the fight; and in order to be avenged on them for the slaughter of his brother, he pursued them sharply and killed them as they ran away; and as the houses were full of armed men, and many of them ran as far as the tops of the houses, he got them under his power, and pulled down the roofs of the houses, and saw the lower rooms full of soldiers that were caught, and laid all on a heap; so they threw stones down on them as they lay piled on one another and thereby killed them; nor was there a more frightful spectacle in all the war than this, where beyond the walls an immense multitude of dead men lay heaped on one another. It was this action which chiefly broke the spirits of the enemy, who now expected what would come, for there appeared a mighty number of people that came from far distant places, that were now around the village, but then ran away; and had it not been for the depth of winter, which then restrained them, the king’s army would have presently gone to Jerusalem, as being very courageous at this good success, and the whole work would have been done immediately; for Antigonus was already looking at how he might flee away and leave the city.

13. At this time the king gave an order that the soldiers should go to supper, for it was late at night, while he went into a chamber to use the bath, for he was very weary; and it was here that he was in the greatest danger, which yet, by God’s providence, he escaped; for as he was naked and had but one servant that followed him to be with him while he was bathing in an inner room, certain of the enemy, who were in their armor, and had fled there out of fear, were then in the place; and as he was bathing, the first of them came out with his naked sword drawn, and went out at the doors, and after him a second, and a third, armed in like manner, and were in such dismay that they did no harm to the king and thought themselves to have come off very well in suffering no harm themselves in their getting out of the house. However, on the next day, he cut off the head of Pappus, for he was already slain, and sent it to Pheroras, as a punishment for what their brother had suffered by his means, for he was the man that slew him with his own hand.

14. When the rigor of winter was over, Herod removed his army, and came near to Jerusalem, and pitched his camp near the city. Now this was the third year since he had been made king at Rome; and as he removed his camp and came near that part of the wall where it could be most easily assaulted, he pitched that camp in front of the temple, intending to make his attacks in the same manner as did Pompey. So he surrounded the place with three bulwarks, and erected towers, and employed a great many hands about the work, and cut down the trees that were around the city; and when he had appointed proper persons to oversee the works, even while the army lay near the city, he himself went to Samaria to complete his marriage and to take the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, for a wife, for he had already betrothed her, as I have related before.

CHAPTER 16

How Herod, When He Had Married Mariamne, Took Jerusalem by Force with the Assistance of Sosius; And How the Government of the Hasmoneans Was Put to an End.

1. After the wedding was over, Sosius came through Phoenicia, having sent out his army before him over the midland parts. He also, who was their commander, came himself, with a great number of horsemen and footmen. The king himself also came from Samaria, and brought with him no small army, besides that which was there before, for they were about thirty thousand; and they all met together at the walls of Jerusalem and encamped at the north wall of the city, being now an army of eleven legions, armed men on foot, and six thousand horsemen, with other auxiliaries out of Syria. The generals were two: Sosius, sent by Antony to assist Herod, and Herod on his own account, in order to take the government from Antigonus, who was declared an enemy at Rome, and that he might himself be king, according to the decree of the senate.

2. Now the Jews that were enclosed within the walls of the city fought against Herod with great eagerness and zeal (for the whole nation was gathered together); they also gave out many prophecies regarding the temple and many things agreeable to the people, as if God would deliver them out of the dangers they were in; they had also carried off what was out of the city, so that they might not leave anything to provide sustenance either for men or for beasts; and by private robberies, they made the lack of necessities greater. When Herod understood this, he set ambushes in the best places against their private robberies, and he sent legions of armed men to bring its provisions, and that from remote places, so that in a short time they had a great abundance of provisions. Now the three bulwarks were easily erected, because so many hands were continually at work on it; for it was summertime, and there was nothing to hinder them in raising their works, neither from the air nor from the workmen; so they brought their engines to bear, and shook the walls of the city, and tried all manner of ways to get in; yet those inside did not reveal any fear, but they also designed not a few engines to oppose their engines as well. They also attacked and burnt not only those engines that were not yet perfected, but those that were; and when they came hand to hand, their attempts were not less bold than those of the Romans, though they were behind them in skill. They also erected new works when the former were ruined, and making tunnels underground, they met each other and fought there; and making use of brutish courage rather than of prudent valor, they persisted in this war to the very last; and this they did while a mighty army lay around them, and while they were distressed by famine and the lack of necessities, for this happened to be a Sabbatical year. The first that scaled the walls were twenty chosen men, the next were Sosius’ centurions; for the first wall was taken in forty days, and the second in fifteen more, when some of the cloisters that were around the temple were burnt, which Herod commanded to have been burnt by Antigonus in order to expose him to the hatred of the Jews. And when the outer court of the temple and the lower city were taken, the Jews fled into the inner court of the temple and into the upper city; but now fearing lest the Romans should hinder them from offering their daily sacrifices to God, they sent an envoy and desired that they would only permit them to bring in beasts for sacrifices, which Herod granted, hoping they were going to yield; but when he saw that they did nothing of what he supposed, but bitterly opposed him, in order to preserve the kingdom to Antigonus, he made an assault on the city and took it by storm; and now all parts were full of those that were slain, by the rage of the Romans at the long duration of the siege, and by the zeal of the Jews that were on Herod’s side, who were not willing to leave one of their adversaries alive; so they were continually murdered in the narrow streets and in the houses by crowds, and as they were fleeing to the temple for shelter, and there was no pity taken on either infants or the aged, nor did they spare so much as the weaker sex; indeed, although the king sent around and pleaded with them to spare the people, still nobody restrained their hand from slaughter, but, as if they were a company of madmen, they fell on persons of all ages, without distinction; and then Antigonus, without regard for either his past or present circumstances, came down from the citadel and fell down at the feet of Sosius, who took no pity on him, in the change of his fortune, but insulted him beyond measure and called him Antigone [(a woman, and not a man)]; yet he did not treat him as if he were a woman by letting him go free, but put him in bonds and kept him in close custody.

3. And now Herod having overcome his enemies, his care was to govern those foreigners who had been his assistants, for the crowd of strangers rushed to see the temple and the sacred things in the temple; but the king, thinking a victory to be a more severe affliction than a defeat, if any of those things which it was not lawful to see should be seen by them, used pleadings and threats, and even sometimes force itself, to restrain them. He also prohibited the ravage that was made in the city, and asked Sosius many times whether the Romans would empty the city of both money and men and leave him king of a desert; and he told him that he regarded the dominion over the whole habitable earth as by no means an equivalent satisfaction for such a murder of his citizens; and when he responded that this plunder was justly to be permitted [to] the soldiers for the siege they had undergone, he replied that he would give everyone their reward out of his own money; and by this means he redeemed what remained of the city from destruction; and he performed what he had promised him, for he gave a noble present to every soldier and a proportionate present to their commanders, but a most royal present to Sosius himself, until they all went away full of money.

4. This destruction happened to the city of Jerusalem when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus were consuls of Rome on the one hundred and eighty-fifth Olympiad, on the third month, on the solemnity of the fast, as if a periodical revolution of calamities had returned since that which happened to the Jews under Pompey; for the Jews were taken by him on the same day, and this was after twenty-seven years’ time. So when Sosius had dedicated a crown of gold to God, he marched away from Jerusalem and carried Antigonus with him in bonds to Antony; but Herod was afraid lest Antigonus should be kept in prison [only] by Antony, and that when he was carried to Rome by him, he might get his cause to be heard by the senate, and might demonstrate, as he was himself of the royal blood and Herod but a private man, that it therefore belonged to his sons, however, to have the kingdom, on account of the family they were of, in case he had himself offended the Romans by what he had done. It was out of Herod’s fear of this that he, by giving Antony a great deal of money, endeavored to persuade him to have Antigonus slain, which if it were once done, he should be free from that fear. And thus the government of the Hasmoneans ceased, one hundred and twenty-six years after it was first set up. This family was a splendid and an illustrious one, both on account of the nobility of their stock, and of the dignity of the high priesthood, as also for the glorious actions their ancestors had performed for our nation; but these men lost the government by their dissensions with one another, and it came to Herod, the son of Antipater, who was from nothing more than a vulgar family and of no eminent ancestry, but one that was subject to other kings. And this is what history tells us was the end of the Hasmonean family.

BOOK XV

Containing the Interval of Eighteen Years. From the Death of Antigonus to the Finishing of the Temple by Herod.

CHAPTER 1

Concerning Pollio and Sameas. Herod Slays the Foremost of Antigonus’ Friends and Spoils the City of Its Wealth. Antony Beheads Antigonus.

1. How Sosius and Herod took Jerusalem by force; and besides that, how they took Antigonus captive, has been related by us in the preceding book. We will now proceed in the narration. And since Herod now had the government of all Judea placed into his hands, he promoted such of the private men in the city as had been of his party, but never ceased avenging and punishing every day those that had chosen to be of the party of his enemies. But Pollio the Pharisee, and Sameas, a disciple of his, were honored by him above all the rest; for when Jerusalem was besieged, they advised the citizens to receive Herod, for which advice they were well repaid. But this Pollio, at the time when Herod was once on his trial of life and death, foretold, in way of reproach, to Hyrcanus and the other judges, how this Herod, whom they now allowed to escape, would afterward inflict punishment on them all, which had its completion in time, while God fulfilled the words he had spoken.

2. At this time Herod, now [that] he had gotten Jerusalem under his power, carried off all the royal ornaments and spoiled the wealthy men of what they had gotten; and when, by these means, he had heaped together a great quantity of silver and gold, he gave it all to Antony and his friends that were around him. He also slew forty-five of the principal men of Antigonus’ party and set guards at the gates of the city, so that nothing might be carried out together with their dead bodies. They also searched the dead, and whatsoever was found, either of silver or gold, or other treasure, it was carried to the king; nor was there any end of the miseries he brought on them; and this distress was in part caused by the covetousness of the prince regent, who was still in need of more, and in part by the Sabbatical year, which was still going on and forced the country to still lie uncultivated, since we are forbidden to sow our land in that year. Now when Antony had received Antigonus as his captive, he determined to keep him for his triumph[ant march]; but when he heard that the nation grew seditious, and that, out of their hatred for Herod, they continued to bear goodwill toward Antigonus, he resolved to behead him at Antioch, for otherwise the Jews could [in] no way be brought to be quiet. And Strabo of Cappadocia attests to what I have said when he speaks thus: “Antony ordered Antigonus the Jew to be brought to Antioch and to be beheaded there. And this Antony seems to me to have been the very first man who beheaded a king, as supposing he could no other way bend the minds of the Jews so as to receive Herod, whom he had made king in his stead; for by no torments could they be forced to call him king, so great a fondness they had for their former king; so he thought that this dishonorable death would diminish the value they had for Antigonus’ memory, and at the same time would diminish the hatred they bore toward Herod.” Thus far Strabo.

CHAPTER 2

How Hyrcanus Was Set Free by the Parthians and Returned to Herod; And What Alexandra Did When She Heard That Ananelus Was Made High Priest.

1. Now after Herod was in possession of the kingdom, Hyrcanus the high priest, who was then a captive among the Parthians, came to him again and was set free from his captivity in the following manner: Barzapharnes and Pacorus, the generals of the Parthians, took Hyrcanus, who was first made high priest and afterward king, and Herod’s brother Phasaelus, [as] captives, and were carrying them away into Parthia. Indeed, Phasaelus could not bear the reproach of being in bonds; and thinking that death with glory was better than any life whatsoever, he became his own executioner, as I have formerly related.

2. But when Hyrcanus was brought into Parthia, the king Phraates treated him in a very gentle manner, as having already learned of what an illustrious family he was; on which account he set him free from his bonds and gave him a habitation at Babylon, where there were Jews in great numbers. These Jews honored Hyrcanus as their high priest and king, as did all the Jewish nation that dwelt as far as [the] Euphrates—which respect was very much to his satisfaction. But when he was informed that Herod had received the kingdom, new hopes came on him, as having still been himself of a kind disposition toward him and expecting that Herod would bear in mind what favor he had received from him; and when he was on his trial, and when he was in danger that a capital sentence would be pronounced against him, he delivered him from that danger and from all punishment. Accordingly, he talked of that matter with the Jews that often came to him with great affection; but they endeavored to retain him among them and desired that he would stay with them, reminding him of the kind offices and honors they gave him, and that those honors they paid him were not at all inferior to what they could pay to either their high priests or their kings; and what was a greater motive to persuade him, they said, was this: that he could not have those dignities [in Judea] because of that mutilation in his body, which had been inflicted on him by Antigonus; and that kings do not usually repay men for those kindnesses which they received when they were private persons, the height of their fortune usually making no small changes in them.

3. Now although they suggested these arguments to him for his own advantage, yet Hyrcanus still desired to depart. Herod also wrote to him and persuaded him to desire of Phraates, and the Jews that were there, that they should not grudge him the royal authority, which he should have jointly with himself, because now was the proper time for he himself to make him amends for the favors he had received from him, as having been brought up by him, and saved by him also, as well as for Hyrcanus to receive it. And as he wrote this to Hyrcanus, so he also sent Saramallas, his ambassador, to Phraates, and many presents with him, and desired [of] him in the most obliging way that he would be no hindrance to his gratitude toward his benefactor. But this zeal of Herod’s did not flow from that principle; but because he had been made governor of that country without having any just claim to it, he was afraid, and that on reasons sufficient enough for a change in his condition, and so he made what haste he could to get Hyrcanus into his power, or indeed to put him quite out of the way; the latter of which thing he effected afterward.

4. Accordingly, when Hyrcanus came full of assurance, by the permission of the king of Parthia, and at the expense of the Jews, who supplied him with money, Herod received him with all possible respect, and gave him the upper place at public meetings, and set him above all the rest at feasts, and thereby deceived him. He called him his father, and endeavored, by all possible ways, that he might have no suspicion of any treacherous scheme against him. He also did other things, in order to secure his government, which yet caused a sedition in his own family; for being cautious how he might make any illustrious person the high priest of God, he sent for an obscure priest out of Babylon, whose name was Ananelus, and bestowed the high priesthood on him.

5. However, Alexandra, the daughter of Hyrcanus, and wife of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus the king, who had also brought Alexander [two] children, could not bear this indignity. Now this son was one of greatest attractiveness, and was called Aristobulus; and the daughter, Mariamne, was married to Herod, and eminent for her beauty also. This Alexandra was very disturbed, and took this indignity offered to her son exceedingly poorly, so that while he was alive, anyone else should be sent for to have the dignity of the high priesthood conferred on him. Accordingly, she wrote to Cleopatra (a musician assisting her in taking care to have her letters carried) to desire her intercession with Antony, in order to gain the high priesthood for her son.

6. But as Antony was slow in granting this request, his friend Dellius came into Judea on some affairs; and when he saw Aristobulus, he stood in admiration at the height and handsomeness of the child, and no less at Mariamne, the king’s wife, and was open in his commendations of Alexandra, as the mother of most beautiful children. And when she came to discourse with him, he persuaded her to get pictures drawn of them both and to send them to Antony, for when he saw them, he would deny her nothing that she should ask for. Accordingly, Alexandra was elevated with these words of his and sent the pictures to Antony. Dellius also talked extravagantly and said that these children seemed not derived from men, but from some god or another. His plan in doing so was to entice Antony into lewd pleasures with them, who was ashamed to send for the girl, as being the wife of Herod, and avoided it, because of the reproaches he should have from Cleopatra on that account; but he sent, in the most decent manner he could, for the young man; but added this additionally, unless he thought it hard on him to do so. When this letter was brought to Herod, he did not think it safe for him to send one so handsome as was Aristobulus, in the prime of his life, for he was sixteen years of age, and of such a noble family, and particularly not to Antony, the principal man among the Romans, and one that would abuse him in his love affairs, and additionally, one that openly indulged himself in such pleasures as his power allowed him without control. He therefore wrote back to him that if this boy should only go out of the country, all would be in a state of war and uproar, because the Jews were hopeful for a change in the government and to have another king over them.

7. When Herod had thus excused himself to Antony, he resolved that he would not entirely permit the child or Alexandra to be treated dishonorably; but his wife Mariamne lay vehemently at him to restore the high priesthood to her brother; and he judged [that] it was for his advantage to do so, because if he once had that dignity, he could not go out of the country. So he called his friends together, and told them that Alexandra privately conspired against his royal authority, and endeavored, by the means of Cleopatra, to so bring it about, so that he might be deprived of the government, and that by Antony’s means this youth might have the management of public affairs in his stead; and that this procedure of hers was unjust, since she would at the same time deprive her daughter of the dignity she now had and would bring disturbances on the kingdom, for which he had taken a great deal of pains, and had gotten it with extraordinary risks; that yet, while he well remembered her wicked practices, he would not cease doing what was right himself, but would even now give the youth the high priesthood; and that he formerly set up Ananelus, because Aristobulus was then such a very young child. Now when he had said this, not at random, but as he thought with the best discretion he had, in order to deceive the women, and those friends whom he had taken to additionally consult, Alexandra, out of the great joy she had at this unexpected promise, and out of fear from the suspicions she lay under, fell weeping; and she made the following apology for herself and said that as for the [high] priesthood, she was very much concerned for the disgrace her son was under and so did her utmost endeavors to obtain it for him; but that as for the kingdom, she had made no attempts, and that if it were offered her [for her son], she would not accept it; and that she would now be satisfied with her son’s dignity, while he himself held the civil government; that she thereby had the security that arose from his peculiar ability in governing for all the remainder of her family: that she was now overcome by his benefits, and thankfully accepted this honor showed by him to her son, and that she would hereafter be entirely obedient. And she desired him to excuse her if the nobility of her family, and that freedom of acting which she thought that allowed her, had made her act too prematurely and rashly in this matter. So when they had spoken thus to one another, they came to an agreement, and all suspicions, insofar as they appeared, had vanished away.

CHAPTER 3

How Herod, on His Making Aristobulus High Priest, Took Care That He Should Be Murdered in a Short Time; And What Apology He Made to Antony About Aristobulus; As Also Concerning Joseph and Mariamne.

1. So King Herod immediately took the high priesthood away from Ananelus, who, as we said before, was not of this country, but one of those Jews that had been carried captive beyond [the] Euphrates; for there were not a few myriads of this people that had been carried away [as] captives and dwelt around Babylonia, from where Ananelus came. He was one of the stock of the high priests and had been a particular longstanding friend of Herod; and when he was first made king, he conferred that dignity on him and now put him out of it again, in order to quiet the troubles in his family, although what he did was clearly unlawful, for at no other time was anyone that had once been in that dignity deprived of it. It was Antiochus Epiphanes who first broke that law, and deprived Jesus, and made his brother Onias high priest in his stead. Aristobulus was the second that did so and took that dignity from his brother [Hyrcanus]; and this Herod was the third, who took that high office away [from Ananelus] and gave it to this young man, Aristobulus, in his stead.

2. And now Herod seemed to have healed the divisions in his family; yet he was not without suspicion, as is frequently the case, of people seeming to be reconciled to one another, but thought that, as Alexandra had already made attempts tending toward innovations, so did he fear that she would go on therein if she found a suitable opportunity for doing so; so he gave a command that she should dwell in the palace and meddle with no public affairs. Her guards were also so careful that nothing she did in private life every day was concealed. All these hardships put her out of patience little by little, and she began to hate Herod; for as she had the pride of a woman to the utmost degree, she had great indignation at this suspicious guard that was around her, as desirous rather to undergo anything that could happen to her, than to be deprived of her liberty of speech, and, under the notion of an honorary guard, to live in a state of slavery and terror. She therefore sent to Cleopatra, and made a long complaint of the circumstances she was in, and implored her to do her utmost for her assistance. Hereon Cleopatra advised her to take her son with her and immediately come away to her into Egypt. This advice pleased her; and she had this plan for getting away: she had two coffins made, as if they were to carry away two dead bodies; and she put herself into one, and her son into the other, and gave orders to such of her servants as knew of her intentions to carry them away in the nighttime. Now their road was to be from there to the seaside and there was a ship ready to carry them into Egypt. Now Aesop, one of her servants, happened to fall on Sabion, one of her friends, and spoke of this matter to him, thinking he had known of it before. When Sabion knew this (who had formerly been an enemy of Herod and been regarded [as] one of those that laid snares for and gave the poison to [his father] Antipater), he expected that this discovery would change Herod’s hatred into kindness, so he told the king of this private strategy of Alexandra, whereon he allowed her to proceed to the execution of her project and caught her in the very act; but still he passed by her offense; and though he had a great mind to do it, he dared not inflict anything that was severe on her, for he knew that Cleopatra would not bear that he should have her accused, on account of her hatred toward him; but he made a show as if it was rather the generosity of his soul, and his great moderation, that made him forgive them. However, he fully proposed to himself to put this young man out of the way, by one means or another; but he thought he might in probability be better concealed in doing it if he did not do it presently, nor immediately after what had recently happened.

3. And now, on the approach of the Celebration of Tabernacles, which is a festival very widely observed among us, he let those days pass over, and both he and the rest of the people were very cheerful therein; yet the envy which at this time arose in him caused him to make haste to do what he was about and provoke him to it; for when this youth Aristobulus, who was now in the seventeenth year of his age, went up to the altar, according to the Law, to offer the sacrifices, and this with the ornaments of his high priesthood, and when he performed the sacred offices, he seemed to be exceedingly handsome, and taller than men usually were at that age, and to exhibit in his countenance a great deal of that high family he was sprung from—a warm zeal and affection toward him appeared among the people, and the memory of the actions of his grandfather Aristobulus was fresh in their minds; and their affections got so far the mastery of them, that they could not refrain to show their inclinations toward him. They at once rejoiced, and were mystified, and mingled with good wishes their joyful acclamations which they made to him, until the goodwill of the multitude was made too evident; and they more rashly proclaimed the happiness they had received from his family than was appropriate under a monarchy to have done. On all this, Herod resolved to complete what he had intended against the young man. When the festival was therefore over, and he was feasting at Jericho with Alexandra, who entertained them there, he was then very pleasant with the young man, and drew him into a lonely place, and at the same time played with him in a juvenile and ludicrous manner. Now the nature of that place was hotter than ordinary, so they went out in a body, and suddenly, and in a fit of madness, and as they stood by the fish-ponds—of which there were large ones around the house—they went to cool themselves [by bathing], because it was in the midst of a hot day. At first they were only spectators of Herod’s servants and acquaintances as they were swimming; but after a while, the young man, at the instigation of Herod, went into the water among them, while such of Herod’s acquaintances as he had appointed to do it, dipped him as he was swimming and plunged him under [the] water, in the dark of the evening, as if it had been done only for sport; nor did they cease until he was completely suffocated. And thus, Aristobulus was murdered, having lived no more than eighteen years in all, and he kept the high priesthood only one year; which high priesthood Ananelus now recovered again.

4. When this sad accident was told [to] the women, their joy was soon changed to lamentation at the sight of the dead body that lay before them, and their sorrow was extreme. The city [of Jerusalem] also, on the spreading of this news, was in very great grief—every family looking on this calamity as if it had not belonged to another, but that one of themselves was slain. But Alexandra was more deeply affected on her knowledge that he had been destroyed [intentionally]. Her sorrow was greater than that of others, by her knowing how the murder was committed; but she was under the necessity of bearing up under it, out of her prospect of a greater harm that might otherwise follow; and she oftentimes came to an inclination to kill herself with her own hand, but she still restrained herself in hopes [that] she might live long enough to avenge the unjust murder thus privately committed; indeed, she further resolved to endeavor to live longer, and to give no occasion [to appear] to think she suspected that her son was slain on purpose, and supposed that she might thereby be in a capacity of avenging it at a proper opportunity. Thus, she restrained herself, so that she might not be noted for entertaining any such suspicion. However, Herod endeavored that no one abroad should believe that the child’s death was caused by any scheme of his; and for this purpose, he not only used the ordinary signs of sorrow, but also fell into tears and exhibited a real bewilderment of soul; and perhaps his affections were overcome on this occasion, when he saw the child’s countenance so young and so beautiful, although his death was supposed to tend toward his own security—so far at least this grief served so as to make some apology for him; and as for his funeral, he took care [that it] would be very magnificent by making great preparation for a tomb to lay his body in, and providing a great quantity of spices, and burying many ornaments together with him, until the very women who were in such deep sorrow, were astonished at it and received some consolation in this way.

5. However, no such things could overcome Alexandra’s grief; but the remembrance of this miserable situation made her mourn, both deeply and persistently. Accordingly, she wrote an account of this treacherous scene to Cleopatra, and how her son was murdered; but Cleopatra, as she had formerly been desirous to give her what satisfaction she could, and pitying Alexandra’s misfortunes, made the case her own and would not let Antony be quiet, but excited him to punish the child’s murder; for it was an unworthy thing that Herod, who had been made king by him of a kingdom that [in] no way belonged to him, should be guilty of such horrid crimes against those that were of the royal blood in reality. Antony was persuaded by these arguments; and when he came to Laodicea, he sent and commanded Herod to come and make his defense as to what he had done to Aristobulus, for such a treacherous scheme was not well done, if he had any hand in it. Herod was now in fear, both of the accusation and of Cleopatra’s animosity toward him, which was such that she was always endeavoring to make Antony hate him. He therefore determined to obey his summons, for he had no possible way to avoid it. So he left his uncle Joseph [as] procurator for his government and for the public affairs, and gave him a private command that if Antony should kill him, he should also kill Mariamne immediately, for he had a tender affection for his wife and was afraid of the insult that would be offered him, if, after his death, she, for her beauty, should be engaged to some other man; but his indication was nothing but this at [its] core: that Antony had [already] fallen in love with her when he had formerly heard something about her beauty. So, when Herod had given Joseph this command and indeed had no sure hopes of escaping with his life, he went away to Antony.

6. But as Joseph was administering the public affairs of the kingdom, and for that reason was very frequently with Mariamne, both because his business required it, and because of the respects he ought to pay to the queen, he frequently let himself into discourses about Herod’s kindness and great affection toward her; and when the women, especially Alexandra, used to turn his discourses into feminine banter, Joseph was so over-desirous to demonstrate the kings inclinations, that he proceeded so far as to mention the command he had received and drew his demonstration [from] there: that Herod was unable to live without her; and that if he should come to any bad end, he could not endure a separation from her, even after he was dead. Thus spoke Joseph. But the women, as was natural, did not take this to be an instance of Herod’s strong affection for them, but of his severe usage of them, that they could not escape destruction, nor a tyrannical death, even when he was dead himself. And this saying [of Joseph] was a foundation for the women’s severe suspicions about him afterward.

7. At this time, a report went around the city [of] Jerusalem among Herod’s enemies, that Antony had tortured Herod and put him to death. This report, as is natural, disturbed those that were around the palace, but chiefly the women; on which Alexandra endeavored to persuade Joseph to go out of the palace and flee away with them to the ensigns of the Roman legion, which then lay encamped around the city, as a guard to the kingdom, under the command of Julius; for by this means, if any disturbance should happen around the palace, they should be in greater security, as having the Romans favorable toward them; and that additionally, they hoped to obtain the highest authority if Antony did but once see Mariamne, by whose means they should recover the kingdom and want nothing which was reasonable for them to hope for, because of their royal ancestry.

8. But as they were in the midst of these deliberations, letters were brought from Herod about all his affairs and proved contrary to the report and of what they previously expected; for when he had come to Antony, he soon recovered his interest with him, by the presents he made him, which he had brought with him from Jerusalem; and he soon induced him, on discoursing with him, to cease his indignation at him, so that Cleopatra’s persuasions had less force than the arguments and presents he brought to regain his friendship; for Antony said that it was not good to require an account of a king, as to the affairs of his government, for at this rate he could be no king at all, but that those who had given him that authority ought to permit him to make use of it. He also said the same things to Cleopatra: that it would be best for her not to actively meddle with the affairs of the king’s government. Herod wrote an account of these things and enlarged on the other honors which he had received from Antony: how he sat by him at his hearing causes, and ate his food with him every day, and that he enjoyed those favors from him, notwithstanding the reproaches that Cleopatra so severely laid against him, who having a great desire for his country, and earnestly imploring Antony that the kingdom might be given to her, labored with her utmost diligence to get him out of the way, but that he still found Antony just to him, and no longer had any apprehensions of mistreatment from him, and that he would soon be on his return with a firmer additional assurance of his favor toward him, in his reigning and managing public affairs; and that there was no longer any hope for Cleopatra’s covetous temper, since Antony had given her Coele-Syria instead of what she had desired; by which means he had at once pacified her and gotten clear of the requests which she made [of] him to have Judea bestowed on her.

9. When these letters were brought, the women ceased their attempt for fleeing to the Romans, which they thought of while Herod was supposed to be dead; yet that purpose of theirs was not a secret, but when the king had led Antony on his way against the Parthians, he returned to Judea, when both his sister Salome and his mother informed him of Alexandra’s intentions. Salome also added something further against Joseph, although it was nothing more than a defamation: that he had often had criminal conversation with Mariamne. The reason of her saying so was this: that she bore her animosity for a long time; for when they had differences with one another, Mariamne took great liberties and reproached the rest for the lowliness of their birth. But Herod, whose affection for Mariamne was always very warm, was presently disturbed at this and could not bear the torments of jealousy, but was still restrained from doing any rash thing to her by the love he had for her; yet his vehement affection and jealousy together made him ask Mariamne by herself about this matter of Joseph; but she denied it on her oath and said all that an innocent woman could possibly say in her own defense, so that little by little the king was persuaded to drop the suspicion and ceased his anger toward her; and being overcome with his passion for his wife, he made an apology to her for having seemed to believe what he had heard about her, and returned her a great many acknowledgments of her modest behavior, and professed the extraordinary affection and kindness he had for her, until at last, as is usual between lovers, they both fell into tears and embraced one another with a most tender affection. But as the king gave more and more assurances of his belief of her fidelity and endeavored to draw her to [the] same confidence in him, Mariamne said, “Yet was not that command you gave, that if any harm came to you from Antony, I, who had been no reason for it, should perish with you [as] a sign of your love for me?” When these words had fallen from her, the king was shocked at them, and presently let her go out of his arms, and cried out, and tore his hair with his own hands, and said that he now had an evident demonstration that Joseph had had criminal conversation with his wife, because he would never have uttered what he had told him alone by himself, unless there had been such a great familiarity and firm confidence between them. And while he was in this passion, he would have liked to have killed his wife, but being still overborne by his love for her, he restrained his passion, though not without a lasting grief and uneasiness of mind. However, he gave an order to slay Joseph, without permitting him to come into his sight; and as for Alexandra, he bound her and kept her in custody, as the cause of all this trouble.

CHAPTER 4

How Cleopatra, When She Had Obtained Some Parts of Judea and Arabia from Antony, Came Into Judea; And How Herod Gave Her Many Presents and Led Her on Her Way Back to Egypt.

1. Now at this time the affairs of Syria were in confusion by Cleopatra’s constant persuasions to Antony to make an attempt on everyone’s dominions; for she persuaded him to take those dominions away from their various princes and bestow them on her; and she had a mighty influence on him, by reason of his being enslaved to her by his affections. She was also very covetous by nature and avoided no wickedness. She had already poisoned her brother, because she knew that he was to be king of Egypt—and this when he was only fifteen years old; and she got her sister Arsinoe to be slain, by means of Antony, when she was a supplicant at Diana’s temple at Ephesus; for if there were but any hopes of getting money, she would violate both temples and tombs. Nor was there any holy place that was regarded [as] the most sacrosanct, from which she would not fetch the ornaments it had in it; nor any place so profane, but was to suffer the most villainous treatment possible from her, if it could but contribute something to the covetous humor of this wicked creature: yet all this did not satisfy such an extravagant woman, who was a slave to her lusts, but she still imagined that she wanted everything she could think of and did her utmost to gain it; for which reason she hurried Antony on perpetually to deprive others of their dominions and give them to her. And as she went over Syria with him, she plotted to get it into her possession; so he slew Lysanias, the son of Ptolemy, accusing him of his bringing the Parthians on those countries. She also petitioned Antony to give her Judea and Arabia; and for that [end], desired him to take these countries away from their present governors. As for Antony, he was so entirely overcome by this woman, that one would not think her conversation alone could accomplish it, but that he was some way or another bewitched to do whatsoever she would have him [do]; yet the grossest parts of her injustice made him so ashamed, that he would not always listen to her to do those flagrant outrages she would have persuaded him to [do]. Therefore, so that he might not totally deny her, nor, by doing everything which she told him, openly appear to be a bad man, he took some parts of each of those countries away from their former governors and gave them to her. Thus, he gave her the cities that were within the river Eleutherus, as far as Egypt, excepting Tyre and Sidon, which he knew to have been free cities from their ancestors, although she very often pressed him to bestow those on her also.

2. When Cleopatra had obtained this much and had accompanied Antony in his expedition to Armenia as far as [the] Euphrates, she returned back, and came to Apamea and Damascus, and passed on to Judea, where Herod met her and farmed her parts of Arabia and those revenues that came to her from the region around Jericho. This country bears that balsam, which is the most precious drug that is there and grows there alone. The place also bears palm trees, both many in number, and those excellent in their kind. When she was there, and was very often with Herod, she endeavored to have criminal [(adulterous)] conversation with the king; nor did she affect secrecy in the indulgence of such sort of pleasures; and perhaps in some measure she had a [real] passion of love for him; or rather, what is most probable: she laid a treacherous snare for him, by aiming to obtain such adulterous conversation from him; however, on the whole, she seemed overcome with love for him. Now Herod had borne no goodwill toward Cleopatra [for] a great while, as knowing that she was an irritating woman to all; and at that time, he thought her [to be] particularly worthy of his hatred, if this attempt proceeded out of lust; he had also thought of preventing her intrigues, by putting her to death, if such were her endeavors. However, he refused to comply with her proposals and called a counsel of his friends to consult with them whether he should not kill her, now [that] he had her in his power, for he would thereby deliver all those from a multitude of evils to whom she had already become irritating and was expected to remain so for the time to come; and that this very thing would be much for the advantage of Antony himself, since she would certainly not be faithful to him in case any such season or necessity should come on him as that he should stand in need of her fidelity. But when he thought to follow this advice, his friends would not let him and told him that, in the first place, it was not right to attempt such a great thing and thereby run into the utmost danger himself; and they pressed him hard and begged of him to undertake nothing rashly, because Antony would never bear it—indeed, not [even] though anyone should evidently lay before his eyes that it was for his own advantage; and that the appearance of depriving him of her conversation, by this violent and treacherous method, would probably set his affections more ablaze than before. Nor did it appear that he could offer anything of tolerable weight in his defense, this attempt being against such a woman as was of the highest dignity of any of her sex at that time in the world; and as for any advantage to be expected from such an undertaking, if any such could be supposed in this case, it would appear to deserve condemnation on account of the insolence he must take on himself in doing it: which considerations made it very plain that in doing so he would find his government filled with trouble, both great and lasting, both to himself and his posterity, whereas it was still in his power to reject that wickedness she would persuade him to and to come off honorably at the same time. So, by thus frightening Herod, and representing to him the risk he must, in all probability, run by this undertaking, they restrained him from it. So, he treated Cleopatra kindly, and made her presents, and led her on her way to Egypt.

3. But Antony subdued Armenia, and sent Artabazes, the son of Tigranes, in bonds with his children and procurators, to Egypt, and made a present of them, and of all the royal ornaments which he had taken out of that kingdom, for Cleopatra. And Artaxias, the eldest of his sons, who had escaped at that time, took the kingdom of Armenia; who was yet banished by Archelaus and Nero Caesar when they restored Tigranes, his younger brother, to that kingdom; but this happened a good while afterward.

4. But then, as for the tributes which Herod was to pay Cleopatra for that country which Antony had given her, he acted fairly with her, as deeming it not safe for him to provide any cause for Cleopatra to hate him. As for the king of Arabia, whose tribute Herod had undertaken to pay her, for some time he indeed paid him as much as came to two hundred talents; but afterward, he became very stingy and slow in his payments, and could hardly be brought to pay some parts of it, and was not willing to pay even them without some deductions.

CHAPTER 5

How Herod Made War with the King of Arabia, and After They Had Fought Many Battles, Finally Conquered Him and Was Chosen by the Arabs to Be Governor of That Nation; As Also Concerning a Great Earthquake.

1. Hereon Herod was himself ready to go up against the king of Arabia, because of his ingratitude toward him, and because, after all, he would do nothing that was just to him, although Herod made the Roman war an occasion for delaying his own [plan]; for the battle at Actium was now expected, which fell into the one hundred and eighty-seventh Olympiad, where Caesar and Antony were to fight for the supreme power of the world; but Herod having enjoyed a country that was very fruitful, and this now for a long time, and having received substantial taxes and raised large armies with it, gathered a body of men, and carefully furnished them with all necessities, and designed them as auxiliaries for Antony. But Antony said he had no need of his assistance, but he commanded him to punish the king of Arabia, for he had heard both from him, and from Cleopatra, how disloyal he was; for this was what Cleopatra desired, who thought it for her own advantage that these two kings should cause one another as much trouble as possible. On this message from Antony, Herod returned back, but kept his army with him, in order to invade Arabia immediately. So, when his army of horsemen and footmen was ready, he marched to Diospolis, where the Arabians also came to meet them, for they were not unaware of this war that was coming on them; and after a great battle had been fought, the Jews had the victory. But afterward, another numerous army of the Arabians was gathered together at Cana, which is a place of Coele-Syria. Herod was informed of this beforehand, so he came marching against them with the greatest part of the forces he had; and when he had come near to Cana, he resolved to encamp himself; and he threw up a bulwark, so that he might have a proper opportunity for attacking the enemy; but as he was giving those orders, the multitude of the Jews cried out that he should make no delay, but lead them against the Arabians. They went with great spirit, as believing they were in very good order; and those especially were so that had been in the former battle, and had been conquerors, and had not permitted their enemies so much as to come to a close fight with them. And when they were so tumultuous and showed such great eagerness, the king resolved to make use of that zeal the multitude then exhibited; and when he had assured them he would not be behind them in courage, he led them on and stood before them all in his armor—all the regiments following him in their various ranks: whereon a panic fell on the Arabians, for when they perceived that the Jews were not [going] to be conquered and were full of spirit, the greater part of them ran away and avoided fighting; and they would have been completely destroyed, had Anthony not fallen on the Jews and distressed them; for this man was Cleopatra’s general over the soldiers she had there, and was at enmity with Herod, and very wistfully looked on to see what the outcome of the battle would be. He had also resolved that in case the Arabians did anything that was brave and successful, he would lie still; but in case they were beaten, as it really happened, he would attack the Jews with those forces he had of his own, and with those that the country had gathered together for him. So he fell on the Jews unexpectedly, while they were fatigued and thought they had already vanquished the enemy, and made a great slaughter of them; for as the Jews had spent their courage on their known enemies and were about to enjoy themselves in quietness after their victory, they were easily beaten by these that attacked them anew, and in particular received a great loss in places where the horses could not be of service, and which were very stony, and where those that attacked them were better acquainted with the places than themselves. And when the Jews had suffered this loss, the Arabians raised their spirits after their defeat, and returning back again, slew those that were already put to flight; and indeed, all sorts of slaughter was now frequent, and of those that escaped, only a few returned into the camp. So King Herod, when he despaired of the battle, rode up to them to bring them assistance; yet he did not come in time to do them any service, although he labored hard to do it; but the Jewish camp was taken, so that the Arabians unexpectedly had a most glorious success, having gained that victory which of themselves they were [in] no way likely to have gained and slaying a great part of the enemy’s army: from which, afterward, Herod could only act like a private robber, and make excursions on many parts of Arabia, and distress them by sudden incursions, while he encamped among the mountains and avoided coming to a pitched battle by any means; yet he greatly harassed the enemy by his diligence and the difficult labor he took in this matter. He also took great care of his own forces and used all the means he could to restore his affairs to their old state.

2. It was at this time that the fight occurred at Actium between Octavius Caesar and Antony, in the seventh year of the reign of Herod; and it was also then that there was an earthquake in Judea, such a one as had not happened at any other time, and which earthquake brought a great destruction on the cattle in that country. About ten thousand men also perished by the collapse of houses; but the army, which lodged in the field, received no damage by this unfortunate accident. When the Arabians were informed of this, and when those that hated the Jews and pleased themselves with sensationalizing the reports, told them of it, they raised their spirits, as if their enemy’s country was completely overthrown and the men were utterly destroyed, and thought there now remained nothing that could oppose them. Accordingly, they took the Jewish ambassadors, who came to them after all this had happened, to make peace with them, and slew them and came with great eagerness against their army; but the Jews dared not withstand them and were so downcast by the calamities they were under, that they took no care of their affairs, but gave themselves up to despair; for they had no hope that they could be at parity with them in battles again, nor obtain any assistance elsewhere, while their affairs at home were also in such great distress. When matters were in this condition, the king persuaded the commanders by his words and tried to raise their spirits, which were quite sunk; and first, he endeavored to encourage and embolden some of the better sort beforehand, and then ventured to make a speech to the multitude, which he had before avoided to do, lest he should find them uneasy at it, because of the misfortunes which had happened; so he made a consolatory speech to the multitude, in the following manner:

3. “You are not unaware, my fellow soldiers, that we have had, not long since, many misfortunes that have put a stop to what we are doing; and it is probable that even those that are most distinguished above others for their courage can hardly sustain their spirits in such circumstances; but since we cannot avoid fighting, and nothing that has happened is of such a nature except [that] it may by ourselves [alone] be recovered into a good state—and this by one brave action only well performed—I have proposed to myself to give you both some encouragement, and at the same time, some information, both [of] which parts of my proposal will tend to this point: that you may still remain in your own proper fortitude. I will then, in the first place, demonstrate to you that this war is a just one on our side, and that, on this account, it is a war of necessity and caused by the injustice of our adversaries; for if you are once satisfied by this, it will be a real cause of eagerness for you; after which I will further demonstrate that the misfortunes we are under are of no great consequence, and that we have the greatest reason to hope for victory. I will begin with the first and appeal to yourselves as witnesses to what I will say. You are certainly not ignorant of the wickedness of the Arabians, which is to such a degree so as to appear incredible to all other men and to include something that shows the grossest barbarity and ignorance of God. The chief things wherein they have insulted us have arisen from covetousness and envy; and they have attacked us in an insidious manner, and suddenly. And what reason is there for me to mention many instances of their practice? When they were in danger of losing their own government themselves, and of being slaves to Cleopatra, what others were they that freed them from that fear? for it was the friendship I had with Antony, and the kind disposition he was in toward us, that has been the reason that even these Arabians have not been utterly undone—Antony being unwilling to undertake anything which might be suspected by us of unkindness: but when he intended to bestow some parts of each of our dominions on Cleopatra, I also managed that matter such that by giving him presents of my own, I might obtain a security to both nations, while I myself undertook to answer for the money, and gave him two hundred talents, and became surety for those two hundred more which were imposed on the land that was subject to this tribute; and they have defrauded us of this, although it was not reasonable that Jews should pay tribute to any living man, or allow part of their land to be taxable; but although that was to be, yet we should not pay tribute for these Arabians, whom we have ourselves preserved; nor is it right that they, who have professed (and that with great integrity and sense of our kindness) that it is by our means that they keep their principality, should injure us and deprive us of what is our due—and this while we have still not been their enemies, but their friends. And whereas observation of covenants takes place among the bitterest enemies, but among friends is absolutely necessary, this is not observed among these men, who think gain to be the best of all things, let it be by any means whatsoever, and that injustice is no harm, if they may but get money by it: is it therefore [really] a question with you, whether the unjust are to be punished or not, when God Himself has declared His mind so that it ought to be, and has commanded that we should always hate injuries and injustice, which is not only just, but necessary, in wars between various nations; for these Arabians have done what both the Greeks and barbarians acknowledge to be an instance of the grossest wickedness, with regard to our ambassadors, which they have beheaded, while the Greeks declare that such ambassadors are sacred and inviolable. And for ourselves, we have learned from God the most excellent of our doctrines, and the most holy part of our law, by messengers or ambassadors; for this name brings God to the knowledge of mankind and is sufficient to reconcile enemies to one another. What wickedness can then be greater than the slaughter of ambassadors, who come to converse about doing what is right? And when such have been their actions, how is it possible they can either live securely in common life, or be successful in war? In my opinion, this is impossible; but perhaps some will say that what is holy and what is righteous is indeed on our side, but that the Arabians are either more courageous or more numerous than we are. Now, as for this, in the first place, it is not right for us to say this, for with those that are righteous, God Himself is with them; now where God is, there is both multitude and courage. But to examine our own circumstances a little, we were conquerors in the first battle; and when we fought again, they were unable to oppose us, but ran away and could not endure our attacks or our courage; but when we had conquered them, then Athenion came and made war against us without declaring it; and please: is this [really] an instance of their manhood? or is it not a second instance of their wickedness and treachery? Why are we therefore of less courage on account of that which ought to inspire us with stronger hopes? and why are we terrified at these, who, when they fight on the [same] level, are continually beaten, and when they seem to be conquerors, they gain it by wickedness? and if we suppose that anyone should deem them to be men of real courage, will he not be excited by that very consideration to do his utmost against them? for true valor is not shown by fighting against weak persons, but in being able to overcome the strongest. But then if the distresses we ourselves are under, and the miseries that have come by the earthquake, have frightened anyone, let him consider, in the first place, that this very thing will deceive the Arabians, by their assumption that what has happened to us is greater than it really is. Moreover, it is not right that the same thing that emboldens them should discourage us; for these men, you see, do not derive their eagerness from any advantageous virtue of their own, but from their hope, as to us, that we are quite downcast by our misfortunes; but when we boldly march against them, we will soon pull down their insolent conceit of themselves and will gain this by attacking them, so that they will not be so insolent when we come to the battle; for our distresses are not so great, nor is what has happened an indication of the anger of God against us, as some imagine; for such things are accidental and adversities that come in the natural course of things; and if we allow that this was done by the will of God, we must allow that it is now over by His will also, and that He is satisfied with what has already happened; for had He been willing to afflict us still more thereby, He would not have changed His mind so soon. And as for the war we are engaged in, He has Himself demonstrated that He is willing [that] it should go on, and that He knows it to be a just war; for while some of the people in the country have perished, all you who were in arms have suffered nothing, but are all preserved alive; whereby God makes it plain to us that if you had universally, with your children and wives, been in the army, it would have come to pass that you would not have undergone anything that would have greatly hurt you. Consider these things; and what is more than all the rest: that you have God for your Protector at all times; and prosecute these men with a just bravery, who, in point of friendship, are unjust, in their battles treacherous, toward ambassadors impious, and always inferior to you in valor.”

4. When the Jews heard this speech, they were greatly elevated in their minds and more inclined to fight than before. So Herod, when he had offered the sacrifices appointed by the Law, made haste, and took them, and led them against the Arabians; and for that [purpose], passed over [the] Jordan and pitched his camp near to that of the enemy. He also thought fitting to seize a certain castle that lay in the midst of them, as hoping it would be for his advantage and would more quickly produce a battle; and that if there were cause for delay, he should have his camp fortified by it; and as the Arabians had the same intentions for that place, a contest arose for it; at first they were merely skirmishes, after which there came more soldiers and it proved a real fight, and some fell on both sides, until those of the Arabian side were beaten and retreated. This was no small encouragement to the Jews at the time; and when Herod observed that the enemy’s army was disposed to anything rather than to come to an engagement, he boldly ventured to attempt the bulwark itself, and to pull it to pieces, and so to get nearer to their camp in order to fight them; for when they were forced out of their trenches, they went out in disorder and did not have the least eagerness or hope of victory; yet they fought hand to hand, because they were more in number than the Jews, and because they were in such a disposition of war that they were obligated to come on boldly; so they came to a terrible battle, while not a few fell on each side. However, the Arabians eventually fled; and such a great slaughter was made on their being routed, that they were not only killed by their enemies, but became the authors of their own deaths also, and were trodden down by the multitude, and the great current of people in disorder, and were destroyed by their own armor; so five thousand men lay dead on the spot, while the rest of the multitude soon ran inside the bulwark for safety, but had no firm hope of safety, by reason of their lack of necessities, and especially of water. The Jews pursued them, but could not get in with them, but sat around the bulwark, and watched [for] any assistance that would get in to them, and prevented any there, that intended it, from running away.

5. When the Arabians were in these circumstances, they sent ambassadors to Herod, in the first place, to propose terms of accommodation, and after that to offer him—so pressing was their thirst on them—to undergo whatsoever he pleased, if he would free them from their present distress; but he would admit of no ambassadors, of no price of redemption, nor of any other moderate terms whatsoever, being very desirous to avenge those unjust actions which they had been guilty of toward his nation. So they were necessitated by other motives, and particularly by their thirst, to come out and deliver themselves up to him to be carried away [as] captives; and in five days’ time, the number of four thousand were taken [as] prisoners, while all the rest resolved to make an offensive on their enemies, and to fight it out with them, choosing rather, if so it must be, to die therein, [rather] than to perish gradually and ingloriously. When they had taken this resolution, they came out of their trenches, but could [in] no way sustain the fight, being too greatly disabled, both in mind and body, and having no room to exert themselves, and they thought it an advantage to be killed, and a misery to survive; so at the first onset, there fell about seven thousand of them, after which strike they let all the courage they had put on before dissipate and stood amazed at Herod’s warlike spirit under his own calamities; so for the future, they yielded and made him ruler of their nation, whereon he was greatly elevated at such a timely success and returned home, taking great authority on him, on account of so bold and glorious an expedition as he had made.

CHAPTER 6

How Herod Slew Hyrcanus, and Then Hurried Away to Caesar, and Also Obtained the Kingdom from Him; And How a Short Time Afterward, He Entertained Caesar in a Most Honorable Manner.

1. Herod’s other affairs were now very prosperous, and he was not to be easily assaulted on any side. Yet a danger came on him that would risk all his dominions, after Antony had been beaten at the battle of Actium by Caesar [Octavian]; for at that time, both Herod’s enemies and friends despaired of his affairs, for it was not probable that he would remain without punishment, who had shown so much friendship for Antony. So it happened that his friends despaired and had no hopes of his escape; but for his enemies, they all outwardly appeared to be troubled at his case, but were privately very glad of it, as hoping to obtain a change for the better. As for Herod himself, he saw that there was no one of royal dignity left but Hyrcanus, and he therefore thought it would be for his advantage not to allow him to be an obstacle in his way any longer; for in case he himself survived and escaped the danger he was in, he thought it the safest path to put it out of the power of such a man to make any attempt against him at such junctures of affairs, as he was more worthy of the kingdom than himself; and in case he should be slain by Caesar, his envy prompted him to desire to slay him who would otherwise be king after him.

2. While Herod had these things in his mind, a certain opportunity was provided [to] him: for Hyrcanus was of such a mild temper, both then and at other times, that he desired not to meddle with public affairs, nor to concern himself with innovations, but left all to fortune and satisfied himself with what that provided him: but [his daughter] Alexandra was a lover of strife, and was exceedingly desirous of a change of the government, and spoke to her father not to bear Herod’s injurious treatment of their family forever, but to anticipate their future hopes, as he safely might; and she desired him to write about these matters to Malchus, who was then governor of Arabia, to receive them and to secure them [from Herod], because if they went away, and Herod’s affairs proved to be as it was likely they would be, by reason of Caesar’s enmity toward him, they should then be the only persons that could take the government; and this, both on account of the royal family they were of, and on account of the good disposition of the multitude toward them. While she used these persuasions, Hyrcanus put off her suit; but as she showed that she was a woman, and a contentious woman too, and would not desist either night or day, but would always be speaking to him about these matters and about Herod’s treacherous schemes, she at last prevailed with him to entrust Dositheus, one of his friends, with a letter, wherein his resolution was declared; and he desired the Arabian governor to send some horsemen to him, who should receive him and lead him to the Dead Sea, which is three hundred stadia from the bounds of Jerusalem: and he therefore entrusted Dositheus with this letter, because he was a careful attendant on him, and on Alexandra, and had no small reasons to bear animosity toward Herod, for he was a relative of one Joseph, whom he had slain, and a brother of those that were formerly slain at Tyre by Antony; yet these motives could not induce Dositheus to serve Hyrcanus in this affair; for, preferring the hopes he had from the present king to those he had from him, he gave Herod the letter. So he took his kindness in good part, and commanded him to additionally do what he had already done, that is: go on in serving him, by rolling up the letter, and sealing it again, and delivering it to Malchus, and then to bring his letter back in response to it; for it would be much better if he could also know Malchus’ intentions. And when Dositheus was also very ready to serve him in this point, the Arabian governor returned back in response that he would receive Hyrcanus, and all that should come with him, and even all the Jews that were of his party; that he would, moreover, send forces sufficient to secure them in their journey; and that he should be in no need of anything he should desire. Now as soon as Herod had received this letter, he immediately sent for Hyrcanus and questioned him about the covenant he had made with Malchus; and when he denied it, he showed his letter to the Sanhedrin and immediately put the man to death.

3. And we give this account to the reader, as it is contained in the commentaries of King Herod, but other historians do not agree with them, for they suppose that Herod did not find, but rather made, this an excuse for thus putting him to death—and that by treacherously laying a snare for him; for thus they write that he and Herod were once at a party, and that Herod had given no reason to suspect [that he was displeased at him], but put this question to Hyrcanus: whether he had received any letters from Malchus. and when he answered that he had received letters, but those of salutation only, he then asked further whether he had not received any presents from him. and when he had replied that he had received no more than four horses to ride on, which Malchus had sent him, they pretended that Herod charged these on him as the crimes of bribery and treason and gave an order that he should be led away and slain. And in order to demonstrate that he had been guilty of no offense, when he was thus brought to his end, they alleged how mild his temper had been, and that even in his youth he had never given any demonstration of boldness or rashness, and that the case was the same when he came to be king, but that he even then committed the management of the greatest part of public affairs to Antipater; and that he was now above eighty years old and knew that Herod’s government was in a secure state. He also came over [the] Euphrates and left those who greatly honored him beyond that river, though he was to be entirely under Herod’s government; and that it was a most incredible thing that he should enterprise anything by way of innovation, and not at all agreeable to his temper, but that this was a plot of Herod’s design.

4. And this was the fate of Hyrcanus; and thus he ended his life, after he had endured various and manifold turns of fortune in his lifetime. For he was made high priest of the Jewish nation in the beginning of his mother Alexandra’s reign, who held the government [for] nine years; and when, after his mother’s death, he took the kingdom himself and held it three months, he lost it by means of his brother Aristobulus. He was then restored by Pompey, and received all sorts of honor from him, and enjoyed them forty years; but when he was again deprived by Antigonus and was maimed in his body, he was made a captive by the Parthians, and from there returned home again after some time, on account of the hopes that Herod had given him; none of which came to pass according to his expectation, but he still fought with many misfortunes through the whole course of his life; and, what was the heaviest calamity of all, as we have related already: he came to an end which was undeserved by him. His character appeared to be that of a man of a mild and moderate disposition and allowed the administration of affairs to be generally done by others under him. He was averse to much meddling with the public, nor had enough shrewdness to govern a kingdom. And both Antipater and Herod came to their greatness by reason of his mildness; and at last, he met with such an end from them as was not agreeable either to justice or piety.

5. Now Herod, as soon as he had put Hyrcanus out of the way, made haste to Caesar; and because he could not have any hopes of kindness from him on account of the friendship he had for Antony, he had a suspicion of Alexandra, lest she should take this opportunity to bring the multitude to a revolt and introduce a sedition into the affairs of the kingdom; so he committed the care of everything to his brother Pheroras, and placed his mother Cyprus, and his sister [Salome], and the whole family at Masada, and gave him a command that if he should hear any bad news about him, he should take care of the government. But as for his wife Mariamne, because of the misunderstanding between her and his sister, and his sister’s mother, which made it impossible for them to live together, he placed her at Alexandrium, with her mother Alexandra, and left his treasurer Joseph and Sohemus of Iturea to take care of that fortress. These two had been very faithful to him from the beginning and were now left as a guard to the women. They also had it entrusted [to them] that if they should hear [that] any trouble had happened to him, they should kill them both, and, as far as they were able, to preserve the kingdom for his sons, and for his brother Pheroras.

6. When he had given them this command, he made haste to Rhodes, to meet Caesar; and when he had sailed to that city, he took off his diadem, but set aside nothing else of his usual dignity. And when, on his meeting him, he desired that he would let him speak to him, he therein exhibited a much more noble specimen of a great soul, for he did not commit himself to supplications, as men usually do on such occasions, nor offered him any petition, as if he were an offender; but, in an undaunted manner, gave an account of what he had done; for he spoke thus to Caesar: that he had the greatest friendship for Antony and did everything he could that he might attain the government; that he was not indeed in the army with him, because the Arabians had diverted him; but that he had sent him both money and corn, which was but too little in comparison of what he ought to have done for him, “for if a man acknowledges himself to be another’s friend, and knows him to be a benefactor, he is obligated to risk everything, to use every faculty of his soul, every member of his body, and all the wealth he has, for him, in which I confess I have been too deficient. However, I am conscious to myself, that insofar as I have done right, that I have not deserted him on his defeat at Actium, nor on the evident change of his fortune have I transferred my hopes from him to another, but have preserved myself, though not as a valuable fellow soldier, yet certainly as a faithful counselor, to Antony, when I demonstrated to him that the only way that he had to save himself, and not to lose all his authority, was to slay Cleopatra; for when she once was dead, there would be room for him to retain his authority and to bring you to make an arrangement with him, rather than to continue at enmity any longer. None of which advice would he attend to, but preferred his own rash resolution before them, which have happened unprofitably for him, but profitably for you. Now, therefore, in case you determine about me, and my eagerness in serving Antony, according to your anger at him, I acknowledge [that] there is no room for me to deny what I have done, nor will I be ashamed to own—and that publicly too—that I had a great kindness for him. But if you will put him out of the case and only examine how I behave myself toward my benefactors in general, and what sort of friend I am, you will find by experience that we will do and be the same to yourself, for it is but changing the names, and the firmness of friendship that we will bear to you, will not be disapproved by you.”

7. By this speech, and by his behavior, which showed Caesar the frankness of his mind, he greatly improved with him, who was himself of a generous and magnificent temper, insomuch that those very actions, which were the foundation of the accusation against him, gained him Caesar’s goodwill. Accordingly, he restored him his diadem again, and encouraged him to exhibit himself as great a friend to himself as he had been to Antony, and then held him in high regard. Moreover, he added this: that Quintus Didius had written to him that Herod had very readily assisted him in the affair of the gladiators. So when he had obtained such a kind reception, and had, beyond all his hopes, secured his crown to be more entirely and firmly settled on him than ever by Caesar’s donation, as well as by that decree of the Romans, which Caesar took care to procure for his greater security, he led Caesar on his way to Egypt, and made presents, even beyond his ability, to both him and his friends, and in general behaved himself with great generosity. He also desired that Caesar would not put to death one Alexander, who had been a companion of Antony; but Caesar had sworn to put him to death, and so he could not obtain his petition. And now he returned to Judea again with greater honor and assurance than ever and frightened those that had expectations to the contrary, as still acquiring from his very dangers greater splendor than before, by the favor of God to him. So, he prepared for the reception of Caesar, as he was going out of Syria to invade Egypt; and when he came, he entertained him at Ptolemais with all royal magnificence. He also bestowed presents on the army and brought them provisions in abundance. He also proved to be one of Caesar’s most cordial friends, and put the army in array, and rode along with Caesar, and had one hundred and fifty men, well-appointed in all respects, in a rich and sumptuous manner, for the better reception of him and his friends. He also provided them with what they should want, as they passed over the dry desert, insomuch that they lacked neither wine nor water, the latter of which the soldiers stood in the greatest need of; and additionally, he presented Caesar with eight hundred talents and obtained for himself the goodwill of them all, because he was supportive to them in a much greater and more splendid degree than the kingdom he had obtained could afford, by which means he demonstrated to Caesar more and more the firmness of his friendship, and his readiness to assist him; and what was of the greatest advantage to him was this: that his liberality came at an opportune time also. And when they returned from Egypt again, his assistances were [in] no way inferior to the good offices he had formerly done them.

CHAPTER 7

How Herod Slew Sohemus and Mariamne, and Afterward Alexandra, and Costobarus, and His Most Intimate Friends, and at Last, the Sons of Baba Also.

1. However, when he came into his kingdom again, he found his house all in disarray, and his wife Mariamne and her mother Alexandra very uneasy; for as they supposed (what was easy to be supposed) that they were not put into that fortress [Alexandrium] for the security of their persons, but as into a garrison for their imprisonment, and that they had no power over anything, either of others or of their own affairs, they were very uneasy; and Mariamne, supposing that the king’s love for her was only hypocritical, and rather feigned (as advantageous to himself) than real, she looked on it as fallacious. She was also grieved that he would not allow her any hopes of surviving him, if he should come to any harm himself. She also recollected what commands he had formerly given to Joseph, insomuch that she endeavored to please her keepers, and especially Sohemus, as well explained how all was in his power. And at first Sohemus was faithful to Herod and neglected none of the things he had entrusted to him; but when the women, by kind words and liberal presents, had gained his affections over to them, he was overcome by [some] degree, and finally revealed to them all the king’s injunctions, and principally on this account: that he did not so much as hope he would come back with the same authority he had before, so that he thought he should both escape any danger from him, and supposed that he hereby greatly gratified the women, who were likely not to be overlooked in the settling of the government; indeed, that they would be able to make him abundant repayment, since they must either reign themselves, or be very near to him that would reign. He had further grounds for hope also: that though Herod should have all the success he could wish for and should return again, he could not contradict his wife in what she desired, for he knew that the king’s fondness for his wife was inexpressible. These were the motives that drew Sohemus to reveal what orders had been given [to] him. So Mariamne was greatly displeased to hear that there was no end of the dangers she was in from Herod, and was greatly troubled by it, and wished that he might obtain no favors [from Caesar], and regarded it an almost impossible task to live with him any longer; and this she openly declared afterward, without concealing her resentment.

2. And now Herod sailed home with joy at the unexpected good success he had had, and first of all went, as was proper, to his wife, and told her, and her only, the good news, as preferring her before the rest, on account of his fondness for her and the intimacy there had been between them, and saluted her; but it so happened that as he told her of the good success he had had, she was so far from rejoicing at it that she was rather sorry for it; nor was she able to conceal her resentments, but, depending on her dignity, and the nobility of her birth, in return for his salutations, she gave a groan and evidently declared that she rather grieved than rejoiced at his success, and this until Herod was disturbed at her, as providing him not only marks of her suspicion, but evident signs of her dissatisfaction. This greatly troubled him to see that this surprising hatred of his wife toward him was not concealed, but open; and he took this so poorly, and was yet so unable to bear it on account of the fondness he had for her, that he could not continue long in any one mind, but sometimes was angry at her, and sometimes reconciled himself to her; but by always changing one passion for another, he was still in great uncertainty and was thus entangled between hatred and love, and was frequently disposed to inflict punishment on her for her insolence toward him; but being deeply in love with her in his soul, he was unable to get over this woman. In short, as he would gladly have her punished, so he was afraid lest, before he was aware, he should, by putting her to death, bring a heavier punishment on himself at the same time.

3. When Herod’s sister and mother perceived that he was in this temper with regard to Mariamne, they thought [that] they had now gotten an excellent opportunity to exercise their hatred against her and provoked Herod to wrath by telling him such long stories and defamations about her, as might at once excite his hatred and his jealousy. Now, although he heard their words willingly enough, yet he did not have enough courage to do anything to her as if he believed them, but he still became worse and worse disposed toward her, and these hostile passions were more and more inflamed on both sides, while she did not hide her disposition toward him, and he turned his love for her into wrath against her. But when he was finally going to put this matter past all remedy, he heard the news that Caesar was the victor in the war, and that Antony and Cleopatra were both dead, and that he had conquered Egypt; whereon he made haste to go to meet Caesar and left the affairs of his family in their present state. However, Mariamne recommended Sohemus to him, as he was setting out on his journey, and professed that she owed him thanks for the care he had taken of her, and asked of the king for a place in the government for him; on which an honorable employment was accordingly bestowed on him. Now when Herod had come into Egypt, he was introduced to Caesar with great freedom, as already a friend of his, and received very great favors from him; for he made him a present of those four hundred Galatians who had been Cleopatra’s guards, and restored that country to him again, which, by her means, had been taken away from him. He also added Gadara, Hippos, and Samaria to his kingdom; and, besides those, the maritime cities [of] Gaza, and Anthedon, and Joppa, and Strato’s Tower.

4. On these new acquisitions, he grew more magnificent and led Caesar as far as Antioch; but on his return, as much as his prosperity was increased by the foreign additions that had been made [to] him, so much greater were the distresses that came on him in his own family, and chiefly in the affair of his wife, wherein he formerly appeared to have been most of all fortunate; for the affection he had for Mariamne was [in] no way inferior to the affections of such as are on that account celebrated in history, and this very justly. As for her, she was in other respects a chaste woman and faithful to him; yet she was somewhat of a rough woman by nature, and treated her husband domineeringly enough, because she saw [that] he was so fond of her as to be enslaved to her. She also did not sensibly consider within herself that she lived under a monarchy, and that she was at another’s disposal, and accordingly would behave herself in an impudent manner toward him, which yet he usually put off in a jesting way and bore with moderation and good temper. She would also expose his mother and his sister openly, on account of the lowliness of their birth, and would speak unkindly of them, insomuch that there was a disagreement and unpardonable hatred among the women before this, and it had now come to greater reproaches of one another than formerly, which suspicions increased and lasted a whole year after Herod returned from Caesar. However, these misfortunes, which had been kept under some decency for a great while, burst out all at once on such an occasion as was now offered; for as the king had one day, about noon, lain down on his bed to rest himself, he called for Mariamne out of the great affection he had always had for her. She came in accordingly, but would not lie down by him; and when he was very desirous of her company, she showed her contempt for him and added, by way of reproach, that he had caused her father and her brother to be slain. And when he took this insult very unkindly and was ready to use violence against her, in a hasty manner, the king’s sister Salome, observing that he was more than ordinarily disturbed, sent in to the king his cup-bearer, who had been prepared long beforehand for such a plan, and commanded him to tell the king how Mariamne had persuaded him to give his assistance in preparing a love potion for him; and if he appeared to be greatly concerned and to ask what that love potion was, to tell him that she had the potion, and that he was desired only to give it [to] him; but that in case he did not appear to be very concerned about this potion, to let the thing go; and that if he did so, no harm should thereby come to him. When she had given him these instructions, she sent him in at this time to make such a speech. So he went in, in a composed manner, to gain credit to what he should say, and yet somewhat hastily, and said that Mariamne had given him presents and persuaded him to give him a love potion. And when this moved the king, he said that this love potion was a composition that she had given him, whose effects he did not know, which was the reason of his resolving to give him this information, as the safest course he could take, both for himself and for the king. When Herod heard what he said and was in a hostile disposition before, his indignation grew [even] more violent; and he ordered that eunuch of Mariamne, who was most faithful to her, to be brought to torture regarding this potion, as well knowing it was not possible that anything small or great could be done without him. And when the man was enduring the greatest agonies, he [still] could say nothing concerning the thing he was tortured about, but as far as he knew, Mariamne’s hatred against him was caused by something that Sohemus had said to her. Now as he was saying this, Herod cried out aloud and said that Sohemus, who had been at all other times most faithful to him and to his government, would not have betrayed what orders he had given him, unless he had had a more intimate conversation than ordinary with Mariamne. So he gave an order that Sohemus should be seized and slain immediately; but he allowed his wife to have her trial, and gathered those that were most faithful to him, and laid an elaborate accusation against her for this love potion and composition, which had been charged on her by way of defamation only. However, he kept no composure in what he said and was in too great a fury for judging rightly about this matter. Accordingly, when the court was finally satisfied that he was so resolved, they passed the sentence of death on her; but when the sentence was passed on her, this temper was suggested by himself, and by some others of the court, [to reason] that she should not be so hastily put to death, but be laid in prison in one of the fortresses belonging to the kingdom: but Salome and her party labored hard to have the woman put to death; and they prevailed with the king to do so, and advised this out of caution, lest the multitude should be tumultuous if she were allowed to live; and thus Mariamne was led to execution.

5. When Alexandra observed how things went, and that there were small hopes that she herself should escape the same treatment from Herod, she changed her behavior to quite the reverse of what might have been expected from her former boldness, and this in a very indecent manner; for out of her desire to show how entirely ignorant she was of the crimes laid against Mariamne, she leaped out of her place and reproached her daughter in the hearing of all the people; and she cried out that she had been a bad woman, and ungrateful to her husband, and that her punishment came justly on her for her insolent behavior, for she had not made proper returns to him who had been their common benefactor. And when she had for some time acted after this hypocritical manner, and been so outrageous as to tear her hair, this indecent and feigned behavior, as was to be expected, was greatly condemned by the rest of the spectators, as it was principally by the poor woman who was to suffer; for at first she did not give her a word, nor was she upset at her spitefulness, but only looked at her; yet out of a greatness of soul, she discovered her concern for her mother’s offense, and especially for her exposing herself in a manner so improper [for] her; but as for herself, she went to her death with an unshaken firmness of mind, and without changing the color of her face, and thereby evidently revealed the nobility of her descent to the spectators, even in the last moments of her life.

6. And thus Mariamne died, a woman of excellent character, both for chastity and greatness of soul; but she lacked moderation and had too much contention in her nature; yet she had all that can be asked for in the beauty of her body, and her majestic appearance in conversation; and there arose the greatest part of the reasons why she did not prove so agreeable to the king, nor live so pleasantly with him, as she might otherwise have done; for while she was most indulgently used by the king, out of his fondness for her, and did not expect that he could do any hard thing to her, she took too much unrestrained liberty. Moreover, that which most afflicted her was what he had done to her relations, and she ventured to speak of all they had suffered by him, and at last greatly provoked both the king’s mother and sister, until they became enemies to her; and even he himself also did the same, on whom alone she depended for her expectations of escaping the last punishments.

7. But when she was once dead, the king’s affections for her were kindled in a more outrageous manner than before, whose old passion for her we have already described; for his love for her was not of a calm nature, nor such as we usually meet with among other husbands; for at its commencement it was of an enthusiastic kind, nor was it by their long cohabitation and free conversation together brought under his power to manage; but at this time, his love for Mariamne seemed to seize him in such a peculiar manner, as looked like Divine vengeance on him for taking her life away; for he would frequently call for her, and frequently lament for her in a most indecent manner. Moreover, he deliberated within himself everything he could make use of to divert his mind from thinking of her and planned feasts and assemblies for that purpose, but nothing would suffice; he therefore laid aside the administration of public affairs, and was so far conquered by his passion that he would order his servants to call for Mariamne, as if she were still alive and could still hear them. And when he was in this condition, there arose a pestilential disease, which carried off the greatest part of the multitude, and of his best and most esteemed friends, and made all men suspect that this was brought on them by the anger of God for the injustice that had been done to Mariamne. This circumstance affected the king still more, until he finally forced himself to go into desert places, and there, under pretense of going hunting, bitterly afflicted himself; yet he had not borne his grief there many days before he fell into a most dangerous disease himself: he had an inflammation on him, and a pain in the rear part of his head, joined with madness; and for the remedies that were used, they did him no good at all, but proved contrary to his case, and so finally brought him to despair. All the physicians that were also around him, partly because the medicines they brought for his recovery could not conquer the disease at all, and partly because his diet could be nothing more than what his disease inclined him to, desired him to eat whatever he wanted, and so left the small hopes they had of his recovery in the power of that diet, and committed him to fortune. And thus, his disease went on, while he was at Samaria, now called Sebaste.

8. Now Alexandra abided at Jerusalem at this time; and being informed of what condition Herod was in, she endeavored to get possession of the fortified places that were around the city, which were two: one belonging to the city itself, the other belonging to the temple; and those that could get them into their hands had the whole nation under their power, for without their command, it was not possible to offer their sacrifices; and to think of ceasing those sacrifices is to every Jew plainly impossible, who are still more ready to lose their lives than to cease that Divine worship which they have been accustomed to pay to God. Alexandra, therefore, discoursed with those that had the keeping of these strongholds, that it was proper for them to deliver the same to her, and to Herod’s sons, lest, on his death, any other person should seize the government; and that on his recovery, no one could keep them more safely for him than those of his own family. These words were not taken well by them at all; and as they had been faithful [to Herod] in former times, they resolved to continue so more than ever, both because they hated Alexandra, and because they thought it a sort of impiety to despair of Herod’s recovery while he was yet alive, for they had been his old friends; and one of them, whose name was Achiabas, was his cousin. They therefore sent messengers to apprise him of Alexandra’s plan; so he made no further delay, but gave orders to have her slain—yet it was still with difficulty. And after he had endured great pain, he got clear of his disease. He was still severely afflicted, both in mind and body, and made very disturbed; and [he was] readier than ever on all occasions to inflict punishment on those that fell under his hand. He also slew the most intimate of his friends, Costobarus, and Lysimachus, and Gadias, who was also called Antipater; as also Dositheus, and that on the following occasion.

9. Costobarus was an Idumean by birth, and one of principal dignity among them, and one whose ancestors had been priests to the Koze, whom the Idumeans had [formerly] regarded as a god; but after Hyrcanus had made a change in their political government and made them receive the Jewish customs and law, Herod made Costobarus governor of Idumea and Gaza and gave him his sister Salome for a wife; and this was on the slaughter of [his uncle] Joseph, who had that government before, as we have related already. When Costobarus had gotten to be so highly advanced, it pleased him and was more than he hoped for, and he was more and more puffed up by his good success, and in a little while, he exceeded all bounds and did not think [it] fitting to obey what Herod, as their ruler, commanded him, or that the Idumeans should make use of the Jewish customs, or be subject to them. He therefore sent to Cleopatra and informed her that the Idumeans had always been under his progenitors, and that for the same reason it was only just that she should desire that country for him of Antony, for he was ready to transfer his friendship to her; and he did this, not because he was more pleased to be under Cleopatra’s government, but because he thought that, on the dwindling of Herod’s power, it would not be difficult for him to obtain [for] himself the entire government over the Idumeans, and something more also: for he raised his hopes still higher, as having no small pretenses, both by his birth and by these riches which he had gotten by his constant attention to illicit gain; and accordingly, it was not a small matter that he aimed for. So Cleopatra desired this country of Antony, but failed in her purpose. An account of this was brought to Herod, who was therefore ready to kill Costobarus; yet, on the pleadings of his sister and mother, he forgave him and granted to have him entirely pardoned, although he still had a suspicion of him afterward for his attempt.

10. But some time afterward, when Salome happened to quarrel with Costobarus, she sent him a bill of divorce and dissolved her marriage with him, though this was not according to the Jewish laws; for with us it is lawful for a husband to do so; but a wife, if she departs from her husband, cannot of herself be married to another, unless her former husband puts her away. However, Salome chose not to follow the law of her country, but the law of her [own] authority, and so renounced her wedlock, and told her brother Herod that she left her husband out of her goodwill toward him, because she perceived that he, with Antipater, and Lysimachus, and Dositheus, were raising a sedition against him; as an evidence whereof, she alleged the case of the sons of Babas, that they had already been preserved alive by him for the interval of twelve years, which proved to be true. But when Herod thus unexpectedly heard of it, he was greatly surprised at it and was [even] more surprised, because the relation appeared incredible to him. As for the fact relating to these sons of Babas, Herod had formerly undertaken great efforts to bring them to punishment, as being enemies to his government; but they were now forgotten by him, on account of the length of time [since he had ordered them to be slain]. Now the cause of his animosity and hatred toward them arose from this: that while Antigonus was king, Herod, with his army, besieged the city of Jerusalem, where the distress and miseries which the besieged endured were so pressing, that the greater number of them invited Herod into the city and already placed their hopes on him. Now the sons of Babas were of great dignity, and had power among the multitude, and were faithful to Antigonus, and were always raising defamations against Herod, and encouraged the people to preserve the government to that royal family which held it by inheritance. So these men thus acted politically, and, as they thought, for their own advantage; but when the city was taken, and Herod had gotten the government into his hands, and Costobarus was appointed to hinder men from passing out at the gates and to guard the city, so that those citizens that were guilty and of the party opposite to the king, might not get out of it, Costobarus, being aware that the sons of Babas were held in respect and honor by the whole multitude, and supposing that their preservation might be of great advantage to him in the changes of government afterward, he set them by themselves and concealed them in his own farms; and when the thing was suspected, he assured Herod on oath that he really knew nothing of that matter, and so overcame the suspicions that lay on him; indeed, after that, when the king had publicly proposed a reward for the discovery and had put in practice all sorts of methods for searching out this matter, he would not confess it; but being persuaded that when he had at first denied it, if the men were found, he should not escape unpunished, he was forced to keep them secret, not only out of his goodwill toward them, but out of a necessary regard for his own preservation also. But when the king knew the thing, by his sister’s information, he sent men to the places where he had the suggestion they were concealed, and ordered both them, and those that were accused as guilty with them, to be slain, insomuch that there were now none left of the relatives of Hyrcanus at all, and the kingdom was entirely in Herod’s own power, and there was nobody remaining of such dignity as could put a stop to what he did against the Jewish laws.

CHAPTER 8

How Ten Men of the Citizens [Of Jerusalem] Made a Conspiracy Against Herod, for the Foreign Practices He Had Introduced, Which Was a Transgression of the Laws of Their Country. Concerning the Building of Sebaste and Caesarea, and Other Edifices of Herod.

1. It was on this account that Herod revolted from the laws of his country and corrupted their ancient constitution by the introduction of foreign practices, which constitution yet ought to have been preserved sacrosanct; by which means we became guilty of great wickedness afterward, while those religious observances which used to lead the multitude to piety were now neglected; for, in the first place, he appointed solemn games to be celebrated every fifth year, in honor of Caesar, and built a theater at Jerusalem, as also a very great amphitheater in the plain. Both of them were indeed costly works, but opposed to the Jewish customs; for we have had no such shows delivered down to us as fitting to be used or exhibited by us; yet he celebrated these games every five years, in the most solemn and splendid manner. He also made proclamation to the neighboring countries and called men together out of every nation. The wrestlers also, and the rest of those that strove for the prizes in such games, were invited out of every land, both by the hopes of the rewards to be bestowed there, and by the glory of victory to be gained there. So the principal persons that were the most eminent in these sorts of exercises were gathered together, for there were very great rewards proposed for victory, not only to those that performed their exercises naked, but to those that played [as] musicians also, and were called Thymelici; and he spared no pains to induce all persons, the most famous for such exercises, to come to this contest for victory. He also proposed no small rewards to those who ran for the prizes in chariot races, when they were drawn by two, or three, or four pairs of horses. He also imitated everything—though never so costly or magnificent—in other nations, out of an ambition that he might give [the] most public demonstration of his grandeur. Inscriptions also of the great actions of Caesar, and trophies of those nations which he had conquered in his wars, and all made of the purest gold and silver, surrounded the theater itself; nor was there anything that could be subservient to his design, whether it were precious garments, or precious stones set in order, which was not also exposed to sight in these games. He had also made a great preparation of wild beasts, and of lions themselves in great abundance, and of other such beasts as were either of uncommon strength, or of such a sort as were rarely seen. These were prepared either to fight with one another, or that men who were condemned to death were to fight with them. And truly foreigners were greatly surprised and delighted at the vastness of the expenses exhibited here and at the great dangers that were seen here; but to natural Jews, this was nothing more than a dissolution of those customs for which they had such a great veneration. It also appeared nothing more than an instance of brazen impiety, to throw men to wild beasts, for providing delight to the spectators; and it appeared an instance of no less impiety, to change their own laws for such foreign exercises: but above all the rest, the trophies gave [the] greatest distaste to the Jews, for as they imagined them to be images, included within the armor that hung around them, they were deeply displeased at them, because it was not the custom of their country to pay honors to such images.

2. Nor was Herod unacquainted with the disturbance they were under; and as he thought it inopportune to use violence with them, so he spoke to some of them by way of consolation and in order to free them from that superstitious fear they were under; yet he could not satisfy them, but they cried out with one accord, out of their great uneasiness at the offenses they thought he had been guilty of, that although they should think of bearing all the rest, yet they would never bear images of men in their city—meaning the trophies—because this was disagreeable to the laws of their country. Now when Herod saw them in such a disorder, and that they would not easily change their resolution unless they received satisfaction in this point, he called to him the most eminent men among them, and brought them on the theater, and showed them the trophies, and asked them what sort of things they took these trophies to be; and when they cried out that they were the images of men, he gave an order that they should be stripped of these outward ornaments which were around them and showed them the naked pieces of wood; which pieces of wood, now without any ornament, became a matter of great sport and laughter to them, because they had before always held the ornaments of images themselves in derision.

3. Therefore, when Herod had thus gotten clear of the multitude and had dissipated the vehemency of passion under which they had been, the greatest part of the people were inclined to change their conduct and not to be displeased at him any longer; but some of them still continued in their displeasure against him, for his introduction of new customs, and regarded the violation of the laws of their country as likely to be the origin of very great troubles for them, so that they deemed it an instance of piety rather to risk themselves [to be put to death], than to seem as if they took no notice of Herod, who, on the change he had made in their government, introduced such customs—and that in a violent manner, which they had never been accustomed to before—as indeed in pretense a king, but in reality one that showed himself an enemy to their whole nation; on which account ten men that were citizens [of Jerusalem] conspired together against him, and swore to one another to undergo any dangers in the attempt, and took daggers with them under their garments [for the purpose of killing Herod]. Now there was a certain blind man among those conspirators who had thus sworn to one another, on account of the indignation he had against what he heard to have been done; he was indeed unable to provide the rest any assistance in the undertaking, but was ready to undergo any suffering with them, if [it] so be [that] they should come to any harm, insomuch that he became a very great encourager of the rest of the undertakers.

4. When they had taken this resolution, and that by common consent, they went into the theater, hoping that, in the first place, Herod himself could not escape them, as they should fall on him so unexpectedly; and supposing, however, that if they missed him, they should kill a great many of those that were around him; and they took this resolution [even] though they should die for it, in order to suggest to the king what injuries he had done to the multitude. These conspirators, therefore, standing thus prepared beforehand, went about their plan with great eagerness; but there was one of those spies of Herod, that were appointed for such purposes, to fish out and inform him of any conspiracies that should be made against him, who found out the whole affair and told the king of it, as he was about to go into the theater. So, when he reflected on the hatred which he knew the greatest part of the people bore him, and on the disturbances that arose on every occasion, he thought this plot against him not to be improbable. Accordingly, he retired into his palace and called those that were accused of this conspiracy before him by their various names; and as, on the guards falling on them, they were caught in the very act and knew they could not escape, they prepared themselves for their ends with all the decency they could, and so as not to shrink back from their resolute behavior at all, for they showed no shame for what they were doing, nor denied it; but when they were seized, they showed their daggers and professed that the conspiracy they had sworn to was a holy and pious action—that what they intended to do was not for gain, or out of any indulgence of their passions, but principally for those common customs of their country, which all the Jews were obligated to observe, or to die for them. This was what these men said, out of their undaunted courage in this conspiracy. So, they were led away to execution by the king’s guards that stood around them and patiently underwent all the torments inflicted on them until they died. Nor was it long before that spy who had discovered them was seized by some of the people, out of the hatred they bore toward him, and was not only slain by them, but pulled to pieces, limb from limb, and given to the dogs. This execution was seen by many of the citizens, yet not one of them would reveal the doers of it, until on Herod’s making a strict scrutiny after them, by bitter and severe tortures, certain women that were tortured confessed what they had seen done; the authors of which fact were so terribly punished by the king, that their entire families were destroyed for their rash attempt; yet the determination of the people, and that undaunted constancy they showed in the defense of their laws, did not make Herod any easier on them, but he still strengthened himself in a more secure manner and resolved to enclose the multitude every way, lest such innovations should end in an open rebellion.

5. Since, therefore, he now had the city fortified by the palace in which he lived, and by the temple which had a strong fortress by it, called Antonia, and was rebuilt by himself, he also planned to make Samaria a fortress for himself against all the people, and called it Sebaste, supposing that this place would be a stronghold against the country, not inferior to the former. So he fortified that place, which was a day’s journey away from Jerusalem, and which would be useful to him in common, to keep both the country and the city in awe. He also built another fortress for the whole nation; it was long called Strato’s Tower, but was renamed Caesarea by him. Moreover, he chose some select horsemen, and placed them in the great plain, and built a place in Galilee [for them], called Gaba, with Hesebonitis, in Perea. And these were the places which he particularly built, while he was always inventing something further for his own security and surrounding the whole nation with guards, so that they might by no means get out from under his power, nor fall into uproars, which they continually did on any small commotion; and that if they did make any commotions, he might know of it, while some of his spies might be on them from the neighborhood and might be able both to know what they were attempting and to prevent it. And when he went about building the wall of Samaria, he planned to bring there many of those that had been aiding him in his wars, and many of the people in that neighborhood also, whom he made fellow citizens with the rest. He did this out of an ambitious desire to build a temple, and out of a desire to make the city more prominent than it had been before; but principally because he planned that it might at once be for his own security, and a monument of his magnificence. He also changed its name and called it Sebaste. Moreover, he parted the adjoining country, which was excellent in its kind, among the inhabitants of Samaria, so that they might be in a fortunate condition, on their first coming to inhabit [it]. Besides all this, he [also] surrounded the city with a wall of great strength and made use of the acclivity of the place for making its fortifications stronger; nor was the perimeter of the place now made so small as it had been before, but was such as rendered it not inferior to the most famous cities; for it was twenty stadia in circumference. Now inside, and [in] about the middle of it, he built a sacred place, of a stadion and a half [in circumference], and adorned it with all sorts of decorations, and therein erected a temple, which was illustrious on account of both its size and beauty. And as for the various parts of the city, he also adorned them with decorations of all sorts; and as for what was necessary to provide for his own security, he made the walls very strong for that purpose, and made it, for the most part, a citadel; and as for the elegance of the building, it was taken care of also, so that he might leave monuments of the fineness of his taste, and of his benevolence, to future ages.

CHAPTER 9

Concerning the Famine That Happened in Judea and Syria; And How Herod, After He Had Married Another Wife, Rebuilt Caesarea and Other Grecian Cities.

1. Now in this very year, which was the thirteenth year of the reign of Herod, very great calamities came on the country—whether they were derived from the anger of God, or whether this misery returns again naturally in certain periods of time—for, in the first place, there were perpetual droughts, and for that reason the ground was barren and did not bring forth the same quantity of fruits that it used to produce; and after this barrenness of the soil, that change of food which the lack of corn caused produced distempers in the bodies of men, and a pestilential disease prevailed, one misery following on the back of another; and these circumstances, that they were destitute both of methods of cure and of food, made the pestilential disease, which began in a violent way, more lasting. The destruction of men also after such a manner deprived those that survived of all their courage, because they had no way to provide remedies sufficient for the distresses they were in. Therefore, when the fruits of that year were spoiled, and whatever they had laid up beforehand was spent, there was no foundation of hope for relief remaining, but the misery, contrary to what they expected, still increased on them; and this not only in that year, while they had nothing for themselves left [at the end of it], but what [little] seed they had sown also perished by reason of the ground not yielding its fruits in the second year. This distress they were in made them also, out of necessity, to eat many things that were not usually eaten; nor was the king himself free from this distress any more than other men, as being deprived of that tribute he used to have from the fruits of the ground, and having already expended what money he had, in his liberality to those whose cities he had built; nor did he have any people that were worthy of his assistance, since this miserable state of things had gained him the hatred of his subjects: for it is a constant rule, that misfortunes are still laid to the account of those that govern.

2. In these circumstances he considered within himself how to procure some timely help; but this was a difficult thing to be done, while their neighbors had no food to sell [to] them; and their money was also gone, had it [even] been possible to purchase a little food at a great price. However, he thought it his best path, by all means, not to cease his endeavors to assist his people; so he cut off the rich furniture that was in his palace, both of silver and gold, insomuch that he did not spare the finest vessels he had, or those that were made with the most elaborate skill of the craftsmen, but sent the money to Petronius, who had been made prefect of Egypt by Caesar; and as not a few had already fled to him out of their need, and as he was particularly a friend to Herod and desirous to have his subjects preserved, he gave permission to them in the first place to export corn and assisted them every way, both in purchasing and exporting the same, so that he was the principal, if not the only person, who provided them what help they had. And Herod, taking care [that] the people should understand that this help came from himself, thereby not only removed the low opinion of those that formerly hated him, but gave them the greatest demonstration possible of his goodwill toward them, and care of them; for, in the first place, as for those who were able to provide their own food, he distributed to them their proportion of corn in the exact manner; but for those many that were unable, either by reason of their old age, or any other infirmity, to provide food for themselves, he made this provision for them: the bakers should make their bread ready for them. He also took care that they might not be harmed by the dangers of winter, since they were also in great need of clothing, by reason of the utter destruction and consumption of their sheep and goats, until they had no wool to make use of, nor anything else to cover themselves as well. And when he had acquired these things for his own subjects, he went further, in order to provide necessities for their neighbors, and gave seed to the Syrians, which thing also greatly turned to his own advantage—this charitable assistance being provided most timely for their fruitful soil, so that everyone now had an abundant provision of food. On the whole, when the harvest of the land was approaching, he sent no fewer than fifty thousand men, whom he had sustained, into the country; by which means he both repaired the afflicted condition of his own kingdom with great generosity and diligence, and lightened the afflictions of his neighbors, who were under the same calamities; for there was nobody who had been in need that was left destitute of a suitable assistance by him; indeed, further, there were neither any people, nor any cities, nor any private men, who were to make provision for the multitudes, and on that account were in need of support, and had recourse to him, but received what they stood in need of, insomuch that it appeared, on calculation, that the number of cori of wheat, of ten Attic medimni apiece, that were given to foreigners, amounted to ten thousand, and the number that was given in his own kingdom was about eighty thousand. Now it so happened that this care of his, and this timely support, had such influence on the Jews, and was so voiced aloud among other nations, as to wipe off that old hatred which his violation of some of their customs, during his reign, had gained him among all the nation, and that this liberality of his assistance in their greatest necessity was full satisfaction for all that he had done of that nature, as it also gained him great fame among foreigners; and it looked as if these calamities that afflicted his land, to a degree plainly incredible, came in order to raise his glory, and to be to his great advantage, for the greatness of his liberality in these distresses, which he now demonstrated beyond all expectation, so changed the disposition of the multitude toward him, that they were ready to suppose he had been from the beginning not such a one as they had found him to be by experience, but such a one as the care he had taken of them in supplying their necessities proved him now to be.

3. It was about this time that he sent five hundred chosen men out of his bodyguards as auxiliaries to Caesar, whom Aelius Gallus led to the Red Sea, and who were of great service to him there. Therefore, when his affairs were thus improved, and were again in a flourishing condition, he built himself a palace in the upper city, raising the rooms to a very great height, and adorning them with the most costly furniture of gold, and marble seats, and beds; and these were so large that they could contain very many companies of men. These apartments were also of distinct magnitudes and had particular names given [to] them; for one apartment was called Caesar’s, another Agrippa’s. He also fell in love again and married another wife, not allowing his reason to hinder him from living as he pleased. The occasion of his marriage was as follows: there was one Simon, a citizen of Jerusalem, the son of one Boethus, a citizen of Alexandria, and a priest of great notability there; this man had a daughter, who was considered the most beautiful woman of that time; and when the people of Jerusalem began to speak much in her commendation, it happened that Herod was greatly affected with what was said of her; and when he saw the girl, he was stricken with her beauty, yet he entirely rejected the thoughts of using his authority to abuse her, as believing, what was the truth, that by doing so he would be stigmatized for violence and tyranny; so he thought it best to take the girl for a wife. And while Simon was of a dignity too inferior to be allied to him, but still too considerable to be despised, he governed his inclinations after the most prudent manner, by increasing the dignity of the family and making them more honorable; so he immediately deprived Jesus, the son of Phabet, of the high priesthood, and conferred that dignity on Simon, and so joined in affinity with him [by marrying his daughter].

4. When this wedding was over, he built another citadel in that place where he had conquered the Jews when he was driven out of his government and Antigonus enjoyed it. This citadel is about sixty stadia away from Jerusalem. It was strong by nature and suitable for such a building. It is a sort of average hill, raised to a further height by the hand of man, until it was of the shape of a woman’s breast. It is surrounded with circular towers, and has a strait ascent up to it, which ascent is composed of steps of polished stones, two hundred in number. Within it are royal and very rich apartments, of a structure that provided both for security and for beauty. Around the bottom there are habitations of such a structure as are well worth seeing, both on other accounts, and also on account of the water, which is brought there from a great way off, and at vast expenses, for the place itself is destitute of water. The plain that is around this citadel is full of edifices, not inferior to any city in size, and having the hill above it in the nature of a castle.

5. And now, when all Herod’s plans had succeeded according to his hopes, he had not the least suspicion that any troubles could arise in his kingdom, because he kept his people obedient, as well by the fear they stood in of him, for he was implacable in the infliction of his punishments, as by the provident care he had shown toward them, after the most generous manner, when they were under their distresses. But he still took care to have external security for his government as a fortress against his subjects; for the orations he made to the cities were very fine and full of kindness; and he cultivated a sensibly good understanding with their governors and bestowed presents on every one of them, thereby inducing them to be more friendly toward him, and using his magnificent disposition so that his kingdom might be better secured to him—and this until all his affairs were more and more improved [in] every way. But then this magnificent temper of his, and that submissive behavior and liberality which he exercised toward Caesar and the most powerful men of Rome, compelled him to transgress the customs of his nation and to set aside many of their laws by building cities in an extravagant manner and erecting temples—not in Judea indeed, for that would not have been endured, it being forbidden for us to pay any honor to images, or representations of animals, after the manner of the Greeks—but he still did this in the country outside of our bounds, and in the cities thereof. The apology which he made to the Jews for these things was this: that everything was done, not out of his own inclinations, but by the commands and orders of others, in order to please Caesar and the Romans, as if he did not have the Jewish customs in his view so much as he had the honor of those Romans, while [in reality], he entirely had himself in view all the while, and indeed was very ambitious to leave great monuments of his government to posterity; from which it was that he was so zealous in building such fine cities and spent such vast sums of money on them.

6. Now on his observation of a place near the sea, which was very proper for containing a city and was previously called Strato’s Tower, he set about getting a plan for a magnificent city there and erected many edifices with great diligence all over it, and these of white stone. He also adorned it with [the] most luxurious palaces and large edifices for containing the people; and what was the greatest and most laborious work of all: he adorned it with a haven, that was always free from the waves of the sea. Its size was not less than the Pyraeum [at Athens] and had toward the city a double station for the ships. It was of excellent workmanship, and this was [all] the more remarkable for its being built in a place that of itself was not suitable for such noble structures, but was to be brought to perfection by materials from other places, and at very great expenses. This city is situated in Phoenicia, in the passage by sea to Egypt, between Joppa and Dora, which are lesser maritime cities, and not suitable for havens, on account of the impetuous south winds that beat on them, which rolling the sands that come from the sea against the shores, do not allow for ships lying in their station; but the merchants there are generally forced to ride with their anchors [down] in the sea itself. So Herod endeavored to rectify this inconvenience and laid out such an area toward the land as might be sufficient for a haven, wherein the great ships might lie in safety; and he effected this by letting down vast stones of above fifty feet in length, not less than eighteen in breadth, and nine in depth, into [spaces] twenty fathoms deep; and as some were lesser, so were others bigger than those dimensions. This pier which he built by the seaside was two hundred feet wide, half of which was opposed to the current of the waves, so as to keep those waves off which were to break on them, and so was called Procymatia, or the first breaker of the waves; but the other half had a wall on it, with several towers, the largest of which was named Drusus, and was a work of exceeding excellence, and had its name from Drusus, the son-in-law of Caesar, who died young. There were also a great number of arches where the mariners dwelt. There was also a quay near them, which ran around the entire haven, and was a most agreeable walk to such as wanted that exercise; but the entrance or mouth of the port was made on the north quarter, on which side was the stillest of the winds of all in this place: and the basis of the whole circuit on the left hand, as you enter the port, supported a round turret, which was made very strong in order to resist the greatest waves; while on the right hand, as you enter, stood two vast stones, and those, each of them, larger than the turret, which were opposite them; these stood upright and were joined together. Now there were edifices all along the circular haven, made of the most polished stone, with a certain elevation, whereon a temple was erected that was seen a great way off by those that were sailing for that haven and had two statues in it: one of Rome, the other of Caesar. The city itself was called Caesarea, which was also built of fine materials itself and was of a fine structure; indeed, the very subterranean vaults and cellars [themselves] had no less [fine] architecture bestowed on them than the buildings had above ground. Some of these vaults carried things at even distances to the haven and to the sea; but one of them ran obliquely and bound all the rest together, so that both the rain and the filth of the citizens were carried off together with ease, and the sea itself, on the flux of the tide from outside, came into the city and washed it all clean. Herod also built a theater of stone therein; and on the south quarter, behind the port, an amphitheater also, capable of holding a vast number of men and conveniently situated for a view of the sea. So, this city was thus finished in twelve years, during which time the king did not fail to go on both with the work and to pay the expenses that were necessary.

CHAPTER 10

How Herod Sent His Sons to Rome; How He Was Also Accused by Zenodorus and the Gadarenes, but Was Cleared of What They Accused Him of and Additionally Gained the Goodwill of Caesar for Himself. Concerning the Pharisees, the Essenes, and Manahem.

1. When Herod was engaged in such matters, and when he had already rebuilt Sebaste [(Samaria)], he resolved to send his sons Alexander and Aristobulus to Rome, to enjoy the company of Caesar; who, when they came there, lodged at the house of Pollio, who was very fond of Herod’s friendship; and they had permission to lodge in Caesar’s own palace, for he received these sons of Herod with all humanity and gave Herod permission to give his kingdom to whichever of his sons he pleased; and besides all this, he bestowed Trachon, and Batanea, and Auranitis on him, which he gave him on the following occasion: one Zenodorus had hired what was called the house of Lysanias, who, as he was not satisfied with its revenues, became a partner with the robbers that inhabited [among] the Trachonites, and so procured himself a larger income; for the inhabitants of those places lived in a mad way and pillaged the country of the Damascenes, while Zenodorus did not restrain them, but partook of the prey they acquired. Now as the neighboring people were hereby great sufferers, they complained to Varro, who was then president [of Syria], and implored him to write to Caesar about this injustice of Zenodorus. When these matters were laid before Caesar, he wrote back to Varro to destroy those nests of robbers and to give the land to Herod, so that by his care the neighboring countries might no longer be disturbed with these doings of the Trachonites; for it was not an easy thing to restrain them, since this way of robbery had been their usual practice, and they had no other way to get their living, because they had neither any city of their own, nor lands in their possession, but only some receptacles and dens in the earth, and there they and their cattle lived in common together. However, they had made designs to get pools of water, and laid up corn in granaries for themselves, and were able to make great resistance, by suddenly flowing out against any that attacked them; for the entrances of their caves were narrow, in which only one could come in at a time, and the places within [were] incredibly large and made very wide, but the ground over their habitations was not very high, but rather on a plain, while the rocks are altogether hard and difficult to be entered on, unless anyone gets into the plain road by the guidance of another, for these roads are not straight, but have several turns. But when these men are hindered from their wicked preying on their neighbors, their custom is to prey on one another, insomuch that no sort of injustice comes wrongly to them. But when Herod had received this grant from Caesar and had come into this country, he procured skillful guides, and put a stop to their wicked robberies, and obtained peace and quietness for the neighboring people.

2. Hereon Zenodorus was grieved, in the first place, because his principality was taken away from him; and still more so, because he envied Herod, who had gotten it. So, he went up to Rome to accuse him, but returned back again without success. Now Agrippa was sent to succeed Caesar in the government of the countries beyond the Ionian Sea, on whom Herod came when he was wintering around Mitylene, for he had been his particular friend and companion and then returned to Judea again. However, some of the Gadarenes came to Agrippa and accused Herod, whom he sent back bound to the king without giving them the hearing. But still the Arabians, who long bore animosity toward Herod’s government, were irritated, and at that time attempted to raise a sedition in his dominions, and, as they thought, on a more justifiable occasion, for Zenodorus, already despairing of success as to his own affairs, prevented [his enemies], by selling to those Arabians a part of his principality, called Auranitis, for the value of fifty talents; but as this was included in the donations of Caesar, they contested the point with Herod, as unjustly deprived of what they had bought. Sometimes they did this by making incursions on him, and sometimes by attempting force against him, and sometimes by going to law with him. Moreover, they persuaded the poorer soldiers to help them and were troublesome to him out of a constant hope that they could reduce the people to raise a sedition; in which schemes those that are in the most miserable circumstances of life are still the most earnest; and although Herod had been apprised of these attempts [for] a great while, yet he did not indulge any severity to them, but by rational methods aimed to mitigate things, as not willing to give any foothold for disturbances.

3. Now when Herod had already reigned seventeen years, Caesar came into Syria; at which time the greatest part of the inhabitants of Gadara clamored against Herod, as one that was heavy in his orders and tyrannical. They mainly ventured on these reproaches by the encouragement of Zenodorus, who took his oath that he would never leave Herod until he had procured that they should be severed from Herod’s kingdom and joined to Caesar’s province. The Gadarenes were induced hereby and made no small cry against him—and that [all] the more boldly, because those that had been delivered up by Agrippa were not punished by Herod, who let them go and did them no harm; for indeed, he was the principal man in the world who appeared almost inexorable in punishing crimes in his own family, but very generous in forgiving the offenses that were committed elsewhere. And while they accused Herod of injuries, and plunderings, and subversions of temples, he stood unconcerned and was ready to make his defense. However, Caesar gave him his right hand and revoked none of his kindness toward him, on this disturbance by the multitude; and indeed, these things were alleged the first day, but the hearing proceeded no further; for as the Gadarenes saw the inclination of Caesar and of his assessors, and expected, as they had reason to do, that they would be delivered up to the king, some of them, out of a dread of the torments they might undergo, cut their own throats in the nighttime, and some of them threw themselves down precipices, and others of them cast themselves into the river, and destroyed themselves of their own accord; which calamities seemed a sufficient condemnation of the rashness and crimes they had been guilty of; whereon Caesar made no further delay, but cleared Herod from the crimes he was accused of. There was another fortunate accident, which was a further great advantage to Herod at this time: for Zenodorus’ belly burst, and a great quantity of blood poured out from him in his sickness, and he thereby departed this life at Antioch in Syria; so Caesar bestowed his country, which was no small one, on Herod; it lay between Trachon and Galilee, and contained Ulatha, and Paneas, and the surrounding country. He also made him one of the procurators of Syria and commanded that they should do everything with his approval; and, in short, he arrived at that level of happiness, that whereas there were only two men that governed the vast Roman empire—first Caesar, and then Agrippa, who was his principal favorite—Caesar preferred no one to Herod besides Agrippa, and Agrippa made no one his greater friend than Herod besides Caesar. And when he had acquired such freedom, he begged Caesar for a tetrarchy for his brother Pheroras, while he himself bestowed on him a revenue of one hundred talents out of his own kingdom, so that in case he came to any harm himself, his brother might be safe, and that his sons might not have dominion over him. So, when he had led Caesar to the sea and had returned home, he built him a most beautiful temple, of the whitest stone, in Zenodorus’ country, near the place called Panium. This is a very fine cave in a mountain, under which there is a great cavity in the earth, and the cavern is abrupt, and prodigiously deep, and full of a still water; a vast mountain hangs over it; and under the caverns arise the springs of the Jordan River. Herod adorned this place, which was already a very remarkable one, still further by the erection of this temple, which he dedicated to Caesar.

4. At this time, Herod released to his subjects the third part of their taxes, under pretense indeed of relieving them, after the shortage they had had; but the main reason was to recover their goodwill, which he now wanted; for they were troubled by him, because of the innovations he had introduced in their practices, of the dissolution of their religion, and of the disuse of their own customs; and the people talked against him everywhere, like those that were still more provoked and disturbed at his practice; against which discontents he greatly guarded himself, and took away the opportunities they might have to disturb him, and commanded them to always be at work; nor did he permit the citizens either to meet together, or to walk or eat together, but watched everything they did, and when any were caught, they were severely punished; and there were many who were brought to the citadel [of] Hyrcania, both openly and secretly, and were put to death there; and there were spies set everywhere, both in the city and in the roads, who watched those that met together; indeed, it is reported that he did not himself neglect [even] this part of caution, but that he would oftentimes take the attire of a private man himself, and mix among the multitude in the nighttime, and make a trial [of] what opinion they had of his government: and as for those that could [in] no way be reduced to acquiesce under his scheme of government, he prosecuted them [in] all manner of ways; but for the rest of the multitude, he required that they should be obligated to take an oath of fidelity to him, and at the same time compelled them to swear that they would bear him goodwill, and certainly continue to do so, in his management of the government; and indeed, a great part of them, either to please him, or out of fear of him, yielded to what he required of them; but for such as were of a more open and generous disposition, and had indignation at the force he used against them, he by one means or another made away with them. He also endeavored to persuade Pollio the Pharisee, and Sameas, and the greatest part of their scholars, to take the oath; but these would neither submit to do so, nor were they punished together with the rest, out of the reverence he bore for Pollio. The Essenes also, as we call a sect of ours, were excused from this imposition. These men live the same kind of life as do those whom the Greeks call Pythagoreans, concerning whom I will discourse more fully elsewhere. However, it is only therefore fitting to set down here the reasons Herod held these Essenes in such honor and thought higher of them than their mortal nature required; nor will this account be unsuitable to the nature of this history, as it will show the opinion men had of these Essenes.

5. Now there was one of these Essenes, whose name was Manahem, who had this testimony: that he not only conducted his life in an excellent manner, but also had the foreknowledge of future events given [to] him by God. This man once saw Herod when he was a child and going to school, and he saluted him as king of the Jews; but he, thinking that either he did not know him, or that he was in jest, reminded him that he was only a private man; but Manahem smiled to himself, and clapped him on his backside with his hand, and said, “Although that is [presently so], you will be king and will begin your reign happily, for God finds you worthy of it. And remember the blows that Manahem has given you, as being a signal of the change of your fortune. And this will truly be the best reasoning for you: that you love justice [toward men], and piety toward God, and clemency toward your citizens; yet I know how your whole conduct will be, that you will not be such a one, for you will excel all men in happiness and obtain an everlasting reputation, but will forget piety and righteousness; and these crimes will not be concealed from God at the conclusion of your life, when you will find that He will be mindful of them and punish you for them.” Now at that time, Herod did not attend to what Manahem said at all, as having no hopes of such advancement; but shortly afterward, when he was so fortunate as to be advanced to the dignity of king and was in the height of his dominion, he sent for Manahem and asked him how long he would reign. Manahem did not tell him the full length of his reign; therefore, on that silence of his, he asked him further whether he would reign ten years or not. He replied, “Yes, twenty, no, thirty years,” but he did not assign the exact determinate limit of his reign. Herod was satisfied with these replies, and gave Manahem his hand, and dismissed him; and from that time on, he continued to honor all the Essenes. We have thought it proper to relate these facts to our readers, however strange they may be, and to declare what has happened among us, because many of these Essenes have, by their excellent virtue, been thought worthy of this knowledge of Divine revelations.

CHAPTER 11

How Herod Rebuilt the Temple, and Raised It Higher, and Made It More Magnificent than It Was Before; As Also Concerning That Tower Which He Called Antonia.

1. And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God, and make it larger in scope, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude, as regarding it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really was: to bring it to perfection; and that this would be sufficient for an everlasting memorial of him; but as he knew the multitude were not ready nor willing to assist him in such a vast design, he thought to first prepare them by making a speech to them, and then set about the work itself; so he called them together and spoke thus to them: “I think I need not speak to you, my countrymen, about such other works as I have done since I came to the kingdom, although I may say they have been performed in such a manner as to bring more security to you than glory to myself; for I have neither been negligent in the most difficult times about what tended to ease your necessities, nor have the buildings I have made been so proper to preserve me as yourselves from injuries; and I imagine that, with God’s assistance, I have advanced the nation of the Jews to a degree of happiness which they never had before; and for the particular edifices belonging to your own country, and your own cities, as also to those cities that we have recently acquired, which we have erected and greatly adorned, and thereby increased the dignity of your nation, it seems to me an unnecessary task to enumerate them to you, since you know them well yourselves; but as for that undertaking which I intend to set about at present, and which will be a work of the greatest piety and excellence that can possibly be undertaken by us, I will now declare it to you. Our fathers, indeed, when they had returned from Babylon, built this temple to God Almighty, yet it lacks sixty cubits of its size in altitude—for so much did that first temple which Solomon built exceed this temple; nor let anyone condemn our fathers for their negligence or lack of piety herein, for it was not their fault that the temple was no higher, for they were Cyrus, and Darius the son of Hystaspes, who determined the measures for its rebuilding; and it has been by reason of the subjection of those fathers of ours to them and to their posterity, and after them to the Macedonians, that they did not have the opportunity to follow the original model of this pious edifice, nor could raise it to its ancient altitude; but since I am now, by God’s will, your governor, and I have had peace a long time, and have gained great riches and large revenues, and what is the principal thing of all: I am at amity with and well regarded by the Romans, who, if I may say so, are the rulers of the whole world, I will endeavor myself to correct that imperfection, which has arisen from the necessity of our affairs and the slavery we have formerly been under, and to make a grateful return, after the most pious manner, to God, for what blessings I have received from Him, by giving me this kingdom, and that by rendering His temple as complete as I am able.”

2. And this was the speech which Herod made to them; but this speech still frightened many of the people, as being unexpected by them; and because it seemed incredible, it did not encourage them, but placed concern on them, for they were afraid that he would pull down the whole edifice and not be able to bring his intentions to perfection for its rebuilding; and this danger appeared to them to be very great, and the vastness of the undertaking to be such as could hardly be accomplished. But while they were in this disposition, the king encouraged them and told them he would not demolish their temple until all things had been prepared for completely rebuilding it. And as he promised them this beforehand, so he did not break his word with them, but got one thousand wagons ready that were to bring stones for the building, and selected ten thousand of the most skillful workmen, and bought one thousand priestly garments for as many of the priests, and had some of them taught the arts of stone-cutters, and others of carpenters, and then began to build—but this not until everything was well-prepared for the work.

3. So Herod took away the old foundations, and laid others, and erected the temple on them, being one hundred cubits in length and twenty additional cubits in height, which [twenty], on the sinking of their foundations, fell down; and it was this part that we resolved to raise again in the days of Nero. Now the temple was built of stones that were white and strong, and each of their length was twenty-five cubits, their height was eight, and their breadth about twelve; and the whole structure, as also the structure of the royal cloister, was much lower on each side, but the middle was much higher, until they were visible to those that dwelt in the country for a great many stadia, but chiefly to such as lived near them and those that approached to them. The temple also had doors at the entrance, and lintels over them, of the same height with the temple itself. They were adorned with embroidered veils, with their flowers of purple, and pillars interwoven; and over these, but under the crown-work, was spread out a golden vine, with its branches hanging down from a great height, the size and fine workmanship of which was a surprising sight to the spectators, to see what vast materials there were, and with what great skill the workmanship was done. He also surrounded the entire temple with very large cloisters, designing them to be in a due proportion to it; and he laid out larger sums of money on them than had been done before him, until it seemed that no one else had so greatly adorned the temple as he had done. There was a large wall to both [of] the cloisters, which wall was itself the most prodigious work that was ever heard of by man. The hill was a rocky ascent, that declined by degrees toward the east parts of the city, until it came to an elevated level. It was this hill which Solomon, who was [one of] the first of our kings, by Divine revelation, surrounded with a wall; it was of excellent workmanship upwards and around the top of it. He also built a wall below, beginning at the bottom, which was surrounded by a deep valley; and at the south side, he laid rocks together, and bound them to one another with lead, and included some of the inner parts, until it proceeded to a great height, and until both the size of the square edifice and its altitude were immense, and until the vastness of the stones in the front were plainly visible on the outside, yet so that the inward parts were fastened together with iron and preserved the joints immovable for all future times. When this work [for the foundation] was done in this manner and joined together as part of the hill itself to the very top of it, he worked it all into one outward surface, and filled up the hollow places which were around the wall, and made it a level on the external upper surface, and a smooth level also. This hill was walled all around, and in perimeter four stadia, [the distance of] each angle containing a stadion in length; but within this wall, and on the very top of all, there also ran another wall of stone, having, on the east quarter, a double cloister, of the same length with the wall; in the midst of which was the temple itself. This cloister looked to the gates of the temple; and it had been adorned by many kings in former times; and around the entire temple were fixed the spoils taken from barbaric nations; all these had been dedicated to the temple by Herod, with the addition of those he had taken from the Arabians.

4. Now on the north side [of the temple] a citadel was built, whose walls were square, and strong, and of extraordinary firmness. This citadel was built by the kings of the Hasmonean race, who were also high priests before Herod, and they called it the Tower, in which were deposited the vestments of the high priest, which the high priest alone put on at the time when he was to offer sacrifice. King Herod kept these vestments in that place, and after his death they were under the power of the Romans, until the time of Tiberius Caesar; under whose reign Vitellius, the president of Syria, when he once came to Jerusalem and had been most magnificently received by the multitude, intended to make them some payment for the kindness they had shown him; so, on their petition to have those holy vestments in their own power, he wrote about them to Tiberius Caesar, who granted his request: and their power over the priestly vestments continued with the Jews until the death of King Agrippa; but after that, Cassius Longinus, who was president of Syria, and Cuspius Fadus, who was procurator of Judea, ordered the Jews to deposit those vestments in the Tower of Antonia, because they ought to have them in their power, as they formerly had. However, the Jews sent ambassadors to Claudius Caesar, to intercede with him for them; on whose coming, King Agrippa (the junior), being then at Rome, asked for and obtained the power over them from the emperor, who gave command to Vitellius, who was then commander in Syria, to give it [to] them accordingly. Before that time they were kept under the seal of the high priest, and of the treasurers of the temple; which treasurers, the day before a festival, went up to the Roman captain of the temple guards, and viewed their own seal, and received the vestments; and again, when the festival was over, they brought it to the same place, and showed the captain of the temple guards their seal, which corresponded with his seal, and deposited them there. And that these things were so, the afflictions that happened to us afterward [about them] are sufficient evidence. But as for the tower itself, when Herod, the king of the Jews, had fortified it more firmly than before in order to secure and guard the temple, he gratified Antonius, who was his friend and the Roman ruler, and then gave it the name of the Tower of Antonia.

5. Now in the western quarters of the enclosure of the temple there were four gates: the first led to the king’s palace and went to a passage over the intermediate valley; two more led to the suburbs of the city; and the last led to the other city, where the road descended down into the valley by a great number of steps, and from there up again by the ascent for the city lay near the temple in the manner of a theater, and was surrounded with a deep valley along the entire south quarter; but the fourth front of the temple, which was southward, indeed itself had gates in its middle, as it also had the royal cloisters, with three walks, which reached in length from the east valley to that on the west, for it was impossible [that] it should reach any farther: and this cloister deserves to be mentioned better than any other under the sun, for while the valley was very deep, and its bottom could not be seen if you looked from above into the depth, this further vastly high elevation of the cloister stood on that height, insomuch that if anyone looked down from the top of the battlements, or down both those altitudes, he would be dizzy, while his sight could not reach to such an immense depth. This cloister had pillars that stood in four rows, one opposite the other all along, for the fourth row was interwoven into the wall, which [was also built of stone]; and the thickness of each pillar was such that three men might, with their arms extended, fathom it around and join their hands again, while its length was twenty-seven feet, with a double spiral at its basis; and the number of all the pillars [in that court] was one hundred and sixty-two. Their chapiters were made with sculptures after the Corinthian order and caused an amazement [to the spectators] by reason of the grandeur of the whole. These four rows of pillars included three intervals for walking in the middle of this cloister; two of which walks were made parallel to each other and were designed in the same way; the breadth of each of them was thirty feet, the length was a stadion, and the height fifty feet; but the breadth of the middle part of the cloister was one and a half of the other, and the height was double, for it was much higher than those on each side; but the roofs were adorned with deep sculptures in wood, representing many sorts of figures. The middle was much higher than the rest, and the wall of the front was adorned with beams, resting on pillars that were interwoven into it, and that front was all of polished stone, insomuch that its fineness, to such as had not seen it, was incredible, and to such as had seen it, was greatly amazing. Thus was the first enclosure. In the midst of which, and not far from it, was the second, to be gone up to by a few steps: this was surrounded by a stone wall for a partition, with an inscription which forbade any foreigner to go in under pain of death. Now this inner enclosure had on its southern and northern quarters three gates [equally] distant from one another; but on the east quarter, toward the sunrising, there was one large gate, through which such as were pure came in, together with their wives; but the temple further inward in that gate was not allowed to the women; but still more inward, there was a third [court of the] temple, whereinto it was not lawful for any but the priests alone to enter. The temple itself was within this; and in front of that temple was the altar on which we offer our sacrifices and burnt-offerings to God. Into none of these three did King Herod enter, for he was forbidden, because he was not a priest. However, he took care of the cloisters and the outer enclosures, and he built these in eight years.

6. But the temple itself was built by the priests in a year and six months, on which all the people were full of joy; and presently they returned thanks, in the first place, to God; and in the next place, for the eagerness the king had shown. They feasted and celebrated this rebuilding of the temple; and for the king, he sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, as did the rest—every one according to his ability; the number of which sacrifices is not possible to set down, for it cannot be that we should truly relate it; for at the same time as this celebration for the work about the temple also fell the day of the king’s inauguration, which he kept of an old custom as a festival, and it now coincided with the other, which coincidence of them made the festival most noteworthy.

7. There was also an occult passage built for the king; it led from Antonia to the inner temple at its eastern gate, over which he also erected a tower for himself, so that he might have the opportunity of a subterranean ascent to the temple in order to guard against any sedition which might be made by the people against their kings. It is also reported that during the time that the temple was being built, it did not rain in the daytime, but that the showers fell in the nights, so that the work was not hindered. And this our fathers have delivered to us; nor is it incredible, if anyone has regard to the manifestations of God. And thus, the work of the rebuilding of the temple was performed.

BOOK XVI

Containing the Interval of Twelve Years. From the Finishing of the Temple by Herod to the Death of Alexander and Aristobulus.

CHAPTER 1

A Law of Herod’s About Thieves. Salome and Pheroras Defame Alexander and Aristobulus on Their Return from Rome, for Whom Herod Still Provides Wives.

1. As King Herod was very zealous in the administration of his entire government and desirous to put a stop to particular acts of injustice which were done by criminals around the city and country, he made a law, [in] no way like our original laws, and which he enacted himself, to expose burglars to be banished from his kingdom; which punishment was not only grievous to be borne by the offenders, but contained in it a dissolution of the customs of our forefathers; for this slavery to foreigners, and such as did not live after the manner of Jews, and this necessity that they were under to do whatsoever such men should command, was an offense against our religious settlement, rather than a punishment to such as were found to have offended—such a punishment being avoided in our original laws, for those laws ordain that the thief will restore fourfold; and that if he does not have enough, he will indeed be sold, but not to foreigners, nor so that he would be under perpetual slavery, for he must have been released after six years. But this law, thus enacted, in order to introduce a severe and illegal punishment, seemed to be a piece of insolence of Herod, when he did not act as a king, but as a tyrant, and thus he ventured to introduce such a punishment contemptuously and without any regard for his subjects. Now this penalty, thus brought into practice, was like Herod’s other actions and became a part of his accusation and a source of the hatred he lay under.

2. Now it was at this time that he sailed to Italy, as very desirous to meet with Caesar and to see his sons who lived at Rome; and Caesar was not only very obliging to him in other respects, but delivered him his sons again, so that he might take them home with him, as having already completed themselves in the sciences; but as soon as the young men had come from Italy, the multitude were very desirous to see them, and they became conspicuous among them all, as adorned with great blessings of fortune and having the countenances of persons of royal dignity. So they soon appeared to be the objects of envy to Salome, the king’s sister, and to such as had raised defamations against Mariamne; for they were suspicious that when these came to the government, they would be punished for the wickedness they had been guilty of against their mother; so they made this very fear of theirs a motive to raise defamations against them also. They proclaimed that they were not pleased with their father’s company, because he had put their mother to death, as if it were not agreeable to piety to appear to converse with their mother’s murderer. Now, by carrying these stories that indeed had a true [factual] foundation, but were only built on probabilities as to the present accusation, they were able to cause them trouble and to make Herod take away that kindness from his sons which he had borne to them before; for they did not say these things to him openly, but scattered abroad such words among the rest of the multitude, from which words, when carried to Herod, he was induced to hate them [(his sons)]—and which natural affection itself, even in length of time, was unable to overcome; yet at that time the king was in a condition to prefer the natural affection of a father before all the suspicions and defamations his sons lay under. So, he respected them as he ought to do and married them to wives, now [that] they were of an age suitable for that. To Aristobulus he gave for a wife Bernice, Salome’s daughter; and to Alexander, Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia.

CHAPTER 2

How Herod Twice Sailed to Agrippa; And How on the Complaint in Ionia Against the Greeks, Agrippa Confirmed the Laws to Them.

1. When Herod had dispatched these affairs, and he understood that Marcus Agrippa had sailed out of Italy into Asia again, he made haste to him and pleaded with him to come to him into his kingdom and to partake of what he might justly expect from one that had been his guest and was his friend. He greatly pressed this request, and Agrippa agreed to it and came into Judea, whereon Herod omitted nothing that might please him. He entertained him in his newly built cities, and showed him the edifices he had built, and provided all sorts of the best and most costly delicacies for him and his friends, and that at Sebaste and Caesarea, around that port that he had built, and at the fortresses which he had erected at great expenses: Alexandrium, and Herodium, and Hyrcania. He also led him to the city [of] Jerusalem, where all the people met him in their festival garments and received him with acclamations. Agrippa also offered a hecatomb of sacrifices to God and feasted the people without omitting any of the greatest delicacies that could be obtained. He also took so much pleasure there, that he abided with them [for] many days and would willingly have stayed longer, but the season of the year made him depart with haste; for as winter was coming on, he did not think it safe to go to sea [any] later, and yet he was compelled to return to Ionia again.

2. So Agrippa went away, when Herod had bestowed on him, and on the principal ones of those that were with him, many presents; but King Herod, when he had passed the winter in his own dominions, made haste to get to him again in the spring, when he knew he planned to go on a campaign at the Bosphorus. So when he had sailed by Rhodes and by Cos, he touched at Lesbos, as thinking he would have overtaken Agrippa there; but he was taken short here by a north wind, which hindered his ship from going to the shore; so he remained at Chius [for] many days, and there he kindly treated a great many that came to him and compelled them by giving them royal gifts. And when he saw that the portico of the city had fallen down, which as it was overthrown in the Mithridatic War, and was a very large and fine building, so it was not so easy to rebuild that as it was the rest, yet he furnished a sum not only large enough for that purpose, but what was more than sufficient to finish the building; and he ordered them not to overlook that portico, but to rebuild it quickly, so that the city might recover its proper ornaments. And when the high winds were stilled, he sailed to Mitylene, and from there to Byzantium; and when he heard that Agrippa had sailed beyond the Cyanean rocks, he made all possible haste to overtake him and caught up with him at about Sinope, in Pontus. He was seen sailing by the shipmen most unexpectedly, but appeared to their great joy; and there were many friendly salutations between them, insomuch that Agrippa thought he had received the greatest possible marks of the king’s kindness and humanity toward him, since the king had come [on] such a long voyage and at a very proper season for his assistance, and had left the government of his own dominions, and thought it more worth his while to come to him. Accordingly, Herod was all in all to Agrippa in the management of the war, and a great assistant in civil affairs and in giving him counsel as to particular matters. He was also a pleasant companion for him when he relaxed himself and a joint partaker with him in all things: in troubles because of his kindness, and in prosperity because of the respect Agrippa had for him. Now as soon as those affairs of Pontus were finished, for whose sake Agrippa was sent there, they did not think [it] good to return by sea, but passed through Paphlagonia and Cappadocia; they then traveled from there over Greater Phrygia and came to Ephesus, and then they sailed from Ephesus to Samos. And indeed, the king bestowed a great many benefits on every city that he came to, according as they stood in need of them; for as to those that wanted either money or kind treatment, he was not lacking toward them, but he supplied the former himself out of his own expenses; he also became an intercessor with Agrippa for all such as sought after his favor, and he brought things about such that the petitioners failed in none of their suits to him, Agrippa being himself of a good disposition, and of great generosity, and ready to grant all such requests as might be advantageous to the petitioners, provided they were not to the detriment of others. The inclination of the king was of great weight also, and still excited Agrippa, who was himself ready to do good, for he made reconciliation between the people of Ilium, at whom he was angry, and paid what money the people of Chius owed Caesar’s procurators, and discharged them of their tributes; and he helped all others, according as their various needs required.

3. But now, when Agrippa and Herod were in Ionia, a great multitude of Jews who dwelt in their cities came to them, and laying hold of the opportunity and the liberty now given them, laid before them the injuries which they suffered, while they were not permitted to use their own laws, but were compelled to prosecute their lawsuits by the hostile usage of the judges, on their holy days, and were deprived of the money they used to lay up at Jerusalem, and were forced into the army, and on such other offices as compelled them to spend their sacred money, from which burdens they always used to be freed by the Romans, who had still permitted them to live according to their own laws. When this clamor was made, the king desired of Agrippa that he would hear their cause, and he assigned Nicolaus, one of his friends, to plead for their privileges. Accordingly, when Agrippa had called the principal ones of the Romans, and such of the kings and rulers as were there, to be his assessors, Nicolaus stood up and pleaded for the Jews as follows: “It is of necessity incumbent on such as are in distress to have recourse to those that have it in their power to free them from those injuries they lie under; and for those that are now complainants, they approach you with great assurance, for as they have formerly often obtained your favor, insofar as they have even wished to have it, they now only request that you who have been the donors will take care that those favors you have already granted them may not be taken away from them. We have received these favors from you, who alone have power to grant them, but have them taken from us by such as are no greater than ourselves, and by such as we know are as much subjects as we are; and certainly, if we have been granted great favors, it is to our commendation who have obtained them, as having been found deserving of such great favors; and if those favors are but small ones, it would be barbaric for the donors not to confirm them to us. And for those that are the hindrance of the Jews, and use them reproachfully, it is evident that they insult both the receivers, while they will not allow those to be worthy men to whom their excellent rulers themselves have borne their testimony, and the donors, while they desire [that] those favors already granted may be revoked. Now if anyone should ask these nations themselves, which of the two things they would choose to part with—their lives or the customs of their forefathers (their solemnities, their sacrifices, their festivals, which they celebrated in honor of those they suppose to be gods)—I know very well that they would choose to suffer anything whatsoever rather than a dissolution of any of the customs of their forefathers; for a great many of them have rather chosen to go to war on that account, as [being] very careful not to transgress in those matters. And indeed, we take an estimate of that happiness which all mankind now enjoys by your means from this very thing: that we are allowed, everyone, to worship as our own institutions require, and yet to live [in peace]; and although they would not be thus treated themselves, yet they endeavor to compel others to comply with them, as if it was not as great an instance of impiety to profanely dissolve the religious solemnities of any others, as to be negligent in the observation of their own toward their gods. And let us now consider one of these practices: is there any people, or city, or community of men, to whom your government and the Roman power does not appear to be the greatest blessing? Is there anyone that can desire to make void the favors they have granted? Certainly no one is that mad; for there are no men but such as have been partakers of their favors, both public and private; and indeed, those that take away what you have granted, can have no assurance but every one of their own grants made them by you may be taken from them also; which grants of yours can yet never be sufficiently valued; for if they consider the old governments under kings, together with your present government—besides the great number of benefits which this government has bestowed on them for their happiness—this is, instead of all the rest, that they appear to be no longer in a state of slavery, but of freedom. Now the privileges we desire, even when we are in the best circumstances, are not such as deserve to be envied, for we are indeed in a prosperous state by your means, but this is only in common with others; and it is no more than this which we desire: to preserve our religion without any prohibition, which as it appears not in itself a privilege to be envied of us, so it is for the advantage of those that grant it to us; for if the Divinity delights in being honored, He must delight in those that permit Him to be honored. And there are none of our customs which are inhuman, but all tending toward piety and devoted to the preservation of justice; nor do we conceal those commands of ours by which we govern our lives, they being memorials of piety, and of a friendly conversation among men. And the seventh day we set apart from labor; it is dedicated to the learning of our customs and laws, we thinking it proper to reflect on them, as well as on any other [good] thing, for our avoidance of sin. Therefore, if anyone looks into our observances, he will find [that] they are good in themselves, and that they are ancient also, though some think otherwise, insomuch that those who have received them cannot easily be brought to depart from them, out of that honor they pay to the length of time they have religiously enjoyed them and observed them. Now our adversaries take our privileges away in the way of injustice; they violently seize that money of ours which is owed to God, and called sacred money, and this openly, in a sacrilegious manner; and they impose tributes on us, and bring us before tribunals on holy days, and then require other similar debts from us, not because the contracts require it, and for their own advantage, but because they would put an insult on our religion, of which they are conscious as well as we, and have indulged themselves in an unjust, and to them involuntary, hatred; for your government over all is one, tending to the establishing of benevolence and abolishing of animosity among such as are inclined to it. This is therefore what we implore from you, most excellent Agrippa: that we may not be mistreated; that we may not be abused; that we may not be hindered from making use of our own customs, nor be robbed of our goods, nor be forced by these men to do what we ourselves force nobody to do; for these privileges of ours are not only according to justice, but have formerly been granted to us by you. And we are able to read to you many decrees of the senate, and the tables that contain them, which are still extant in the Capitol, concerning these things, which it is evident were granted after you had experience of our fidelity toward you, which ought to be valued, though no such fidelity had been; for you have thus far preserved what people were in possession of, not to us only, but almost to all men, and have added greater advantages than they could have hoped for, and your government has thereby become a great advantage to them. And if anyone were able to enumerate the prosperity you have conferred on every nation, which they possess by your means, he could never put an end to his discourse; but so that we may demonstrate that we are not unworthy of all those advantages we have obtained, it will be sufficient for us to say nothing of other things, but to speak freely of this king who now governs us, and is now one of your assessors; and indeed, in what instance of goodwill, as to your house, has he been deficient? What mark of fidelity to it has he omitted? What token of honor has he not devised? What opportunity for his assistance of you has he not regarded at the very first? Therefore, what prevents that your kindnesses may be as numerous as his such great benefits to you have been? It may also perhaps here not be fitting to pass over in silence the valor of his father Antipater, who, when Caesar made an expedition into Egypt, assisted him with two thousand armed men, and proved inferior to none, neither in the battles on land, nor in the management of the navy; and is there anything I need to say of how greatly valuable those soldiers were at that juncture? or how many and how great presents they were given by Caesar? And truly I should have mentioned before now the letters which Caesar wrote to the senate, and how Antipater had honors, and the freedom of the city of Rome, bestowed on him; for these are demonstrations both that we have received these favors by our own merits, and on that account petition you for your confirmation of them, from whom we had reason to hope for them, although they had not been given to us before, both out of regard for our king’s disposition toward you, and your disposition toward him. And further, we have been informed by those Jews that were there, with what kindness you came into our country, and how you offered the most perfect sacrifices to God and honored Him with remarkable vows, and how you gave the people a feast and accepted their own hospitable presents to you. We ought to regard all these kind entertainments made both by our nation and to our city, to a man who is the ruler and manager of so much of the public affairs, as indications of that friendship which you have returned to the Jewish nation, and which has been acquired for them by the family of Herod. So, we reminded you of these things in the presence of the king, now sitting by you, and make our request for no more than this: that what you have given us yourselves you will not see taken away from us by others.”

4. When Nicolaus had made this speech, there was no opposition made to it by the Greeks, for this was not an inquiry made, as in a court of justice, but an intercession to prevent violence to be offered to the Jews any longer; nor did the Greeks make any defense of themselves or deny what it was supposed they had done. Their pretense was no more than this: that while the Jews inhabited in their country, they were entirely unjust to them [by not joining in their worship]; but they demonstrated their generosity in this: that though they worshiped according to their institutions, they did nothing that ought to grieve them. So when Agrippa perceived that they had been oppressed by violence, he made this answer: that on account of Herod’s goodwill and friendship, he was ready to grant the Jews whatsoever they should ask him, and that their requests seemed to him in themselves just; and that if they requested anything further, he would not hesitate to grant it [to] them, provided they were [in] no way to the detriment of the Roman government; but that while their request was no more than this, that what privileges they had already given them might not be revoked, he confirmed this to them, that they might continue in the observation of their own customs, without anyone offering them the least injury. And when he had said this, he dissolved the assembly; on which Herod stood up, and saluted him, and gave him thanks for the kind disposition he showed to them. Agrippa also took this in a very obliging manner, and saluted him again, and embraced him in his arms; after which he went away from Lesbos; but the king determined to sail from Samos to his own country; and when he had taken his leave of Agrippa, he pursued his voyage and landed at Caesarea in a few days’ time, as having favorable winds; from which he went to Jerusalem and gathered all the people together to an assembly there, not a few being there out of the country also. So, he came to them and gave them a particular account of all his journey and of the affairs of all the Jews in Asia, how by his means they could live without harmful treatment for the time to come. He also told them of the entire good fortune he had met with and how he had administered the government and had not neglected anything which was for their advantage; and as he was very joyful, he now remitted to them the fourth part of their taxes for the last year. Accordingly, they were so pleased with his favor and speech to them, that they went their ways with great gladness and wished the king all manner of happiness.

CHAPTER 3

How Great Disturbances Arose in Herod’s Family on His Preferring His Eldest Son Antipater Before the Rest, Until Alexander Took That Injury Very Heinously.

1. But now the affairs in Herod’s family were in more and more disarray, and they became more severe on him by the hatred of Salome toward the young men [(Alexander and Aristobulus)], which descended as it were by inheritance [from their mother Mariamne]; and as she had fully succeeded against their mother, so she proceeded to that degree of madness and insolence, as to endeavor that none of her posterity might be left alive, who might have it in their power to avenge her death. The young men also had somewhat of a bold and uneasy disposition toward their father caused by the remembrance of what their mother had unjustly suffered, and by their own pretension of dominion. The old grudge was also renewed; and they cast reproaches on Salome and Pheroras, who repaid the young men with malicious schemes and actually laid treacherous snares for them. Now as for this hatred, it was equal on both sides, but the manner of exerting that hatred was different; for as to the young men, they were rash, reproaching and insulting the others openly, and were inexperienced enough to think it most reasonable to [openly] declare their minds in that careless way; but the others did not take that method, but made use of defamations in a subtle and spiteful manner, still provoking the young men, and imagining that their boldness might in time turn to the offering [of] violence toward their father; for inasmuch as they were not ashamed of the pretended crimes of their mother, nor thought she suffered justly, these supposed that might finally exceed all bounds and induce them to think they ought to be avenged on their father, though it were by dispatching him with their own hands. Finally it came to this: that the whole city was full of their discourses, and, as is usual in such contests, the unskillfulness of the young men was pitied; but the plot of Salome was too difficult for them, and what imputations she laid on them came to be believed, by means of their own conduct; for they who were so deeply affected with the death of their mother, that while they said both she and themselves were in a miserable situation, they vehemently complained of her pitiable end, which indeed was truly such, and said that they were themselves in a pitiable situation also, because they were forced to live with those that had been her murderers, and to be partakers with them.

2. These disturbances increased greatly, and the king’s absence abroad had provided a suitable opportunity for that increase; but as soon as Herod had returned and had made the aforementioned speech to the multitude, Pheroras and Salome let words immediately fall as if he were in great danger, and as if the young men openly threatened that they would not spare him any longer, but avenge their mother’s death on him. They also added another circumstance: that their hopes were fixed on Archelaus, the king of Cappadocia, that they should be able to come to Caesar by his means and accuse their father. On hearing such things, Herod was immediately disturbed; and indeed, he was [all] the more astonished, because the same things were related to him by some others also. He then called to mind his former calamity and considered that the disturbances in his family had hindered him from enjoying any comfort from those that were dearest to him or from his wife whom he loved so well; and suspecting that his future troubles would soon be heavier and greater than those that were past, he was in great confusion of mind; for Divine Providence had in reality conferred on him a great many outward advantages for his happiness, even beyond his hopes; but the troubles he had at home were such as he never expected to have met with and rendered him unfortunate; indeed, both sorts came on him to such a degree as no one could imagine and made it a doubtful question, whether, on the comparison of both, he ought to have exchanged such great success of superficially good things for such great misfortunes at home, or whether he should have chosen to avoid the calamities relating to his family, though he had, for a compensation, never had possession of the admired grandeur of a kingdom.

3. As he was thus disturbed and afflicted, in order to suppress these young men, he brought to court another of his sons, that was born to him when he was a private man; his name was Antipater; yet he did not then indulge him as he did afterward, when he was quite overcome by him and let him do everything as he pleased, but rather with a plan for suppressing the insolence of the sons of Mariamne and managing this elevation of his son, so that it might be for a warning to them; for [he thought] this bold behavior of theirs would not be so great if they were once persuaded that the succession to the kingdom did not pertain to them alone, or must necessarily come to them. So he introduced Antipater as their antagonist, and imagined that he made a good provision for discouraging their pride, and that after this was done to the young men, there might be a proper season for expecting these to be of a better disposition; but the event proved contrary to what he intended, for the young men thought he gave them a very great insult; and as Antipater was a shrewd man, when he had once obtained this degree of freedom and began to expect greater things than he had previously hoped for, he had but one single plan in his head: and that was to distress his brothers and not to yield preeminence to them at all, but to keep close to his father, who was already alienated from them by the defamations he had heard about them and was ready to be brought along in any way his zeal against them should advise him to pursue, so that he might continually be more and more severe against them. Accordingly, all the reports that were spread abroad came from him, while he himself avoided the suspicion as if those discoveries proceeded from him; but he chose rather to make use of those persons for his assistants that were unsuspected, and such as might be believed to speak truth by reason of the goodwill they bore toward the king; and indeed, there were already not a few who cultivated a friendship with Antipater in hopes of gaining something by him, and these were the men who most of all persuaded Herod, because they appeared to speak thus out of their goodwill to him: and with these joint accusations, which from various foundations supported one another’s veracity, the young men themselves provided further opportunities for Antipater also; for they were observed to shed tears often, on account of the injury that was offered them, and had [talk of] their mother in their mouths; and among their friends, they ventured to reproach their father, as not acting justly by them; all which things were, with an evil intention, reserved in memory by Antipater for a proper opportunity; and when they were told to Herod, with aggravations, they increased the disturbance so much that it brought a great tumult into the family; for while the king was very angry at imputations that were laid on the sons of Mariamne and desired to humble them, he still increased the honor that he had bestowed on Antipater, and was at last so overcome by his persuasions, that he brought his mother to court also. He also frequently wrote to Caesar in favor of him, and more earnestly recommended him particularly to his care. And when Agrippa was returning to Rome after he had finished his ten years’ government in Asia, Herod sailed from Judea; and when he met with him, he had none with him but Antipater, whom he delivered to Agrippa, so that he might take him along with him, together with many presents, so that he might become Caesar’s friend, insomuch that things already looked as if he had all his father’s favor, and that the young men were already entirely rejected from any hopes of the kingdom.

CHAPTER 4

How During Antipater’s Dwelling at Rome, Herod Brought Alexander and Aristobulus Before Caesar and Accused Them. Alexander’s Defense of Himself Before Caesar and Reconciliation to His Father.

1. And now what happened during Antipater’s absence increased the honor to which he had been promoted and his apparent reputation above his brothers, for he had made a great figure in Rome, because Herod had sent recommendations of him to all his friends there; only he was grieved that he was not at home, nor had proper opportunities of perpetually defaming his brothers; and his chief fear was that his father would alter his mind and entertain a more favorable opinion of the sons of Mariamne; and as he had this in his mind, he did not desist from his purpose, but continually sent from Rome any such stories as he hoped might grieve and irritate his father against his brothers, indeed under pretense of a deep concern for his preservation, but in truth such as his malicious mind dictated, in order to purchase a greater hope of the succession, which yet was already great in itself: and thus he did until he had excited such a degree of anger in Herod, that he was already become very hostile toward the young men; but while he still delayed to exercise such a violent disgust against them, and that he might neither be too negligent or too rash, and so offend, he thought it best to sail to Rome, and there accuse his sons before Caesar, and not indulge himself in any such crime as might be heinous enough to be suspected of impiety. But as he was going up to Rome, it happened that he made such haste as to meet with Caesar at the city [of] Aquilei, so when he came to the speech of Caesar, he asked for a time for hearing this great cause, wherein he thought himself [to be] very miserable, and presented his sons there, and accused them of their mad actions and of their attempts against him: that they were enemies to him; and by all the means they were able, did their endeavors to show their hatred for their own father, and would take away his life, and so obtain his kingdom, after the most barbaric manner; that he had power from Caesar to dispose of it, not by necessity, but by choice, to him who will exercise the greatest piety toward him, “while these sons of mine are not so desirous of ruling, as they are, on a disappointment thereof, to expose their own life,” if [it] so be [that] they may but deprive their father of his life—“so wild and polluted their mind has become by [the passage of] time,” out of their hatred for him: that whereas he had endured his misfortune [for] a long time, he was now compelled to lay it before Caesar and to pollute his ears with such language, while he himself wanted to know what cruelty they had ever suffered from him, or what hardships he had ever laid on them to make them complain of him; and how they could think it just that he should not be lord of that kingdom which he, over a long time and with great danger, had gained, and not allow him to keep it and dispose of it to him who should deserve [it] best; and this, with other advantages, he proposed as a reward for the piety of such a one as will hereafter imitate the care he had taken of it, and that such a one may gain such a great payment as that is; and that it is an impious thing for them to pretend to meddle with it beforehand; “for he who always has the kingdom in his view, reckons on procuring the death of his father at the same time, because otherwise he cannot come to the government”: that as for himself, he had thus far given them all that he was able and what was agreeable to such as are subject to the royal authority and the sons of a king: what ornaments they wanted, with servants and delicate fare, and had married them into the most illustrious families—one [(Aristobulus)] to his sister’s daughter, but Alexander to the daughter of King Archelaus; and, what was the greatest favor of all, when their crimes were so very bad, and he had authority to punish them, yet he had not made use of it against them, but had brought them before Caesar, their common benefactor, and had not used the severity which, either as a father who had been impiously abused, or as a king who had been assaulted treacherously, he might have done, but made them stand equally with him in judgment: that, however, it was necessary that all this should not be passed over without punishment, nor himself live in the greatest fears; indeed, that it was not for their own advantage to see the light of the sun after what they had done, although they should escape at this time, since they had done the vilest things and would certainly suffer the greatest punishments that were ever known among mankind.

2. These were the accusations which Herod laid with great vehemency against his sons before Caesar. Now the young men, both while he was speaking, and chiefly at his concluding, wept and were confounded. Now as for themselves, they knew in their own conscience they were innocent; but because they were accused by their father, they were aware, as the truth was, that it was challenging for them to make their apology, since though they were at liberty to speak their minds freely as the occasion required and might with force and earnestness refute the accusation, yet it was not appropriate to do so now. Therefore, there was a struggle with how they should be able to speak; and tears, and finally a deep groan, followed, while they were afraid that if they said nothing, they should seem to be in this difficulty from a consciousness of guilt—nor did they have any defense prepared, by reason of their youth and the disorder they were under; yet Caesar was not unaware, when he looked on them in the confusion they were in, that their delay to make their defense did not arise from any consciousness of great outrages, but from their unskillfulness and modesty. They were also pitied by those that were there in particular; and they moved their father’s affections in earnest until he had much difficulty in concealing them.

3. But when they saw [that] a kind disposition had arisen both in him and in Caesar, and that every one of the rest either shed tears, or at least all grieved with them, one of them, whose name was Alexander, called to his father, and attempted to answer his accusation, and said, “O father! The benevolence you have shown to us is evident, even in this very judicial procedure, for had you had any malicious intentions about us, you would not have produced us here before the common savior of all, for it was in your power, both as a king and as a father, to punish the guilty; but by thus bringing us to Rome and making Caesar himself a witness to what is done, you suggest that you intend to save us; for no one that has a plan to slay a man will bring him to the temples and to the altars; yet our circumstances are still worse, for we cannot endure to live [with] ourselves any longer, if it is believed that we have injured such a father; indeed, perhaps it would be worse for us to live with this suspicion on us—that we have injured him—than to die without such guilt. And if our open defense may be taken to be true, we will be fortunate, both in pacifying you, and in escaping the danger we are in; but if this defamation so prevails, it is more than enough for us that we have seen the sun this day; which why should we see [it], if this suspicion is fixed on us? Now it is easy to say of young men that they desire to reign; and to further say that this evil proceeds from the case of our unfortunate mother. This is abundantly sufficient to produce our present misfortune out of the former; but consider well whether such an accusation does not suit all such young men and may not be said of them all wantonly; for nothing can hinder him that reigns, if he has children and their mother is dead, but [that] the father may have a suspicion on all his sons, as intending some treachery toward him; but a suspicion is not sufficient to prove such an impious practice. Now let any man declare whether we have actually and insolently attempted any such thing, whereby otherwise incredible actions can be made credible. Can anybody prove that poison has been prepared? or prove a conspiracy of our equals, or the corruption of servants, or letters written against you? though indeed there are none of those things except what have sometimes been faked by way of defamation, when they were never done; for a royal family that is in conflict with itself is a terrible thing; and that which you call a reward of piety often becomes, among very wicked men, such a foundation of hope, as makes them leave no sort of mischief untested. Nor does anyone lay any wicked practices to our charge; but as for defamations by hearsay, how can he put an end to them, who will not hear what we have to say? Have we talked with too great freedom? Yes; but not against you, for that would be unjust, but against those that never conceal anything that is spoken to them. Have either of us lamented our mother? Yes; but not because she is dead, but because she was maligned by those that had no reason to do so. Are we desirous of that dominion which we know our father is in possession of? For what reason can we do so? If we already have royal honors, as we have, should we not labor in vain? And if we do not have them, are we not yet hopeful for them? Or supposing that we had killed you, could we expect to obtain your kingdom? while neither the earth would let us tread on it, nor the sea let us sail on it, after such an action as that; indeed, the religion of all your subjects, and the piety of the whole nation, would have prohibited parricides from assuming the government and from entering into that most holy temple which was built by you. But suppose we had made light of other dangers; can any murderer get off unpunished while Caesar is alive? We are your sons, and not so impious or so thoughtless as that comes to, though perhaps more unfortunate than is convenient for you. But in case you find neither any causes of complaint, nor any treacherous schemes, what sufficient evidence do you have to make such a wickedness of ours credible? Our mother is indeed dead, but then what happened to her might be an instruction to us for caution and not an incitement to wickedness. We are willing to make a larger apology for ourselves; but actions never undertaken do not admit discourse. Indeed, we will make this agreement with you, and that before Caesar, the lord of all, who is now a mediator between us: if you, O father, can bring yourself, by the evidence of truth, to have a mind free from suspicion concerning us, let us live, although even then we will live in an unhappy way, for to be accused of great acts of wickedness, though falsely, is a terrible thing; but if you have any fear remaining, continue on in your pious life, [for] we will give this reason for our own conduct: our life is not so desirable to us as to desire to have it if it tends toward the harm of our father who gave it [to] us.”

4. When Alexander had thus spoken, Caesar, who did not [even] previously believe such a gross defamation, was still more moved by it, and looked intently on Herod, and perceived [that] he was a little confounded: the persons present there were under apprehension about the young men, and the fame that was spread abroad made the king hated, for the very incredibility of the defamation, and the pity of the flower of youth, the beauty of body, which were in the young men, pleaded for assistance, and [all] the more so on this account: that Alexander had made their defense with dexterity and prudence; indeed, they themselves no longer continued in their former countenances, which had been dewy with tears and cast downwards to the ground, but now there arose in them hope for the best; and the king himself appeared not to have had foundation enough to build such an accusation on, he having no real evidence with which to correct them. Indeed, he wanted some apology for making the accusation; but Caesar, after some delay, said that although the young men were thoroughly innocent of that for which they were defamed, yet they had been so far to blame that they had not demeaned themselves toward their father so as to prevent that suspicion which was spread abroad concerning them. He also exhorted Herod to lay all such suspicions aside and to be reconciled to his sons, because it was not just to give any credit to such reports concerning his own children, and that this conversion on both sides might still heal those breaches that had happened between them and might improve their goodwill to one another, whereby those on both sides, excusing the rashness of their suspicions, might resolve to bear a greater degree of affection toward each other than they had before. After Caesar had given them this admonition, he beckoned to the young men. Therefore, when they were inclined to fall down to make intercession to their father, he took them up, and embraced them, as they were in tears, and took each of them distinctly in his arms, until not one of those that were present, whether freeman or slave, was not deeply affected with what they saw.

5. Then they returned thanks to Caesar and went away together; and Antipater went with them with a hypocritical pretense that he rejoiced at this reconciliation. And in the last days [when] they were with Caesar, Herod made him a present of three hundred talents, as he was then exhibiting shows and generosity to the people of Rome; and Caesar made him a present of half the revenue of the copper mines in Cyprus, and committed the care of the other half to him, and honored him with other gifts and incomes; and as for his own kingdom, he left it in his own power to appoint which of his sons he pleased for his successor, or to distribute it in parts to everyone, so that the dignity might thereby come to them all. And when Herod was inclined to immediately make such a settlement, Caesar said he would not give him allowance to deprive himself, while he was alive, of the power over his kingdom, or over his sons.

6. After this, Herod returned to Judea again. But during his absence, no small part of his dominion around Trachon had revolted, whom the commanders he had yet left there had vanquished and forced into submission again. Now as Herod was sailing with his sons and had come near Cilicia, to [the island of] Eleusa, which has now changed its name to Sebaste, he met with Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, who received him kindly, as rejoicing that he was reconciled to his sons, and that the accusation against Alexander, who had married his daughter, was at an end. They also made one another such presents as suited kings to make. From there, Herod came to Judea and to the temple, where he made a speech to the people concerning what had been done on this his journey. He also discoursed to them about Caesar’s kindness to him, and about as many of the particulars he had done as he thought it for his advantage other people should be acquainted with. At last, he turned his speech to the admonition of his sons, and exhorted those that lived at court and the multitude toward unity, and informed them that his sons were to reign after him; Antipater first, and then Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons of Mariamne: but he desired that at present they should all have regard for himself and honor him [as] king and lord of all, since he was not yet hindered by old age, but was in that period of life when he must be the most skillful in governing; and that he was not deficient in other arts of management that might enable him to govern the kingdom well and to also rule over his children. He further told the rulers under him, and the soldiers, that in case they would look on him alone [as king], their life would be led in a peaceable manner, and they would make one another happy. And when he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. This speech was acceptable to the greatest part of the audience, but not so to them all; for the contention among his sons, and the hopes he had given them, caused thoughts and desires of innovations among them.

CHAPTER 5

How Herod Celebrated the Games That Were to Return Every Fifth Year on the Building of Caesarea; And How He Built and Adorned Many Other Places in a Magnificent Manner and Did Many Other Actions Gloriously.

1. It was about this time that Caesarea Sebaste, which he had built, was finished. The entire building being accomplished in the tenth year, the solemnity of it fell into the twenty-eighth year of Herod’s reign, and into the one hundred and ninety-second Olympiad. Accordingly, there was a great festival, and [the] most extravagant preparations were made for its dedication presently, for he had appointed a competition in music, and games to be performed naked. He had also gotten ready a great number of those that fight single combats, and of beasts for the same purpose; horse races also, and the most expensive of such sports and shows as used to be exhibited at Rome, and in other places. He consecrated this combat to Caesar and ordered it to be celebrated every fifth year. He also sent all sorts of ornaments for it out of his own furniture, so that it might lack nothing to make it decent; indeed, Julia, Caesar’s wife, sent a great part of her most valuable furniture [from Rome], insomuch that he had no need of anything. The sum of them all was estimated at five hundred talents. Now when a great multitude had come to that city to see the shows, as well as the ambassadors whom other people sent, on account of the benefits they had received from Herod, he entertained them all in the public inns, and at public tables, and with perpetual feasts; this solemnity having in the daytime the diversions of the fights, and in the nighttime such merry meetings as cost vast sums of money and publicly demonstrated the generosity of his soul; for in all his undertakings he was ambitious to exhibit what exceeded whatsoever had previously been done of the same kind. And it is related that Caesar and Agrippa often said that the dominions of Herod were too little for the greatness of his soul, for he deserved to have both all the kingdom of Syria, and that of Egypt also.

2. After this solemnity and these festivals were over, Herod erected another city in the plain called Capharsaba, where he selected a suitable place, both for [its] abundance of water and goodness of soil, and proper for the production of what was planted there, where a river surrounded the city itself, and a grove of the best trees for magnitude was around it: he named this Antipatris, from his father Antipater. He also built on another spot of ground above Jericho, of the same name with his mother, a place of great security and very pleasant for habitation and called it Cyprus. He also dedicated the finest monuments to his brother Phasaelus, on account of the great natural affection there had been between them, by erecting a tower in the city itself, not less than the tower of Pharos, which he named Phasaelus, which was at once a part of the strong defenses of the city and a memorial for him that was deceased, because it bore his name. He also built a city of the same name in the valley of Jericho, as you go northward from it, whereby he rendered the neighboring country more fruitful by the cultivation its inhabitants introduced; and this he also called Phasaelus.

3. But as for his other benefits, it is impossible to reckon them up, those which he bestowed on cities, both in Syria and in Greece, and in all the places he came to in his voyages; for he seems to have conferred—and that in a most abundant manner—what would minister to many needs and the building of public works, and gave them [as much] money that was necessary for such works as they wanted, to support them on the failure of their other revenues; but what was the greatest and most illustrious of all his works: he erected Apollo’s temple at Rhodes, at his own expenses, and gave them a great number of talents of silver for the repair of their fleet. He also built the greatest part of the public edifices for the inhabitants of Nicopolis, at Actium; and for the Antiochians, the inhabitants of the principal city of Syria, where a broad street cuts through the place lengthways, he built cloisters along it on both sides, and laid the open road with polished stone, and was of very great advantage to the inhabitants. And as for the Olympic games, which were in very poor condition, by reason of the failure of their revenues, he recovered their reputation, and appointed revenues for their maintenance, and made that solemn meeting more venerable, as to the sacrifices and other ornaments; and by reason of this vast liberality, he was generally declared in their inscriptions to be one of the perpetual managers of those games.

4. Now there are some who stand amazed at the diversity of Herod’s nature and purposes; for when we have respect for his magnificence and the benefits which he bestowed on all mankind, there is no possibility for even those that had the least respect for him to deny, or not openly to confess, that he had a vastly benevolent nature; but when anyone looks on the punishments he inflicted, and the injuries he did, not only to his subjects, but to his nearest relations, and takes notice of his severe and unrelenting disposition there, he will be forced to acknowledge that he was brutish and a stranger to all humanity, insomuch that these men suppose his nature to be different and sometimes at contradiction with itself; but I am myself of another opinion, and imagine that the occasion of both these sort of actions was one and the same: for being a man ambitious for honor and quite overcome by that passion, he was induced to be magnificent, wherever there appeared any hopes of a future memorial, or of reputation at present; and as his expenses were beyond his abilities, he was compelled to be harsh to his subjects; for the persons on whom he expended his money were so many that they made him a very bad procurer of it; and because he was conscious that he was hated by those under him, for the injuries he did them, he did not think it an easy thing to amend his offenses, for it was inconvenient for his revenue; he therefore strove on the other side to make their animosity an opportunity for his gains. As for his own court, therefore, if anyone was not very sycophantic toward him in his language, and would not confess himself to be his slave, or but seemed to think of any innovation in his government, he was unable to contain himself, but prosecuted his very relatives and friends and punished them as if they were enemies; and he undertook this wickedness out of a desire that he might be himself alone honored. Now for this, my assertion about that passion of his, we have the greatest evidence, by what he did to honor Caesar and Agrippa, and his other friends; for with what honors he paid his respects to them who were his superiors, the same did he desire to be paid to himself; and what he thought the most excellent present he could make another, he discovered an inclination to have the same presented to himself. But now the Jewish nation is by their law a stranger to all such things and accustomed to prefer righteousness to glory; for which reason that nation was not agreeable to him, because it was out of their power to flatter the king’s ambition with statues or temples, or any other such performances. And this seems to me to have been at once the occasion of Herod’s crimes as to his own courtiers and counselors, and of his benefactions as to foreigners and those that had no relation to him.

CHAPTER 6

An Envoy of the Jews in Cyrene and Asia to Caesar, Concerning the Complaints They Had to Make Against the Greeks; With Copies of the Letters Which Caesar and Agrippa Wrote to the Cities for Them.

1. Now the cities mistreated the Jews in Asia, and also all those of the same nation which lived in Libya, which joins to Cyrene, while the former kings had given them equal privileges with the other citizens; but the Greeks insulted them at this time, and that so far as to take away their sacred money and to cause them trouble on other particular occasions. Therefore, when they were thus afflicted and found no end of their barbaric treatment they met with among the Greeks, they sent ambassadors to Caesar on those accounts, who gave them the same privileges as they had before and sent letters to the same purpose to the governors of the provinces, copies of which I subjoin here, as testimonials of the ancient favorable disposition the Roman emperors had toward us.

2. “Caesar Augustus, high priest and tribune of the people, ordains this: since the nation of the Jews has been found grateful to the Roman people, not only at this time, but in times past also, and chiefly Hyrcanus the high priest, under my father Caesar the emperor, it seemed good to me and my counselors, according to the sentence and oath of the people of Rome, that the Jews have liberty to make use of their own customs, according to the Law of their forefathers, as they made use of them under Hyrcanus the high priest of the Almighty God; and that their sacred money be not touched, but be sent to Jerusalem, and that it be committed to the care of the receivers at Jerusalem; and that they are not obligated to go before any judge on the Sabbath day, nor on the day of the preparation to it, after the ninth hour. But if anyone is caught stealing their holy books, or their sacred money, whether it be out of the synagogue or public school, he will be deemed a sacrilegious person, and his goods will be brought into the public treasury of the Romans. And I give an order that the testimonial which they have given me, on account of my regard for that piety which I exercise toward all mankind, and out of regard for Gaius Marcus Censorinus, together with the present decree, be proposed in that most prominent place which has been consecrated to me by the community of Asia at Ancyra. And if anyone transgresses any part of what is above decreed, he will be severely punished.” This was inscribed on a pillar in the temple of Caesar.

3. “Caesar to Norbanus Flaccus: Greetings. Let those Jews, however many they may be, who have been accustomed, according to their ancient tradition, to send their sacred money to Jerusalem, do the same freely.” These were the decrees of Caesar.

4. Agrippa himself also wrote in the following manner, on behalf of the Jews: “Agrippa, to the magistrates, senate, and people of the Ephesians: Greetings. I will that the care and custody of the sacred money that is carried to the temple at Jerusalem be left to the Jews of Asia, to do with it according to their ancient custom; and that such as steal that sacred money of the Jews and flee to a sanctuary, will be taken from there and delivered to the Jews, by the same law that sacrilegious persons are taken from there. I have also written to Sylvanus the praetor, that no one may compel the Jews to come before a judge on the Sabbath day.”

5. “Marcus Agrippa to the magistrates, senate, and people of Cyrene: Greetings. The Jews of Cyrene have interceded with me for the performance of what Augustus sent orders about to Flavius, the praetor of Libya then, and to the other procurators of that province, that the sacred money may be sent to Jerusalem freely, as has been their custom from their forefathers, they complaining that they are abused by certain informers, and under pretense of taxes which were not due, are hindered from sending them, which I command to be restored without any reduction or disturbance given to them. And if any of that sacred money in the cities is taken from their proper receivers, I further order that the same be exactly returned to the Jews in that place.”

6. “Gaius Norbanus Flaccus, proconsul, to the magistrates of the Sardians: Greetings. Caesar has written to me and commanded me not to forbid the Jews, however many they may be, from assembling together according to the custom of their forefathers, nor from sending their money to Jerusalem. I have therefore written to you that you may know that both Caesar and I would have you act accordingly.”

7. Nor did Julius Antonius, the proconsul, write otherwise. “To the magistrates, senate, and people of the Ephesians: Greetings. As I was dispensing justice at Ephesus, on the Ides of February, the Jews that dwell in Asia demonstrated to me that Augustus and Agrippa had permitted them to use their own laws and customs, and to offer those their first-fruits, which every one of them freely offers to the Deity on account of piety, and to carry them in a company together to Jerusalem without disturbance. They also petitioned me that I would also confirm what had been granted by Augustus and Agrippa by my own sanction. I would therefore have you take notice that according to the will of Augustus and Agrippa, I permit them to use and do according to the customs of their forefathers without disturbance.”

8. I have been obligated to set down these decree because the present history of our own acts will generally go among the Greeks; and I have hereby demonstrated to them that we have formerly been in high regard and have not been prohibited by those governors we were under from keeping any of the laws of our forefathers—indeed, that we have been supported by them, while we followed our own religion and the worship we paid to God; and I frequently make mention of these decrees in order to reconcile other people to us and to take away the causes of that hatred which unreasonable men bear toward us. As for our customs, there is no nation which always makes use of the same, and in almost every city, we meet with them differently from one another; but natural justice is most agreeable to the advantage of all men equally, both Greeks and barbarians, to which our laws have the greatest regard, and thereby render us, if we abide in them in a pure manner, benevolent and friendly to all men; on which account we have reason to expect the same return from others and to inform them that they should not consider difference of positive institutions a sufficient cause for alienation, but [join with us in] the pursuit of virtue and integrity, for this belongs to all men in common, and of itself alone is sufficient for the preservation of human life. I now return to the thread of my history.

CHAPTER 7

How, on Herod’s Going down Into David’s Tomb, the Sedition in His Family Greatly Increased.

1. As for Herod, he had spent vast sums on the cities, both outside and inside his own kingdom; and as he had previously heard that Hyrcanus, who had been king before him, had opened David’s tomb and taken three thousand talents of silver out of it, and that there was a much greater number left behind, and indeed enough to satisfy all his wants, [for] a great while he had an intention to make the attempt; and at this time he opened that tomb by night, and went into it, and endeavored that it should not be known in the city at all, but took only his most faithful friends with him. As for any money, he found none, as Hyrcanus had done, but [only] that furniture of gold and those precious goods that were laid up there; all [of] which he took away. However, he had a great desire to make a more diligent search and to go farther in, even as far as the very bodies of David and Solomon, where two of his guards were slain by a flame that burst out on those that went in (as was the report). So, he was terribly frightened, and went out, and built a propitiatory monument of that fright he had been in—and this of white stone, at the mouth of the tomb, and that at great expense also. And even his historiographer Nicolaus makes mention of this monument built by Herod, though he does not mention his going down into the tomb, as knowing that action to be of ill repute; and he deals with many other things in the same manner in his book; for he wrote in Herod’s lifetime, and under his reign, and so as to please him, and as a servant to him, touching on nothing except what tended to his glory, and openly excusing many of his notorious crimes, and very diligently concealing them. And as he desired to put handsome colors on the death of Mariamne and her sons, which were barbaric actions by the king, he tells falsehoods about the licentiousness of Mariamne and the treacherous schemes of his sons against him; and thus he proceeded in his whole work, making a pompous tribute to what [supposed] just actions he had done, but earnestly apologizing for his unjust ones. Indeed, a man, as I said, may have a great deal to say by way of excuse for Nicolaus; for he did not so properly write this as a history for others, as something that might be subservient to the king himself. As for ourselves, who come from a family nearly allied to the Hasmonean kings, and on that account have an honorable place, which is the priesthood, we think it indecent to say anything that is false about them, and we have accordingly described their actions in an unblemished and upright manner. And although we revere many of Herod’s posterity who still reign, we still pay a greater regard to truth than to them, and this though it sometimes happens that we incur their displeasure by doing so.

2. And indeed, Herod’s troubles in his family seemed to be increased by reason of this attempt he made on David’s tomb—whether Divine vengeance increased the calamities he lay under in order to render them incurable, or whether fortune made an assault on him in those cases wherein the seasonableness of the cause made it strongly believed that the calamities came on him for his impiety; for the uproar was like a civil war in his palace, and their hatred toward one another was like that where each one strove to exceed another in defamations. However, Antipater perpetually used strategies against his brothers, and that very cunningly; while abroad he loaded them with accusations, but still took [it] on himself to frequently apologize for them, so that this apparent benevolence toward them might make him be believed and conceal his attempts against them; by which means he, after various manners, circumvented his father, who believed all that he did was for his preservation. Herod also recommended Ptolemy, who was a great director of the affairs of his kingdom, to Antipater; and he also consulted with his mother about the public affairs. And indeed, these were all in all, and did what they pleased, and made the king angry against any other persons, as they thought it might be to their own advantage; but the sons of Mariamne were still in a perpetually worse and worse condition; and while they were thrust out and set in a more dishonorable rank, who yet by birth were the most noble, they could not bear the dishonor. And for the women, Glaphyra, Alexander’s wife, the daughter of Archelaus, hated Salome, both because of her love for her husband, and because Glaphyra seemed to behave herself somewhat insolently toward Salome’s daughter, who was the wife of Aristobulus, which equality of hers to herself Glaphyra took very intolerantly.

3. Now, besides this second contention that had fallen among them, neither did the king’s brother Pheroras keep himself out of trouble, but had a particular foundation for suspicion and hatred; for he was [so] overcome with the charms of his wife to such a degree of madness that he despised the king’s daughter, to whom he had been betrothed, and wholly bent his mind to the other, who had only been a servant. Herod was also grieved by the dishonor that was done [to] him, because he had bestowed many favors on him, and had advanced him to that height of power that he was almost a partner with him in the kingdom, and saw that he had not made him a due return for his labors, and regarded himself unhappy on that account. So, on Pheroras’ unworthy refusal, he gave the girl to Phasaelus’ son; but after some time, when he thought the heat of his brother’s affections was over, he blamed him for his former conduct and desired him to take his second daughter, whose name was Cyprus. Ptolemy also advised him to cease offending his brother and to forsake her whom he had loved, because it was a dishonorable thing to be so enamored with a servant as to deprive himself of the king’s goodwill toward him, and become a source of his trouble, and make himself hated by him. Pheroras knew that this advice would be for his own advantage, particularly because he had been accused before and forgiven; so he put his wife away, although he already had a son by her, and pledged to the king that he would take his second daughter, and agreed that the thirtieth day after should be the day of marriage, and swore he would have no further conversation with her whom he had put away; but when the thirty days were over, he was such a slave to his affections, that he no longer performed anything he had promised, but still remained with his former wife. This caused Herod to grieve openly and made him angry, while the king perpetually dropped one word or another against Pheroras; and many made the king’s anger an opportunity for raising defamations against him. Nor did the king have a single quiet day or hour any longer, but occasions of one fresh quarrel or another arose among his relations and those that were dearest to him; for Salome was of a harsh temper and bad-natured toward Mariamne’s sons; nor would she allow her own daughter, who was the wife of Aristobulus, one of those young men, to bear a goodwill toward her husband, but persuaded her to tell her if he said anything to her in private, and when any misunderstandings occurred, as is common, she raised a great many suspicions out of it; by which means she learned all their concerns and made the girl bad-natured toward the young man. And in order to gratify her mother, she often said that the young men used to mention Mariamne when they were by themselves; and that they hated their father and were continually threatening that if they had once gotten the kingdom, they would make Herod’s sons by his other wives country schoolmasters, for the present education which was given them, and their diligence in learning, suited them for such an employment. And as for the women, whenever they saw them adorned with their mother’s clothes, they threatened that instead of their present gaudy apparel, they would be clothed in sackcloth and confined so closely that they would not see the light of the sun. These stories were presently carried by Salome to the king, who was troubled to hear them and endeavored to resolve matters; but these suspicions afflicted him, and becoming more and more uneasy, he believed everybody against everybody. However, on his rebuking his sons and hearing the defense they made for themselves, he was easier for a while, though much worse misfortunes came on him shortly afterward.

4. For Pheroras came to Alexander, the husband of Glaphyra, who was the daughter of Archelaus, as we have already told you, and said that he had heard from Salome that Herod was enamored with Glaphyra and that his passion for her was incurable. When Alexander heard that, he was completely enraged from his youth and jealousy; and he interpreted the instances of Herod’s obliging behavior toward her, which was very frequent, for the worse, which came from those suspicions he had on account of that word which fell from Pheroras; nor could he conceal his grief at the thing, but informed him what word Pheroras had said. On this, Herod was in a greater distress than ever; and not bearing such a false defamation, which was to his shame, was greatly disturbed about it; and he often lamented the wickedness of his household, and how good he had been to them, and how evil repayments they had made him. So he sent for Pheroras, and reproached him, and said, “You vilest of all men! Have you come to that unmeasurable and extravagant degree of ingratitude, so as not only to suppose such things of me, but to speak of them? Indeed, I now perceive what your [real] intentions are. It is not your only aim to reproach me, when you use such words to my son, but thereby to persuade him to plot against me and have me destroyed by poison. And who is there, if he did not have a good genius at his elbow, as my son has, but would not bear such a suspicion of his father, but would avenge himself on him? Do you suppose that you have merely dropped a word for him to contemplate, and have not rather put a sword into his hand to slay his father? And what do you mean, when you really hate both him and his brother, to fake kindness toward them only in order to raise a reproach against me and talk of such things as no one but such an impious wretch as you are could either devise in their mind or declare in their words? Be gone! You are such a plague to your benefactor and your brother; and may that evil conscience of yours go along with you, while I still overcome my relations by kindness and am so far from avenging myself on them, as they deserve, that I bestow greater benefits on them than they are worthy of.”

5. Thus the king spoke. Whereon Pheroras, who was caught in the very act of his villainy, said that “it was Salome who was the framer of this plot, and the words came from her.” But as soon as she heard that, for she was at hand, she cried out, like one that would be believed, that no such thing ever came out of her mouth; that they all earnestly endeavored to make the king hate her and to take her away, because of the goodwill she bore for Herod, and because she was always foreseeing the dangers that were coming on him, and that at present there were more plots against him than usual; for while she was the only person who persuaded her brother to put away the wife he now had and to take the king’s daughter, it was no wonder if she were hated by him. As she said this, and often tore her hair, and often beat her breast, her countenance made her denial to be believed; but the perverseness of her manners declared at the same time her pretense in these proceedings; but Pheroras was caught between them and had nothing plausible to offer in his own defense, while he confessed that he had said what was charged on him, but was not believed when he said he had heard it from Salome; so the confusion among them was increased, as well as their quarrelsome words toward one another. At last, the king, out of his hatred for his brother and sister, sent them both away; and when he had commended the moderation of his son, and that he had told him of the report himself, he went in the evening to refresh himself. After such a contest as this had happened among them, Salome’s reputation suffered greatly, since she was assumed to have first raised the defamation; and the king’s wives were grieved at her, as knowing she was a very bad-natured woman, and would sometimes be a friend, and sometimes an enemy, at different seasons: so they perpetually said one thing or another against her; and something that now happened made them bolder in speaking against her.

6. There was one Obodas, king of Arabia, an inactive and slothful man in his nature; but Sylleus managed most of his affairs for him. He was a shrewd man, although he was only young, and was handsome as well. This Sylleus, on a certain occasion coming to Herod and dining with him, saw Salome and set his heart on her; and understanding that she was a widow, he discoursed with her. Now because Salome was at this time less in favor with her brother, she looked on Sylleus with some passion and was very earnest to be married to him; and on the days following, there appeared many—and those very great—indications of their agreement together. Now the women carried this news to the king and laughed at the indecency of it, whereon Herod inquired about it further of Pheroras and desired him to observe them at supper, how their behavior was toward one another; who told him that by the signals which came from their heads and their eyes, they were both evidently in love. After this, Sylleus the Arabian being suspected, went away, but came again in two or three months afterward, as it was on that very plan, and spoke to Herod about it, and desired that Salome might be given [to] him for a wife; for his affinity might not be disadvantageous to his affairs by a union with Arabia, the government of which country was already effectively under his power, and more evidently would be his hereafter. Accordingly, when Herod discoursed with his sister about it and asked her whether she was disposed to this match, she immediately agreed to it. But when Sylleus was desired to come over to the Jewish religion, and then he should marry her, and that it was impossible to do it on any other terms, he could not bear that proposal and went his way; for he said that if he should do so, he would be stoned by the Arabs. Then Pheroras reproached Salome for her licentiousness, as did the women much more, and said that Sylleus had corrupted her. As for that girl which the king had betrothed to his brother Pheroras, but he had not taken her, as I have previously related, because he was enamored with his former wife, Salome desired of Herod [that] she might be given to her son by Costobarus; which match he was very willing to [make], but was dissuaded from it by Pheroras, who pleaded that this young man would not be kind to her, since his father had been slain by him, and that it was more just that his son, who was to be his successor in the tetrarchy, should have her. So he begged his pardon and persuaded him to do so. Accordingly, the girl, on this change of her espousals, was arranged to this young man, the son of Pheroras, the king giving one hundred talents for her portion.

CHAPTER 8

How Herod Took Alexander and Bound Him; Whom Archelaus, King of Cappadocia, Yet Reconciled to His Father Herod Again.

1. But the affairs of Herod’s family were still no better, but perpetually more troublesome. Now this misfortune happened, which arose from no decent occasion, but proceeded so far as to bring great difficulties on him. There were certain eunuchs which the king had, and on account of their beauty was very fond of them; and the care of bringing him drink was entrusted to one of them, of bringing him his supper to another, and of putting him to bed to the third, who also managed the principal affairs of the government; and someone told the king that these eunuchs were corrupted by the king’s son Alexander with great sums of money. And when they were asked whether Alexander had had criminal conversation with them, they confessed it, but said they knew of no further mischief of his against his father; but when they were more severely tortured, and were in the utmost limit, and the tormentors, out of compliance with Antipater, stretched the rack to the very greatest extent, they said that Alexander bore great animosity and innate hatred toward his father, and that he told them that Herod despaired to live much longer, and that, in order to cover his great age, he colored his hair black and endeavored to conceal what would reveal how old he was, but that if he would apply himself to him, when he should attain the kingdom, which, in spite of his father, could come to no one else, he would quickly have the first place in that kingdom under him, for he was now ready to take the kingdom, not only as his birthright, but by the preparations he had made for obtaining it, because a great many of the rulers, and a great many of his friends, were of his side—and those not bad men either—ready both to do and to suffer whatsoever should come on that account.

2. When Herod heard this confession, he was all over angry and fearful, some parts seeming to him reproachful, and some made him suspicious of dangers that attended him, insomuch that he was provoked and bitterly afraid on both accounts lest [perhaps] some heavier plot was laid against him than he should then be able to escape from; whereon he did not now make an open search, but sent spies around to watch such as he suspected, for he was now overrun with suspicion and hatred against all around him; and indulging an abundance of those suspicions for his [own] preservation, he continued to suspect those that were guiltless; nor did he set any limits on himself, but supposing that those who stayed with him had the most power to hurt him, they were very frightful to him; and for those that did not used to come to him, it seemed enough to name them [as suspects], and he thought himself safer when they were destroyed. And at last, his household had come to that point, that being [in] no way secured for escaping themselves, they fell to accusing one another and imagining that he who first accused another was most likely to save himself; yet when any had overthrown others, they were hated; and they were thought to suffer justly who unjustly accused others, and they only thereby prevented their own accusation; indeed, they now executed their own private hostilities by this means, and when they were caught, they were punished in the same way. Thus these men schemed to make use of this opportunity as an instrument and a snare against their enemies, yet when they tried it, were themselves also caught in the same snare which they laid for others. And the king soon regretted what he had done, because he had no clear evidence of the guilt of those whom he had slain; and yet what was still more severe to him: he did not make use of his conversion in order to cease doing the same again, but in order to inflict the same punishment on their accusers.

3. And the affairs of the palace were in this state of chaos; and he had already told many of his friends directly that they should not appear before him, nor come into the palace; and the reason of this instruction was that [when they were there], he had less freedom of acting or greater restraint on himself on their account; for it was at this time that he expelled Andromachus and Gemellus, men who had long been his friends, and been very useful to him in the affairs of his kingdom, and been of advantage to his family by their envoys and counsels, and had been tutors to his sons, and had the first degree of freedom with him in a way. He expelled Andromachus, because his son Demetrius was a companion to Alexander; and Gemellus, because he knew that he wished him well, which arose from his having been with him in his youth, when he was at school, and absent at Rome. These he expelled out of his palace and was willing enough to have done worse by them; but that he might not seem to take such liberty against men of such great reputation, he satisfied himself with depriving them of their dignity and of their power to hinder his wicked practices.

4. Now it was Antipater who was the cause of all this, who when he knew what a mad and licentious way of acting his father was in and had been one of his counselors [for] a great while, he goaded him on and then thought he could bring him to do something on purpose, when everyone that could oppose him was taken away. Therefore, when Andromachus and his friends were driven away and no longer had any discourse nor freedom with the king, the king, in the first place, examined by torture all whom he thought to be faithful to Alexander, whether they knew of any of his attempts against him; but these died without having anything to say on that matter, which made the king more zealous when he could not find out what evil practices he suspected them of. As for Antipater, he was very cunning to raise a defamation against those that were really innocent, as if their denial was only their constancy and fidelity [to Alexander], and therefore provoked Herod to discover by the torture of great numbers what attempts were still concealed. Now there was a certain person among the many that were tortured, who said that he knew that the young man had often said that when he was commended as a tall man in his body, and a skillful marksman, and that in his other commendable exercises he exceeded all men, these qualifications given him by nature, though good in themselves, were not advantageous to him, because his father was grieved at them and envied him for them; and that when he walked along with his father, he endeavored to depress and shorten himself, so that he might not appear too tall; and that when he shot at anything as he was hunting, when his father was by, he missed his mark on purpose, for he knew how ambitious his father was of being superior in such exercises. So when the man was tormented about this discourse and had relief given [to] his body after it, he added that he had his brother Aristobulus for his aide and plotted to lie in wait for their father, while they were hunting, and kill him; and when they had done so, to flee to Rome and desire to have the kingdom given [to] them. There were also letters of the young man found, written to his brother, wherein he complained that his father did not act justly in giving Antipater a country, whose [yearly] revenues amounted to two hundred talents. On these confessions, Herod presently thought he had something to depend on, in his own opinion, as to his suspicion about his sons; so he took Alexander and bound him, yet he still continued to be uneasy and was not quite satisfied with the truth of what he had heard; and when he came to ponder within himself, he found that they had only made juvenile complaints and contentions, and that it was an incredible thing that when his son should have slain him, he should openly go to Rome [to beg for the kingdom]; so he desired to have some surer mark of his son’s wickedness, and was very attentive about it, so that he might not appear to have condemned him to be put in prison too rashly; so he tortured the principal ones among Alexander’s friends and put not a few of them to death without getting any of the things out of them which he suspected. And while Herod was very busy concerning this matter, and the palace was full of terror and trouble, one of the younger sort, when he was in the greatest agony, confessed that Alexander had sent to his friends at Rome and desired that he might be quickly invited there by Caesar, and that he could reveal a plot against him: that Mithridates, the king of Parthia, was joined in friendship with his father against the Romans, and that he had a poisonous potion already prepared at Ashkelon.

5. Herod gave credit to these accusations, and enjoyed hereby, in his miserable case, some sort of consolation, in excuse of his rashness, as flattering himself with finding things in such a bad condition; but as for the poisonous potion, which he labored to find, he could find none. As for Alexander, he was very desirous to aggravate the vast misfortunes he was under, so he pretended not to deny the accusations, but punished the rashness of his father with a greater crime of his own; and perhaps he was willing to make his father ashamed of his easy belief of such defamations: he aimed especially, if he could gain belief to his story, to plague him and his whole kingdom, for he wrote four letters and sent them to him, that he did not need to torture anymore persons, for he had plotted against him; and that he had for his partners Pheroras and the most faithful of his friends; and that Salome came in to him by night, and that she lay with him whether he was willing or not; and that all men had come to be of one mind, to make away with him as soon as they could, and so get clear of the continual fear they were in from him. Among these, Ptolemy and Sapinnius, who were the most faithful friends to the king, were accused. And what more can be said, but that those who were previously the most intimate friends, had become wild beasts to one another, as if a certain madness had fallen on them, while there was no room for defense or refutation for the discovery of the truth, but all were randomly doomed to destruction, so that some lamented those that were in prison, some those that were put to death, and others lamented that they were in expectation of the same miseries; and a melancholy solitude rendered the kingdom deformed and quite the reverse of that fortunate state it was formerly in. Herod’s own life was also entirely disturbed; and because he could trust nobody, he was severely punished by the expectation of further misery, for he often pictured in his [own] imagination that his son had fallen on him, or stood by him with a sword in his hand; and thus his mind was intent on this thing night and day and revolved it over and over, and not different than if he were under a distraction. And this was the sad condition Herod was now in.

6. But when Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, heard of the state that Herod was in, and being in great distress about his daughter and the young man [(her husband)], and grieving with Herod, as with a man that was his friend, on account of such a great disturbance as he was under, he came [to Jerusalem] on purpose to settle their differences; and when he found Herod in such a temper, he thought it wholly untimely to reprove him, or to pretend that he had done anything rashly, for he should thereby naturally bring him to dispute the point with him, and by still more and more apologizing for himself to be [all] the more irritated: he therefore went to work another way, in order to correct the former misfortunes, and appeared angry at the young man, and said that Herod had been such a very mild man, that he had not acted rashly at all. He also said he would dissolve his daughter’s marriage with Alexander, nor could he justly spare his own daughter if she were conscious of anything and did not inform Herod of it. When Archelaus appeared to be of this temper, and different than Herod expected or imagined, and largely took Herod’s side, and was angry on his account, the king abated of his harshness, and took [the] opportunity from his appearing to have acted justly thus far, to somewhat come to put on the affection of a father and was to be pitied on both sides; for when certain persons refuted the defamations that were laid on the young man, he was thrown into a rage, but when Archelaus joined in the accusation, he was dissolved into tears and sorrow in an affectionate manner. Accordingly, he desired that he would not dissolve his son’s marriage and did not become as angry as before for his offenses. So, when Archelaus had brought him to a more moderate temper, he transferred the defamations on his friends; and he said it must be owing to them that such a young man, and one unacquainted with malice, was corrupted; and he supposed that there was more reason to suspect the brother than the son. On this, Herod was very greatly displeased with Pheroras, who indeed now had no one that could make reconciliation between him and his brother. So, when he saw that Archelaus had the greatest power with Herod, he committed himself to him in the attire of a mourner and like one that had all the signs on him of a defeated man. On this, Archelaus did not overlook the intercession he made to him, nor did he yet undertake to change the king’s disposition toward him immediately; and he said that it was better for him to come to the king himself and confess himself [to be] the cause of everything—that this would make the king’s anger not be excessive toward him, and that he would then be present to assist him. When he had persuaded him to this, he gained his point with both of them; and the defamations raised against the young man were, beyond all expectation, wiped away. And Archelaus, as soon as he had made the reconciliation, then departed to Cappadocia, having proven at this juncture of time [to be] the most acceptable person to Herod in the world; on which account he gave him the richest presents, as tokens of his respect for him; and being generous on other occasions, he regarded him [as] one of his dearest friends. He also made an agreement with him that he would go to Rome, because he had written to Caesar about these affairs; so they went together as far as Antioch, and there Herod made reconciliation between Archelaus and Titus, the president of Syria, who had been greatly in conflict, and so returned back to Judea.

CHAPTER 9

Concerning the Revolt of the Trachonites; How Sylleus Accused Herod Before Caesar; And How Herod, When Caesar Was Angry at Him, Resolved to Send Nicolaus to Rome.

1. When Herod had been at Rome and had come back again, a war arose between him and the Arabians, on the following occasion: the inhabitants of Trachonitis, after Caesar had taken the country away from Zenodorus and added it to Herod, no longer had power to rob, but were forced to plow the land and to live quietly, which was a thing they did not like; and when they did make those efforts, the ground did not produce much fruit for them. However, at first the king would not permit them to rob, and so they abstained from that unjust way of living on their neighbors, which procured Herod a great reputation for his care. But when he was sailing to Rome, it was at that time when he went to accuse his son Alexander and to commit Antipater to Caesar’s protection, the Trachonites spread a report as if he were dead, and revolted from his dominion, and committed themselves to their accustomed way of robbing their neighbors again; at which time the king’s commanders subdued them during his absence; but about forty of the principal robbers, being terrified by those that had been taken, left the country and retreated into Arabia, Sylleus entertaining them, after he had failed in marrying Salome; and he gave them a fortified place in which they dwelt. So, they overran not only Judea, but all Coele-Syria also, and carried off the prey, while Sylleus provided them places of protection and quietness during their wicked practices. But when Herod came back from Rome, he perceived that his dominions had greatly suffered by them; and since he could not reach the robbers themselves, because of the secure retreat they had in that country and which the Arabian government provided them, and yet being very troubled by the injuries they had done [to] him, he went all over Trachonitis and slew their relations, whereon these robbers were more angry than before—it being a law among them to be avenged on the murderers of their relations by all possible means; so they continued to tear and rend everything under Herod’s dominion with impunity. Then he discoursed about these robberies to Saturninus and Volumnius, and required that they should be punished; on which occasion they all the more confirmed themselves in their robberies, and became more numerous, and made very great disturbances, laying waste the countries and villages that belonged to Herod’s kingdom, and killing those men whom they caught, until these unjust proceedings came to be like a real war, for the robbers had now become about one thousand. At this, Herod was severely displeased, and required the robbers, as well as the money which he had lent Obodas, by Sylleus, which was sixty talents, and since the time of payment was now past, he desired to have it [all] paid [to] him; but Sylleus, who had laid Obodas aside and managed everything by himself, denied that the robbers were in Arabia and put off the payment of the money, regarding which there was a hearing before Saturninus and Volumnius, who were then the presidents of Syria. Finally, he, by their means, agreed that within thirty days’ time Herod should be repaid his money, and that each of them should deliver up the other’s subjects reciprocally. Now, as for Herod, there was not one of the other’s subjects found in his kingdom, either as doing any injustice, or on any other account, but it was proven that the Arabians had the robbers among them.

2. When this day appointed for payment of the money was past, without Sylleus’ performing any part of his agreement, and he had gone to Rome, Herod demanded the payment of the money, and that the robbers that were in Arabia should be delivered up; and, by the permission of Saturninus and Volumnius, executed the judgment himself on those that were obstinate. He took an army that he had, and let it into Arabia, and in three days’ time marched [as far as] seven stations; and when he came to the garrison wherein the robbers were, he made an assault on them, and took them all, and demolished the place, which was called Raepta, but did no harm to any others. But as the Arabians came to their assistance under their captain Naceb, a battle ensued wherein a few of Herod’s soldiers, and Naceb, the captain of the Arabians, and about twenty of his soldiers, fell, while the rest committed themselves to flight. So, when he had brought these to punishment, he placed three thousand Idumeans in Trachonitis and thereby restrained the robbers that were there. He also sent an account to the captains that were around Phoenicia and demonstrated that he had done nothing except what he ought to do in punishing the obstinate Arabians, which, on an exact inquiry, they found to be no more than what was true.

3. However, messengers hurried away to Sylleus at Rome, and informed him what had been done, and, as is usual, aggravated everything. Now Sylleus had already ingratiated himself into the knowledge of Caesar and was then around the palace; and as soon as he heard of these things, he changed his attire into black, and went in, and told Caesar that Arabia was afflicted with war, and that all his kingdom was in great confusion on Herod’s laying it waste with his army; and he said, with tears in his eyes, that two thousand five hundred of the principal men among the Arabians had been destroyed, and that their captain Nacebus, his familiar friend and countryman, was slain; and that the riches that were at Raepta were carried off; and that Obodas was despised, whose ailing state of body rendered him unfit for war; on which account neither he, nor the Arabian army, were present. When Sylleus said so, and added resentfully that he would not himself have come out of the country unless he had believed that Caesar would have provided that they would all have peace with one another, and that, had he been there, he would have taken care that the war would not have been to Herod’s advantage, Caesar was provoked when this was said and asked no more than this one question, both of Herod’s friends that were there, and of his own friends who had come from Syria: whether Herod had led an army there. And when they were forced to confess this much, Caesar, without staying to hear for what reason he did it and how it was done, grew very angry and wrote to Herod sharply. The sum of his letter was this: that whereas he had long used him as his friend, he would now use him as his subject. Sylleus also wrote an account of this to the Arabians, who were so elevated with it that they neither delivered up the robbers that had fled to them, nor paid the money that was due; they also retained those pastures which they had hired and kept them without paying their rent, and all this because the king of the Jews was now in a low state by reason of Caesar’s anger at him. Those of Trachonitis also made use of this opportunity, and rose up against the Idumean garrison, and followed the same way of robbing with the Arabians who had pillaged their country, and were more rigid in their unjust proceedings, not only in order to get by it, but by way of revenge also.

4. Now Herod was forced to endure all this, that confidence of his being completely gone with which Caesar’s favor used to inspire him; for Caesar would not admit so much as an envoy from him to make an apology for him; and when they came again, he sent them away without success. So, he was cast into despair and fear; and Sylleus’ circumstances exceedingly grieved him—[Sylleus] who was now believed by Caesar, and was present at Rome, indeed, sometimes aspiring higher. Now it came to pass that Obodas was dead; and Aeneas, whose name was afterward changed to Aretas, took the government, for Sylleus endeavored by defamations to get him forced out of his principality, so that he might take it himself; with which scheme he gave much money to the courtiers, and promised much money to Caesar, who was indeed angry that Aretas had not sent to him first before he took the kingdom; yet Aeneas sent a letter and presents to Caesar, and a golden crown, of the weight of many talents. Now that letter accused Sylleus as having been a wicked servant and having killed Obodas by poison; and that while he was alive, he had governed him as he pleased, and had also corrupted the wives of the Arabians, and had borrowed money in order to obtain the dominion for himself: yet Caesar did not listen to these accusations, but sent his ambassadors back without receiving any of his presents. But in the meantime, the affairs of Judea and Arabia became worse and worse, partly because of the anarchy they were under, and partly because, as bad as they were, nobody had power to govern them; for of the two kings, one was not yet confirmed in his kingdom and so had no sufficient authority to restrain the evildoers; and as for Herod, Caesar was immediately angry at him for having avenged himself, and so he was compelled to bear all the injuries that were offered him. Finally, when he saw no end to the trouble which surrounded him, he resolved to send ambassadors to Rome again, to see whether his friends had prevailed to mitigate Caesar and to address themselves to Caesar himself; and the ambassador he sent there was Nicolaus of Damascus.

CHAPTER 10

How Eurycles Falsely Accused Herod’s Sons; And How Their Father Bound Them and Wrote to Caesar About Them. Of Sylleus and How He Was Accused by Nicolaus.

1. The disturbances around Herod’s family and children about this time grew much worse; for it now appeared certain, nor was it unforeseen beforehand, that fortune threatened the greatest and most unsupportable misfortunes possible to his kingdom. Its progress and worsening at this time arose on the following occasion: one Eurycles, a Lacedemonian (a person of note there, but a man of a perverse mind, and so cunning in his ways of voluptuousness and flattery, as to indulge both, and yet seem to indulge neither of them), came in his travels to Herod and made him presents, but so that he received more presents from him. He also took such proper seasons for insinuating himself into his friendship, that he became one of the most intimate of the king’s friends. He had his lodging in Antipater’s house, but he not only had access, but free conversation with Alexander, as pretending to him that he was in great favor with Archelaus, the king of Cappadocia; from which he feigned much respect for Glaphyra, and in a veiled manner, cultivated a friendship with them all, but always attending to what was said and done, so that he might be furnished with defamations to please them all. In short, he behaved himself in such a way to everybody in his conversation, so as to appear to be his particular friend, and he made others believe that his being anywhere was for that person’s advantage. So he won over Alexander, who was but young, and persuaded him that he might open his grievances to him with assurance and with nobody else. So he declared his grief to him, how his father was alienated from him. He also related to him the affairs of his mother and of Antipater, that he had driven them from their proper dignity and had the power over everything himself; that no part of this was tolerable, since his father had already come to hate them; and he added that he would neither admit them to his table, nor to his conversation. Such were the complaints, as was only natural, of Alexander concerning the things that troubled him; and Eurycles carried these discourses to Antipater and told him he did not inform him of this on his own account, but that being overcome by his kindness, the great importance of the thing compelled him to do it; and he warned him to have concern for Alexander, because what he said was spoken with vehemency, and that, in consequence of what he said, he would certainly kill him with his own hand. Whereon Antipater, thinking him to be his friend by this advice, gave him presents on all occasions and finally persuaded him to inform Herod of what he had heard. So when he related to the king Alexander’s bad temper, as discovered by the words he had heard him speak, he was easily believed by him; and he thereby brought the king to that point, turning him around by his words and irritating him until he increased his hatred toward him and made him implacable, which he showed at that very time, for he immediately gave Eurycles a present of fifty talents; who, when he had gotten them, went to Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and commended Alexander before him and told him that he had been an advantage to him [in] many ways, in making reconciliation between him and his father. So, he also obtained money from him and went away before his wicked practices were discovered; but when Eurycles had returned to Lacedemon, he did not cease causing trouble; and so, for his many acts of injustice, he was banished from his own country.

2. But as for the king of the Jews, he was no longer in the temper he was formerly in toward Alexander and Aristobulus, when he had been content with hearing their defamations when others told him of them; but he had now come to that point, so as to hate them himself and to urge men to speak against them, although they did not do it of themselves. He also observed all that was said, and put forth questions, and gave ear to everyone that would but speak, if they could but say anything against them, until finally he heard that Euaratus of Cos was a conspirator with Alexander, which thing was the most agreeable and sweetest news imaginable to Herod.

3. But still a greater misfortune came on the young men, while the defamations against them were continually increased, and, as a man might say, one would think it was everyone’s endeavor to lay some grievous thing to their charge, which might appear to be for the king’s preservation. There were two of Herod’s bodyguards who were in high regard for their strength and height: Jucundus and Tyrannus; these men had been cast off by Herod, who was displeased at them; these now used to ride along with Alexander, and for their skill in their abilities, were in high regard with him and had some gold and other gifts bestowed on them. Now the king having an immediate suspicion of those men, had them tortured, who endured the torture courageously for a long time, but finally confessed that Alexander would have persuaded them to kill Herod when he was in pursuit of the wild beasts, so that it might be said he fell from his horse and was run through with his own spear, because he once had such a misfortune formerly. They also showed where there was money hidden in the stable underground; and these convicted the king’s chief hunter, that he had given the young men the royal hunting spears and weapons to Alexander’s dependents, at Alexander’s command.

4. After these, the commander of the garrison of Alexandrium was caught and tortured, for he was accused to have promised to receive the young men into his fortress and to supply them with that money of the king’s which was laid up in that fortress, yet he did not acknowledge anything of it himself; but his son came in, and said it was so, and delivered up the writing, which, as far as could be guessed, was in Alexander’s hand. Its contents were these: “When we have finished, by God’s help, all that we have proposed to do, we will come to you; but carry out your plans, as you have promised, to receive us into your fortress.” After this writing was produced, Herod had no doubt about the treacherous schemes of his sons against him. But Alexander said that the scribe Diophantus had imitated his hand, and that the paper was maliciously drawn up by Antipater; for Diophantus appeared to be very cunning in such practices; and as he was afterward convicted of forging other papers, he was put to death for it.

5. So the king produced those that had been tortured before the multitude at Jericho, in order to have them accuse the young men, which accusers many of the people stoned to death; and when they were going to likewise kill Alexander and Aristobulus, the king would not permit them to do so, but restrained the multitude, by means of Ptolemy and Pheroras. However, the young men were put under a guard and kept in custody, so that nobody might come against them; and all that they did or said was watched, and the reproach and fear they were in was little if anything different from those of condemned criminals: and one of them, who was Aristobulus, was so deeply affected that he brought Salome, who was his aunt, and his mother-in-law, to lament with him for his calamities and to hate him who had allowed things to come to that point; when he said to her, “Are you not also in danger of destruction, while the report goes that you had disclosed beforehand all our affairs to Sylleus, when you were hopeful of being married to him?” But she immediately carried these words to her brother. On this, he was out of patience, and gave command to bind him, and ordered them both, now [that] they were kept separate from one another, to write down the bad things they had done against their father and bring the writings to him. So, when this was ordered them, they wrote this: that they had arranged no treacherous schemes, nor made any preparations against their father, but that they had intended to flee away—and that because of the distress they were in, their lives now being uncertain and tedious to them.

6. About this time, an ambassador came out of Cappadocia from Archelaus, whose name was Melas; he was one of the principal rulers under him. So Herod, being desirous to show Archelaus’ animosity toward him, called for Alexander, as he was in his bonds, and asked him again concerning his flight, whether and how they had resolved to escape. Alexander replied, “To Archelaus,” who had promised to send them away to Rome; but that they had no wicked nor mischievous schemes against their father, and that nothing of that nature which their adversaries had charged on them was true; and that their desire was that he might have examined Tyrannus and Jucundus more strictly, but that they had suddenly been slain by means of Antipater, who put his own friends among the multitude [for that purpose].

7. When this was said, Herod commanded that both Alexander and Melas should be carried to Glaphyra, Archelaus’ daughter, and that she should be asked whether she did not know something about Alexander’s treacherous schemes against Herod. Now as soon as they had come to her, and she saw Alexander in bonds, she beat her head and in a great consternation, gave a deep and moving groan. The young man also fell into tears. This was so miserable a spectacle to those present, that, for a great while, they were unable to say or do anything; but finally Ptolemy, who was ordered to bring Alexander, commanded him to say whether his wife was conscious of his actions. He replied, “How is it possible that she, whom I love better than my own soul, and by whom I have had children, should not know what I do?” On this, she cried out that she knew of no wicked schemes of his; but that yet, if her accusing herself falsely would tend to his preservation, she would confess it all. Alexander replied, “There is no such wickedness as those suspect, who ought the least of all to do so, which either I have imagined, or you know of, but this only: that we had resolved to escape to Archelaus, and from there to Rome.” She also confessed this. On which Herod, supposing that Archelaus’ animosity toward him was fully proved, sent a letter by Olympus and Volumnius, and commanded them, as they sailed by, to touch at Eleusa of Cilicia and give Archelaus the letter. And that when they had argued with him that he had a hand in his son’s treacherous scheme against him, they should from there sail to Rome; and that, in case they found Nicolaus had gained any ground, and that Caesar was no longer displeased with him, he should give him his letters and the proofs which he had prepared to show against the young men. As for Archelaus, he made his defense for himself, that he had promised to receive the young men, because it was both for their own and their father’s advantage to do so, lest some overly severe procedure should be done in that anger and disorder they were in on account of the present suspicions; but that he still had not promised to send them to Caesar; and that he had not promised anything else to the young men that could show any animosity toward him.

8. When these ambassadors had come to Rome, they had a suitable opportunity of delivering their letters to Caesar, because they found him reconciled to Herod; for the circumstances of Nicolaus’ envoy had been as follows: as soon as he had come to Rome and was around the court, he did not first of all set about what he had come for only, but he also thought [it] fitting to accuse Sylleus. Now the Arabians, even before he came to talk with them, were quarrelling with one another; and some of them left Sylleus’ party, and joining themselves to Nicolaus, informed him of all the wicked things that had been done and produced to him evident demonstrations of the slaughter of a great number of Obodas’ friends by Sylleus; for when these men left Sylleus, they had carried off with them those letters whereby they could convict him. When Nicolaus saw such an opportunity provided [to] him, he made use of it in order to gain his own point afterward and immediately endeavored to make reconciliation between Caesar and Herod; for he was fully satisfied that if he should desire to make a defense for Herod directly, he would not be allowed that liberty; but that if he desired to accuse Sylleus, an opportunity would present itself for speaking on Herod’s behalf. So when the cause was ready for a hearing, and the day was appointed, Nicolaus, while Aretas’ ambassadors were present, accused Sylleus and said that he imputed to him the destruction of the king [(Obodas)], and of many others of the Arabians; that he had borrowed money for no good purpose; and he proved that he had been guilty of adultery, not only with the Arabian, but Roman women also. And he added that above all the rest, he had alienated Caesar from Herod, and that all that he had said about the actions of Herod were lies. When Nicolaus had come to this topic, Caesar stopped him from going on and desired him only to speak to this affair of Herod and to show that he had not led an army into Arabia, nor slain two thousand five hundred men there, nor taken prisoners, nor pillaged the country. To which Nicolaus made this answer: “I will principally demonstrate that either nothing at all, or but a very little, of those imputations are true, of which you have been informed; for had they been true, you might justly have been even angrier at Herod.” At this strange assertion, Caesar was very attentive; and Nicolaus said that there was a debt due to Herod of five hundred talents, and a bond, wherein it was written that if the time appointed had lapsed, it should be lawful to make a seizure out of any part of his country. “As for the pretended army,” he said, “it was no army, but a party sent out to require the just payment of the money; that this was not sent immediately, nor so soon as the bond allowed, but that Sylleus had frequently come before Saturninus and Volumnius, the presidents of Syria; and that he had finally sworn at Berytus, by your fortune, that he would certainly pay the money within thirty days and deliver up the fugitives that were under his dominion. And that when Sylleus had performed nothing of this, Herod came again before the presidents; and on their permission to make a seizure for his money, he, with difficulty, went out of his country with a party of soldiers for that purpose. And this is all the war which these men so tragically describe; and this is the affair of the expedition into Arabia. And how can this be called a war, when your presidents permitted it, the covenants allowed it, and it was not executed until your name, O Caesar, as well as that of the other gods, had been profaned? And I must now speak in order about the captives. There were robbers that dwelt in Trachonitis; at first their number was no more than forty, but they became more afterward, and they escaped the punishment Herod would have inflicted on them by making Arabia their refuge. Sylleus received them, and supported them with food, so that they might be mischievous to all mankind, and gave them a country to inhabit, and received the gains they made by robbery himself; yet he promised that he would deliver these men up—and that by the same oaths and same time that he swore and fixed for payment of his debt: nor can he by any means show that any other persons have at this time been taken out of Arabia besides these, and indeed, not all [of] these either, but only as many as could not conceal themselves. And thus, the defamation of the captives, which has been so odiously represented, appears to be no better than a fiction and a lie, made on purpose to provoke your indignation; for I venture to affirm that when the forces of the Arabians came on us, and one or two of Herod’s party fell, he then only defended himself, and their general, Nacebus, fell, and in all about twenty-five others, and no more; from which Sylleus, by multiplying every single soldier to one hundred, he reckons the slain to have been two thousand five hundred.”

9. This provoked Caesar more than ever. So, he turned to Sylleus full of rage and asked him how many of the Arabians were slain. Hereon he hesitated and said he had been imposed on. The covenants were also read concerning the money he had borrowed, and the letters of the presidents of Syria, and the complaints of the various cities, so many as had been injured by the robbers. The conclusion was this: that Sylleus was condemned to die, and that Caesar was reconciled to Herod and acknowledged his change of mind for what severe things he had written to him, caused by defamation, insomuch that he told Sylleus that he had compelled him, by his lying account of things, to be guilty of ingratitude against a man that was his friend. In the end, everything came to this: Sylleus was sent away to answer Herod’s suit, and to repay the debt that he owed, and after that, to be punished [with death]. But Caesar was still offended with Aretas, that he had taken the government on himself without first obtaining his consent, for he had determined to bestow Arabia on Herod; but that the letters he had sent hindered him from doing so; for Olympus and Volumnius, perceiving that Caesar had now become favorable to Herod, thought fitting to immediately deliver him the letters they were commanded by Herod to give him concerning his sons. When Caesar had read them, he thought it would not be proper to add another government to him, now [that] he was old and in a poor state with relation to his sons, so he admitted Aretas’ ambassadors; and after he had just reproved him for his rashness in not tarrying until he received the kingdom from him, he accepted his presents and confirmed him in his government.

CHAPTER 11

How Herod, by Permission from Caesar, Accused His Sons Before an Assembly of Judges at Berytus; And What Tero Suffered for Using a Boundless and Military Liberty of Speech. Also Concerning the Death of the Young Men and Their Burial at Alexandrium.

1. So Caesar was now reconciled to Herod and wrote this to him: that he was grieved for him on account of his sons; and that in case they had been guilty of any profane and insolent crimes against him, it would be incumbent on him to punish them as parricides, for which he gave him power accordingly; but if they had only planned to flee away, he would have him give them an admonition and not proceed to severity with them. He also advised him to gather an assembly together, and to appoint some place near Berytus, which is a city belonging to the Romans, and to take the presidents of Syria, and Archelaus king of Cappadocia, and as many more as he thought to be illustrious for their friendship to him, and the dignities they were in, and determine what should be done by their approval. These were the directions that Caesar gave him. Accordingly, Herod, when the letter was brought to him, was immediately very glad of Caesar’s reconciliation to him, and also very glad that he had complete authority given [to] him over his sons. And it strangely came about that whereas before, in his adversity, although he had indeed shown himself [to be] severe, yet he had not been very rash nor hasty in procuring the destruction of his sons; he now, in his prosperity, took advantage of this change for the better, and the freedom he now had, to exercise his hatred against them in an unheard of manner; therefore, he sent for and called as many as he thought suitable to this assembly, excepting Archelaus; for as to him, he either hated him, so that he would not invite him, or he thought he would be an obstacle to his plans.

2. When the presidents, and the rest that belonged to the cities, had come to Berytus, he kept his sons in a certain village belonging to Sidon, called Platana, but near to this city, so that if they were called, he might produce them, for he did not think [it] right to bring them before the assembly: and when there were one hundred and fifty assessors present, Herod came by himself alone, and accused his sons, and that in such a way as if it were not a melancholy accusation, and not made but out of necessity, and on the misfortunes he was under; indeed, in such a way as was very indecent for a father to accuse his sons, for he was very vehement and disordered when he came to the demonstration of the crime they were accused of and gave the greatest signs of passion and barbarity: nor would he allow the assessors to consider the weight of the evidence, but asserted them to be true by his own authority, in a manner most indecent in a father against his sons, and read himself what they themselves had written, wherein there was no confession of any plots or schemes against him, but only how they had planned to flee away, and containing, additionally, certain reproaches against him, on account of the animosity he bore them; and when he came to those reproaches, he cried out most of all, and exaggerated what they had said as if they had confessed the scheme against him, and took his oath that he would rather lose his life than hear such reproachful words. At last, he said that he had sufficient authority, both by nature and by Caesar’s grant to him, [to do what he thought right]. He also added an allegation of a law of their country, which ordered this: that if parents laid their hands on the head of him that was accused, the bystanders were obligated to cast stones at him and to thereby slay him, which although he were ready to do so in his own country and kingdom, yet he waited for their determination; and yet they came there not so much as judges to condemn them for such manifest schemes against him, whereby he had almost perished by his sons’ means, but as persons that had an opportunity of showing their detestation of such practices and declaring how unworthy a thing it must be in any [situation], even the most remote, to pass over such treacherous designs [without punishment].

3. When the king had said this, and the young men had not been produced to make any defense for themselves, the assessors perceived there was no room for equity and reconciliation, so they confirmed his authority. And in the first place, Saturninus, a person that had been consul, and one of great dignity, pronounced his sentence, but with great moderation and trouble; and he said that he condemned Herod’s sons, but did not think they should be put to death. He had sons of his own, and to put one’s son to death is a greater misfortune than any other that could happen to him by their means. After him, Saturninus’ sons—for he had three sons that followed him and were his legates—pronounced the same sentence with their father. On the contrary, Volumnius’ sentence was to inflict death on such as had been so impiously undutiful to their father; and the greatest part of the rest said the same, insomuch that the conclusion seemed to be that the young men were condemned to die. Immediately after this, Herod came away from there and took his sons to Tyre, where Nicolaus met him in his voyage from Rome; of whom he inquired, after he had related to him what had passed at Berytus, what his sentiments were about his sons, and what his friends at Rome thought of that matter. His answer was, “That what they had determined to do to you was impious, and that you ought to keep them in prison; and if you think anything [is] further necessary, you may indeed so punish them, so that you may not appear to indulge your anger more than to govern yourself by judgment; but if you incline to the milder side, you may absolve them, lest perhaps your misfortunes are rendered incurable; and this is the opinion of the greatest part of your friends at Rome also.” Whereon Herod was silent, and in great thoughtfulness, and commanded Nicolaus to sail along with him.

4. Now as they came to Caesarea, everybody there was talking about Herod’s sons, and the kingdom was in suspense, and the people in great expectation of what would become of them; for a terrible fear seized all men, lest the ancient disturbances of the family should come to a miserable conclusion, and they were in great consternation concerning their sufferings; nor was it without danger to say any rash thing about this matter, nor even to hear another saying it, but men’s pity was forced to be shut up in themselves, which rendered the excess of their sorrow very irritating, but very silent; yet there was an old soldier of Herod’s, whose name was Tero, who had a son of the same age with Alexander, and his friend, who was so very liberal as to openly speak out what others silently thought about that matter; and he was forced to often cry out among the multitude, and said, in the most unguarded manner, that truth had perished and justice was taken away from men, while lies and animosity prevailed and brought such a mist before public affairs that the offenders were unable to see the greatest troubles that can happen to men. And as he was so bold, he seemed not to have kept himself out of danger by speaking so freely; but the reasonableness of what he said moved men to regard him as having behaved himself with great manhood, and this at a proper time also, for which reason every one heard what he said with pleasure; and although they first took care of their own safety by keeping silent themselves, yet they kindly received the great freedom he took, for the expectation they were in of such great affliction put a force on them to speak whatsoever they pleased of Tero.

5. This man had thrust himself into the king’s presence with the greatest freedom and desired to speak with him by himself alone, which the king permitted him to do, where he said this: “Since I am unable, O king, to bear up under such a great concern as I am under, I have preferred the use of this bold liberty that I now take, which may be for your advantage, if you mind to get any profit by it, before my own safety. Where has your understanding gone and left your soul empty? Where has that extraordinary shrewdness of yours gone, whereby you have performed so many and such glorious actions? From where does this solitude and desertion of your friends and relations come? Of which I cannot but determine that they are neither your friends nor relations, while they overlook such horrid wickedness in your once blessed kingdom. Do you not perceive what is happening? Will you slay these two young men, born of your queen, who are accomplished with every virtue in the highest degree, and leave yourself destitute in your old age, but exposed to one son, who has very badly managed the hopes you have given him, and to relations, whose death you have so often resolved on yourself? Do you not take notice that the very silence of the multitude at once sees the crime and abhors the fact? The entire army and the officers have pity on the poor unfortunate youths and hatred for those that are the actors in this matter.” The king heard these words, and for some time with good temper. But what can one say? When Tero plainly touched on the bad behavior and treachery of his household, he was moved at it; but Tero went on further, and increasingly used an unbounded military freedom of speech, nor was he so well disciplined as to accommodate himself to the time. So Herod was greatly disturbed, and seeming to be rather reproached by this speech, than to be hearing what was for his advantage, while he learned thereby that both the soldiers abhorred the thing he was doing, and the officers had indignation at it, he gave an order that all whom Tero had named, and Tero himself, should be bound and kept in prison.

6. When this was over, one Trypho, who was the king’s barber, took the opportunity and came and told the king that Tero would often have persuaded him, when he trimmed him with a razor, to cut his throat, for by this means he should be among the chief of Alexander’s friends and receive great rewards from him. When he had said this, the king gave an order that Tero, and his son, and the barber should be tortured, which was accordingly done; but while Tero bore up himself, his son seeing his father already in a miserable state, and having no hope of deliverance, and perceiving what would be the consequence of his terrible sufferings, said that if the king would free him and his father from these torments for what he should say, he would tell the truth. And when the king had given his word to do so, he said that there was an agreement made that Tero would lay violent hands on the king, because it was easy for him to come when he was alone; and that if, when he had done the thing, he should suffer death for it, as was not unlikely, it would be an act of generosity done in favor of Alexander. This was what Tero’s son said, and thereby freed his father from the distress he was in; but it is uncertain whether he had been thus forced to speak what was true, or whether it was [merely] a plan of his in order to obtain his own and his father’s deliverance from their miseries.

7. As for Herod, if he had any doubt before about the slaughter of his sons, there was now no longer any room left in his soul for it; but he had banished away anything that might provide him the least suggestion of reasoning better about this matter, so he already made haste to bring his purpose to a conclusion. He also brought out three hundred of the officers that were under an accusation, as also Tero and his son, and the barber that accused them before an assembly, and brought an accusation against them all, whom the multitude stoned with whatsoever was close at hand and thereby slew them. Alexander and Aristobulus were also brought to Sebaste by their father’s command and were strangled there; but their dead bodies were carried to Alexandrium in the nighttime, where their uncle by the mother’s side, and the greatest part of their ancestors, had been deposited.

8. And now perhaps it may not seem unreasonable to some that such a deep-seated hatred might increase so much [on both sides], as to proceed further and overcome nature; but it may justly deserve consideration, whether it is to be laid to the charge of the young men that they gave such an opportunity for their father’s anger, and led him to do what he did, and by going on continuously in the same way, put things past remedy and brought him to use them so unmercifully; or whether it is to be laid to the father’s charge, that he was so hard-hearted, and so very fond in the desire of government, and of other things that would tend to his glory, that he would take no one into a partnership with him, so that whatsoever he would have done himself might continue immovable; or, indeed, whether fortune does not have greater power than all prudent reasonings, from which we are persuaded that human actions are thereby determined beforehand by an inevitable necessity, and we call her Fate, because there is nothing which is not done by her. Therefore, I suppose it will be sufficient to compare this notion with that other, which somewhat attributes [it] to ourselves, and does not render men unaccountable for the different conduct of their lives, which notion is none other than the philosophical determination of our ancient law. Accordingly, of the two other causes of this unfortunate event, anybody may lay the blame on the young men who acted by youthful vanity and pride for their royal birth, [such] that they should bear to hear the defamations that were raised against their father, while they were certainly not equitable judges of the actions of his life, but bad-natured in suspecting, and intemperate in speaking of it, and on both accounts easily caught by those that observed them and revealed them to gain favor; yet their father cannot be thought worthy [of] excuse, as to that horrid impiety which he was guilty of concerning them, while he ventured, without any certain evidence of their treacherous schemes against him, and without any proofs that they had made preparations for such attempt, to kill his own sons, who were of very handsome bodies, and the great darlings of other men, and [in] no way deficient in their conduct, whether it was in hunting, or in military exercises, or in speaking on occasional topics of discourse; for in all these they were skillful, and especially Alexander, who was the eldest; for it would certainly have been sufficient, even though he had condemned them, to have kept them alive in bonds, or to let them live at a distance from his dominions in banishment, while he was surrounded by the Roman forces, which were a strong security to him, whose help would prevent his suffering anything by a sudden onset, or by open force; but for him to suddenly kill them, in order to gratify a passion that governed him, was a demonstration of intolerable impiety. He was also guilty of such a great crime in his older age; nor will the delays that he made, and the length of time in which the thing was done, plead at all for his excuse; for when a man is suddenly amazed and in commotion of mind, and then commits a wicked action, although this is a heavy crime, yet it is a thing that frequently happens; but to do it on deliberation, and after frequent attempts, and as frequently putting it off, to undertake it at last and accomplish it, was the action of a murderous mind, and such as was not easily moved from that which is evil. And he showed this temper in what he did afterward, when he did not spare those that seemed to be the best beloved of his friends that were left, wherein, though the justice of the punishment caused those that perished to be less pitied, yet the barbarity of the man was here equal, in that he did not abstain from their slaughter also. But of those persons, we will have opportunity to discourse more hereafter.

BOOK XVII

Containing the Interval of Fourteen Years. From the Death of Alexander and Aristobulus to the Banishment of Archelaus.

CHAPTER 1

How Antipater Was Hated by the Entire Nation [Of the Jews] for the Slaughter of His Brothers; And How, for That Reason, He Came Into Peculiar Favor with His Friends at Rome by Giving Them Many Presents; As He Also Did with Saturninus, the President of Syria, and the Governors Who Were Under Him; And Concerning Herod’s Wives and Children.

1. When Antipater had thus taken his brothers [out of the way] and had brought his father into the highest degree of impiety, until he was haunted with furies for what he had done, his hopes did not succeed to his mind, as to the rest of his life; for although he was delivered from the fear of his brothers being his rivals as to the government, yet he found it a very difficult thing, and almost impractical, to come to the kingdom, because the hatred of the nation against him on that account had become very great; and besides this very disagreeable circumstance, the affair of the soldiers grieved him even more, who were alienated from him, from which these kings yet derived all the safety which they had, whenever they found the nation desirous of innovation: and all this danger was drawn on him by his destruction of his brothers. However, he governed the nation jointly with his father, being indeed none other than a king already; and he was trusted for that very reason and [all] the more firmly depended on, for which he ought himself to have been put to death, as appearing to have betrayed his brothers out of his concern for the preservation of Herod, and not rather out of his animosity toward them, and, before them, to his father himself: and this was the accursed state he was in. Now all of Antipater’s schemes tended toward his making a way for removing Herod, so that he might have nobody to accuse him in the vile practices he was devising, and that Herod might have no refuge, nor any to provide him their assistance, since they must thereby have Antipater for their open enemy, insomuch that the very plots he had laid against his brothers were caused by the hatred he bore [toward] his father. But at this time he was more than ever set on the execution of his attempts against Herod, because if he were finally dead, the government would now be firmly secured to him; but if he were allowed to live any longer, he would be in danger on [the] discovery of that wickedness of which he had been the deviser, and then his father would necessarily become his enemy. And it was on this account that he became very bountiful to his father’s friends, and bestowed great sums on several of them, in order to surprise men with his good deeds and remove their hatred against him. And he sent great presents to his friends at Rome particularly, to gain their goodwill; and above all, to Saturninus, the president of Syria. He also hoped to gain the favor of Saturninus’ brother with the large presents he bestowed on him; as also he used the same art toward the king’s sister [Salome], who had married one of Herod’s chief friends. And when he counterfeited friendship toward those with whom he conversed, he was very subtle in gaining their belief, and very cunning to hide his hatred against any that he really did hate. But he could not impose on his aunt, who understood him for a long time, and was a woman not to be deluded easily, especially while she had already used all possible caution in preventing his evil schemes. Although Antipater’s uncle by the mother’s side was married to her daughter, and this by his own complicity and management, while she had previously been married to Aristobulus, and while Salome’s other daughter by that husband was married to the son of Calleas; yet that marriage was no obstacle to her who knew how wicked he was, in her discovering his schemes, as her former relation to him could not prevent her hatred of him. Now Herod had compelled Salome, while she was in love with Sylleus the Arabian, and had taken a fondness for him, to marry Alexas; which match was submitted to by her at the instance of Julia, who persuaded Salome not to refuse it, lest she should herself be their open enemy, since Herod had sworn that he would never be friends with Salome if she would not accept Alexas for her husband; so she submitted to Julia as being Caesar’s wife; and besides that, she advised her to nothing but what was very much for her own advantage. It was also at this time that Herod sent back King Archelaus’ daughter, who had been Alexander’s wife, to her father, returning the portion he had with her out of his own estate, so that there might be no dispute between them about it.

2. Now Herod brought up his sons’ children with great care, for Alexander had two sons by Glaphyra; and Aristobulus had three sons by Bernice, Salome’s daughter, and two daughters; and as his friends were once with him, he presented the children before them; and deploring the misfortune of his own sons, he prayed that no such misfortune would happen to these who were their children, but that they might improve in virtue, and obtain what they justly deserved, and might make him amends for his care of their education. He also caused them to be betrothed until they should come to the proper age of marriage; the elder of Alexander’s sons to Pheroras’ daughter, and Antipater’s daughter to Aristobulus’ eldest son. He also allotted one of Aristobulus’ daughters to Antipater’s son, and Aristobulus’ other daughter to Herod, a son of his own, who was born to him by the high priest’s daughter; for it is the ancient practice among us to have many wives at the same time. Now the king made these espousals for the children, out of sympathy for them now [that] they were fatherless, as endeavoring to render Antipater kind to them by these intermarriages. But Antipater did not fail to bear the same temper of mind toward his brothers’ children which he had borne to his brothers themselves; and his father’s concern about them provoked his indignation against them on this assumption: that they would become greater than his brothers had ever been; while Archelaus, a king, would support his daughter’s sons, and Pheroras, a tetrarch, would accept one of the daughters as a wife for his son. What provoked him was also this: that the whole multitude would so pity these fatherless children, and so hate him [for making them fatherless], that all would come out, since they were no strangers to his vile disposition toward his brothers. He therefore plotted to overturn his father’s settlements, as thinking it a terrible thing that they should be so related to him and be so powerful as well. So, Herod yielded to him and changed his resolution at his request; and the determination now was that Antipater himself should marry Aristobulus’ daughter, and Antipater’s son should marry Pheroras’ daughter. So the espousals for the marriages were changed after this manner, even without the king’s real approval.

3. Now King Herod had nine wives at this time; one of them Antipater’s mother, and another the high priest’s daughter, by whom he had a son of his own name. He also had one who was his brother’s daughter, and another his sister’s daughter; which two had no children. One of his wives was also of the Samaritan nation, whose sons were Antipas and Archelaus, and whose daughter was Olympias; which daughter was afterward married to Joseph, the king’s brother’s son; but Archelaus and Antipas were brought up with a certain private man at Rome. Herod also had Cleopatra of Jerusalem for a wife, and he had his sons Herod and Philip by her; the latter of which was also brought up at Rome. Pallas was also one of his wives, which bore him his son Phasaelus. And besides these, he had Phedra and Elpia for his wives, by whom he had his daughters Roxana and Salome. As for his elder daughters by the same mother with Alexander and Aristobulus, and whom Pheroras neglected to marry, he gave the one in marriage to Antipater, the king’s sister’s son, and the other to Phasaelus, his brother’s son. And this was the posterity of Herod.

CHAPTER 2

Concerning Zamaris, the Babylonian Jew; Concerning the Plots Laid by Antipater Against His Father; And Somewhat About the Pharisees.

1. And it was now that Herod, being desirous of securing himself on the side of the Trachonites, resolved to build a village as large as a city for the Jews, in the middle of that country, which might make his own country difficult to be assaulted, and from which he might be at hand to make assaults on them and cause them trouble. Accordingly, when he understood that there was a man that was a Jew [who] came out of Babylon, with five hundred horsemen, all of whom could shoot their arrows as they rode on horseback, and, with one hundred of his relations, had passed over Euphrates, and now abided at Antioch by Daphne of Syria, where Saturninus, who was then president, had given them a place for habitation, called Valatha, he sent for this man, with the multitude that followed him, and promised to give him land in the toparchy called Batanea, which country is bounded with Trachonitis, as desirous to make his habitation a guard to himself. He also pledged to let him hold the country free from tribute, and that they should dwell entirely without paying such customs as used to be paid; so he gave it [to] him tax-free.

2. The Babylonian was reduced by these offers to come here; so he took possession of the land, and built fortresses and a village in it, and named it Bathyra. Whereby this man became a safeguard to the inhabitants against the Trachonites and preserved those Jews, who came out of Babylon to offer their sacrifices at Jerusalem, from being hurt by the Trachonite robbers; and so a great number came to him from all those parts where the ancient Jewish laws were observed, and the country became full of people, by reason of their universal freedom from taxes. This continued during the life of Herod; but when Philip, who was [tetrarch] after him, took the government, he made them pay some trivial taxes, and that for a short time only; and Agrippa the Great, and his son of the same name, although they harassed them greatly, yet they would not take their liberty away. From whom, when the Romans have now taken the government into their own hands, they still gave them the privilege of their freedom, but entirely oppress them with the imposition of taxes. I will discuss this matter more accurately in the progress of this history.

3. Finally, Zamaris the Babylonian, to whom Herod had given that country for a possession, died, having lived virtuously, and left children of a good character behind him; one of whom was Jacim, who was famous for his valor and taught his Babylonians how to ride their horses; and a troop of them were guards to the aforementioned kings. And when Jacim was dead in his old age, he left a son, whose name was Philip, one of great strength in his hands, and in other respects also more prominent for his valor than any of his contemporaries; on which account there was a confidence and firm friendship between him and King Agrippa. He also had an army which he maintained as great as that of a king, which he exercised and led wheresoever he had opportunity to march.

4. When the affairs of Herod were in the condition I have described, all the public affairs depended on Antipater; and his power was such that he could give good returns to as many as he pleased, and this by his father’s concession, in hopes of his goodwill and fidelity to him; and this until he ventured to wield his power even further, because his wicked schemes were concealed from his father, and he made him believe everything he said. He was also formidable to all, not so much on account of the power and authority he had, as for the shrewdness of his vile attempts beforehand; but he who principally cultivated a friendship with him was Pheroras, who received the same marks of his friendship; while Antipater had cunningly surrounded him by a company of women, whom he placed as guards around him; for Pheroras was greatly enslaved to his wife, and to her mother, and to her sister; and this notwithstanding the hatred he bore them for the indignities they had offered to his virgin daughters. Yet he bore them, and nothing was to be done without the women, who had gotten this man into their circle, and still continued to assist each other in all things, insomuch that Antipater was entirely addicted to them, both by himself and by his mother; for these four women all said one and the same thing; but the opinions of Pheroras and Antipater were different in some points of no consequence. But the king’s sister [Salome] was their antagonist, who for a good while had looked over all their affairs, and was apprised that their friendship was made in order to do Herod some harm, and was inclined to inform the king of it. And since these people knew that their friendship was very disagreeable to Herod, as tending to do him harm, they planned that their meetings should not be discovered; so they pretended to hate one another, and to abuse one another when time served, and especially when Herod was present, or when anyone was there that would tell him: but their intimacy was still firmer than ever when they were private. And this was the course they took. But they could not conceal from Salome neither their first scheme, when they set about these intentions of theirs, nor when they had made some progress in them; but she searched out everything; and, aggravating the relations to her brother, declared to him, as well their secret assemblies and carousals, as their counsels taken in a clandestine manner, which if they were not [done] in order to destroy him, they might well enough have been open and public. But [as] for appearance, they are in conflict and speak about one another as if they intended [to cause] one another trouble, but agree so well together when they are out of the sight of the multitude; for when they are alone by themselves, they act in concert and profess that they will never cease their friendship, but will fight against those from whom they conceal their schemes. And thus, she searched out these things, and acquired a perfect knowledge of them, and then told her brother of them, who also understood of himself a great deal of what she said, but still dared not depend on it, because of the suspicions he had of his sister’s defamations. For there was a certain sect of men that were Jews, who valued themselves highly on the exact skill they had in the Law of their fathers and made men believe they were highly favored by God, by whom this set of women were cajoled. These are those that are called the sect of the Pharisees, who were in a capacity of greatly opposing kings. They were a cunning sect and soon elevated to a pitch of open fighting and causing trouble. Accordingly, when all the people of the Jews gave assurance of their goodwill to Caesar, and to the king’s government, these very men did not swear, being above six thousand; and when the king imposed a fine on them, Pheroras’ wife paid their fine for them. In order to repay which kindness of hers, since they were believed to have the foreknowledge of things to come by Divine inspiration, they foretold how God had decreed that Herod’s government would cease, and his posterity would be deprived of it; but that the kingdom would come to her and Pheroras, and to their children. These predictions were not concealed from Salome, but were told the king; as also how they had perverted some persons around the palace itself; so the king slew such of the Pharisees as were principally accused, and Bagoas the eunuch, and one Carus, who exceeded all men of that time in attractiveness, and one that was his catamite. He also slew all those of his own family who had consented to what the Pharisees foretold; and for Bagoas, he had been puffed up by them, as though he should be named the father and the benefactor of him who, by the prediction, was foretold to be their appointed king; for this king would have all things in his power, and would enable Bagoas to marry, and to have children begotten from his own body.

CHAPTER 3

Concerning the Enmity Between Herod and Pheroras; How Herod Sent Antipater to Caesar; And of the Death of Pheroras.

1. When Herod had punished those Pharisees who had been convicted of the aforementioned crimes, he gathered an assembly together of his friends, and accused Pheroras’ wife, and ascribing the abuses of the virgins to the impudence of that woman, brought an accusation against her for the dishonor she had brought on them: that she had studiously introduced a quarrel between him and his brother, and, by her bad temper, had brought them into a state of war, both by her words and actions; that the fines which he had laid had not been paid, and the offenders had escaped punishment by her means; and that nothing which had been done lately had been done without her: “for which reason Pheroras would do well, if he would of his own accord, and by his own command, and not at my request, or as following my opinion, put his wife away, as one that will still be the cause of war between you and me. And now, Pheroras, if you value your relation to me, put this wife of yours away; for by this means you will continue to be a brother to me and will abide in your love toward me.” Then Pheroras, although he was pressed hard by the former words, said that [just] as he would not do such an unjust thing as to renounce his brotherly relation to him, so he would not cease his affection for his wife—that he would rather choose to die than to live and be deprived of a wife that was so dear to him. Hereon Herod relented of his anger against Pheroras on these accounts, although he himself thereby underwent a very uneasy punishment. However, he forbade Antipater and his mother to have any conversation with Pheroras and commanded them to take care to avoid the assemblies of the women, which they promised to do, but still gathered when opportunity served, and both Pheroras and Antipater had their own cheerful meetings. The report also went forth that Antipater had criminal conversation with Pheroras’ wife, and that they were brought together by Antipater’s mother.

2. But Antipater now had a suspicion of his father and was afraid that the effects of his hatred toward him might increase; so he wrote to his friends at Rome and commanded them to send to Herod, so that he would immediately send Antipater to Caesar; which when it was done, Herod sent Antipater there and sent most noble presents along with him; as also his testament, wherein Antipater was appointed to be his successor; and that if Antipater should die first, his son [(Herod Philip)] by the high priest’s daughter should succeed [him]. And, together with Antipater, Sylleus the Arabian went to Rome, although he had done nothing of all that Caesar had commanded him. Antipater also accused him of the same crimes of which he had been formerly accused by Herod. Sylleus was also accused by Aretas, that without his consent he had slain many of the chief of the Arabians at Petra; and particularly Soemus, a man that deserved to be honored by all men; and that he had slain Fabatus, a servant of Caesar. These were the things of which Sylleus was accused—and that on the following occasion: there was one Corinthus, belonging to Herod, of the king’s bodyguards, and one who was greatly trusted by him. Sylleus had persuaded this man with the offer of a great sum of money to kill Herod; and he had promised to do it. When Fabatus had been made acquainted with this, for Sylleus had told him of it himself, he informed the king of it, who caught Corinthus, and had him tortured, and thereby obtained from him the whole conspiracy. He also caught two other Arabians, who were discovered by Corinthus: one the head of a tribe, and the other a friend to Sylleus, who were both brought for torture by the king and confessed that they had come to encourage Corinthus not to fail in doing what he had undertaken to do and to assist him with their own hands in the murder, if need should require their assistance. So Saturninus, on Herod’s revealing everything to him, sent them to Rome.

3. At this time Herod commanded Pheroras, that since he was so obstinate in his affection for his wife, he should retire into his own tetrarchy, which he did very willingly and swore many oaths that he would not come again until he heard that Herod was dead. And indeed when, on a sickness of the king, he desired to come to him before he died, so that he might entrust him with some of his orders, he had such a regard for his oath that he would not come to him; yet Herod did not so retain his hatred toward Pheroras, but relented of his purpose [not to see him], which he previously had—and that for such great causes as have already been mentioned: but as soon as he began to be ill, he came to him, and this without being sent for; and when he was dead, he took care of his funeral, and had his body brought to Jerusalem and buried there, and appointed a solemn mourning for him. This [death of Pheroras] became the origin of Antipater’s misfortunes, although he had already sailed for Rome, God now preparing to punish him for the murder of his brothers. I will explain the history of this matter very distinctly, so that it may be for a warning to mankind, so that they take care to conduct their whole lives by the rules of virtue.

CHAPTER 4

Pheroras’ Wife Is Accused by His Freedmen as Guilty of Poisoning Him; And How Herod, on Examining the Matter by Torture, Found the Poison; But So That It Had Been Prepared for Himself by His Son Antipater; And on an Inquiry by Torture, He Discovered the Dangerous Schemes of Antipater.

1. As soon as Pheroras was dead, and his funeral was over, two of Pheroras’ freedmen, who were highly regarded by him, came to Herod and implored him not to leave the murder of his brother without avenging it, but to investigate such an unreasonable and unhappy death. When he was moved with these words, for they seemed to be true to him, they said that Pheroras dined with his wife the day before he fell sick, and that a certain potion was brought [to] him in such a sort of food as he was not used to eating; but that when he had eaten [it], he died from it: that this potion was brought out of Arabia by a woman, indeed under pretense as a love-potion, for that was its name, but in reality to kill Pheroras; for the Arabian women are skillful in making such poisons; and the woman to whom they ascribe this was confessedly a most intimate friend of one of Sylleus’ mistresses; and that both the mother and the sister of Pheroras’ wife had been at the places where she lived, and had persuaded her to sell them this potion, and had come back and brought it with them the day before his supper. Hereon the king was provoked, and had the female slaves tortured, and some that were free with them; and as the fact did not yet appear, because none of them would confess it, finally one of them, under the greatest agonies, said no more than this: that she prayed that God would send the same agonies on Antipater’s mother, who had been the source of these miseries to all of them. This prayer induced Herod to increase the women’s tortures, until everything was discovered thereby: their cheerful meetings, their secret assemblies, and the disclosing to Pheroras’ women of what he had said to his son alone (now what Herod had charged Antipater to conceal was the gift of one hundred talents for him not to have any conversation with Pheroras), and what hatred he bore toward his father, and that he complained to his mother how very long his father lived, and that he was himself almost an old man, insomuch that if the kingdom should come to him, it would not offer him any great pleasure, and that there were a great many of his brothers, or brothers’ children, being raised, that might have hopes of the kingdom as well as himself, all which made his own hopes of it uncertain; for even now, if he should himself not live, Herod had ordained that the government should be conferred, not on his son, but rather on a brother. He also had accused the king of great barbarity, and of the slaughter of his sons; and that it was out of the fear he was under, lest he should do the same to him, that made him plan his journey to Rome, and Pheroras plan to go to his own tetrarchy.

2. These confessions agreed with what his sister had told him and tended to greatly corroborate her testimony and to free her from the suspicion of her unfaithfulness to him. So the king having satisfied himself of the spite which Doris, Antipater’s mother, as well as himself, bore to him, took all her fine ornaments away from her, which were worth many talents, and then sent her away, and entered into friendship with Pheroras’ women. But he who most of all irritated the king against his son was another Antipater, the procurator of the king’s son Antipater, who, when he was tortured, among other things, said that Antipater had prepared a deadly potion and had given it to Pheroras with his desire that he would give it to his father during his absence, and when he was too distant to have the least suspicion cast on him relating to that; that Antiphilus, one of Antipater’s friends, brought that potion out of Egypt; and that it was sent to Pheroras by Theudion, the brother of the mother of Antipater, the king’s son, and by that means came to Pheroras’ wife, her husband having given it [to] her to keep. And when the king asked her about it, she confessed it; and as she was running to fetch it, she threw herself down from the housetop; yet she did not kill herself, because she fell on her feet; by which means, when the king had comforted her and had promised her and her household pardon, on condition of their concealing nothing of the truth from him, but had threatened her with the greatest miseries if she proved ungrateful [and concealed anything], she promised and swore that she would confess everything and tell in what manner everything was done; and she said what many took to be entirely true: that the potion was brought out of Egypt by Antiphilus; and that his brother, who was a physician, had acquired it; and that “when Theudion brought it [to] us, she kept it on Pheroras’ committing it to her; and that it was prepared by Antipater for you. When, therefore, Pheroras had fallen sick, and you came to him and took care of him, and when he saw the kindness you had for him, his mind was overborne thereby. So, he called me to him and said to me, O woman! Antipater has circumvented me in this affair of his father and my brother, by persuading me to have a murderous intention toward him and acquiring a potion to be subservient to that; therefore, go and fetch my potion (since my brother appears to still have the same virtuous disposition toward me which he formerly had, and I do not expect to live long myself, and that I may not defile my forefathers by the murder of a brother) and burn it before my face: that accordingly, she immediately brought it and did as her husband commanded her; and that she burnt the greatest part of the potion; but that a little of it was left, that if the king, after Pheroras’ death, should treat her badly, she might poison herself and thereby get clear of her miseries.” On her saying this, she brought out the potion, and the box in which it was, before them all. Indeed, there was another brother of Antiphilus, and his mother also, who, by the extremity of pain and torture, confessed the same things and acknowledged the box [to be that which had been brought out of Egypt]. The high priest’s daughter also, who was the king’s wife, was accused to have been conscious of all [of] this and had resolved to conceal it; for which reason Herod divorced her and blotted her son out of his testament, wherein he had been mentioned as one that was to reign after him; and he took the high priesthood away from his father-in-law, Simeon the son of Boethus, and appointed Matthias the son of Theophilus, who was born at Jerusalem, to be high priest in his stead.

3. While this was happening, Bathyllus also, Antipater’s freedman, came from Rome, and, on torture, was found to have brought another potion, to give it into the hands of Antipater’s mother, and of Pheroras, so that if the former potion did not work on the king, this at least might carry him off. Letters also came from Herod’s friends at Rome, by the approval and at the suggestion of Antipater, to accuse Archelaus and Philip, as if they defamed their father on account of the slaughter of Alexander and Aristobulus, and as if they pitied their deaths, and as if, because they were called to [return] home (for their father had already recalled them), they concluded they were themselves to also be destroyed. These letters had been procured by great rewards by Antipater’s friends; but Antipater himself wrote to his father about them and laid the heaviest things to their charge; yet he completely excused them of any guilt, and said they were merely young men, and so imputed their words to their youth. But he said that he had himself been very busy in the affair relating to Sylleus, and in getting interest among the great men; and on that account had bought splendid ornaments to present them additionally, which cost him two hundred talents. Now one may wonder how it came about, that while so many accusations were laid against him in Judea during seven months before this time, he was not made acquainted with any of them. The causes of which were that the roads were carefully guarded, and that men hated Antipater; for there was nobody who would run any risk himself to gain him any advantages.

CHAPTER 5

Antipater’s Navigation from Rome to His Father; And How He Was Accused by Nicolaus of Damascus and Condemned to Die by His Father, and by Quintilius Varus, Who Was Then President of Syria; And How He Was Then Bound Until Caesar Should Be Informed of His Cause.

1. Now Herod, on Antipater’s writing to him that having done all that he was to do, and this in the manner he was to do it, he would suddenly return to him, concealed his anger against him, and wrote back to him, and commanded him not to delay his journey, lest any harm should happen to himself in his absence. At the same time also, he made some small complaint about his mother, but promised that he would lay those complaints aside when he should return. He additionally expressed all his affection for him, as fearing lest he should have some suspicion of him and defer his journey to him; and lest, while he lived at Rome, he should lay plots for the kingdom, and, moreover, do something against himself. Antipater met with this letter in Cilicia, but had already received an account of Pheroras’ death at Tarentum. This last news affected him deeply; not out of any affection for Pheroras, but because he was dead without having murdered his father, which he had promised him to do. And when he was at Celendris in Cilicia, he began to deliberate within himself about his sailing home, as being very grieved with the banishment of his mother. Now some of his friends advised him that he should tarry awhile somewhere, in expectation of further information. But others advised him to sail home without delay; for if he had once come there, he would soon put an end to all accusations, and that nothing provided any weight to his accusers at present except his absence. He was persuaded by these last, and sailed on, and landed at the haven called Sebastus, which Herod had built at vast expense in honor of Caesar and called Sebastus. And now Antipater was evidently in a miserable condition, while nobody came to him nor saluted him, as they did at his going away, with good wishes of joyful acclamations; nor was there now anything to hinder them from entertaining him, on the contrary, with bitter curses, while they supposed he had come to receive his punishment for the murder of his brothers.

2. Now Quintilius Varus was at Jerusalem at this time, being sent to succeed Saturninus as president of Syria, and had come as an assessor to Herod, who had desired his advice in his present affairs; and as they were sitting together, Antipater came to them without knowing anything of the matter; so he came into the palace clothed in purple. The gatekeepers indeed received him in, but excluded his friends. And now he was in a great panic, and presently understood the condition he was in, while, on his going to salute his father, he was repulsed by him, who called him a murderer of his brothers and a plotter of destruction against himself, and told him that Varus should be his auditor and his judge the very next day; so he found that what misfortunes he now heard of were already on him, with the greatness of which he went away in confusion. On this, his mother and his wife met him (which wife was the daughter of Antigonus, who was king of the Jews before Herod), from whom he learned all circumstances which concerned him, and then prepared himself for his trial.

3. On the next day, Varus and the king sat together in judgment, and both [of] their friends were also called in, as also the king’s relations, with his sister Salome, and as many as could reveal anything, and such as had been tortured, and besides these, some slaves of Antipater’s mother, who were taken up shortly before Antipater’s coming; and they brought a written letter with them, the sum of which was this: that he should not come back, because all had come to his father’s knowledge; and that Caesar was the only refuge he had remaining to prevent both his and her delivery into his father’s hands. Then Antipater fell down at his father’s feet and pleaded with him not to prejudge his cause, but that he might first be heard by his father, and that his father would keep himself unprejudiced. So, Herod ordered him to be brought into the midst and then lamented himself concerning his children, from whom he had suffered such great misfortunes, and because Antipater fell on him in his old age. He also reckoned up what maintenance and what education he had given them, and what opportune supplies of wealth he had provided them, according to their own desires; none of which favors had hindered them from plotting against him, and from bringing his very life into danger, in order to gain his kingdom, in an impious manner, by taking away his life before the course of nature, their father’s wishes, or justice required that that kingdom should come to them; and that he wondered what hopes could elevate Antipater to such a point as to be daring enough to attempt such things; that he had by his testament in writing declared him his successor in the government; and while he was alive, he was in no respect inferior to him, either in his illustrious dignity, or in power and authority—he having no less than fifty talents for his yearly income and having received no fewer than thirty talents for his journey to Rome. He also objected to him the case of his brothers whom he had accused; and if they were guilty, he had imitated their example; and if not, he had brought him groundless accusations against his near relations; for he had been acquainted with all those things by him, and by nobody else, and had done what was done by his approval, and whom he now absolved from all that was criminal, by becoming the inheritor of the guilt of their parricide.

4. When Herod had thus spoken, he fell weeping and was unable to say anything else; but at his desire, Nicolaus of Damascus, being the king’s friend, and always conversant with him, and acquainted with whatsoever he did, and with the circumstances of his affairs, proceeded to what remained and explained all that concerned the demonstrations and evidences of the facts. On this, Antipater, in order to make his legal defense, turned himself to his father, and enlarged on the many indications he had given of his goodwill to him, and demonstrated the honors that had been done [for] him, which yet would not have been done, had he not deserved them by his virtuous concern for him; for he had made provision for everything that was fitting to be foreseen beforehand, as to giving him his wisest advice; and whenever there was opportunity for the labor of his own hands, he had not grudged any such pains for him. And that it was almost impossible that he, who had delivered his father from so many treacherous plots laid against him, should be himself in a plot against him, and so lose all the reputation he had gained for his virtue, by his wickedness which succeeded it—and this while he had nothing to prohibit him, who was already appointed his successor, to enjoy the royal honor with his father also at present; and that there was no likelihood that a person who had the one half of that authority without any danger, and with a good character, should hunt after the whole with infamy and danger, and this when it was doubtful whether he could obtain it or not; and when he saw the sad example of his brothers before him, and was both the informer and the accuser against them at a time when they might not otherwise have been discovered—indeed, was the author of the punishment inflicted on them, when it appeared evident that they were guilty of a wicked attempt against their father; and that even the contentions there were in the king’s family were indications that he had always managed affairs out of the sincerest affection for his father. And as to what he had done at Rome, Caesar was a witness to that, who yet was to be imposed on no more than God Himself; of whose opinions his letters sent here are sufficient evidence; and that it was not reasonable to prefer the defamations of such as proposed to raise disturbances before those letters; the greatest part of which defamations had been raised during his absence, which gave room to his enemies to forge them, which they would not have been able to do if he had been there. Moreover, he showed the weakness of the evidence obtained by torture, which was commonly false, because the distress men are in under such tortures naturally compels them to say many things in order to please those that govern them. He also offered himself to torture.

5. Hereon there was a change observed in the assembly, while they greatly pitied Antipater, who by weeping and putting on a countenance suitable to his sad situation made them pity the same, insomuch that his very enemies were moved to compassion; and it appeared plainly that Herod himself was affected in his own mind, although he was not willing [that] it should be taken notice of. Then Nicolaus began to prosecute what the king had begun—and that with great bitterness; and he summed up all the evidence which arose from the tortures or from the testimonies. He principally and largely voiced the king’s virtues, which he had exhibited in the maintenance and education of his sons, while he never could gain any advantage thereby, but still fell from one misfortune to another. Although he admitted that he was not so much surprised with that thoughtless behavior of his former sons, who were but young, and were additionally corrupted by wicked counselors, who were the cause of their wiping out of their minds the righteous dictates of nature, and this out of a desire of coming to the government sooner than they should; yet that he could not but justly stand amazed at the horrid wickedness of Antipater, who, although he had not only had great benefits bestowed on him by his father, enough to tame his reason, yet could not be more tamed than the most venomous serpents; whereas even those creatures allow for some mitigation and will not bite their benefactors, while Antipater has not let the misfortunes of his brothers be any hindrance to him, but he has gone on to imitate their barbarity nevertheless. “Yet were you, O Antipater—as you yourself have confessed—the informer as to what wicked actions they had done, and the searcher out of the evidence against them, and the author of the punishment they underwent on their detection. Nor do we say this as accusing you for being so zealous in your anger against them, but are astonished at your endeavors to imitate their shameless behavior; and we thereby discover that you did not act thus for the safety of your father, but for the destruction of your brothers, so that by such outside hatred of their impiety you might be believed [to be] a lover of your father, and might thereby gain enough power [for] yourself to do mischief with the greatest impunity, which scheme your actions indeed demonstrate. It is true: you had your brothers removed, because you convicted them of their wicked schemes; but you did not yield up to justice those who were their partners, and thereby made it evident to all men that you made a covenant with them against your father, when you chose to be the accuser of your brothers, as desirous to gain for yourself alone this advantage of laying plots to kill your father, and so to enjoy double pleasure, which is truly worthy of your evil disposition, which you have openly shown against your brothers. On this account, you rejoiced, as having accomplished a most famous exploit, nor was that behavior unworthy of you. But if your intention was otherwise, you are worse than they: while you plotted to hide your treachery against your father, you hated them, not as plotters against your father, for in that case you yourself would not have fallen on the same crime, but as successors of his dominions and more worthy of that succession than yourself. You would kill your father after your brothers, lest your lies raised against them might be detected; and lest you should suffer what punishment you had deserved, you intended to exact that punishment on your unhappy father and devised such a sort of uncommon parricide as the world has never yet seen. For you who are his son not only laid a treacherous plot against your father and did it while he loved you and had been your benefactor—had made you, in reality, his partner in the kingdom and had openly declared you [to be] his successor, while you were not forbidden to taste the sweetness of authority already and had the firm hope of what was future by your father’s determination and the security of a written testament—but, for certain, you did not measure these things according to your father’s various disposition, but according to your own thoughts and inclinations, and desired to take the part that remained away from your overly indulgent father, and sought to destroy him with your deeds, whom you pretended to preserve with [mere] words. Nor were you content to be wicked yourself, but you filled your mother’s head with your schemes, and raised disturbances among your brothers, and had the boldness to call your father a wild beast, while you yourself had a mind more cruel than any serpent, from which you sent out that poison among your nearest relatives and greatest benefactors, and invited them to assist you and guard you, and hedged yourself in on all sides, by the tricks of both men and women, against an old man, as though that mind of yours was not sufficient in itself to support such a great hatred as you bore to him. And here you appear, after the tortures of freemen, of servants, of men and women, which have been examined on your account, and after the information of your fellow conspirators, as making haste to contradict the truth; and you have contemplated ways not only [of] how to take your father out of the world, but to annul that written law which is against you, and the virtue of Varus, and the nature of justice; indeed, such is that impudence of yours on which you confide, that you desire to be tortured yourself, while you allege that the tortures of those already examined have thereby made them tell lies; that those that have been the deliverers of your father may not be allowed to have spoken the truth; but that your tortures may be regarded [as] the revealers of truth. Will you not, O Varus, deliver the king from the injuries of his relatives? Will you not destroy this wicked wild beast, which has feigned kindness to his father, in order to destroy his brothers, while yet he himself alone is immediately ready to carry off the kingdom and appears to be the bloodiest butcher to him of them all? for you are aware that parricide is a general injury both to nature and to common life, and that the intention of parricide is not inferior to its perpetration; and he who does not punish it is injurious to nature itself.”

6. Nicolaus further added what belonged to Antipater’s mother, and whatsoever she had jabbered about as a woman; as also about the predictions and the sacrifices relating to the king; and whatsoever Antipater had done lasciviously while drunk and his love affairs among Pheroras’ women; the examination on torture; and whatsoever concerned the testimonies of the witnesses, which were many, and of various kinds; some prepared beforehand, and others were sudden answers, which further declared and confirmed the aforementioned evidence. For those men who were not acquainted with Antipater’s practices, but had concealed them out of fear, when they saw that he was exposed to the accusations of the former witnesses, and that his great good fortune, which had supported him thus far, had now evidently betrayed him into the hands of his enemies, who were now insatiable in their hatred toward him, told all they knew of him. And his ruin was now hastened, not so much by the enmity of those that were his accusers, as by his gross, and impudent, and wicked schemes, and by his animosity toward his father and his brothers, while he had filled their house with disturbance, and caused them to murder one another, and was neither fair in his hatred, nor kind in his friendship, but just so far as served his own position. Now there were a great number who for a long time beforehand had seen all this, and especially such as were naturally inclined to judge of matters by the rules of virtue, because they were accustomed to determine affairs without passion, but had been restrained from making any open complaints before; these, on the permission now given them, produced all that they knew before the public. The demonstrations of these wicked facts could also [in] no way be disproved, because the many witnesses there were neither spoke out of favor to Herod, nor were they compelled to keep what they had to say silent, out of suspicion of any danger they were in; but they spoke what they knew, because they thought such actions [were] very wicked and that Antipater deserved the greatest punishment; and indeed, not so much for Herod’s safety, as on account of the man’s own wickedness. Many things were also said, and those by a great number of persons, who were [in] no way compelled to say them, insomuch that Antipater, who generally used to be very shrewd in his lies and impudence, was unable to say one word to the contrary. When Nicolaus had ceased speaking and had produced the evidence, Varus commanded Antipater to commit himself to making his defense, if he had prepared anything whereby it might appear that he was not guilty of the crimes he was accused of; because, as he was himself desirous, so he knew that his father was in like manner also desirous to have him found entirely innocent. But Antipater fell down on his face and appealed to God and to all men for testimonials of his innocence, desiring that God would declare, by some evident signals, that He had not laid any plot against his father. This being the usual method of all men destitute of virtue, that when they set about any wicked undertakings, they fall to work according to their own inclinations, as if they believed that God was unconcerned in human affairs; but when they are once found out and are in danger of undergoing the punishment due to their crimes, they endeavor to overthrow all the evidence against them by appealing to God, which was the very thing which Antipater now did; for whereas he had done everything as if there was no God in the world, when he was on all sides distressed by justice, and when he had no other advantage to expect from any legal proofs, by which he might disprove the accusations laid against him, he impudently abused the majesty of God, and ascribed it to His power that he had been preserved thus far, and produced before them all what difficulties he had ever undergone in his bold acting for his father’s preservation.

7. So when Varus, on asking Antipater what he had to say for himself, found that he had nothing to say besides his appeal to God, and saw that there was no end of that, he commanded them to bring the potion before the court, so that he might see what virtue still remained in it; and when it was brought, and one that was condemned to die had drank it by Varus’ command, he presently died. Then Varus got up, and departed out of the court, and went away to Antioch the following day, where his usual residence was, because that was the palace of the Syrians; on which Herod laid his son in bonds. But what Varus’ discourses were to Herod was not known to the public, and on what words it was that he went away, although it was also generally assumed that whatsoever Herod did afterward about his son was done with his consent. But when Herod had bound his son, he sent letters to Rome to Caesar about him, and such messengers additionally as should, by word of mouth, inform Caesar of Antipater’s wickedness. Now at this very time there was a letter seized from Antiphilus, written to Antipater out of Egypt (for he lived there); and when it was opened by the king, it was found to contain what follows: “I have sent you Acme’s letter and endangered my own life; for you know that I am in danger from two families, if I am discovered. I wish you good success in your affair.” These were the contents of this letter; but the king made inquiry about the other letter also, for it did not appear; and Antiphilus’ slave, who brought that letter which had been read, denied that he had received the other. But while the king was in doubt about it, one of Herod’s friends, seeing a seam on the inner coat of the slave and a doubling of the cloth (for he had two coats on), he guessed that the letter might be within that doubling, which accordingly proved to be true. So, they took out the letter, and its contents were these: “Acme to Antipater. I have written such a letter to your father as you desired [of] me. I have also taken a copy and sent it, as if it came from Salome, to my lady [Livia]; which, when you read [it], I know that Herod will punish Salome, as plotting against him.” Now this forged letter of Salome to her lady was composed by Antipater, in the name of Salome, as to its meaning, but in the words of Acme. The letter was this: “Acme to King Herod. I have undertaken my endeavor, so that nothing that is done against you should be concealed from you. So, on my finding a letter of Salome written to my lady against you, I have written out a copy and sent it to you—with risk to myself, but for your advantage. The reason why she wrote it was this: that she wanted to be married to Sylleus. Therefore, tear this letter in pieces, so that I may not come into danger of my life.” Now Acme had written to Antipater himself and informed him that, in compliance with his command, she had both herself written to Herod, as if Salome had laid a sudden plot entirely against him, and had herself sent a copy of a letter, as coming from Salome to her lady. Now Acme was a Jew by birth, and a servant to Julia, Caesar’s wife, and did this out of her friendship for Antipater, as having been corrupted by him with a large present of money, to assist in his malicious schemes against his father and his aunt.

8. Hereon Herod was so amazed at the prodigious wickedness of Antipater that he was ready to have ordered him to be slain immediately, as a turbulent person in the most important concerns, and as one that had laid a plot not only against himself, but against his sister also, and even corrupted Caesar’s own servants. Salome also provoked him to it, beating her breast and requesting him kill her if he could produce any credible testimony that she had acted in that manner. Herod also sent for his son, and asked him about this matter, and commanded him to contradict [it] if he could and not suppress anything he had to say for himself; and when he did not have [even] one word to say, he asked him, since he was caught in his villainy [in] every way, that he would make no further delay, but reveal his associates in his wicked schemes. So he laid everything on Antiphilus, but revealed nobody else. Hereon Herod was in such great grief that he was ready to send his son to Caesar at Rome, to give an account there of his wicked schemes. But he soon became afraid, lest he might there, by the assistance of his friends, escape the danger he was in; so he kept him bound as before, and sent more ambassadors and letters [to Rome] to accuse his son, and an account of what assistance Acme had given him in his wicked schemes, with copies of the letters previously mentioned.

CHAPTER 6

Concerning the Disease That Herod Fell Into and the Sedition Which the Jews Therefore Raised; With the Punishment of the Seditious.

1. Now Herod’s ambassadors made haste to Rome; but sent, as instructed beforehand, what answers they were to make to the questions put to them. They also carried the letters with them. But Herod now fell into a disease, and made his will, and bequeathed his kingdom to [Antipas], his youngest son; and this out of that hatred for Archelaus and Philip, which the defamations of Antipater had raised against them. He also bequeathed one thousand talents to Caesar, and five hundred to Julia, Caesar’s wife, to Caesar’s children, and friends and freemen. He also distributed among his sons and their sons his money, his revenues, and his lands. He also made his sister Salome very rich, because she had remained faithful to him in all his circumstances and was never so rash as to do him any harm; and as he despaired of recovering, for he was about the seventieth year of his age, he grew fierce and indulged the bitterest anger on all occasions; the cause whereof was this: that he thought himself despised, and that the nation was pleased with his misfortunes; besides which, he resented a sedition which some of the lower sort of men excited against him, the occasion of which was as follows.

2. There was one Judas, the son of Saripheus, and Matthias, the son of Margalothus, two of the most eloquent men among the Jews, and the most celebrated interpreters of the Jewish laws, and men well beloved by the people, because of their education and their youth; for all those that were studious of virtue frequented their lectures every day. These men, when they found that the king’s disease was incurable, excited the young men that they would pull down all those works which the king had erected contrary to the Law of their fathers, and thereby obtain the rewards which the Law will confer on them for such actions of piety; because it was truly on account of Herod’s rashness in making such things as the Law had forbidden, that his other misfortunes, and this disease also, which was so unusual among mankind, and with which he was now afflicted, came on him; for Herod had caused such things to be made which were contrary to the Law, of which he was accused by Judas and Matthias; for the king had erected over the great gate of the temple a large golden eagle, of great value, and had dedicated it to the temple. Now the Law forbids those that propose to live according to it, to erect images or representations of any living creature. So these wise men persuaded [their scholars] to pull down the golden eagle; alleging, that although they should incur any danger, which might bring them to their deaths, the virtue of the action now proposed to them would appear much more advantageous to them than the pleasures of life, since they would die for the preservation and observation of the Law of their fathers; since they would also acquire an everlasting fame and commendation; since they would be both commended by the present generation, and leave an example of life that would never be forgotten to posterity; since that common calamity of dying cannot be avoided by our living so as to escape any such dangers; that it is therefore a righteous thing for those who are in love with a virtuous conduct, to wait for that fatal hour by such behavior as may carry them out of the world with praise and honor; and that this will alleviate death to a great degree, thus to come at it by the performance of brave actions, which bring us into danger of it; and at the same time, to leave that reputation behind them to their children, and to all their relations, whether they are men or women, which will be of great advantage to them afterward.

3. And with such discourses as this, these men excited the young men to this action; and a report having come to them that the king was dead, this was an addition to the wise men’s persuasions; so, in the very middle of the day, they got onto the place, pulled down the eagle, and cut it into pieces with axes, while a great number of the people were in the temple. And now the king’s captain, on hearing what the undertaking was, and supposing it was a thing of a higher nature than it proved to be, came up there, having a great band of soldiers with him, such as was sufficient to put a stop to the multitude of those who pulled down what was dedicated to God; so he fell on them unexpectedly, and as they were on this bold attempt, in a foolish presumption rather than a cautious circumspection, as is usual with the multitude, and while they were in disorder and careless of what was for their advantage; so he caught no fewer than forty of the young men who had the courage to stay behind when the rest ran away, together with the authors of this bold attempt, Judas and Matthias, who thought it a disgraceful thing to retreat at his approach, and led them to the king. And when they had come to the king, and he asked them if they had been so bold as to pull down what he had dedicated to God, “Yes,” they said, “what was devised we devised, and what has been performed we performed it, and that with such a virtuous courage as is right for men; for we have given our assistance to those things which were dedicated to the majesty of God, and we have provided for what we have learned by hearing the Law; and it ought not to be wondered at, if we regard those laws which Moses had suggested to him, and were taught him by God, and which he wrote and left behind him, more worthy of observation than your commands. Accordingly, we will undergo death and all sorts of punishments which you can inflict on us with pleasure, since we are conscious to ourselves that we will die, not for any unrighteous actions, but for our love for religion.” And thus, they all spoke, and their courage was still equal to their profession, and equal to that with which they readily set about this undertaking. And when the king had ordered them to be bound, he sent them to Jericho and called together the principal men among the Jews; and when they had come, he made them assemble in the theater, and because he could not himself stand, he lay on a couch, and enumerated the many labors that he had long endured on their account, and his building of the temple, and what a vast charge that was to him; while the Hasmoneans, during the one hundred and twenty-five years of their government, had not been able to perform any such great work for the honor of God as that was; that he had also adorned it with very valuable donations, on which account he hoped that he had left himself a memorial and gained himself a reputation after his death. He then cried out that these men had not abstained from insulting him, even in his lifetime, but that in the very daytime, and in the sight of the multitude, they had abused him to that degree as to fall on what he had dedicated, and in that manner of abuse, had pulled it down to the ground. They pretended, indeed, that they did it to insult him; but if anyone truly considers the thing, they will find that they were guilty of sacrilege against God therein.

4. But the people, on account of Herod’s barbaric temper, and for fear he would be so cruel and inflict punishment on them, said what was done was done without their approval, and that it seemed to them that the actors might well be punished for what they had done. But as for Herod, he dealt more mildly with others [of the assembly], but he deprived Matthias of the high priesthood, as in part a cause of this action, and made Joazar, who was Matthias’ wife’s brother, high priest in his stead. Now it so happened that during the time of the high priesthood of this Matthias, there was another person made high priest for a single day, that very day which the Jews observed as a fast. The occasion was this: this Matthias the high priest, on the night before that day when the fast was to be celebrated, seemed, in a dream, to have conversation with his wife; and because he could not officiate himself on that account, Joseph, the son of Ellemus, his relative, assisted him in that sacred office. But Herod deprived this Matthias of the high priesthood, and burnt the other Matthias, who had raised the sedition, with his companions, alive. And that very night there was an eclipse of the moon.

5. But now Herod’s disease greatly increased on him in a severe manner, and this by God’s judgment on him for his sins; for a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it increased his pains inwardly; for it brought on him an insatiable appetite for eating, which he could not avoid to supply with one sort of food or other. His entrails were also ulcerated, and the chief violence of his pain lay in his colon; an aqueous and transparent liquid had also settled itself around his feet and a similar matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. Indeed, further, his genitals were putrefied and produced worms; and when he sat upright, he had [great] difficulty breathing, which was very loathsome, on account of the stench of his breath and the quickness of its returns; he also had convulsions in all parts of his body, which increased his strength to an intolerable degree. It was said by those who pretended to divine, and who were endowed with wisdom to foretell such things, that God inflicted this punishment on the king on account of his great impiety; yet he was still hopeful of recovering, though his afflictions seemed greater than anyone could bear. He also sent for physicians, and did not refuse to follow what they prescribed for his assistance, and went beyond the Jordan River, and bathed himself in the warm baths that were at Callirrhoe, which, besides their other general virtues, were also suitable to drink; which water runs into the lake called [the] Salt Sea. And when the physicians once thought suitable to have him bathed in a vessel full of oil, it was supposed that he was nearly dying; but on the lamentable cries of his servants, he revived; and no longer having the least hopes of recovering, he gave an order that every soldier should be paid fifty drachmas; and he also gave a great deal to their commanders, and to his friends, and came to Jericho again, where he grew so choleric, that it brought him to do all things like a madman; and though he was near his death, he devised the following wicked schemes: he commanded that all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation, wheresoever they lived, should be called to him. Accordingly, they were a great number that came, because the whole nation was called, and all men heard of this call, and death was the penalty of such as should despise the letters that were sent to call them. And now the king was in a wild rage against them all—the innocent as well as those that had provided ground for accusations; and when they had come, he ordered them all to be shut up in the hippodrome, and sent for his sister Salome, and her husband Alexas, and spoke thus to them: “I will die in a short time, so great are my pains; which death ought to be cheerfully endured, and to be welcomed by all men; but what principally troubles me is this: that I will die without being lamented, and without such mourning as men usually expect at a king’s death.” For he was not unacquainted with the temper of the Jews, that his death would be a very desirable thing and exceedingly acceptable to them, because during his lifetime they were ready to revolt from him and to abuse the donations he had dedicated to God. That it was therefore their business to resolve to provide him some alleviation from his great sorrows on this occasion; for if they do not refuse him their consent in what he desires, he will have a great mourning at his funeral, and such as no king had ever had before him; for then the whole nation would mourn from their very soul, which otherwise would be done in sport and mockery only. He therefore desired that as soon as they see [that] he has given up the spirit, they will place soldiers around the hippodrome, while they do not know that he is dead; and that they will not declare his death to the multitude until this is done, but that they will give orders to have those that are in custody shot with their darts; and that this slaughter of them all will cause that he will not fail to rejoice on a double account: that as he is dying, they will make him secure that his will will be executed in what he charges them to do; and that he will have the honor of a memorable mourning at his funeral. So, he deplored his condition, with tears in his eyes, and supplicated them by the kindness due from them, as of his relatives, and by the faith they owed to God, and begged of them that they would not hinder him from this honorable mourning at his funeral. So, they promised him not to transgress his commands.

6. Now anyone may easily discover the temper of this man’s mind, which not only took pleasure in doing what he had formerly done against his relations, out of the love of life, but by those commands of his which enjoyed no humanity; since he took care, when he was departing out of this life, that the whole nation should be put into mourning, and indeed made desolate of their dearest relatives, when he gave an order that one out of every family should be slain, although they had done nothing that was unjust, or that was against him, nor were they accused of any other crimes; while it is usual for those who have any regard for virtue to lay aside their hatred at such a time, even with respect to those they justly regarded [as] their enemies.

CHAPTER 7

Herod Has Thoughts of Killing Himself with His Own Hand; And Shortly Afterward, He Orders Antipater to Be Slain.

1. As he was giving these commands to his relatives, letters arrived from his ambassadors, who had been sent to Caesar at Rome, which, when they were read, their report was this: that “Acme was slain by Caesar, out of his indignation at what hand she had in Antipater’s wicked practices; and that as for Antipater himself, Caesar left it to Herod to act as suits a father and a king, and either to banish him, or to take his life away, whichever he pleased.” When Herod heard this, he was somewhat better, out of the pleasure he had from the contents of the letters, and was elevated at the death of Acme, and at the power that was given [to] him over his son; but as his pains had become very great, he was now ready to faint for lack of something to eat; so he called for an apple and a knife; for it was formerly his custom to pare the apple himself, and soon afterward to cut it, and eat it. When he had gotten the knife, he looked around and intended to stab himself with it; and he would have done it, had his first cousin, Achiabus, not prevented him, and held his hand, and cried out loudly. Whereon a woeful lamentation echoed throughout the palace, and a great commotion was made, as if the king were dead. On which Antipater, who truly believed his father was deceased, grew bold in his discourse, as hoping to be immediately and entirely released from his bonds and to take the kingdom into his hands without any more trouble; so he discoursed with the jailer about letting him go, and in that case promised him great things, both now and hereafter, as if that were the only thing now in question. But the jailer not only refused to do what Antipater would have him do, but informed the king of his intentions, and how many solicitations he had had from him [of that nature]. Hereon Herod, who formerly had no affection nor goodwill toward his son to restrain him, when he heard what the jailer said, he cried out, and beat his head, although he was at death’s door, and raised himself on his elbow, and sent for some of his guards, and commanded them to kill Antipater without any further delay, and to do it presently, and to bury him in an ignoble manner at Hyrcania.

CHAPTER 8

Concerning Herod’s Death, and Testament, and Burial.

1. And now Herod altered his testament on the alteration of his mind; for he appointed Antipas, to whom he had previously left the kingdom, to be tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, and granted the kingdom to Archelaus. He also gave Gaulonitis, and Trachonitis, and Paneas to Philip, who was his son, but genuine [half-]brother to Archelaus by the name of a tetrarchy; and he bequeathed Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelus to his sister Salome, with five hundred thousand [drachmas] of silver that was minted. He also made provision for all the rest of his relatives, by giving them sums of money and annual revenues, and so left them all in a wealthy condition. He also bequeathed to Caesar ten million [drachmas] of minted money, besides both vessels of gold and silver, and exceedingly costly garments, to Julia, Caesar’s wife; and to certain others, five million. When he had done these things, he died, the fifth day after he had caused Antipater to be slain; having reigned, since he had procured Antigonus to be slain, thirty-four years; but since he had been declared king by the Romans, thirty-seven. He was a man of incredible barbarity toward all men equally, and a slave to his passion, but above the consideration of what was right; yet he was favored by fortune as much as any man ever was, for from a private man he became a king; and though he was surrounded with ten thousand dangers, he got clear of them all and continued his life until a very old age. But then, as for the affairs of his family and children, in which indeed, according to his own opinion, he was also very fortunate, because he was able to conquer his enemies, yet, in my opinion, he was herein very unfortunate.

2. But then Salome and Alexas, before the king’s death was made known, dismissed those that were imprisoned in the hippodrome, and told them that the king ordered them to go away to their own lands, and take care of their own affairs, which was regarded by the nation [as] a great benefit. And now the king’s death was made public, when Salome and Alexas gathered the soldiers together in the amphitheater at Jericho; and the first thing they did was [that] they read Herod’s letter, written to the soldiers, thanking them for their fidelity and goodwill toward him, and exhorting them to provide his son Archelaus, whom he had appointed for their king, [the] same fidelity and goodwill. After which Ptolemy, who had the king’s seal entrusted to him, read the king’s testament, which was to be of force not differently than as it should stand when Caesar had inspected it [himself]; so there was presently an acclamation made to Archelaus, as king; and the soldiers came by bands, and their commanders with them, and promised the same goodwill to him, and readiness to serve him, which they had exhibited to Herod; and they prayed [for] God to be a support for him.

3. After this was over, they prepared for his funeral, it being Archelaus’ care that the procession to his father’s tomb should be very spectacular. Accordingly, he brought out all his ornaments to adorn the spectacle of the funeral. The body was carried on a golden bier, embroidered with very precious stones of great variety, and it was covered over with purple, as well as the body itself; he had a diadem on his head, and above it a crown of gold: he also had a scepter in his right hand. Around the bier were his sons and his numerous relations; next to these were the soldiers, distinguished according to their various countries and denominations; and they were put into the following order: first of all went his guards, then the band of Thracians, and after them the Germans, and next the band of Galatians, everyone in their military attire; and behind these marched the whole army in the same manner as they used to go out to war, and as they used to be put in array by their muster-masters and centurions; these were followed by five hundred of his servants carrying spices. So, they went eight stadia to Herodium; for there by his own command he was to be buried. And thus, Herod ended his life.

4. Now Archelaus paid him so much respect, as to continue his mourning until the seventh day; for so many days are appointed for it by the Law of our fathers. And when he had given a treat to the multitude and ceased his mourning, he went up into the temple; he also had acclamations and praises given [to] him, whichever way he went, everyone striving with the rest who should appear to use the loudest acclamations. So he ascended a high elevation made for him, and took his seat in a throne made of gold, and spoke kindly to the multitude, and declared with what joy he received their acclamations and the marks of the goodwill they showed to him; and he returned them thanks that they did not remember the injuries his father had done them to his disadvantage; and he promised them he would endeavor not to be behind with them in rewarding their eagerness in his service, in a suitable manner; but that he should abstain at present from the name of king, and that he should [only] have the honor of that dignity if Caesar should confirm and settle that testament which his father had made; and that it was on this account, that when the army would have put the diadem on him at Jericho, he would not accept that honor, which is usually so greatly desired, because it was not yet evident that he who was to be principally concerned in bestowing it would give it [to] him; although, by his acceptance of the government, he should not lack the ability of rewarding their kindness to him and that it should be his endeavor, as to all things wherein they were concerned, to prove in every respect better than his father. Whereon the multitude, as is usual with them, supposed that the first days of those that enter on such governments declare the intentions of those that accept them; and so by how much Archelaus spoke more gently and civilly to them, by so much did they more highly commend him and made application to him for the grant of what they desired. Some made a clamor that he should ease them of some of their annual payments; but others desired him to release those that were put into prison by Herod, who were many, and had been put there at various times; others of them required that he would take away those taxes which had been heavily laid on what was publicly sold and bought. So Archelaus contradicted them in nothing, since he pretended to do all things so as to gain the goodwill of the multitude for him, as looking on that goodwill to be a great step toward his preservation of the government. Hereon he went and offered sacrifice to God and then committed himself to feast with his friends.

CHAPTER 9

How the People Raised a Sedition Against Archelaus, and How He Sailed to Rome.

1. It was also at this time that some of the Jews gathered out of a desire for innovation. They lamented Matthias, and those that were slain with him by Herod, who did not have any respect paid [to] them by a funeral mourning, out of the fear men were in of that man; they were those who had been condemned for pulling down the golden eagle. The people made a great clamor and lamentation hereon and also cast out some reproaches against the king, as if that tended to alleviate the miseries of the deceased. The people assembled together, and desired of Archelaus, that, in way of revenge on their account, he would inflict punishment on those who had been honored by Herod; and that, in the first and principal place, he would deprive that high priest whom Herod had made and would choose one more agreeable to the Law, and of greater purity, to officiate as high priest. This was granted by Archelaus, although he was mightily offended at their demand, because he proposed to himself to immediately go to Rome to look after Caesar’s determination concerning him. However, he sent the general of his forces to use persuasions, and to tell them that the death which was inflicted on their friends was according to the law, and to represent to them that their petitions about these things were carried to a great height of insult to him; that the time was not now proper for such petitions, but required their unanimity until such time as he should be established in the government by the consent of Caesar, and should then have come back to them; for he would then consult with them in common concerning the meaning of their petitions; but that they ought to be quiet at present, lest they should seem seditious persons.

2. So when the king had suggested these things and instructed his general in what he was to say, he sent him away to the people; but they made a clamor, and would not give him permission to speak, and put him in danger of his life, and as many more as were desirous to venture on saying anything openly which might reduce them to a sober mind and prevent their going on in their present courses, because they had more concern to have all their own wills done than to yield obedience to their governors, thinking it to be an intolerable thing that, while Herod was alive, they should lose those that were most dear to them, and that when he was dead, they could not get the actors to be punished. So they went on with their plans in a violent manner, and thought everything to be lawful and right which tended to please them, and being unskillful in foreseeing what dangers they incurred; and when they had suspicion of such a thing, yet the present pleasure they took in the punishment of those they deemed [to be] their enemies overweighed all such considerations; and although Archelaus sent many to speak to them, yet they did not treat them as messengers sent by him, but as persons that came of their own accord to mitigate their anger, and would not let one of them speak. The sedition was also made by such as were in a great passion; and it was evident that they were proceeding further in seditious practices, by the multitude running so fast on them.

3. Now, on the approach of that Celebration of Unleavened Bread, which the Law of their fathers had appointed for the Jews at this time, which feast is called the Passover and is a memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt, when they offer sacrifices with great eagerness, and when they are required to slay more sacrifices in number than at any other festival, and when an innumerable multitude came there out of the country—indeed, from beyond its limits also—in order to worship God, the seditious lamented Judas and Matthias, those teachers of the laws, and kept together in the temple, and had plenty of food, because these seditious persons were not ashamed to beg [for] it. And as Archelaus was afraid lest some terrible thing should spring up by means of these men’s madness, he sent a regiment of armed men, and with them a captain of one thousand, to suppress the violent efforts of the seditious before the whole multitude should be infected with the same madness; and he gave them this command: that if they found any [who were] much more openly seditious than others and busier in riotous practices, they should bring them to him. But those that were seditious on account of those teachers of the Law, irritated the people by the noise and clamors they used to encourage the people in their plans; so they made an assault on the soldiers, and came up to them, and stoned the greatest part of them, although some of them ran away wounded, and their captain among them; and when they had done this, they returned to the sacrifices which were already in their hands. Now Archelaus thought there was no way to preserve the entire government except by cutting off those who made this attempt on it; so he sent out the whole army on them, and sent the horsemen to prevent those that had their tents outside the temple from assisting those that were within the temple, and to kill such as ran away from the footmen when they thought themselves out of danger; which horsemen slew three thousand men, while the rest went to the neighboring mountains. Then Archelaus ordered a proclamation to be made to them all: that they should retire to their own homes; so they went away and left the festival, out of fear of something worse which would follow, although they had been so bold by reason of their lack of instruction. So Archelaus went down to the sea with his mother, and took with him Nicolaus and Ptolemy, and many others of his friends, and left his brother Philip as governor of all things belonging both to his own family and to the public. There also went out with him Salome, Herod’s sister, who took with her her children, and many of her relatives were with her; which relatives of hers went, as they pretended, to assist Archelaus in gaining the kingdom, but in reality to oppose him, and chiefly to make loud complaints of what he had done in the temple. But Sabinus, Caesar’s steward for Syrian affairs, as he was making haste into Judea to preserve Herod’s effects, met with Archelaus at Caesarea; but Varus, the president of Syria, came at that time and restrained him from meddling with them, for he was there as sent for by Archelaus, by the means of Ptolemy. And Sabinus, out of regard for Varus, neither seized any of the castles that were among the Jews, nor did he seal up the treasures in them, but permitted Archelaus to have them, until Caesar should declare his resolution about them, so that, on his promise, he still tarried at Caesarea. But after Archelaus had sailed for Rome, and Varus was removed to Antioch, Sabinus went to Jerusalem and seized the king’s palace. He also sent for the keepers of the garrisons, and for all those that had the care of Herod’s effects, and publicly declared that he should require them to give an account of what they had; and he disposed of the castles in the manner he pleased; but those who kept them did not neglect what Archelaus had given them in command, but continued to keep all things in the manner that had been commanded them; and their pretense was that they kept them all for Caesar.

4. At the same time also, Antipas, another of Herod’s sons, sailed to Rome in order to gain the government, being elevated by Salome with promises that he should take that government, and that he was a much more honest and suitable man than Archelaus for that authority, since Herod had, in his former testament, deemed him the worthiest to be made king, which ought to be regarded more valid than his latter testament. Antipas also brought with him his mother, and Ptolemy, the brother of Nicolaus, one that had been Herod’s most honored friend and was now zealous for Antipas; but it was Ireneus the orator, and one who, on account of his reputation for shrewdness, was entrusted with the affairs of the kingdom, who most of all encouraged him to attempt to gain the kingdom; by whose means it was that when some advised him to yield to Archelaus, as to his elder brother, and who had been declared king by their father’s last will, he would not submit to do so. And when he had come to Rome, all his relations revolted to him; not out of their goodwill toward him, but out of their hatred for Archelaus; though they were indeed most of all desirous of gaining their liberty, and to be put under a Roman governor; but if there was too great an opposition made to that, they thought Antipas preferable to Archelaus, and so joined with him in order to gain the kingdom for him. Sabinus also, by letters, accused Archelaus to Caesar.

5. Now when Archelaus had sent in his papers to Caesar, wherein he pleaded his right to the kingdom, and his father’s testament, with the accounts of Herod’s money, and with Ptolemy, who brought Herod’s seal, he so expected the event; but when Caesar had read these papers, and Varus’ and Sabinus’ letters, with the accounts of the money, and what the annual incomes of the kingdom were, and understood that Antipas had also sent letters to lay claim to the kingdom, he summoned his friends together to learn their opinions, and with them Gaius, the son of Agrippa, and of his daughter Julia, whom he had adopted, and took him, and made him sit first of all, and desired such as pleased to speak their minds concerning the affairs [that were] now before them. Now Antipater, Salome’s son, a very subtle orator, and a bitter enemy to Archelaus, spoke first to this purpose: that it was ridiculous for Archelaus to now plead to have the kingdom given [to] him, since he had, in reality, already taken the power over it to himself, before Caesar had granted it to him; and he appealed to those bold actions of his, in destroying so many at the Jewish festival; and if the men had acted unjustly, it was only right [that] the punishing of them should have been reserved for those that were out of the country, but had the power to punish them, and not been executed by a man that, if he pretended to be a king, caused an insult to Caesar, by usurping that authority before it was determined for him by Caesar; but if he admitted himself to be a private person, his case was much worse, since he who was putting in for the kingdom could by no means expect to have that power granted [to] him, of which he had already deprived Caesar [by taking it to himself]. He also touched sharply on him and appealed to his changing the commanders in the army, and his sitting in the royal throne beforehand, and his determination of lawsuits—all done as if he were none other than a king. He also appealed to his concessions to those that petitioned him on a public account, and indeed doing such things, than which he could devise nothing greater [even] if he had already been settled in the kingdom by Caesar. He also ascribed to him the releasing of the prisoners that were in the hippodrome, and many other things, that either had been certainly done by him, or were believed to be done, and easily might be believed to have been done, because they were of such a nature as to be usually done by young men, and by such as, out of a desire for ruling, seize the government too soon. He also charged him with his neglect of the funeral mourning for his father, and with having joyous meetings the very night in which he died; and that it was there [that] the multitude took the handle of raising a tumult: and if Archelaus could thus repay his dead father, who had bestowed such benefits on him, and bequeathed such great things to him, by pretending to shed tears for him in the daytime, like an actor on the stage, but every night celebrating for having obtained the government, he would appear to be the same Archelaus with regard to Caesar, if he granted him the kingdom, which he has been to his father; since he then had dancing and singing, as though an enemy of his had fallen, and not as though a man were carried to his funeral, that was so nearly related, and had been such a great benefactor to him. But he said that the greatest crime of all was this: that he now came before Caesar to obtain the government by his grant, while he had previously acted in all things as he could have acted if Caesar himself, who ruled all, had fixed him firmly in the government. And what he most aggravated in his pleading was the slaughter of those around the temple, and the impiety of it, as done at the festival; and how they were slain like sacrifices themselves, some of whom were foreigners, and others of their own country, until the temple was full of dead bodies: and all this was done, not by an alien, but by one who pretended to [have] the lawful title of a king, so that he might complete the wicked tyranny which his nature prompted him to, and which is hated by all men. On which account his father never so much as dreamed of making him his successor in the kingdom, when he was of a sound mind, because he knew his disposition; and in his former and more authentic testament, he appointed his antagonist Antipas to succeed [him]; but Archelaus was called by his father to that dignity when he was in a dying condition, both of body and mind; while Antipas was called when he was ripest in his judgment, and of such strength of body as made him capable of managing his own affairs: and if his father formerly had the same notion of him that he has now shown, yet he has given a sufficient example [of] what [kind of] a king he is likely to be, when he has [in effect] deprived Caesar of that power of disposing of the kingdom, which he justly has, and has not abstained from making a terrible slaughter of his fellow citizens in the temple, while he was merely a private person.

6. So, when Antipater had made this speech and had confirmed what he had said by producing many witnesses from among Archelaus’ own relations, he made an end of his pleading. On this, Nicolaus rose up to plead for Archelaus and said that, “What had been done at the temple was rather to be attributed to the mind of those that had been killed, than to the authority of Archelaus; for those who were the authors of such things are not only wicked in the injuries they do of themselves, but in forcing sober persons to avenge themselves on them. Now it is evident that what these did in way of opposition was done under pretense, indeed, against Archelaus, but in reality, against Caesar himself, for they, in an injurious manner, attacked and slew those who were sent by Archelaus, and who only came to put a stop to their undertakings. They had no regard, either for God or for the festival, whom Antipater is yet not ashamed to patronize, whether it be out of his indulgence of an enmity for Archelaus, or out of his hatred of virtue and justice. For as to those who begin such uproars, and first set about such unrighteous actions, they are the men who force those that punish them to commit themselves to arms even against their will. So that Antipater in effect ascribes the rest of what was done to all those who were of counsel to the accusers; for nothing which is here accused of injustice has been done but what was derived from them as its authors; nor are those things evil in themselves, but so represented only in order to do harm to Archelaus. Such is these men’s inclination to cause harm to a man that is of their relatives, their father’s benefactor, and intimately acquainted with them, and that has always lived in friendship with them; because, as to this testament, it was made by the king when he was of a sound mind, and so ought to be of more authority than his former testament; and that for this reason: because Caesar is left to be the judge and disposer of all contained therein; and for Caesar, he will not, to be sure, imitate the unjust proceedings of those men at all, who, during Herod’s entire life, had been joint partakers of power with him on all occasions, and yet zealously endeavor to injure his determination, while they themselves have not had the same regard for their relative [which Archelaus had]. Caesar will therefore not annul the testament of a man whom he had entirely supported, of his friend and confederate, and that which is committed to him in trust to ratify; nor will Caesar’s virtuous and upright disposition, which is known and uncontested through all the habitable world, imitate the wickedness of these men in condemning a king as a madman, and as having lost his reason, while he has bequeathed the succession to a good son of his, and to one who flees to Caesar’s upright determination for refuge. Nor can Herod at any time have been mistaken in his judgment about a successor, while he showed so much prudence as to submit everything to Caesar’s determination.”

7. Now when Nicolaus had laid these things before Caesar, he ended his plea; whereon Caesar was so obliging to Archelaus, that he raised him up when he had cast himself down at his feet, and said that he well deserved the kingdom; and he soon let them know that he was so far moved in his favor, that he would not act otherwise than his father’s testament directed, and than was for the advantage of Archelaus. However, while he gave this encouragement to Archelaus to depend on him securely, he made no complete determination about him; and when the assembly was broken up, he considered by himself whether he should confirm the kingdom to Archelaus, or whether he should part it among all of Herod’s posterity; and this because they all stood in need of much assistance to support them.

CHAPTER 10

A Sedition Against Sabinus; And How Varus Brought the Authors of It to Punishment.

1. But before these things could be brought to a settlement, Malthace, Archelaus’ mother, fell into a disease and died from it; and letters came from Varus, the president of Syria, which informed Caesar of the revolt of the Jews; for after Archelaus had sailed, the whole nation was in a commotion. So Varus, since he was there himself, brought the authors of the disturbance to punishment; and when he had restrained them for the most part from this sedition, which was a great one, he undertook his journey to Antioch, leaving one legion of his army at Jerusalem to keep the Jews quiet, who were now very fond of innovation. Yet this did not at all avail to put an end to their sedition; for after Varus had gone away, Sabinus, Caesar’s procurator, stayed behind and greatly distressed the Jews, relying on the forces that were left there that they would protect him by their multitude; for he made use of them and armed them as his guards, thereby so [greatly] oppressing the Jews and giving them such a great disturbance, that they finally rebelled; for he used force in seizing the citadels and zealously pressed on the search after the king’s money, in order to seize it by force, on account of his love of gain and his extraordinary covetousness.

2. But on the approach of Pentecost, which is a festival of ours, so called from the days of our forefathers, a great many myriads of men gathered together; nor did they only come to celebrate the festival, but out of their indignation at the madness of Sabinus, and at the injuries he offered them. There were a great number of Galileans, and Idumeans, and many men from Jericho, and others who had passed over the Jordan River and inhabited those parts. This whole multitude joined themselves to all the rest, and were more zealous than the others in making an assault on Sabinus, in order to be avenged on him; so they parted themselves into three bands and encamped themselves in the following places: some of them seized the hippodrome; and of the other two bands, one pitched themselves from the northern part of the temple to the southern, on the east quarter; but the third band held the western part of the city, where the king’s palace was. Their work entirely tended to besiege the Romans and to enclose them on all sides. Now Sabinus was afraid of these men’s number, and of their resolution, who had little regard for their lives, but were very desirous not to be overcome, while they thought it a point of power to overcome their enemies; so he immediately sent a letter to Varus, and, as he used to do, was very pressing with him and implored him to quickly come to his aid, because the forces he had left were in imminent danger, and would probably, in a short time, be seized and cut to pieces; while he himself went up to the highest tower of the fortress [of] Phasaelus, which had been built in honor of Phasaelus, King Herod’s brother, and called so when the Parthians had brought him to his death. So Sabinus gave a signal there to the Romans to fall on the Jews, although he himself did not venture so much as to come down to his friends and thought he might expect that the others should expose themselves first to die on account of his avarice. However, the Romans ventured to make an offensive out of the place, and a terrible battle ensued; wherein, though it is true the Romans beat their adversaries, yet the Jews were not daunted in their resolutions, even when they had the sight of that terrible slaughter that was made of them; but they went around, and got on those cloisters which surrounded the outer court of the temple, where a great fight was still continued, and they cast stones at the Romans, partly with their hands, and partly with slings, as being very used to those exercises. All the archers, in array, also caused the Romans a great deal of trouble, because they used their hands dexterously from a place superior to the others, and because the others were at an utter loss [of] what to do; for when they tried to shoot their arrows against the Jews upwards, these arrows could not reach them, insomuch that the Jews were easily too difficult for their enemies. And this sort of fight lasted a great while, until at last the Romans, who were greatly distressed by what was done, set fire to the cloisters so silently that those that had gotten on them did not perceive it. This fire, being fed by a great deal of combustible matter, immediately caught hold on the roof of the cloisters; so the wood, which was full of pitch and wax, and whose gold was laid on it with wax, presently yielded to the flame, and those vast works, which were of the highest value and regard, were utterly destroyed, while those that were on the roof unexpectedly perished at the same time; for as the roof tumbled down, some of these men tumbled down with it, and others of them were killed by their enemies who surrounded them. There was a great number more, who, out of despair of saving their lives, and out of astonishment at the misery that surrounded them, either cast themselves into the fire, or threw themselves on their swords, and so escaped from their misery. But as for those that retreated behind the same way by which they ascended, and thereby escaped, they were all killed by the Romans, as being unarmed men, and their courage failing them—their wild fury now being unable to help them, because they were destitute of armor, insomuch that of those that went up to the top of the roof, not one escaped. The Romans also rushed through the fire, where it gave them room to do so, and seized that treasure where the sacred money was deposited; a great part of which was stolen by the soldiers, and Sabinus openly obtained four hundred talents.

3. But this calamity of the Jews’ friends, who fell in this battle, grieved them, as also did this plundering of the money dedicated to God in the temple. Accordingly, that body of them which continued best together, and was the most warlike, surrounded the palace and threatened to set fire to it and kill all that were in it. Yet they still commanded them to go out presently, and promised that if they would do so, they would not hurt them, nor Sabinus either; at which time the greatest part of the king’s troops deserted to them, while Rufus and Gratus, who had three thousand of the most warlike of Herod’s army with them, who were men of active bodies, went over to the Romans. There was also a band of horsemen under the command of Rufus, which itself also went over to the Romans. However, the Jews went on with the siege, and dug mines under the palace walls, and pleaded with those that had gone over to the other side not to be their hindrance, now [that] they had such a proper opportunity for the recovery of their country’s ancient liberty; and for Sabinus, he was truly desirous of going away with his soldiers, but was unable to trust himself with the enemy, on account of what trouble he had already done them; and he took this great [pretended] permissiveness of theirs for an argument why he should not comply with them; and so, because he expected that Varus was coming, he still endured the siege.

4. Now at this time there were ten thousand other disorders in Judea, which were like riots, because a great number put themselves into a military posture, either out of hopes of gain for themselves, or out of enmity for the Jews. In particular, two thousand of Herod’s old soldiers, who had already been disbanded, gathered in Judea itself and fought against the king’s troops, although Achiabus, Herod’s first cousin, opposed them; but as he was driven out of the plains into the mountainous parts by the military skill of those men, he kept himself in the refuges that were there and saved what he could.

5. There was also Judas, the son of that Ezekias who had been [the] head of the robbers, which Ezekias was a very strong man and had been caught by Herod [only] with great difficulty. This Judas, having gathered together a multitude of men of a reckless character around Sepphoris in Galilee, made an assault on the palace [there], and seized all the weapons that were laid up in it, and with them armed every one of those that were with him, and carried away what money was left there; and he became terrible to all men, by tearing and rending those that came near him; and all this in order to raise himself, and out of an ambitious desire for the royal dignity; and he hoped to obtain that as the reward not of his virtuous skill in war, but of his extravagance in causing harm.

6. There was also Simon, who had been a slave of King Herod, but in other respects a handsome person, of a tall and robust body; he was one that was very superior to others of his order and had had great things committed to his care. This man was elevated at the disorderly state of things and was so bold as to put a diadem on his head, while a certain number of the people stood by him, and by them he was declared to be a king, and he thought himself more worthy of that dignity than anyone else. He burned down the royal palace at Jericho and plundered what was left in it. He also set fire to many of the king’s other houses in several places of the country, and utterly destroyed them, and permitted those that were with him to take what was left in them for a prey; and he would have done [even] greater things, unless care had been taken to immediately suppress him; for Gratus, when he had joined himself to some Roman soldiers, took the forces he had with him, and met Simon, and after a great and long fight, no small part of those that came from Perea, who were a disordered body of men that fought rather in a bold than in a skillful manner, were destroyed; and although Simon had saved himself by fleeing away through a certain valley, yet Gratus overtook him and cut off his head. The royal palace at Amathus, by the Jordan River, was also burned down by a party of men that were gathered, as were those belonging to Simon. And thus a great and wild fury spread itself over the nation, because they had no king to keep the multitude in good order, and because those foreigners who came to reduce the seditious to sobriety did, on the contrary, set them more aflame, because of the injuries they offered them and the greedy management of their affairs.

7. But because Athronges—a person neither eminent by the dignity of his progenitors, nor for any great wealth he had possession of, but one that had in all respects been only a shepherd and was not known by anyone—was yet a tall man and excelled others in the strength of his hands, he was so bold as to set [himself] up as king. This man thought it such a sweet thing to cause more than ordinary injuries to others, so that although he should be killed, he did not much care if he lost his life in such a grand scheme. He also had four brothers, who were tall men themselves, and were believed to be superior to others in the strength of their hands, and thereby were encouraged to aim at great things, and thought that strength of theirs would support them in retaining the kingdom. Each of these ruled over a band of men of their own; for those that gathered to them were very numerous. Every one of them were also commanders; but when they came to fight, they were subordinate to him and fought for him, while he put a diadem around his head and assembled a council to debate concerning what things should be done, and all things were done according to his pleasure. And this man retained his power a great while; he was also called king and had nothing to hinder him from doing what he pleased. He also, as well as his brothers, slew a great many both of the Romans and of the king’s forces and managed matters with the same hatred toward each of them. They fell on the king’s forces, because of the licentious conduct they had been allowed under Herod’s government; and they fell on the Romans, because of the injuries they had so recently received from them. But in the course of time, they grew crueler toward all sorts of men, nor could anyone escape from one or another of these seditions, since they slew some out of the hopes of gain, and others from a mere custom of slaying men. They once attacked a company of Romans at Emmaus, who were bringing corn and weapons to the army, and fell on Arius, the centurion, who commanded the company, and shot forty of the best of his foot soldiers; but the rest of them were frightened at their slaughter and left their dead behind them, but saved themselves by means of Gratus, who came to their aid with the king’s troops that were around him. Now these four brothers continued the war a long while by such sort of expeditions and greatly grieved the Romans, but caused their own nation a great deal of trouble also. Yet they were subdued afterward: one of them in a fight with Gratus, another with Ptolemy; Archelaus also took the eldest of them prisoner, while the last of them was so dejected at the other’s misfortune and saw so plainly that he no longer had any way left to save himself, his army being worn away with sickness and continual labors, that he also delivered himself up to Archelaus, on his promise and oath to God [to preserve his life]. But these things came to pass a good while afterward.

8. And now Judea was full of robberies; and as the various companies of the seditious came to anyone to head them, he was made a king immediately, in order to cause trouble to the public. They were in some small measure indeed, and in small matters, harmful to the Romans; but the murders they committed on their own people lasted a long while.

9. As soon as Varus was once informed of the state of Judea by Sabinus’ writing to him, he was afraid for the legion he had left there; so he took the two other legions (for there were three legions in all belonging to Syria), and four troops of horsemen, with the various auxiliary forces which either the kings or certain of the tetrarchs provided him, and made what haste he could to assist those that were then besieged in Judea. He also gave an order that all that were sent out for this expedition should make haste to Ptolemais. The citizens of Berytus also gave him fifteen hundred auxiliaries as he passed through their city. Aretas also, the king of Arabia Petrea, out of his hatred for Herod, and in order to purchase the favor of the Romans, sent him no small assistance, besides their footmen and horsemen; and when he had now collected all his forces together, he committed part of them to his son, and to a friend of his, and sent them on an expedition into Galilee, which lies in the neighborhood of Ptolemais, who made an attack on the enemy, and put them to flight, and took Sepphoris, and made its inhabitants slaves, and burnt the city. But Varus himself pursued his march for Samaria with his whole army; yet he did not meddle with the city of that name, because it had not joined with the seditious at all; but he pitched his camp at a certain village that belonged to Ptolemy, whose name was Arus, which the Arabians burnt, out of their hatred for Herod, and out of the enmity they bore to his friends; from which they marched to another village, whose name was Sampho, which the Arabians plundered and burnt, although it was a fortified and a strong place; and all along this march nothing escaped them, but all places were full of fire and of slaughter. Emmaus was also burnt by Varus’ order, after its inhabitants had deserted it, so that he might avenge those that had been destroyed there. From there he now marched to Jerusalem; whereon those Jews whose camp lay there, and who had besieged the Roman legion, not bearing the coming of this army, left the siege defective: but as for the Jerusalem Jews, when Varus reproached them bitterly for what had been done, they cleared themselves of the accusation, and alleged that the conflux of the people was caused by the feast; that the war was not made with their approval, but by the rashness of the strangers, while they were on the side of the Romans and were besieged together with them, rather than having any inclination to besiege them. There also came beforehand to meet Varus, Joseph, the cousin of King Herod, as also Gratus and Rufus, who brought their soldiers along with them, together with those Romans who had been besieged; but Sabinus did not come into Varus’ presence, but snuck out of the city privately and went to the seaside.

10. On this, Varus sent a part of his army into the country to seek out those that had been the authors of the revolt; and when they were discovered, he punished some of them that were most guilty, and some he dismissed: now the number of those that were crucified on this account was two thousand. After which he disbanded his army, which he found [in] no way useful to him in the affairs he came about, for they behaved themselves very disorderly, and disobeyed his orders, and what Varus desired them to do, and this out of regard for that gain which they made by the mischief they did. As for himself, when he was informed that ten thousand Jews had gathered together, he made haste to catch them; but they did not proceed so far as to fight him, but, by the advice of Achiabus, they came together and delivered themselves up to him: hereon Varus forgave the crime of revolting to the multitude, but sent their various commanders to Caesar, many of whom Caesar dismissed; but for the various relations of Herod who had been among these men in this war, they were the only persons whom he punished, who, without the least regard for justice, fought against their own relatives.

CHAPTER 11

An Envoy to Caesar; And How Caesar Confirmed Herod’s Testament.

1. So when Varus had settled these affairs and had placed the former legion at Jerusalem, he returned back to Antioch; but as for Archelaus, he had new sources of trouble come on him at Rome, on the following occasions: for an envoy of the Jews had come to Rome, Varus having permitted the nation to send it, so that they might petition for the liberty of living by their own laws. Now the number of the ambassadors that were sent by the authority of the nation was fifty, to which they joined above eight thousand of the Jews that were already at Rome. Hereon Caesar assembled his friends, and the chief men among the Romans, in the temple of Apollo, which he had built at vast expense, where the ambassadors came, and a multitude of the Jews that were already there came with them, as Archelaus and his friends also did; but as for the various relatives which Archelaus had, they would not join themselves with him, out of their hatred for him; and yet they thought it too gross a thing for them to assist the ambassadors [against him], as supposing it would be a disgrace to them in Caesar’s opinion to think of thus acting in opposition to a man of their own relatives. Philip had also come here out of Syria, by the persuasion of Varus, with this principal intention to assist his brother [Archelaus]; for Varus was his great friend: but still so, that if any change should happen in the form of government (which Varus suspected there would), and if any distribution should be made on account of the number that desired the liberty of living by their own laws, that he might not be disappointed, but might have his share in it.

2. Now on the liberty that was given to the Jewish ambassadors to speak, they who hoped to obtain a dissolution of royal government committed themselves to accuse Herod of his iniquities; and they declared that he was indeed in name a king, but that he had taken to himself that uncontrollable authority which tyrants exercise over their subjects, and had made use of that authority for the destruction of the Jews, and did not abstain from making many innovations among them additionally, according to his own inclinations; and that whereas there were a great many who perished by that destruction he brought on them—so many indeed as no other history relates—they that survived were far more miserable than those that suffered under him; not only by the anxiety they were in from his looks and disposition toward them, but from the danger their estates were in of being taken away by him. That he never ceased adorning these cities that lay in their neighborhood, but were inhabited by foreigners; but so that the cities belonging to his own government were ruined and utterly destroyed, that whereas, when he took the kingdom [and] it was in an extraordinarily flourishing condition, he had filled the nation with the greatest degree of poverty; and when, on unjust pretenses, he had slain any of the nobility, he took away their estates; and when he permitted any of them to live, he condemned them to the forfeiture of what they possessed. And besides the annual impositions which he laid on every one of them, they were to make liberal presents to himself, to his servants and friends, and to such of his slaves as were granted the favor of being his tax-gatherers, because there was no way of obtaining a freedom from unjust violence without giving either gold or silver for it. That they would say nothing of the corruption of the chastity of their virgins, and the reproach laid on their wives for lasciviousness, and those things acted in an insolent and inhuman manner; because it was not a smaller pleasure to the sufferers to have such things concealed, than it would have been not to have suffered them. That Herod had put such abuses on them as a wild beast would not have put on them if he had power given him to rule over us; and that although their nation had passed through many subversions and alterations of government, their history gave no account of any calamity they had ever been under that could be compared with this which Herod had brought on their nation; that it was for this reason that they thought they might justly and gladly salute Archelaus as king, on this supposition: that whosoever should be set over their kingdom, he would appear more mild to them than Herod had been; and that they had joined with him in the mourning for his father, in order to gratify him, and were also ready to compel him in other points if they could meet with any degree of moderation from him; but that he seemed to be afraid lest he should not be deemed Herod’s own son; and so, without any delay, he immediately let the nation understand his meaning, and this before his dominion was well established, since the power of disposing of it belonged to Caesar, who could either give it to him or not, as he pleased. That he had given an example of his future virtue to his subjects, and with what kind of moderation and good administration he would govern them, by his first action, which concerned them, his own citizens, and God Himself also, when he made the slaughter of three thousand of his own countrymen at the temple. How then could they avoid the just hatred of him, who, to the rest of his barbarity, has added this as one of our crimes, that we have opposed and contradicted him in the exercise of his authority? Now the main thing they desired was this: that they might be delivered from royal and similar forms of government, and might be added to Syria, and be put under the authority of such presidents of theirs as should be sent to them; for it would thereby be made evident, whether they are really a seditious people, and generally fond of innovations, or whether they would live in an orderly manner if they might have governors of any sort of moderation set over them.

3. Now when the Jews had said this, Nicolaus vindicated the kings from those accusations and said that as for Herod, since he had never been thus accused all the time of his life, it was not right for those that might have accused him of lesser crimes than those now mentioned, and might have procured him to be punished during his lifetime, to bring an accusation against him now [that] he was dead. He also attributed the actions of Archelaus to the Jews’ injuries to him, who, affecting to govern contrary to the laws, and going about to kill those that would have hindered them from acting unjustly, when they were punished by him for what they had done, made their complaints against him; so he accused them of their attempts for innovation and of the pleasure they took in sedition, by reason of their not having learned to submit to justice and to the laws, but still desiring to be superior in all things. This was the substance of what Nicolaus said.

4. When Caesar had heard these pleadings, he dissolved the assembly; but a few days afterward, he appointed Archelaus, not indeed to be king of the whole country, but ethnarch of one half of that which had been subject to Herod, and promised to give him the royal dignity hereafter if he governed his part virtuously. But as for the other half, he divided it into two parts and gave it to two other of Herod’s sons: to Philip and to Antipas (that Antipas who disputed with Archelaus for the whole kingdom). Now it was to him that Peres and Galilee paid their tribute, which amounted to two hundred talents annually, while Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part of what was called the House of Zenodorus, paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip; but Idumea, and Judea, and the country of Samaria paid tribute to Archelaus, but now had a fourth part of that tribute taken away by the order of Caesar, who decreed them that mitigation, because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the multitude. There were also certain of the cities which paid tribute to Archelaus: Strato’s Tower and Sebaste, with Joppa and Jerusalem; for as to Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, they were Grecian cities, which Caesar separated from his government and added them to the province of Syria. Now the tribute-money that came to Archelaus every year from his own dominions amounted to six hundred talents.

5. And this much came to Herod’s sons from their father’s inheritance. But Salome, besides what her brother left her by his testament, which were Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelus, and five hundred thousand [drachmas] of minted silver, Caesar made her a present of a royal habitation at Ashkelon; in all, her revenues amounted to sixty talents by the year, and her dwelling-house was within Archelaus’ government. The rest of the king’s relations also received what his testament allotted them. Moreover, Caesar made a present to each of Herod’s two virgin daughters, besides what their father left them, of two hundred and fifty thousand [drachmas] of silver, and married them to Pheroras’ sons: he also granted all that was bequeathed to himself to the king’s sons, which was one thousand five hundred talents, excepting a few of the vessels, which he reserved for himself; and they were acceptable to him, not so much for the great value they were of, as because they were memorials of the king to him.

CHAPTER 12

Concerning a Spurious Alexander.

1. When these affairs had been thus settled by Caesar, a certain young man, by birth a Jew, but brought up by a Roman freeman in the city [of] Sidon, ingrafted himself into the relatives of Herod, by the resemblance of his countenance, which those that saw him attested to be that of Alexander, the son of Herod, whom he had slain; and this was an incitement to him to endeavor to obtain the government; so he took to himself as an assistant a man of his own country (one that was well acquainted with the affairs of the palace, but, on other accounts, an evil man, and one whose nature made him capable of causing great disturbances to the public, and one that became a teacher of such a mischievous scheme to the other), and declared himself to be Alexander, and the son of Herod, but having been snuck away by one of those that were sent to slay him, who, in reality, slew other men, in order to deceive the spectators, but saved both him and his brother Aristobulus. Thus, this man was elated and able to impose on those that came to him; and when he had come to Crete, he made all the Jews that came to discourse with him believe him [to be Alexander]. And when he had gained much money which had been presented to him there, he passed over to Melos, where he acquired much more money than he had before, out of the belief they had that he was of the royal family and their hopes that he would recover his father’s principality and reward his benefactors; so he hurried to Rome and was led there by those strangers who entertained him. He was also so fortunate as, on his landing at Dicearchia, to bring the Jews that were there into the same delusion; and not only other people, but also all those that had been great with Herod, or had a kindness for him, joined themselves to this man as to their king. The cause of it was this: that men were glad of his pretenses, which were seconded by the likeness of his countenance, which made those that had been acquainted with Alexander to strongly believe that he was none other but the very same person, which they also confirmed to others by oath, insomuch that when the report went concerning him that he was coming to Rome, the whole multitude of the Jews that were there went out to meet him, ascribing it to Divine Providence that he had so unexpectedly escaped, and being very joyful on account of his mother’s family. And when he had come, he was carried in a royal litter through the streets; and all the ornaments around him were such as kings are adorned [with] as well; and this was at the expense of those that entertained him. The multitude also greatly flocked around him and made mighty acclamations to him, and nothing was omitted which could be thought suitable to such as had been so unexpectedly preserved.

2. When this thing was told [to] Caesar, he did not believe it, because Herod was not easily to be imposed on in such affairs as were of great concern to him; yet, having some suspicion it might be so, he sent one Celadus, a freedman of his, and one that had conversed with the young men themselves, and commanded him to bring Alexander into his presence; so he brought him, being no more accurate in judging concerning him than the rest of the multitude. Yet he did not deceive Caesar; for although there was a resemblance between him and Alexander, yet it was not so exact as to impose on such as were prudent in discerning; for this spurious Alexander had rough hands by the labors he had been put to and instead of that softness of body which the other had—and this as derived from his delicate and generous education; this man, for the contrary reason, had a rugged body. Therefore, when Caesar saw how the master and the scholar agreed in this lying story, and in a bold way of talking, he inquired concerning Aristobulus and asked what became of him who (it seems) had snuck away together with him, and for what reason it was that he did not come along with him and endeavor to recover that dominion which was due to his high birth also. And when he said that he had been left in the isle of Crete, for fear of the dangers of the sea, that, in case any accident should come to himself, the posterity of Mariamne might not utterly perish, but that Aristobulus might survive and punish those that laid such treacherous plots against them; and when he persevered in his affirmations, and the author of the imposture agreed in supporting it, Caesar took the young man by himself and said to him, “If you will not impose on me, you will have this for your reward: that you will escape with your life; tell me, then, who you [really] are, and who it was that had boldness enough to devise such a cheat as this. For this scheme is too considerable a piece of villainy to be undertaken by one of your age.” Accordingly, because he had no other path to take, he told Caesar the plan, and after what manner and by whom it was laid together. So Caesar, on observing the spurious Alexander to be a strong [and] active man, and fit enough to work with his hands, so that he might not break his promise to him, put him among those that were to row among the mariners, but slew him that induced him to do what he had done; for as to the people of Melos, he thought them sufficiently punished in having thrown away so much of their money on this spurious Alexander. And such was the dishonorable conclusion of this bold scheme concerning the spurious Alexander.

CHAPTER 13

How Archelaus, on a Second Accusation, Was Banished to Vienna.

1. When Archelaus had entered on his ethnarchy and had come into Judea, he accused Joazar, the son of Boethus, of assisting the seditious, and took away the high priesthood from him, and put his brother Eleazar in his stead. He also magnificently rebuilt the royal palace that had been at Jericho, and he diverted half the water with which the village of Neara used to be watered, and drew off that water into the plain to water those palm trees which he had planted there: he also built a village, and put his own name on it, and called it Archelaus. Moreover, he transgressed the Law of our fathers and married Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, who had been the wife of his brother Alexander, which Alexander had three children by her, while it was a detestable thing among the Jews to marry the brother’s wife. Nor did this Eleazar remain in the high priesthood long—Jesus, the son of Sie, being put in his stead while he was still living.

2. But in the tenth year of Archelaus’ government, both his brothers, and the principal men of Judea and Samaria, not being able to bear his barbaric and tyrannical usage of them, accused him before Caesar, and that especially because they knew he had broken the commands of Caesar, which obligated him to behave himself with moderation among them. Whereon Caesar, when he heard it, was very angry, and called for Archelaus’ steward, who took care of his affairs at Rome, and whose name was Archelaus also; and thinking it beneath him to write to Archelaus, he commanded him to sail away as soon as possible, and bring him to Rome: so the man made haste in his voyage, and when he came into Judea, he found Archelaus feasting with his friends; so he told him what Caesar had sent him for and hastened him away. And when he had come [to Rome], Caesar, on hearing what certain accusers of his had to say, and what reply he could make, both banished him, and appointed Vienna, a city of Gaul, to be the place of his habitation, and took his money away from him.

3. Now, before Archelaus had gone up to Rome on this message, he related this dream to his friends: that he saw ears of corn, ten in number, full of wheat, perfectly ripe, which ears, as it seemed to him, were devoured by oxen. And when he was awake and had gotten up, because the vision appeared to be of great importance to him, he sent for the diviners, whose study was employed concerning dreams. And while some were of one opinion, and some of another (for all their interpretations did not agree), Simon, a man of the sect of the Essenes, desired permission to speak his mind freely, and said that the vision denoted a change in the affairs of Archelaus, and that not for the better; that oxen, because that animal takes uneasy pains in his labors, denoted afflictions, and indeed denoted, further, a change of affairs, because that land which is plowed by oxen cannot remain in its former state; and that the ears of corn being ten, determined the same number of years, because an ear of corn grows in one year; and that the time of Archelaus’ government was over. And thus, this man expounded the dream. Now on the fifth day after this dream first came to Archelaus, the other Archelaus that was sent to Judea by Caesar to call him away, came here also.

4. The same misfortune happened to his wife Glaphyra, who was the daughter of King Archelaus, who, as I said before, was married, while she was a virgin, to Alexander, the son of Herod, and brother of Archelaus; but since it so happened that Alexander was slain by his father, she was married to Juba, the king of Libya; and when he was dead, and she lived in widowhood in Cappadocia with her father, Archelaus divorced his former wife Mariamne, and married her, so great was his affection for this Glaphyra; who, during her marriage to him, saw the following dream: she thought she saw Alexander standing by her, at which she rejoiced and embraced him with great affection; but that he complained to her and said, O Glaphyra! you prove that saying to be true, which assures us that women are not to be trusted. Did you not pledge your faith to me? and were you not married to me when you were a virgin? and did we not have children between us? Yet you have forgotten the affection I bore to you, out of a desire for a second husband. Nor have you been satisfied with that injury you did to me, but you have been so bold as to acquire yourself a third husband to lie by you, and in an indecent and imprudent manner have entered into my house, and have been married to Archelaus, your husband and my brother. However, I will not forget your former kind affection for me, but will set you free from every such reproachful action and cause you to be mine again, as you once were. When she had related this to her female companions, in a few days’ time she departed this life.

5. Now I did not think these histories improper for the present discourse, both because my discourse is now concerning kings, and otherwise also on account of the advantage hence to be drawn, as well for the confirmation of the immortality of the soul, as of the providence of God over human affairs, I thought them suitable to be set down; but if anyone does not believe such relations, let him indeed enjoy his own opinion, but let him not hinder another that would thereby encourage himself in virtue. So Archelaus’ country was adjoined to the province of Syria; and Cyrenius, one that had been consul, was sent by Caesar to take account of people’s effects in Syria and to sell the house of Archelaus.

BOOK XVIII

Containing the Interval of Thirty-Two Years. From the Banishment of Archelaus to the Departure from Babylon.

CHAPTER 1

How Cyrenius Was Sent by Caesar to Make a Taxation of Syria and Judea; And How Coponius Was Sent to Be Procurator of Judea; Concerning Judas of Galilee and Concerning the Sects That Were Among the Jews.

1. Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them until he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, at this time came into Syria, with a few others, being sent by Caesar to be a judge of that nation and to take an account of their possessions. Coponius also, a man of the equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews. Moreover, Cyrenius came into Judea himself, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their possessions and to dispose of Archelaus’ money; but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet they ceased any further opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son of Boethus, and high priest; so they, being over-persuaded by Joazar’s words, gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it. Yet there was one Judas, a Gaulonite, of a city whose name was Gamala, who, taking with him Sadduc, a Pharisee, became zealous to bring them to revolt, who both said that this taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty; as if they could acquire themselves happiness and security for what they possessed, and an assured enjoyment of a still greater good, which was that of the honor and glory they would thereby acquire for [their] greatness. They also said that God would not otherwise be supportive toward them, except on their joining with one another in such councils as might be successful and for their own advantage; and this especially, if they would set about great exploits and not grow weary in executing the same; so men received what they said with pleasure, and this bold attempt proceeded to a great height. All sorts of misfortunes also sprang from these men, and the nation was infected with this doctrine to an incredible degree; one violent war came on us after another, and we lost our friends which used to alleviate our pains; there were also very great robberies and murders of our principal men. This was indeed done in pretense for the public welfare, but in reality for the hopes of gain for themselves; from which arose seditions, and from them murders of men, which sometimes fell on those of their own people (by the madness of these men toward one another, while their desire was that none of the adverse party might be left), and sometimes on their enemies; a famine also coming on us, reduced us to the final degree of despair, as did also the taking and demolishing of cities; indeed, the sedition finally increased so high, that the very temple of God was burnt down by their enemies’ fire. Such were the consequences of this, that the customs of our fathers were altered, and such a change was made, as added a mighty weight toward bringing everything to destruction, which these men caused by their conspiring together; for Judas and Sadduc, who excited a fourth philosophical sect among us, and had a great many followers therein, filled our civil government with tumults at present, and laid the foundations for our future miseries, by this system of philosophy, which we were previously unacquainted with as well, concerning which I will discourse a little, and this rather because the infection which spread there among the younger sort, who were zealous for it, brought the public to destruction.

2. For a long time, the Jews had three sects of philosophy peculiar to themselves: the sect of the Essenes, and the sect of the Sadducees, and the third sort of opinions was that of those called Pharisees; of which sects, although I have already spoken in the second book of the Jewish War, yet I will touch on them a little bit now.

3. Now, for the Pharisees, they live humbly and despise delicacies in diet; and they follow the conduct of reason; and what that prescribes to them as good for them they do; and they think they ought to earnestly strive to observe reason’s dictates for practice. They also pay respect to such as are [aged] in years; nor are they so bold as to contradict them in anything which they have introduced; and when they determine that all things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from men of acting as they think right, since their notion is that it has pleased God to make a temperament, whereby what He wills is done, but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously. They also believe that souls have an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former will have power to revive and live again; on account of which doctrines they are able to greatly persuade the body of the people; and whatsoever they do concerning Divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them according to their direction, insomuch that the cities give great attestations to them on account of their entire virtuous conduct, both in the actions of their lives and also their discourses.

4. But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: that souls die with the bodies; nor do they regard the observation of anything besides what the Law commands them; for they think it an instance of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom they frequent: but this doctrine is received by only a few, yet by those still of the greatest dignity. But they are able to do almost nothing of themselves, for when they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly and by force sometimes obligated to be, they attach themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise bear them.

5. The doctrine of the Essenes is this: that all things are best ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when they send what they have dedicated to God into the temple, they do not offer sacrifices because they have more pure rituals of their own; on which account they are excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet their course of life is better than that of other men; and they completely devote themselves to farming. It also deserves our admiration, how much they exceed all other men that devote themselves to virtue, and this in righteousness; and indeed, that to such a degree as it has never appeared among any other men, neither Greeks nor barbarians—indeed, not for a short time; it has endured [for] such a long time among them. This is demonstrated by that institution of theirs, which will not allow anything to hinder them from holding all things in common, so that a rich man enjoys no more of his own wealth than he who has nothing at all. There are about four thousand men that live in this way, and neither marry wives, nor are desirous to keep servants, as thinking the latter tempts men to be unjust, and the former gives an opportunity for domestic quarrels; but as they live by themselves, they minister to one another. They also appoint certain stewards to receive the incomes of their revenues, and of the fruits of the ground, such as are good men and priests, who are to get their corn and their food ready for them. None of them differ from others of the Essenes in their way of living, but most resemble those Dacae who are called Polistae [(dwellers in cities)].

6. But of the fourth sect of Jewish philosophy [(the Zealots)], Judas the Galilean was the author. These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an unbreakable attachment to liberty and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord. They also do not value dying any kinds of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends, nor can any such fear make them call any man lord. And since this immovable resolution of theirs is well known to a great many, I will speak no further about that matter; nor am I afraid that anything I have said of them should be disbelieved, but I rather fear that what I have said is beneath the resolution they show when they undergo pain. And it was in Gessius Florus’ time that the nation began to grow mad with this disease, who was our procurator, and who caused the Jews to go wild with it by the abuse of his authority and to make them revolt from the Romans. And these are the sects of Jewish philosophy.

CHAPTER 2

How Herod and Philip Built Several Cities in Honor of Caesar. Concerning the Succession of Priests and Procurators; As Also What Happened to Phraates and the Parthians.

1. When Cyrenius had now disposed of Archelaus’ money, and when the taxations had come to an end, which were made in the thirty-seventh year of Caesar’s victory over Antony at Actium, he deprived Joazar of the high priesthood, which dignity had been conferred on him by the multitude, and he appointed Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest, while Herod and Philip had each received their own tetrarchy and settled the affairs thereof. Herod also built a wall around Sepphoris (which is the security of all Galilee) and made it the metropolis of the country. He also built a wall around Beth-Aramphtha, which was itself also a city, and called it Julias, from the name of the emperor’s wife. When Philip had also built Paneas, a city at the fountains of the Jordan, he named it Caesarea. He also advanced the village Bethsaida, situated at the Lake of Gennesaret, to the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained, and its other grandeur, and called it by the name of Julias, the same name as Caesar’s daughter.

2. As Coponius, who we told you was sent along with Cyrenius, was exercising his office of procurator and governing Judea, the following misfortunes occurred. As the Jews were observing the Celebration of Unleavened Bread, which we call the Passover, it was customary for the priests to open the temple gates just after midnight. Therefore, when those gates were first opened, some of the Samaritans secretly came into Jerusalem and threw dead men’s bodies around in the cloisters, on which account the Jews afterward excluded them from the temple, which they had not used to do at such festivals; and on other accounts, they also watched the temple more carefully than they had formerly done. Shortly after this misfortune, Coponius returned to Rome, and Marcus Ambivius came to be his successor in that government; under whom Salome, the sister of King Herod, died and left to [Caesar’s wife] Julia [the city of] Jamnia, all its toparchy, and Phasaelus in the plain, and Archelais, where a great plantation of palm trees is, and their fruit is excellent in its kind. After him came Annius Rufus, under whom died Caesar, the second emperor of the Romans, the duration of whose reign was fifty-seven years, besides six months and two days (of which time Antonius ruled fourteen years together with him; but the duration of his life was seventy-seven years); on whose death Tiberius Nero, his wife Julia’s son, succeeded [him]. He was now the third emperor; and he sent Valerius Gratus to be procurator of Judea and to succeed Annius Rufus. This man deprived Ananus of the high priesthood and appointed Ishmael, the son of Phabi, to be high priest. He also deprived him in a short time and ordained Eleazar, the son of Ananus, who had been high priest before, to be high priest; which office, when he had held [it] for a year, Gratus deprived him of it and gave the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus; and when he had possessed that dignity no longer than a year, Joseph Caiaphas was made his successor. When Gratus had done those things, he went back to Rome, after he had tarried in Judea [for] eleven years, when Pontius Pilate came as his successor.

3. And now Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favor with Tiberius, built a city of the same name as him and called it Tiberias. He built it in the best part of Galilee, at the Lake of Gennesaret. There are warm baths at a short distance from it, in a village named Emmaus. Strangers came and inhabited this city; a great number of the inhabitants were also Galileans; and many were obligated by Herod to come there out of the country belonging to him and were compelled by force to be its inhabitants; some of them were persons of position. He also admitted poor people, such as those that were collected from all parts, to dwell in it. Indeed, some of them were not quite freemen, and these he was a benefactor to and made them free in great numbers; but he compelled them not to abandon the city, by building them very good houses at his own expenses and by also giving them land; for he was aware that to make this place a habitation was to transgress the ancient Jewish laws, because many tombs were to be removed from here in order to make room for the city [of] Tiberias, whereas our laws pronounce that such inhabitants are unclean for seven days.

4. About this time, Phraates, king of the Parthians, died by the treachery of his son Phraataces, on the following occasion: when Phraates had had legitimate sons of his own, he also had an Italian maidservant, whose name was Thermusa, who had formerly been sent to him by Julius Caesar, among other presents. He first made her his concubine; but he being a great admirer of her beauty, in the course of time having a son by her, whose name was Phraataces, he made her his legitimate wife and had a great respect for her. Now she was able to persuade him to do anything that she said and was earnest in obtaining the government of Parthia for her son; but she still saw that her endeavors would not succeed unless she could devise how to remove Phraates’ legitimate sons [from the kingdom]; so she persuaded him to send his sons as pledges of his fidelity to Rome; and they were accordingly sent to Rome, because it was not easy for him to contradict her commands. Now while Phraataces was brought up alone in order to succeed in the government, he thought it very tedious to expect that government by his father’s donation [as his successor]; he therefore formed a treacherous scheme against his father, by his mother’s assistance, with whom, as the report went, he also had criminal conversation. So he was hated for both [of] these vices, while his subjects regarded this [wicked] love of his mother to be [in] no way inferior to his parricide; and he was by them, in a sedition, expelled from the country before he grew too great, and died. But as the best sort of Parthians agreed together that it was impossible [that] they should be governed without a king, while it was also their constant practice to choose one of the family of Arsaces (nor did their law allow any others; and they thought this kingdom had been sufficiently injured already by the marriage with an Italian concubine, and by her issue), they sent ambassadors and called Orodes [to take the crown]; for the multitude would not otherwise have borne them; and though he was accused of very great cruelty, and was of an obstinate temper and prone to wrath, yet he was still one of the family of Arsaces. However, they made a conspiracy against him and slew him, and that [occurred], as some say, at a festival, and among their sacrifices (for it is the universal custom there to carry their swords with them); but as the more general report is: they slew him when they had brought him out hunting. So they sent ambassadors to Rome and desired [that] they would send one of those that were there as pledges to be their king. Accordingly, Vonones was preferred before the rest and was sent to them (for he seemed capable of such great fortune, which two of the greatest kingdoms under the sun now offered him: his own and a foreign one). However, the barbarians soon changed their minds, they naturally being of an alterable disposition, on the assumption that this man was not worthy to be their governor; for they could not think of obeying the commands of one that had been a slave (for so they called those that had been hostages), nor could they bear the disgrace of that name; and this was [all] the more intolerable, because then the Parthians must have such a king set over them, not by right of war, but in time of peace. So they presently invited Artabanus, king of Media, to be their king, he also being of the race of Arsaces. Artabanus complied with the offer that was made [to] him and came to them with an army. So Vonones met him; and at first the multitude of the Parthians stood on this side, and he put his army in array; but Artabanus was beaten and fled to the mountains of Media. Yet shortly after, he gathered a great army together, and fought with Vonones, and beat him; whereon Vonones fled away on horseback, with a few of his attendants around him, to Seleucia [on the Tigris]. So, when Artabanus had slain a great number, and this after he had secured the victory by reason of the very great dismay the barbarians were in, he retired to Ctesiphon with a great number of his people; and so, he now reigned over the Parthians. But Vonones fled away to Armenia; and as soon as he came there, he had an inclination to have the government of the country given [to] him and sent ambassadors to Rome [for that purpose]. But because Tiberius refused it [to] him, and because he lacked courage, and because the Parthian king threatened him and sent ambassadors to him to pronounce war against him if he proceeded, and because he had no path to take to regain any other kingdom (for the people of authority among the Armenians around Niphates joined themselves to Artabanus), he delivered himself up to Silanus, the president of Syria, who, out of regard for his education at Rome, kept him in Syria, while Artabanus gave Armenia to Orodes, one of his own sons.

5. At this time, Antiochus, the king of Commagene, died; whereon the multitude contended with the nobility, and both sent ambassadors to [Rome]; for the men of power were desirous that their form of government might be changed into that of a [Roman] province; as were the multitude desirous to be under kings, as their fathers had been. So, the senate made a decree that Germanicus should be sent to settle the affairs of the east, fortune hereby taking a proper opportunity for depriving him of his life; for when he had been in the east and settled all affairs there, his life was taken away by the poison which Piso gave him, as has been related elsewhere.

CHAPTER 3

A Sedition of the Jews Against Pontius Pilate. Concerning Christ, and What Happened to Paulina and the Jews at Rome.

1. But now Pilate, the procurator of Judea, removed the army from Caesarea to Jerusalem, to take their winter quarters there, in order to abolish the Jewish laws. So he introduced Caesar’s effigies, which were on the ensigns, and brought them into the city, whereas our law forbids us the very making of images; on which account the former procurators were accustomed to make their entry into the city with such ensigns as did not have those ornaments. Pilate was the first who brought those images to Jerusalem and set them up there, which was done without the knowledge of the people, because it was done in the nighttime; but as soon as they knew it, they came in multitudes to Caesarea and interceded with Pilate [for] many days, so that he would remove the images; and when he would not grant their requests, because it would tend toward the insult of Caesar, while they still persevered in their request, on the sixth day he ordered his soldiers to hold their weapons stealthily, while he came and sat on his judgment-seat, which seat was so prepared in the open place of the city that it concealed the army that lay ready to oppress them; and when the Jews petitioned him again, he gave a signal to the soldiers to surround [and] rout them, and threatened that their punishment should be no less than immediate death, unless they would cease disturbing him and go their ways home. But they threw themselves on the ground, and laid their necks bare, and said they would take their death very willingly, rather than [that] the wisdom of their laws should be transgressed; on which Pilate was deeply affected with their firm resolution to keep their laws sacrosanct and presently commanded the images to be carried back from Jerusalem to Caesarea.

2. But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem, and did it with the sacred money, and derived the origin of the stream from the distance of two hundred stadia. However, the Jews were not pleased with what had been done concerning this water; and many myriads of the people gathered, and made a clamor against him, and insisted that he should cease that plan. Some of them also used reproaches and abused the man, as crowds of such people usually do. So he clothed a great number of his soldiers in their attire, who carried daggers under their garments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them. So he commanded the Jews to go away himself; but as they boldly cast reproaches on him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been previously agreed on, who laid on them much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them, and equally punished those that were riotous, and those that were not; nor did they spare them in the least: and since the people were unarmed and were caught by men prepared for what they were doing, there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others of them ran away wounded. And thus, an end was put to this sedition.

3. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, [[if it be lawful to call Him a man;]] for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to Himself both many of the Jews and many of the nations. [[He was the Christ.]] And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at first did not abandon Him; [[for He appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him.]] And the tribe of Christians, so named from Him, are not extinct at this day.

4. Also, about the same time, another sad calamity put the Jews into turmoil and certain shameful practices happened concerning the temple of Isis that was at Rome. I will now first take notice of the wicked attempt concerning the temple of Isis and will then give an account of the Jewish affairs. There was a woman at Rome whose name was Paulina; one who, on account of the dignity of her ancestors, and by the regular conduct of a virtuous life, had a great reputation: she was also very rich; and although she was of a beautiful countenance, and in that flower of her age wherein women are the most conspicuous, yet she led a life of great modesty. She was married to Saturninus, one that was [in] every way answerable to her in an excellent character. Decius Mundus fell in love with this woman, who was a man very high in the equestrian order; and as she was of too great [of] dignity to be captured by presents, and had already rejected them, though they had been sent in great abundance, he was still more inflamed with love for her, insomuch that he promised to give her two hundred thousand Attic drachmas for one night’s lodging; and when this would not prevail on her, and he was unable to bear this misfortune in his love affairs, he thought it the best way to famish himself to death for lack of food, on account of Paulina’s sad refusal; and he determined within himself to die in such a manner, and accordingly, he went on with his purpose. Now Mundus had a freedwoman, who had been made free by his father, whose name was Ide, one skillful in all sorts of mischief. This woman was very greatly grieved at the young man’s resolution to kill himself (for he did not conceal his intentions to destroy himself from others), and came to him, and encouraged him by her discourse, and made him to hope, by some promises she gave him, that he might obtain a night’s lodging with Paulina; and when he joyfully listened to her request, she said she wanted nothing more than fifty thousand drachmas for the entrapping of the woman. So when she had encouraged the young man and gotten as much money as she required, she did not take the same methods as had been taken before, because she perceived that the woman was by no means to be tempted by money; but as she knew that she was very much given to the worship of the goddess Isis, she devised the following strategy: she went to some of Isis’ priests, and on the strongest assurances [of concealment], she persuaded them by words, but chiefly by the offer of money, of twenty-five thousand drachmas in hand—and as much more when the thing had taken effect—and told them the passion of the young man, and persuaded them to use all possible means to entice the woman. So, they were drawn in to promise to do so with that large sum of gold they were to have. Accordingly, the oldest of them immediately went to Paulina; and on his admittance, he desired to speak with her by herself. When that was granted [to] him, he told her that he was sent by the god Anubis, who had fallen in love with her and commanded her to come to him. On this, she took the message very kindly, and valued herself greatly on this gentle humility of Anubis, and told her husband that she had a message sent [to] her and was to dine and lie with Anubis; so he agreed to her acceptance of the offer, as fully satisfied with the chastity of his wife. Accordingly, she went to the temple, and after she had dined there, and it was the hour to go to sleep, the priest shut the doors of the temple, when, in the sacred part of it, the lights were also put out. Then Mundus leapt out (for he was hidden therein) and did not fail to enjoy her who was at his service all night long, as supposing he was the god; and when he had gone away, which was before those priests who knew nothing of this strategy were stirring, Paulina came early to her husband and told him how the god Anubis had appeared to her. Among her friends, also, she declared how great a value she put on this favor, who partly disbelieved the thing, when they reflected on its nature, and were partly amazed at it, as having no pretense for not believing it, when they considered the modesty and the dignity of the person. But now, on the third day after what had been done, Mundus met Paulina and said, “Indeed, Paulina, you have saved me two hundred thousand drachmas, which sum you might have added to your own family; yet you have not failed to be at my service in the manner I invited you. As for the reproaches you have laid on Mundus, I do not value the business of names; but I rejoice in the pleasure I reaped by what I did, while I took the name of Anubis for myself.” When he had said this, he went his way. But now she began to come to the sense of the grossness of what she had done, and tore her garments, and told her husband of the horrid nature of this wicked scheme, and begged him not to neglect to assist her in this case. So he revealed the fact to the emperor; whereon Tiberius thoroughly inquired into the matter by examining the priests about it, and he ordered them to be crucified, as well as Ide, who was the cause of their perdition, and who had planned the whole matter, which was so injurious to the woman. He also demolished the temple of Isis and gave an order that her statue should be thrown into the Tiber River, while he only banished Mundus, but did nothing more to him, because he supposed that what crime he had committed was done out of the passion of love. And these were the circumstances which concerned the temple of Isis, and the injuries caused by her priests. I now return to the relation of what happened about this time to the Jews at Rome, as I formerly told you I would.

5. There was a man who was a Jew, but had been driven away from his own country by an accusation laid against him for transgressing their laws, and by the fear he was under of punishment for the same, but in all respects a wicked man. He, then living at Rome, professed to instruct men in the wisdom of the laws of Moses. He also acquired three other men, entirely of the same character as himself, to be his partners. These men persuaded Fulvia, a woman of great dignity, and one that had embraced the Jewish religion, to send purple and gold to the temple at Jerusalem; and when they had gotten them, they employed them for their own uses and spent the money themselves, on which account it was that they at first required it of her. Whereon Tiberius, who had been informed of the thing by Saturninus, the husband of Fulvia, who desired [that] an inquiry might be made about it, ordered all the Jews to be banished out of Rome; at which time the consuls listed four thousand men out of them and sent them to the island [of] Sardinia; but they punished a greater number of them, who were unwilling to become soldiers, on account of keeping the laws of their forefathers. Thus, these Jews were banished out of the city by the wickedness of four men.

CHAPTER 4

How the Samaritans Caused an Uproar and Pilate Destroyed Many of Them; How Pilate Was Accused and What Things Were Done by Vitellius Relating to the Jews and the Parthians.

1. But the nation of the Samaritans did not escape without uproars. The man who excited them to it was one who thought lying a thing of little consequence, and who devised everything so that the multitude might be pleased; so he commanded them to gather together on Mount Gerizim, which is seen by them as the most holy of all mountains, and assured them that when they had come there, he would show them those sacred vessels which were laid under that place, because Moses put them there. So they came there armed and thought [that] the discourse of the man [was] probable; and as they abided at a certain village, which was called Tirathaba, they gathered the rest together to them and desired to go up the mountain together in a great multitude; but Pilate prevented their going up, by seizing the roads with a great band of horsemen and footmen, who fell on those that were gathered together in the village; and when it came to action, some of them they slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took a great many alive, the principal of which, and also the most powerful of those that fled away, Pilate ordered to be slain.

2. But when this uproar was appeased, the Samaritan senate sent an embassy to Vitellius, a man that had been consul, and who was now president of Syria, and accused Pilate of the murder of those that were killed; for they did not go to Tirathaba in order to revolt from the Romans, but to escape the violence of Pilate. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care of the affairs of Judea, and ordered Pilate to go to Rome to answer before the emperor for the accusations of the Jews. So Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, made haste for Rome—and this in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, which he dared not contradict; but before he could get to Rome, Tiberius was dead.

3. But Vitellius came into Judea and went up to Jerusalem; it was at the time of that festival which is called the Passover. Vitellius was magnificently received there, and released the inhabitants of Jerusalem from all the taxes on the fruits that were bought and sold, and gave them permission to have the care of the high priest’s vestments, with all their ornaments, and to have them under the custody of the priests in the temple, which power they used to have formerly, although at this time they were laid up in the Tower of Antonia, the citadel so called, and that on the following occasion: there was one of the [high] priests named Hyrcanus; and as there were many by that name, he was the first of them; this man built a tower near the temple, and when he had done so, he generally dwelt in it and had these vestments with him, because it was lawful for him alone to put them on, and he had them deposited there when he went down into the city and took his ordinary garments; the same things were continued to be done by his sons, and by their sons after them. But when Herod came to be king, he rebuilt this tower, which was very conveniently situated in a magnificent manner; and because he was a friend to Antonius, he called it by the name of Antonia. And as he found these vestments lying there, he kept them in the same place, as believing that while he had them in his custody, the people would make no innovations against him. The same as what Herod did was done by his son Archelaus, who was made king after him; after whom the Romans, when they entered on the government, took possession of these vestments of the high priest and had them deposited in a stone-chamber, under the seal of the priests, and of the keepers of the temple—the captain of the guard lighting a lamp there every day; and seven days before a festival they were delivered to them by the captain of the guard, when the high priest, having purified them and made use of them, laid them up again in the same chamber where they had been laid up before, and this the very next day after the feast was over. This was the practice at the three yearly festivals, and on the fast day; but Vitellius put those garments into our own power, as in the days of our forefathers, and ordered the captain of the guard not to trouble himself to inquire where they were laid, or when they were to be used; and he did this as an act of kindness, to obligate the nation to him. Besides which, he also deprived Joseph, who was also called Caiaphas, of the high priesthood, and appointed Jonathan the son of Ananus, the former high priest, to succeed him. After which, he took his journey back to Antioch.

4. Moreover, Tiberius sent a letter to Vitellius and commanded him to make a covenant of friendship with Artabanus, the king of Parthia; for while he was his enemy, he terrified him, because he had taken Armenia away from him, lest he should proceed further, and told him he should not otherwise trust him than on his giving him hostages, and especially his son Artabanus. On Tiberius’ writing thus to Vitellius, by the offer of great presents of money, he persuaded both the king of Iberia and the king of Albania to make no delay, but to fight against Artabanus; and although they would not do it themselves, yet they gave the Scythians a passage through their country, and opened the Caspian gates to them, and brought them on Artabanus. So, Armenia was again taken from the Parthians, and the country of Parthia was filled with war, and the principal of their men were slain, and all things were in chaos among them: the king’s son himself also fell in these wars, together with many myriads of his army. Vitellius had also sent such great sums of money to Artabanus’ father’s relatives and friends, that he had almost procured him to be slain by means of those bribes which they had taken. And when Artabanus perceived that the plot laid against him was not to be avoided, because it was laid by the principal men, and those a great many in number, and that it would certainly take effect—when he had estimated the number of those that were truly faithful to him, as also of those who were already corrupted, but were deceitful in the kindness they professed to him, and were likely, on trial, to go over to his enemies—he made his escape to the upper provinces, where afterward he raised a great army out of the Dahae and Sacae, and fought with his enemies, and retained his principality.

5. When Tiberius had heard of these things, he desired to have a covenant of friendship made between him and Artabanus; and when, on this invitation, he received the proposal kindly, Artabanus and Vitellius went to the Euphrates, and as a bridge was laid over the river, each of them came with their guards around them and met one another in the midst of the bridge. And when they had agreed on the terms of peace, Herod the tetrarch erected a rich tent in the midst of the passage and made them a feast there. Artabanus also, not long afterward, sent his son Darius as a hostage, with many presents, among which there was a man [who was] seven cubits tall, he was a Jew by birth, and his name was Eleazar, who, for his height, was called a giant. After this, Vitellius went to Antioch, and Artabanus to Babylon; but Herod [the tetrarch], being desirous to give Caesar the first information that they had obtained hostages, sent posts with letters, wherein he had accurately described all the particulars and had left nothing for the consular Vitellius to inform him of. But when Vitellius’ letters were sent and Caesar had let him know that he was already acquainted with the affairs, because Herod had given him an account of them before, Vitellius was very greatly troubled at it; and supposing that he had been thereby a greater sufferer than he really was, he maintained a secret anger on this occasion, until he could be avenged on him, which he was after Gaius had taken the government.

6. It was about this time that Philip, Herod’s brother, departed this life, in the twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius, after he had been tetrarch of Trachonitis and Gaulonitis, and of the nation of the Bataneans also, thirty-seven years. He had shown himself [to be] a person of moderation and quietness in the conduct of his life and government; he constantly lived in that country which was subject to him; he used to make his progress with a few chosen friends; his tribunal also, on which he sat in judgment, followed him in his procession; and when anyone met him who wanted his assistance, he made no delay, but had his tribunal set down immediately, wheresoever he happened to be, and sat down on it, and heard his complaint: there he ordered the guilty that were convicted to be punished and absolved those that had been accused unjustly. He died at Julias; and when he was carried to that monument which he had already erected for himself beforehand, he was buried with great pomp. Tiberius took his principality (for he left no sons behind him) and added it to the province of Syria, but gave an order that the tributes which arose from it should be collected and laid up in his tetrarchy.

CHAPTER 5

Herod the Tetrarch Makes War with Aretas, the King of Arabia, and Is Beaten by Him; As Also Concerning the Death of John the Immerser. How Vitellius Went up to Jerusalem; Together with Some Account of Agrippa and of the Posterity of Herod the Great.

1. About this time, Aretas (the king of Arabia Petrea) and Herod had a quarrel on the following account: Herod the tetrarch had married the daughter of Aretas and had lived with her a great while; but when he was once at Rome, he lodged with Herod, who was indeed his brother, but not by the same mother; for this Herod was the son of the high priest Simon’s daughter. However, he fell in love with Herodias, this last Herod’s wife, who was the daughter of their brother Aristobulus, and the sister of Agrippa the Great. This man ventured to talk to her about a marriage between them, which address when she admitted, an agreement was made for her to change her habitation and come to him as soon as he should return from Rome. One article of this marriage was also this: that he would divorce Aretas’ daughter. So Antipas, when he had made this agreement, sailed to Rome; but when he had done the business there [that] he went for and had returned again, his wife having discovered the agreement he had made with Herodias, and having learned it before he had notice of her knowledge of the whole plan, she desired him to send her to Macherus, which is a place in the borders of the dominions of Aretas and Herod, without informing him of any of her intentions. Accordingly, Herod sent her there, as thinking his wife had not perceived anything; now she had sent a good while before to Macherus, which was subject to her father and so all things necessary for her journey were made ready for her by the general of Aretas’ army; and by that means she soon came into Arabia, under the lead of the various generals who carried her from one to another successively; and she soon came to her father and told him of Herod’s intentions. So Aretas made this the first occasion of his enmity between him and Herod, who also had some quarrel with him concerning their limits at the country of Gamalitis. So, they raised armies on both sides, and prepared for war, and sent their generals to fight instead of themselves; and when they had joined battle, all [of] Herod’s army was destroyed by the treachery of some fugitives, who, though they were of the tetrarchy of Philip, joined with Aretas’ army. So, Herod wrote about these affairs to Tiberius, who being very angry at the attempt made by Aretas, wrote to Vitellius to make war on him, and either to take him alive and bring him to him in bonds, or to kill him and send him his head. This was the charge that Tiberius gave to the president of Syria.

2. Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God—and that very justly, as a punishment for what he did against John, who was called the Immerser: for Herod slew him, who was a good man that commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness toward one another, and piety toward God, and so to come to immersion; for the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not for the putting away [[or the remission]] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body, still supposing that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds around him, for they were very greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise), thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any trouble he might cause and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him convert from it when it would be too late. Accordingly, he was sent [as] a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I previously mentioned, and was put to death there. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment on Herod and a mark of God’s displeasure toward him.

3. So Vitellius prepared to make war with Aretas, having two legions of armed men with him; he also took with him all those of light armature, and of the horsemen which belonged to them, and were drawn out of those kingdoms which were under the Romans, and made haste for Petra, and came to Ptolemais. But as he was marching very vigorously and leading his army through Judea, the principal men met him and desired that he would not thus march through their land, because the laws of their country would not permit them to overlook those images which were brought into it, of which there were a great many in their ensigns; so he was persuaded by what they said and changed that resolution of his which he had previously taken in this matter. Whereon he ordered the army to march along the great plain, while he himself, with Herod the tetrarch and his friends, went up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, an ancient festival of the Jews being then just approaching; and when he had been there, and been honorably entertained by the multitude of the Jews, he made a stay there for three days, within which time he deprived Jonathan of the high priesthood and gave it to his brother Theophilus. But on the fourth day, when letters came to him, which informed him of the death of Tiberius, he compelled the multitude to take an oath of fidelity to Gaius [(Caligula)]; he also recalled his army and made every one of them go home and take their winter quarters there, since, on the conveyance of the empire on Gaius, he did not have the same authority for making this war which he had before. It was also reported that when Aretas heard of the coming of Vitellius to fight him, he said, on his consulting the diviners, that it was impossible that this army of Vitellius’ could enter Petra, because one of the rulers would die: either he that gave orders for the war, or he that was marching at the other’s desire, in order to be subservient to his will, or else he against whom this army is prepared. So Vitellius truly retired to Antioch; but Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, went up to Rome, a year before the death of Tiberius, in order to discuss some affairs with the emperor, if he might be permitted to do so. I now intend to describe Herod and his family, how it fared with them, partly because it is suitable to this history to speak of that matter, and partly because this thing is a demonstration of the interposition of Providence, how a multitude of children is of no advantage, no more than any other strength that men set their hearts on, besides those acts of piety which are done toward God; for it so happened that within the revolution of one hundred years, the posterity of Herod, which were a great many in number, were, excepting a few, utterly destroyed. One may well apply this for the instruction of mankind and learn there how unhappy they were: it will also show us the history of Agrippa, who, as he was a person most worthy of admiration, so was he from a private man, beyond all the expectation of those that knew him, advanced to great power and authority. I have formerly said something about them, but I will now also speak accurately concerning them.

4. Herod the Great had two daughters by Mariamne, the [grand]daughter of Hyrcanus: one was Salampsio, who was married to Phasaelus, her first cousin, who was himself the son of Phasaelus, Herod’s brother, her father making the match; the other was Cyprus, who was herself also married to her first cousin Antipater, the son of Salome, Herod’s sister. Phasaelus had five children by Salampsio: Antipater, Herod, and Alexander, and two daughters, Alexandra and Cyprus; the latter of which Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, married; and Timius of Cyprus married Alexandra; he was a noteworthy man, but had no children by her. Agrippa had two sons and three daughters by Cyprus, which daughters were named Bernice, Mariamne, and Drusilla; but the names of the sons were Agrippa and Drusus, of which Drusus died before he came to the years of puberty; but their father, Agrippa, was brought up with his other brothers, Herod and Aristobulus, for these were also the sons of the son of Herod the Great by Bernice; but Bernice was the daughter of Costobarus and of Salome, who was Herod’s sister. Aristobulus left these infants when he was slain by his father, together with his brother Alexander, as we have already related. But when they had arrived at [the] years of puberty, this Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married Mariamne, the daughter of Olympias, who was the daughter of King Herod, and of Joseph, the son of Joseph, who was [the] brother of King Herod, and had a son by her, Aristobulus; but Aristobulus, the third brother of Agrippa, married Jotape, the daughter of Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa; they had a daughter who was deaf, whose name was also Jotape; and these thus far were the children of the male line. But Herodias, their sister, was married to Herod [Philip], the son of Herod the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the high priest, who had a daughter, Salome; after whose birth Herodias took on herself to confound the laws of our country, and divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod [Antipas], her husband’s brother by the father’s side; he was tetrarch of Galilee; but her daughter Salome was married to Philip, the son of Herod and tetrarch of Trachonitis; and as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son of Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married her. They had three sons: Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus; and this was the posterity of Phasaelus and Salampsio. But the daughter of Antipater by Cyprus was Cyprus, whom Alexas Selcias, the son of Alexas, married; they had a daughter, Cyprus; but Herod and Alexander, who, as we told you, were the brothers of Antipater, died childless. As for Alexander, the son of King Herod, who was slain by his father, he had two sons: Alexander and Tigranes, by the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia. Tigranes, who was king of Armenia, was accused at Rome and died childless; Alexander had a son of the same name with his brother Tigranes and was sent to take possession of the kingdom of Armenia by Nero; he had a son, Alexander, who married Jotape, the daughter of Antiochus, the king of Commagene; Vespasian made him king of an island in Cilicia. But these descendants of Alexander, soon after their birth, deserted the Jewish religion and went over to that of the Greeks. But for the rest of the daughters of King Herod, it happened that they died childless. And as these descendants of Herod, whom we have enumerated, were in existence at the same time that Agrippa the Great took the kingdom, and I have now given an account of them, it now remains that I relate the several misfortunes which happened to Agrippa, and how he got clear of them and was advanced to the greatest height of dignity and power.

CHAPTER 6

Of the Navigation of King Agrippa to Rome, to Tiberius Caesar; And How, on His Being Accused by His Own Freedman, He Was Bound; How He Was Also Set Free by Gaius, After Tiberius’ Death, and Was Made King of the Tetrarchy of Philip.

1. Shortly before the death of King Herod, Agrippa lived at Rome, and was generally brought up and conversed with Drusus, the emperor Tiberius’ son, and contracted a friendship with Antonia, the wife of Drusus the Great, who held his mother Bernice in high regard and was very desirous of advancing her son. Now as Agrippa was by nature magnanimous and generous in the presents he made while his mother was alive, this inclination of his mind did not appear, so that he might be able to avoid her anger for his extravagance; but when Bernice was dead, and he was left to his own conduct, he spent a great deal extravagantly in his daily way of living, and a great deal in the immoderate presents he made, and those chiefly among Caesar’s freedmen, in order to gain their assistance, insomuch that he was, in a short time, reduced to poverty, and could not live at Rome any longer. Tiberius also forbade the friends of his deceased son to come into his sight, because on seeing them he should be reminded of his son, and his grief would thereby be revived.

2. For these reasons, he went away from Rome and sailed to Judea, but under evil circumstances, being dejected with the loss of that money which he once had, and because he did not have wherewithal to pay his creditors, who were many in number and such as gave him no room for escaping them. Whereon he did not know what to do; so, for shame of his present condition, he retired to a certain tower at Malatha, in Idumea, and had thoughts of killing himself; but his wife Cyprus perceived his intentions and tried all sorts of methods to divert him from his taking such a course, so she sent a letter to his sister Herodias, who was now the wife of Herod the tetrarch, and let her know Agrippa’s present plan, and what necessity it was which drove him to that, and desired her, as a relative of his, to give him her help and to engage her husband to do the same, since she saw how she alleviated her husband’s troubles all she could, although she did not have the same wealth to do it as well. So, they sent for him, and allotted him Tiberias for his habitation, and appointed him some income of money for his maintenance, and made him a magistrate of that city, by way of honor to him. Yet Herod did not continue long in that resolution of supporting him, although even that support was not sufficient for him; for once, as they were at a feast at Tyre, and were drunk, and reproaches were cast on one another, Agrippa thought that was not to be endured, while Herod hit him in the teeth with his poverty and with his owing his necessary food to him. So he went to Flaccus, one that had been consul, and had formerly been a very great friend to him at Rome, and was now president of Syria.

3. Hereon Flaccus received him kindly, and he lived with him. Flaccus also had Aristobulus with him there, who was indeed Agrippa’s brother, but was in conflict with him; yet their enmity toward one another did not hinder the friendship of Flaccus with them both, but they were still honorably treated by him. However, Aristobulus did not abate of his animosity toward Agrippa, until he finally brought him into bad terms with Flaccus; the occasion of bringing on which estrangement was this: the Damascenes were at difference with the Sidonians about their limits, and when Flaccus was about to hear the cause between them, they understood that Agrippa had a mighty influence on him; so they desired that he would be of their side, and for that favor promised him a great deal of money; so he was zealous in assisting the Damascenes as far as he was able. Now Aristobulus had obtained intelligence of this promise of money to him and accused him to Flaccus of the same; and when, on a thorough examination of the matter, it appeared plainly to be so, he rejected Agrippa out of the number of his friends. So he was reduced to the utmost necessity and came to Ptolemais; and because he did not know where else to get a livelihood, he thought to sail to Italy; but as he was restrained from doing so by lack of money, he desired Marsyas, who was his freedman, to find some method for procuring him so much as he wanted for that purpose, by borrowing such a sum of some person or other. So Marsyas desired of Peter, who was the freedman of Bernice, Agrippa’s mother, and by the right of her testament was bequeathed to Antonia, to lend so much on Agrippa’s own bond and security; but he accused Agrippa of having defrauded him of certain sums of money, and so compelled Marsyas, when he made the bond of twenty thousand Attic drachmas, to accept twenty-five hundred drachma as less than what he desired, which the other allowed of, because he could not help it. On the receipt of this money, Agrippa came to Anthedon, and boarded a ship, and was going to set sail; but Herennius Capito, who was the procurator of Jamnia, sent a band of soldiers to demand of him three hundred thousand drachmas of silver, which were by him owed to Caesar’s treasury while he was at Rome, and so forced him to stay. He then pretended that he would do as he commanded him; but when night came on, he cut his mooring lines, and went off, and sailed to Alexandria, where he desired Alexander the alabarch to lend him two hundred thousand drachmas; but he said he would not lend it to him, but would not refuse it to Cyprus, as greatly astonished at her affection for her husband and at the other instances of her virtue; so she undertook to repay it. Accordingly, Alexander paid them five talents at Alexandria and promised to pay them the rest of that sum at Dicearchia [Puteoli]; and he did this out of the fear he was in that Agrippa would soon spend it. So, this Cyprus set her husband free and dismissed him to go on with his navigation to Italy, while she and her children departed for Judea.

4. And now Agrippa had come to Puteoli, where he wrote a letter to Tiberius Caesar, who then lived at Capreae, and told him that he had come so far in order to wait on him and to pay him a visit; and he desired that he would give him permission to come over to Capreae: so Tiberius made no difficulty, but wrote to him in an obliging way in other respects; and he additionally told him [that] he was glad for his safe return and desired him to come to Capreae; and when he had come, he did not fail to treat him as kindly as he had promised him in his letter to do. But the next day, a letter came to Caesar from Herennius Capito, to inform him that Agrippa had borrowed three hundred thousand drachmas and not paid it at the appointed time; but when it was demanded of him, he ran away like a fugitive, out of the places under his government, and put it out of his power to get the money from him. When Caesar had read this letter, he was very troubled at it and gave an order that Agrippa should be excluded from his presence until he had paid that debt, on which he was [in] no way daunted at Caesar’s anger, but implored Antonia, the mother of Germanicus, and of Claudius, who was afterward Caesar himself, to lend him those three hundred thousand drachmas, so that he might not be deprived of Tiberius’ friendship; so, out of regard for the memory of his mother Bernice (for those two women were very familiar with one another), and out of regard for his and Claudius’ education together, she lent him the money; and, on the payment of this debt, there was nothing to hinder Tiberius’ friendship to him. After this, Tiberius Caesar recommended his grandson to him and ordered that he should always accompany him when he went abroad. But on Agrippa’s kind reception by Antonia, he committed him to pay his respects to Gaius, who was her grandson, and in very high reputation by reason of the goodwill they bore his father. Now there was one Thallus, a freedman of Caesar, of whom he borrowed a million drachmas and then repaid Antonia the debt he owed her; and by sending the surplus in paying his court to Gaius, became a person of great authority with him.

5. Now as the friendship which Agrippa had for Gaius had come to a great height, some words happened to pass between them, as they were once in a chariot together, concerning Tiberius—Agrippa praying [to God] (for the two sat by themselves) that Tiberius might soon exit the stage and leave the government to Gaius, who was in every respect more worthy of it. Now Eutychus, who was Agrippa’s freedman and drove his chariot, heard these words, and at that time said nothing of them; but when Agrippa accused him of stealing some garments of his (which was certainly true), he ran away from him; but when he was caught and brought before Piso, who was governor of the city, and the man was asked why he ran away, he replied that he had something to say to Caesar that tended toward his security and preservation: so Piso bound him and sent him to Capreae. But Tiberius, according to his usual custom, still kept him in bonds, being a delayer of affairs, if ever there was any other king or tyrant that was so; for he did not admit ambassadors quickly, and no successors were dispatched away to governors or procurators of the provinces that had been formerly sent, unless they were dead; from which it was that he was so negligent in hearing the causes of prisoners, insomuch that when he was asked by his friends what the reason of his delay was in such cases, he said that he delayed to hear ambassadors, lest, on their quick dismissal, other ambassadors should be appointed and return on him; and so he should bring trouble on himself in their public reception and dismissal: that he permitted those governors who had once been sent to their government [to stay there a long time], out of regard for the subjects that were under them; for all governors are naturally inclined to get as much as they can; and that those who are not to remain there, but to stay [only] a short time—and that with an uncertainty [as to] when they will be turned out—more severely hurry themselves on to fleece the people; but that if their government is long continued to them, they are at last satiated with the spoils, as having acquired a vast deal, and so finally become less sharp in their pillaging; but that if successors are sent quickly, the poor subjects, who are exposed to them as a prey, will not be able to bear the new ones, while they will not have the same time allowed them wherein their predecessors had filled themselves, and so grew more unconcerned about getting more; and this because they are removed before they have had time [for their oppressions]. He gave them an example to show his meaning: “A great number of flies came around the open sores of a man that had been wounded, on which one of the bystanders pitied the man’s misfortune, and thinking [that] he was unable to drive those flies away himself, was going to drive them away for him; but he begged him to leave them alone. The other, by way of reply, asked him the reason of such a preposterous proceeding, in preventing relief from his present misery; to which he answered: If you drive these flies away, you will hurt me worse; for as these are already full of my blood, they do not crowd around me, nor pain me so much as before, but are somewhat more lax, while the fresh ones that come almost famished and find me quite weighed down already, will be my destruction. Therefore, it is for this reason that I myself am careful not to perpetually send such new governors to those subjects of mine who are already sufficiently harassed by many oppressions, as may, like these flies, further distress them; and so, besides their natural desire for gain, may have this additional incitement to it: that they expect to be suddenly deprived of that pleasure which they take in it.” And, as a further attestation to what I say of the slow nature of Tiberius, I appeal to his practice itself; for although he was emperor [for] twenty-two years, he sent only two procurators in all to govern the nation of the Jews: Gratus, and his successor in the government, Pilate. Nor was he in one way of acting with respect to the Jews, and in another with respect to the rest of his subjects. He further informed them that even in the hearing of the causes of prisoners, he made such delays, because immediate death to those that must be condemned to die would be an alleviation of their present miseries, while those wicked wretches have not deserved any such favor; “but I do it, so that, by being harassed with the present calamity, they may undergo greater misery.”

6. It was on this account that Eutychus could not obtain a hearing, but was still kept in prison. However, some time afterward, Tiberius came from Capreae to Tusculanum, which is about one hundred stadia from Rome. Agrippa then desired of Antonia that she would procure a hearing for Eutychus to let the matter whereof he accused him prove what it would. Now Antonia was highly regarded by Tiberius on all accounts, from the dignity of her relation to him, who had been his brother Drusus’ wife, and from her renowned chastity; for though she was still a young woman, she continued in her widowhood and refused all other matches, although Augustus had commanded her to be married to somebody else; yet all along she preserved her reputation free from reproach. She had also been the greatest benefactress to Tiberius, when there was a very dangerous plot laid against him by Sejanus, a man who had been her husband’s friend, and who had the greatest authority, because he was [the] general of the army, and when many members of the senate and many of the freemen joined with him, and the soldiers were corrupted, and the plot had come to a great height. Now Sejanus would have certainly gained his point, had Antonia’s boldness not been more wisely conducted than Sejanus’ malice; for when she had discovered his schemes against Tiberius, she wrote him an exact account of the whole, and gave the letter to Pallas, the most faithful of her servants, and sent him to Tiberius at Capreae, who, when he understood it, slew Sejanus and his confederates, so that Tiberius, who held her in high regard before, now looked on her with still greater respect and depended on her in all things. So when Tiberius was desired by this Antonia to examine Eutychus, he answered, “If Eutychus has indeed falsely accused Agrippa in what he has said of him, he has already had sufficient punishment by what I have done to him; but if, on examination, the accusation appears to be true, let Agrippa have a care, lest, out of a desire of punishing his freeman, he does not rather bring a punishment on himself.” Now when Antonia told Agrippa of this, he was still much more pressing, so that the matter might be looked into; so Antonia, on Agrippa’s continually pushing her hard to beg this favor, took the following opportunity: as Tiberius once laid at ease on his litter and was carried around, and her grandson Gaius and Agrippa were near him after dinner, she walked by the litter and desired him to call Eutychus and have him examined; to which he replied, “O Antonia! the gods are my witnesses that I am induced to do what I am going to do, not by my own inclination, but because I am forced to [do] it by your prayers.” When he had said this, he ordered Macro, who succeeded Sejanus, to bring Eutychus to him; accordingly, without any delay, he was brought. Then Tiberius asked him what he had to say against a man who had given him his liberty. On which he said, “O my lord! this Gaius, and Agrippa with him, were once riding in a chariot, when I sat at their feet, and, among other discourses that passed, Agrippa said to Gaius, Oh that the day would finally come when this old fellow will die and name you as the governor of the [entire] habitable earth! for then this Tiberius, his grandson, would be no hindrance, but would be removed by you, and that earth would be blessed, and I blessed also.” Now Tiberius took these to truly be Agrippa’s words, and bearing a grudge at Agrippa as well, because, when he had commanded him to pay his respects to his grandson Tiberius and the son of Drusus, Agrippa had not paid him that respect, but had disobeyed his commands and transferred all his regard to Gaius; he said to Macro, “Bind this man.” But Macro, not distinctly knowing which of them it was whom he commanded him to bind, and not expecting that he would have any such thing done to Agrippa, he refrained and came to ask more distinctly what it was that he said. But when Caesar had gone around the hippodrome, he found Agrippa standing: “For certain,” he said, “Macro, this is the man I meant to have bound”; and when he still asked, “Which of these is to be bound?” he said “Agrippa.” On which Agrippa committed himself to make supplication for himself, reminding him of his son, with whom he was brought up, and of [his grandson] Tiberius whom he had educated; but [it was] all for no purpose, for they led him around bound even in his purple garments. It was also very hot weather, and they had but little wine with their meal, so that he was very thirsty; he was also in a sort of agony and took this treatment by him heinously: as he therefore saw one of Gaius’ slaves, whose name was Thaumastus, carrying some water in a vessel, he desired that he would let him drink; so the servant gave him some water to drink, and he drank heartily, and said, “O you boy! this service of yours to me will be for your advantage; for if I once get clear of these bonds of mine, I will soon obtain you your freedom from Gaius who has not been wanting to minister to me now [that] I am in bonds, in the same manner as when I was in my former state and dignity.” Nor did he deceive him in what he promised him, but made him amends for what he had now done; for afterward, when Agrippa had come to the kingdom, he took particular care of Thaumastus, and obtained him his liberty from Gaius, and made him the steward over his own estate; and when he died, he left him to his son Agrippa and to his daughter Bernice, to minister to them in the same capacity. The man also grew old in that honorable post, and therein died. But all this happened a good while later.

7. Now Agrippa stood in his bonds near the royal palace and leaned on a certain tree for grief, with many others, who were also in bonds; and as a certain bird sat on the tree on which Agrippa leaned (the Romans call this bird a bubo [(an owl)]), one of those that were bound, a German by nation, saw him and asked a soldier who that man in purple was; and when he was informed that his name was Agrippa, and that he was a Jew by nation and one of the principal men of that nation, he asked permission of the soldier to whom he was bound to let him come nearer to him to speak with him, for he intended to inquire of him about some things relating to his country; which liberty, when he had obtained [it], and as he stood near him, he said this to him by an interpreter: “This sudden change of your condition, O young man, is grievous to you, as bringing on you a manifold and very great adversity; nor will you believe me, when I foretell how you will get clear of this misery which you are now under, and how Divine Providence will provide for you. Know therefore (and I appeal to my own national gods, as well as to the gods of this place, who have awarded these bonds to us) that all I am going to say about your concerns will neither be said for favor nor bribery, nor out of an endeavor to make you cheerful without cause; for such predictions, when they come to fail, make the grief at last, and in earnest, more bitter than if the party had never heard of any such thing. However, although I run the risk of my own life, I think it right to declare to you the prediction of the gods: it cannot be that you should long continue in these bonds, but you will soon be delivered from them and will be promoted to the highest dignity and power, and you will be envied by all those who now pity your misfortune; and you will be blessed until your death and will leave your blessedness to the children whom you will have. But remember, when you see this bird again, then you will only live five more days. This event will be brought to pass by that God who has sent this bird here to be a sign to you. And I cannot but think it unjust to conceal from you what I foreknow concerning you, so that, by your knowing beforehand what happiness is coming on you, you may not regard your present misfortunes. But when this happiness will actually happen to you, do not forget what misery I am in myself, but endeavor to deliver me.” So when the German had said this, he made Agrippa laugh at him as much as he afterward appeared worthy of admiration. But now Antonia took Agrippa’s misfortune to heart: however, to speak to Tiberius on his behalf, she took to be a very difficult thing, and indeed quite impractical, as to any hope of success; yet she procured of Macro that the soldiers that kept him should be of a gentle nature, and that the centurion who was over them and was to dine with him, should be of the same disposition, and that he might have permission to bathe himself every day, and that his freemen and friends might come to him, and that other things that tended to ease him might be given [to] him. So his friend Silas came in to him, and two of his freemen, Marsyas and Stechus, brought him such sorts of food as he was fond of, and indeed took great care of him; they also brought him garments, under pretense of selling them; and when night came on, they laid them under him; and the soldiers assisted them, as Macro had given them an order to do beforehand. And this was Agrippa’s condition for six months’ time, and his affairs were in this state.

8. But [as] for Tiberius, on his return to Capreae, he fell sick. At first his disease was only mild, but as that disease increased on him, he had small or no hopes of recovery. Hereon he commanded Euodus, who was that freeman whom he most of all respected, to bring the children to him, because he wanted to talk to them before he died. Now at present, he had no living sons of his own, for Drusus, who was his only son, was dead; but Drusus’ son Tiberius was still living, whose additional name was Gemellus; there was also living Gaius, the son of Germanicus, who was the son of his brother [Drusus]. He was now grown up, and had a liberal education, and was well improved by it, and was in high regard and favor with the people, on account of the excellent character of his father Germanicus, who had attained the highest honor among the multitude, by the firmness of his virtuous behavior, by the easiness and agreeableness of his conversing with the multitude, and because the dignity he was in did not hinder his familiarity with them all, as if they were his equals; by this behavior he was not only highly regarded by the people and the senate, but by every one of those nations that were subject to the Romans; some of which were affected when they came to him with the gracefulness of their reception by him, and others were affected in the same manner by the report of the others that had been with him; and, on his death, a lamentation was made by all men; not such a one as was to be made in way of flattery to their rulers, while they only counterfeited sorrow, but such as was real, while everyone grieved at his death, as if they had lost someone who was close to them. And such had truly been his easy conversation with men, that it greatly turned to the advantage of his son among all; and, among others, the soldiers were so peculiarly affected toward him that they considered it a suitable thing if there was a need to die themselves, if he might but attain to the government.

9. But when Tiberius had given an order to Euodus to bring the children to him in the morning the next day, he prayed to his national gods to show him a manifest signal [regarding] which of those children should come to the government, being very desirous to leave it to his son’s son, but still depending on what God should foretell concerning them more than on his own opinion and inclination; so he took this to be the omen: that the government should be left to him who should come to him first the next day. When he had thus resolved within himself, he sent to his grandson’s tutor and ordered him to bring the child to him early in the morning, as supposing that God would permit him to be made emperor. But God proved opposite to his designation, for while Tiberius was thus devising matters, and as soon as it was day at all, he commanded Euodus to call in that child which should be ready there. So he went out and found Gaius by the door, for Tiberius had not yet come, but stayed waiting for his breakfast; for Euodus knew nothing of what his lord intended; so he said to Gaius, “Your father calls you,” and then brought him in. As soon as Tiberius saw Gaius, and not before, he reflected on the power of God, and how the ability of bestowing the government on whom he would was entirely taken from Him; and then he was unable to establish what he had intended. So he greatly lamented that his power of establishing what he had planned before was taken from him, and that his grandson Tiberius was not only to lose the Roman empire by his death, but his own safety also, because his preservation would now depend on such as would be more powerful than himself, who would not consider it a thing to be tolerated that a relative should live with them, and so his relation would not be able to protect him; but he would be feared and hated by him who had the supreme authority, partly on account of his being next to the empire, and partly on account of his perpetually plotting to gain the government, both in order to preserve himself, and to be at the head of affairs also. Now Tiberius had been very much given over to astrology and the calculation of nativities and had spent his life in the honor of whatever predictions had proven true, more than those whose profession it [actually] was. Accordingly, when he once saw Galba coming in to him, he said to his most intimate friends that a man came in who would one day have the dignity of the Roman empire. So that this Tiberius was more addicted to all such sorts of diviners than any of the other Roman emperors, because he had found them to have told him [the] truth in his own affairs. And indeed, he was now in great distress on this misfortune that had happened to him and was very greatly grieved at the destruction of his son’s son, which he foresaw, and complained of himself that he should have made use of such a method of divination beforehand, while it was in his power to have died without grief by this knowledge of the future; whereas he was now tormented by his foreknowledge of the misfortune of such as were dearest to him and must die under that torment. Now although he was disturbed at this unexpected revolution of the government to those for whom he did not intend it, he spoke thus to Gaius, though unwillingly, and against his own inclination: “O child! although Tiberius is nearer in relation to me than you are, I, by my own determination and the conspiring plea of the gods, give and put into your hand the Roman empire; and I desire you never to be unmindful when you come to it, either of my kindness to you, who set you in such a high dignity, or of your relation to Tiberius. But as you know that I am, together with and after the gods, the procurer of such great happiness to you, so I desire that you will make me a return for my readiness to assist you and will take care of Tiberius because of his close relation to you. Besides which, you are to know that while Tiberius is alive, he will be a security to you, both as to [the] empire and as to your own preservation; but if he dies, that will only be a prelude to your own misfortunes, for to be alone under the weight of such vast affairs is very dangerous; nor will the gods allow those actions which are unjustly done, contrary to that law which directs men to act otherwise, to go off unpunished.” This was the speech which Tiberius made, which did not persuade Gaius to act accordingly, although he promised to do so; but when he was settled in the government, he took away this Tiberius, as was predicted by the other Tiberius; as he was also himself, in a short time afterward, slain by a secret plot laid against him.

10. So, when Tiberius had at this time appointed Gaius to be his successor, he lived but a few days longer and then died, after he had held the government [for] twenty-two years, five months, and three days. Now Gaius was the fourth emperor. But when the Romans understood that Tiberius was dead, they rejoiced at the good news, but did not have [enough] courage to believe it—not because they were unwilling [that] it should be true, for they would have given huge sums of money that it might be so, but because they were afraid that if they had showed their joy when the news proved false, their joy would be openly known and they should be accused for it, and be thereby undone. For this Tiberius had brought a vast number of miseries on the best families of the Romans, since he was easily inflamed with passion in all cases and was of such a temper as rendered his anger irrevocable, until he had executed the same, although he had taken a hatred against men without reason; for he was by nature fierce in all the sentences he gave and made death the penalty for the lightest offenses, insomuch that when the Romans heard the rumor about his death gladly, they were restrained from the enjoyment of that pleasure by the dread of such miseries as they foresaw would follow if their hopes proved badly grounded. Now Marsyas, Agrippa’s freeman, as soon as he heard of Tiberius’ death, came running to tell Agrippa the news; and finding him going out to the bath, he gave him a nod and said in the Hebrew tongue, “The lion is dead”; who, understanding his meaning and being overjoyed at the news, said, “No, but all sorts of thanks and happiness attend you for this news of yours; I only wish that what you say may prove true.” Now the centurion who was set to keep Agrippa, when he saw with what haste Marsyas came, and what joy Agrippa had from what he said, he had a suspicion that his words implied some great innovation of affairs, and he asked them about what was said. They diverted the discussion at first, but on his pressing further, Agrippa, without more difficulty, told him [the news], for he had already become his friend; so he joined with him in that pleasure which this news caused, because it would be fortunate for Agrippa, and [then] he made him a supper. But as they were feasting, and the drinks went around, someone came who said that Tiberius was still alive and would return to the city in a few days. At this news, the centurion was exceedingly troubled, because he had done what might cost him his life, to have treated a prisoner so joyfully, and this on the news of the death of Caesar; so he thrust Agrippa from the couch whereon he lay and said, “Do you think to cheat me by a lie concerning the emperor without punishment? and will you not pay for your malicious report at the price of your head?” When he had said this, he ordered Agrippa to be bound again (for he had him unbound before) and kept a stricter guard over him than formerly; and Agrippa was [kept] in that bad condition that night. But the next day, the rumor increased in the city and confirmed the news that Tiberius was certainly dead, insomuch that men now dared to openly and freely talk about it; indeed, some offered sacrifices on that account. Several letters also came from Gaius; one of them to the senate, which informed them of the death of Tiberius and of his own entrance on the government; another to Piso, the governor of the city, which told him the same thing. He also gave an order that Agrippa should be moved out of the camp and go to that house where he lived before he was put in prison, so that he was now out of fear as to his own affairs; for although he was still in custody, yet it was now with ease as to his own affairs. Now, as soon as Gaius had come to Rome, and had brought Tiberius’ dead body with him, and had made an extravagant funeral for him, according to the laws of his country, he was greatly inclined to set Agrippa free that very day; but Antonia hindered him, not out of any animosity toward the prisoner, but out of regard to decency in Gaius, lest that should make men believe that he received the death of Tiberius with pleasure, when he immediately freed one whom he had bound. However, many days did not pass before he sent for him to his house, and had him shaved, and made him change his raiment; after which he put a diadem on his head and appointed him to be king of the tetrarchy of Philip. He also gave him the tetrarchy of Lysanias and changed his iron chain for a golden one of equal weight. He also sent Marullus to be procurator of Judea.

11. Now, in the second year of the reign of Gaius Caesar, Agrippa desired permission to be given [to] him to sail home and settle the affairs of his government; and he promised to return again, when he had put the rest in order, as it ought to be put. So, on the emperor’s permission, he came into his own country, and unexpectedly appeared to them all as a king, and thereby demonstrated to the men that saw him the power of fortune, when they compared his former poverty with his present fortunate affluence; so some called him a blessed man, and others could not well believe that things had changed so much with him for the better.

CHAPTER 7

How Herod the Tetrarch Was Banished.

1. But Herodias, Agrippa’s sister, who now lived as a wife to that Herod who was tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, took this authority of her brother in an envious manner, particularly when she saw that he had a greater dignity bestowed on him than her husband had, since, when he ran away, it was because he was unable to pay his debts; and now [that] he had come back, he was in a manner of dignity and of great good fortune. She was therefore grieved and greatly displeased at such a great transformation of his affairs; and chiefly, when she saw him marching among the multitude with the usual ensigns of royal authority, she was unable to conceal how miserable she was, by reason of the envy she had toward him; but she excited her husband and desired [of] him that he would sail to Rome, to court honors equal to his; for she said that she could not bear to live any longer, while Agrippa, the son of that Aristobulus who was condemned to die by his father—one that came to her husband in such extreme poverty that the necessities of life were forced to be entirely supplied [to] him day by day and fled away from his creditors by sea—now returned [as] a king, while [Herod] was himself the son of a king, and while the near relation he bore to royal authority called on him to gain the same dignity, [yet] he sat still and was satisfied with a private life. “But then, Herod, although you were formerly not concerned to be in a lower condition than your father from whom you were derived had been, yet now [you should] seek after the dignity which your relative has attained to; and do not bear this contempt, that a man who admired your riches should be in greater honor than yourself, nor allow his poverty to show itself able to purchase greater things than our abundance; nor consider it [anything] other than a shameful thing to be inferior to one who, the other day, lived on your charity. But let us go to Rome, and let us spare no efforts nor expenses, either of silver or gold, since they cannot be kept for any better use than for the obtaining of a kingdom.”

2. But [as] for Herod, he opposed her request at this time, out of the love of ease and having a suspicion of the trouble he should have at Rome; so he tried to instruct her better. But the more she saw him draw back, the more she pressed him to it and desired him to leave no stone unturned in order to be king; and at last, she did not cease until she engaged him, whether he would or not be of her sentiments, because he could not otherwise avoid her persistence. So, he got all things ready, after as lavish a manner as he was able, and spared for nothing, and went up to Rome, and took Herodias along with him. But Agrippa, when he was made aware of their intentions and preparations, he also prepared to go there; and as soon as he heard they set sail, he sent Fortunatus, one of his freedmen, to Rome, to carry presents to the emperor and letters against Herod and to give Gaius a particular account of those matters, if he should have any opportunity. This man followed Herod so quickly, and had such a prosperous voyage, and came so shortly after Herod, that while Herod was with Gaius, he came himself and delivered his letters; for they both sailed to Dicearchia, and found Gaius at Baiae, which is itself a little city of Campania, at the distance of about five stadia from Dicearchia. There are royal palaces in that place, with luxurious apartments, every emperor still endeavoring to outdo his predecessor’s magnificence; the place also provides warm baths that spring out of the ground of their own accord, which are of advantage for the recovery of the health of those that make use of them; and additionally, they also minister to men’s luxury. Now Gaius saluted Herod, for he first met with him, and then looked on the letters which Agrippa had sent him, and which were written in order to accuse Herod; wherein he accused him, that he had been in confederacy with Sejanus against Tiberius, and that he was now confederate with Artabanus, the king of Parthia, in opposition to the government of Gaius; as a demonstration of which he alleged that he had armor sufficient for seventy thousand men prepared in his armory. Gaius was moved at this information and asked Herod whether what was said about the armor was true; and when he confessed there was such armor there, for he could not deny the same—the truth of it being too notorious—Gaius took that to be sufficient proof of the accusation, that he intended to revolt. So, he took his tetrarchy away from him and gave it by way of addition to Agrippa’s kingdom; he also gave Herod’s money to Agrippa, and, by way of punishment, awarded him a perpetual banishment, and appointed Lyons, a city of Gaul, to be his place of habitation. But when he was informed that Herodias was Agrippa’s sister, he made her a present of what money was her own and told her that it was her brother who prevented her being put under the same calamity with her husband. But she made this reply: “You, indeed, O emperor, act in a magnificent manner, and as suits yourself in what you offer me; but the kindness which I have for my husband hinders me from partaking of the favor of your gift; for it is not just that I, who have been made a partner in his prosperity, should forsake him in his misfortunes.” Hereon Gaius was angry at her, and sent her with Herod into banishment, and gave her estate to Agrippa. And thus, God punished Herodias for her envy at her brother, and Herod also for listening to the vain discourses of a woman. Now Gaius managed public affairs with great generosity during the first and second year of his reign and behaved himself with such moderation that he gained the goodwill of the Romans themselves, and of his other subjects. But, in the course of time, he went beyond the bounds of human nature in his conceit of himself, and by reason of the vastness of his dominions, made himself [out to be] a god, and took on himself to act in all things to the reproach of the Deity Himself.

CHAPTER 8

Concerning the Envoy of the Jews to Gaius; And How Gaius Sent Petronius Into Syria to Make War Against the Jews, Unless They Would Receive His Statue.

1. An uproar had now arisen at Alexandria between the Jewish inhabitants and the Greeks; and three ambassadors were chosen out of each party that were in conflict, who came to Gaius. Now one of these ambassadors from the people of Alexandria was Apion, who uttered many blasphemies against the Jews; and, among other things that he said, he charged them with neglecting the honors that belonged to Caesar; for while all who were subject to the Roman empire built altars and temples to Gaius, and in other regards universally received him as they received the gods, these Jews alone thought it [to be] a dishonorable thing for them to erect statues in honor of him, as well as to swear by his name. Many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Gaius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be. But Philo, the principal [man] of the Jewish envoy, a distinguished man on all accounts, brother to Alexander the alabarch, and one not unskillful in philosophy, was ready to commit himself to make his defense against those accusations; but Gaius prohibited him and commanded him to go away; he was also in such a rage that it openly appeared he was about to do them some very great harm. So, Philo being thus offended, went out and said to those Jews who were around him that they should be of good courage, since Gaius’ words indeed showed anger at them, but in reality had already set God against himself.

2. Hereon Gaius, taking it very heinously that he should be thus despised by the Jews alone, sent Petronius to be president of Syria, and successor in the government to Vitellius, and gave him an order to make an invasion into Judea, with a great body of troops; and if they would admit his statue willingly, to erect it in the temple of God; but if they were obstinate, to conquer them by war, and then to do it. Accordingly, Petronius took the government of Syria and made haste to obey Caesar’s letter. He gathered as great a number of auxiliaries as he possibly could, and took with him two legions of the Roman army, and came to Ptolemais, and wintered there, as intending to set about the war in the spring. He also wrote word to Gaius [about] what he had resolved to do, who commended him for his eagerness and ordered him to go on and to make war with them, in case they would not obey his commands. But many myriads of the Jews came to Petronius, to Ptolemais, to offer their petitions to him, so that he would not compel them to transgress and violate the Law of their forefathers; “but if,” they said, “you are entirely resolved to bring this statue and erect it, first kill us, and then do what you have resolved on; for while we are alive, we cannot permit such things as are forbidden [to] us to be done by the authority of our legislator, and by our forefathers’ determination that such prohibitions are instances of virtue.” But Petronius was angry at them and said, “Indeed, if I myself was emperor and was free to follow my own inclination, and then had planned to act thus, these words of yours would be justly spoken to me; but now [that] Caesar has sent to me, I am under the obligation of being subservient to his decrees, because a disobedience to them will bring inevitable destruction on me.” Then the Jews replied, “Since, therefore, you are so inclined, O Petronius, that you will not disobey Gaius’ letters, neither will we transgress the commands of our law; and as we depend on the excellency of our laws, and, by the labors of our ancestors, have continued thus far without allowing them to be transgressed, we dare not by any means allow ourselves to be so frightened as to transgress those laws out of the fear of death, which God has determined are for our advantage; and if we fall into misfortunes, we will bear them, in order to preserve our laws, as knowing that those who expose themselves to dangers have good hope of escaping them, because God will stand on our side, when, out of regard to Him, we undergo afflictions and sustain the uncertain turns of fortune. But if we should submit to you, we should be greatly reproached for our cowardice, as thereby showing ourselves ready to transgress our law; and we should incur the great anger of God also, who, even yourself being judge, is superior to Gaius.”

3. When Petronius saw by their words that their determination was hard to be removed, and that, without a war, he would not be able to be subservient to Gaius in the dedication of his statue, and that there must be a great deal of bloodshed, he took his friends, and the servants that were around him, and hurried to Tiberias, as wanting to know in what posture the affairs of the Jews were; and many myriads of the Jews met Petronius again, when he had come to Tiberias. These thought they must run a mighty risk if they should have a war with the Romans, but judged that the transgression of the Law was of much greater consequence, and made supplication to him, that he would by no means reduce them to such distresses, nor defile their city with the dedication of the statue. Then Petronius said to them, “Will you then make war with Caesar, without considering his great preparations for war, and your own weakness?” They replied, “We will not make war with him by any means, but we will still die before we see our laws transgressed.” So, they threw themselves down on their faces, and stretched out their throats, and said they were ready to be slain; and they did this for forty days together, and in the meantime ceased the tilling of their ground—and that while the season of the year required them to sow it. Thus, they remained firm in their resolution and proposed to themselves to die willingly, rather than to see the dedication of the statue.

4. When matters were in this state, Aristobulus, King Agrippa’s brother, and Helcias the Great, and the other principal men of that family with them, went in to Petronius and pleaded with him, that since he saw the resolution of the multitude, he would not make any alteration and thereby drive them to despair, but would write to Gaius that the Jews had an unconquerable aversion to the reception of the statue, and how they continued with him, and abandoned the tillage of their ground: that they were not willing to go to war with him, because they were unable to do it, but were ready to die with pleasure, rather than allow their laws to be transgressed; and how, on the land’s continuing unsown, robberies would grow up, on the inability they would be under of paying their tributes; and that Gaius might be thereby moved to pity and not order any barbaric action to be done to them, nor think of destroying the nation: that if he remains inflexible in his former opinion to bring a war on them, he may then set about it himself. And thus Aristobulus, and the rest with him, supplicated Petronius. So Petronius, partly on account of the pressing instances which Aristobulus and the rest with him made, and because of the great consequence of what they desired and the earnestness with which they made their supplication—partly on account of the firmness of the opposition made by the Jews, which he saw, while he thought it a terrible thing for him to be such a slave to the madness of Gaius, as to slay so many myriads of men, only because of their religious disposition toward God, and after that to pass his life in expectation of punishment—Petronius, I say, thought it much better to send to Gaius and to let him know how intolerable it was to him to bear the anger he might have against him for not serving him sooner, in obedience to his letter, because perhaps he might persuade him; and that if this mad resolution continued, he might then begin the war against them; indeed, that in case he should turn his hatred against himself, it was right for virtuous persons even to die for the sake of such vast multitudes of men. Accordingly, he determined to listen to the petitioners in this matter.

5. He then called the Jews together to Tiberias, who came [with] many myriads in number; he also placed that army he now had with him opposite to them, but did not reveal his own intention, but [only] the commands of the emperor, and told them that his wrath would, without delay, be executed on such as had the courage to disobey what he had commanded, and this immediately; and that it was right for him who had obtained such great dignity by his grant, not to contradict him in anything: “yet,” he said, “I do not think it just to have such a regard for my own safety and honor, as to refuse to sacrifice them for your preservation, who are so many in number, and endeavor to preserve the regard that is due to your law; which as it has come down to you from your forefathers, so you consider it worthy of your utmost contention to preserve it: nor, with the supreme assistance and power of God, will I be so daring as to allow your temple to fall into contempt by the means of the imperial authority. I will, therefore, send to Gaius, and let him know what your resolutions are, and will assist your suit as far as I am able, so that you may not be exposed to suffer on account of the honest plans you have proposed for yourselves; and may God be your assistant, for His authority is beyond all the scheme and power of men; and may He procure you the preservation of your ancient laws; and may He not be deprived, though without your consent, of His accustomed honors. But if Gaius is irritated and turns the violence of his rage on me, I would rather undergo all that danger and that affliction that may come on either my body or my soul, than see so many of you to perish, while you are acting in such an excellent manner. Therefore, every one of you: go your way about your own occupations and fall to the cultivation of your ground; I myself will send to Rome and will not refuse to serve you in all things, both by myself and by my friends.”

6. When Petronius had said this and had dismissed the assembly of the Jews, he desired the principal ones of them to take care of their farming, and to speak kindly to the people, and encourage them to have good hope for their affairs. Thus, he readily brought the multitude to be cheerful again. And now God showed His presence to Petronius and signified to him that He would provide him His assistance with his whole plan; for he had no sooner finished the speech that he made to the Jews, but God sent down great showers of rain, contrary to human expectation; for that day was a clear day and gave no sign, by the appearance of the sky, of any rain; indeed, the whole year had been subject to a great drought and made men despair for any water from above, even when at any time they saw the skies overcast with clouds, insomuch that when such a great quantity of rain came—and that in an unusual manner and without any other expectation of it—the Jews hoped that Petronius would by no means fail in his petition for them. But as for Petronius, he was mightily surprised when he perceived that God evidently took care of the Jews and gave very plain signs of His appearance—and this to such a degree that those that were in earnest greatly inclined to the contrary, had no power left to contradict it. This was also among those other particulars which he wrote to Gaius, which all tended to dissuade him, and by all means to request him not to make so many myriads of these men go mad; whom, if he should slay (for without war they would by no means allow the laws of their worship to be set aside), he would lose the revenue they paid him and would be publicly cursed by them for all future ages. Moreover, that God, who was their Governor, had shown His power most evidently on their account—and that such a power of His as left no room for doubt about it. And this was the business that Petronius was now engaged in.

7. But King Agrippa, who now lived at Rome, was more and more in favor with Gaius; and when he had once made him a supper and was careful to exceed all others, both in expenses and in such preparations as might contribute most to his pleasure—indeed, it was so far from the ability of others that Gaius himself could never equal, much less exceed it (such care had he taken beforehand to exceed all men, and particularly, to make all agreeable to Caesar)—hereon Gaius admired his understanding and magnificence, that he should force himself to do all to please him, even beyond such expenses as he could bear, and did not desire to be behind Agrippa in that generosity which he exerted in order to please him. So Gaius, when he had drank wine plentifully and was merrier than ordinary, said this during the feast, when Agrippa had drunk to him: “I knew before now how great a respect you have had for me, and how great kindness you have shown me, though with those dangers to yourself, which you underwent under Tiberius on that account; nor have you omitted anything to show your goodwill toward us, even beyond your ability; from which it would be a dishonorable thing for me to be conquered by your affection. I am therefore desirous to make you amends for everything in which I have been formerly deficient; for all that I have bestowed on you, that may be called my gifts, is but little. Everything that may contribute to your happiness will be at your service, and that cheerfully, and so far as my ability will reach.” And this was what Gaius said to Agrippa, thinking he would ask for some large country, or the revenues of certain cities. But although he had prepared beforehand what he would ask, yet he did not reveal his intentions, but made this answer to Gaius immediately: that it was not out of any expectation of gain that he formerly paid his respects to him, contrary to the commands of Tiberius, nor did he now do anything relating to him out of regard for his own advantage, and in order to receive anything from him; that the gifts he had already bestowed on him were great and beyond the hopes of even a craving man; “for although they may be beneath your power, yet they are greater than my inclination and dignity, who am the receiver.” And as Gaius was astonished at Agrippa’s inclinations, and still pressed him [all] the more to make his request for something which he might gratify him with, Agrippa replied, “Since you, O my lord, declare—such is your readiness to grant—that I am worthy of your gifts, I will ask nothing relating to my own pleasure; for what you have already bestowed on me has made me excel therein; but I desire something which may make you glorious for piety and render the Divinity an assistant to your plans, and may be for an honor to me among those that inquire about it, as showing that I never once fail of obtaining what I desire from you; for my petition is this: that you will no longer think of the dedication of that statue which you have ordered to be set up in the Jewish temple by Petronius.”

8. And thus, Agrippa ventured to cast the die on this occasion, so great was the affair in his opinion, and in reality, although he knew how dangerous a thing it was so to speak; for had Gaius not approved of it, it would have tended toward nothing less than the loss of his life. So Gaius, who was mightily taken with Agrippa’s obliging behavior, and on other accounts thinking it a dishonorable thing to be guilty of falsehood before so many witnesses, in points wherein he had with such eagerness forced Agrippa to become a petitioner, and that it would look as if he had already converted of what he had said, and because he greatly admired Agrippa’s virtue in not desiring him at all to increase his own dominions, either with larger revenues, or other authority, but took care of the public tranquility, of the laws, and of the Divinity Himself, he granted him what he had requested. He also wrote thus to Petronius, commending him for his assembling his army and then consulting him about these affairs. “If therefore,” he said, “you have already erected my statue, let it stand; but if you have not yet dedicated it, do not trouble yourself further about it, but dismiss your army, go back, and take care of those affairs which I sent you about at first, for I now have no reason for the erection of that statue. I have granted this as a favor to Agrippa, a man whom I honor so very greatly, that I am unable to contradict what he would have, or what he desired me to do for him.” And this was what Gaius wrote to Petronius, which was before he received his letter, informing him that the Jews were very ready to revolt concerning the statue, and that they seemed resolved to threaten war against the Romans, and nothing else. Therefore, when Gaius was greatly displeased that any attempt should be made against his government—as he was a slave to base and vicious actions on all occasions and had no regard for what was virtuous and honorable, and against whomsoever he resolved to show his anger, and that for any cause whatsoever, he did not allow himself to be restrained by any admonition, but thought indulging his anger to be a real pleasure—he wrote thus to Petronius: “Seeing [that] you consider the presents made [to] you by the Jews to be of greater value than my commands and have grown insolent enough to be subservient to their pleasure, I charge you to become your own judge and to consider what you are to do now [that] you are under my displeasure; for I will make you an example to the present and to all future ages, so that they may not dare to contradict the commands of their emperor.”

9. This was the letter which Gaius wrote to Petronius; but Petronius did not receive it while Gaius was alive—that ship which carried it sailing so slow, that other letters came to Petronius before this, by which he understood that Gaius was dead; for God would not forget the dangers Petronius had undertaken on account of the Jews and of His own honor. But when He had taken Gaius away, out of His indignation of what he had so insolently attempted in assuming to himself divine worship, both Rome and all that dominion conspired with Petronius, especially those that were of the senatorian order, to give Gaius his due reward, because he had been unmercifully severe toward them; for he died not long after he had written to Petronius that letter which threatened him with death. But as for the cause of his death, and the nature of the plot against him, I will relate them in the progress of this narration. Now that letter which informed Petronius of Gaius’ death came first, and shortly afterward came that which commanded him to kill himself with his own hands. Whereon he rejoiced at this coincidence as to the death of Gaius, and admired God’s providence, who, without the least delay, and immediately, gave him a reward for the regard he had for the temple and the assistance he provided the Jews for avoiding the dangers they were in. And by this means, Petronius escaped that danger of death, which he could not foresee.

CHAPTER 9

What Happened to the Jews That Were in Babylon on Occasion of Asineus and Anileus, Two Brothers.

1. A very sad calamity now happened to the Jews that were in Mesopotamia, and especially those that dwelt in Babylonia. It was inferior to none of the calamities which had gone before and came together with a great slaughter of them—and that greater than any previously on record; concerning all [of] which I will speak accurately and will explain the causes from which these miseries came on them. There was a city of Babylonia called Neerda; not only a very populous one, but one that had an excellent and large territory around it, and, besides its other advantages, full of men also. Additionally, it was not to be assaulted easily by enemies, from the Euphrates River surrounding it all around, and from the walls that were built around it. There was also the city [of] Nisibis, situated on the same current of the river. For which reason the Jews, depending on the natural strength of these places, deposited in them that half shekel which every one, by the custom of our country, offers to God, as well as they did other things devoted to Him; for they made use of these cities as a treasury, from which, at a proper time, they were transmitted to Jerusalem; and many myriads of men undertook the shipping of those donations, out of fear of the ravages of the Parthians, to whom the Babylonians were then subject. Now there were two men, Asineus and Anileus, of the city [of] Neerda by birth, and brothers to one another. They were destitute of a father, and their mother set them to learn the art of weaving curtains—it not being considered a disgrace among them for men to be weavers of cloth. Now he that taught them that art and was set over them, complained that they came too late to their work and punished them with stripes, but they took this just punishment as an insult, and carried off all the weapons which were kept in that house, which were not a few, and went into a certain place where there was a partition of the rivers, and there was a place naturally very suitable for the feeding of cattle and for preserving such fruits as were usually laid up for winter. The poorest sort of the young men also resorted to them, whom they armed with the weapons they had acquired and became their captains; and nothing hindered them from being their leaders into mischief, for as soon as they had become invincible and had built themselves a citadel, they sent to such as fed cattle and ordered them to pay them so much tribute out of [what they had] as might be sufficient for their maintenance, also proposing that they would be their friends, if they would submit to them, and that they would defend them from all their other enemies on every side, but that they would kill the cattle of those that refused to obey them. So they listened to their proposals (for they could do nothing else) and sent them as many sheep as were required of them; whereby their forces grew greater, and they became lords over all they pleased, because they marched suddenly and caused them trouble, insomuch that everyone who had to deal with them chose to pay them respect; and they became formidable to such as came to assault them, until the report about them came to the ears of the king of Parthia himself.

2. But when the governor of Babylonia understood this and intended to put a stop to them before they grew greater, and before greater troubles should arise from them, he gathered as great an army as he could, both of Parthians and Babylonians, and marched against them, thinking to attack them and destroy them before anyone should carry them the news that he had gathered an army together. He then encamped at a lake and lay still; but on the next day (it was the Sabbath, which is among the Jews a day of rest from all sorts of work), he supposed that the enemy would not dare to fight him thereon, but that he would take them and carry them away [as] prisoners, without fighting. He therefore proceeded gradually and thought to fall on them suddenly. Now Asineus was sitting with the rest, and their weapons lay by them; on which he said, “Lords, I hear a neighing of horses; not of such as are feeding, but such as have men on their backs; I also hear such a noise of their bridles, that I am afraid that some enemies are coming on us to surround us. However, let somebody go to look around and make a report of what the reality is in the present state of things; and may what I have said prove [to be] a false alarm.” And when he had said this, some of them went forth to spy out what the matter was; and they came again immediately and said to him that “neither have you been mistaken in telling us what our enemies were doing, nor will those enemies permit us to be injurious to people any longer. We are caught by their intrigues like brute beasts, and there is a large body of cavalry marching against us, while we are destitute of hands to defend ourselves as well, because we are restrained from doing it by the prohibition of our law, which obligates us to rest [on this day].” But Asineus did not by any means agree with the opinion of his spy as to what was to be done, but thought it more agreeable to the Law to pluck up their spirits in this need they had fallen into and break their law by avenging themselves, although they should die in the action, than by doing nothing to please their enemies in submitting to be slain by them. Accordingly, he took up his weapons and infused courage into those that were with him to act as courageously as himself. So, they fell on their enemies and slew a great many of them, because they despised them, and came as to a certain victory, and put the rest to flight.

3. But when the news of this fight came to the king of Parthia, he was surprised at the boldness of these brothers and desired to see them and speak with them. Therefore, he sent the most trusty of all his guards to say this to them, that, “King Artabanus, although he had been unjustly treated by you who have made an attempt against his government, yet he has more regard for your courageous behavior, than to the anger he bears toward you, and has sent me to give you his right hand and security; and he permits you to come to him safely and without any violence on the road; and he wants to have you address yourselves to him as friends, without meaning any guile or deceit toward you. He also promises to make you presents and to pay you those respects which will make an addition of his power to your courage, and thereby be of advantage to you.” Yet Asineus himself put off his journey there, but sent his brother Anileus with all such presents as he could procure. So he went and was admitted into the king’s presence; and when Artabanus saw Anileus coming alone, he inquired into the reason why Asineus avoided to come along with him; and when he understood that he was afraid and stayed by the lake, he took an oath, by the gods of his country, that he would do them no harm if they came to him on the assurances he gave them and gave him his right hand. This is of the greatest force there with all these barbarians and provides a firm assurance to those who converse with them; for none of them will deceive you once they have given you their right hands, nor will anyone doubt their fidelity, when that is once given, even though they were formerly suspected of injustice. When Artabanus had done this, he sent Anileus away to persuade his brother to come to him. Now the king did this, because he wanted to curb his own governors of provinces by the courage of these Jewish brothers, lest they should make an alliance with them; for they were ready for a revolt and were inclined to rebel, had they been sent on an expedition against them. He was also afraid, lest when he was engaged in a war, in order to subdue those governors of provinces that had revolted, the party of Asineus, and those in Babylonia, should be enlarged, and either make war on him, when they should hear of that revolt, or if they should be disappointed in that case, they would not fail to cause further trouble to him.

4. When the king had these intentions, he sent Anileus away, and Anileus persuaded his brother [to come to the king], when he had related to him the king’s goodwill and the oath that he had taken. Accordingly, they made haste to go to Artabanus, who received them when they had come with pleasure and admired Asineus’ courage in the actions he had done, and this because he was a little man to look at, and also appeared contemptible at first sight, and such as one might deem a person of no value at all. He also said to his friends, how, on the comparison, he showed his soul to be in all respects superior to his body; and when, as they were drinking together, he once showed Asineus to Abdagases, one of the generals of his army, and told him his name, and described the great courage he had in war, and Abdagases had desired permission to kill him, and thereby to inflict on him a punishment for those injuries he had done to the Parthian government, the king replied, “I will never give you permission to kill a man who has depended on my faith, especially not after I have sent him my right hand and endeavored to gain his belief by oaths made by the gods. But if you are a truly warlike man, you do not stand in need of my perjury. Go then and avenge the Parthian government; attack this man, when he has returned back, and conquer him by the forces that are under your command, without my knowledge.” Hereon the king called for Asineus and said to him, “It is time for you, O young man, to return home and not provoke the indignation of my generals in this place any further, lest they attempt to murder you—and that without my consent. I commit to you the country of Babylonia in trust, so that it may, by your care, be preserved free from robbers and from other troubles. I have kept my faith unbreakable toward you—and that not in trivial matters, but in those that concerned your safety, and I therefore deserve [that] you should be kind to me.” When he had said this and given Asineus some presents, he immediately sent him away; who, when he had come home, built fortresses, and became great in a short time, and managed things with such courage and success, as no other person that had no higher a beginning ever did before him. Those Parthian governors also, who were sent that way, paid him great respect; and the honor that was paid [to] him by the Babylonians seemed to them too small, and beneath what he deserved, although he was in no small dignity and power there; no, indeed, all the affairs of Mesopotamia depended on him, and he flourished more and more in this fortunate condition of his for fifteen years.

5. But as their affairs were in such a flourishing state, a calamity sprang up among them on the following occasion: when they had deviated from that course of virtue whereby they had gained such great power, they offended and transgressed the laws of their forefathers and fell under the dominion of their lusts and pleasures. A certain Parthian, who came as general of an army into those parts, had a wife following him, who had a vast reputation for other accomplishments, and particularly was admired above all other women for her beauty. Anileus, the brother of Asineus, either heard of her beauty from others, or perhaps saw her himself also, and so became both her lover and her enemy; partly because he could not hope to enjoy this woman but by obtaining power over her as a captive, and partly because he thought he could not conquer his inclinations for her. Therefore, as soon as her husband had been declared an enemy to them and had fallen in the battle, the widow of the deceased was married to her lover. However, this woman did not come into their house without producing great misfortunes, both to Anileus himself, and to Asineus also, but she brought great troubles on them on the following occasion: since she was led away captive on the death of her husband, she concealed the images of those gods, which were their national gods, common to her husband and to herself: now it was the custom of that country for all to have the idols they worship in their own houses and to carry them along with them when they go into a foreign land; agreeable to which custom of theirs she carried her idols with her. Now at first she performed her worship to them privately; but when she had become Anileus’ married wife, she worshiped them in her accustomed manner, and with the same appointed ceremonies which she used in her former husband’s days; on which their most esteemed friends blamed him at first, that he did not act after the manner of the Hebrews, nor perform what was agreeable to their laws, in marrying a foreign wife, and one that transgressed the accurate appointments of their sacrifices and religious ceremonies; that he ought to consider, lest, by allowing himself in many pleasures of the body, he might lose his principality, on account of the beauty of a wife, and that high authority which, by God’s blessing, he had attained to. But when they did not prevail with him at all, he slew one of them for whom he had the greatest respect, because of the liberty he took with him; who, when he was dying, out of regard for the laws, imprecated a punishment on his murderer Anileus, and on Asineus also, and that all their companions might come to a similar end from their enemies: on the two first as the principal actors of this wickedness, and on the rest as those that would not assist him when he suffered in the defense of their laws. Now these latter were severely grieved, yet they tolerated these deeds, because they remembered that they had arrived at their present fortunate state by no other means than their fortitude. But when they also heard of the worship of those gods whom the Parthians adore, they thought the injury that Anileus offered to their laws was not to be endured any longer; and a greater number of them came to Asineus, and loudly complained of Anileus, and told him that it had been good that he had himself seen what was advantageous to them, but that it was now however long past time to correct what had been done wrongly, before the crime that had been committed proved the ruin of himself and all the rest of them. They added that the marriage of this woman was made without their consent, and without a regard for their old laws; and that the worship which this woman paid [to her gods] was a reproach to the God whom they worshiped. Now Asineus was aware of his brother’s offense, that it had already been the cause of great troubles and would be so for the time to come; yet he tolerated the same from the goodwill he had toward such a close relation, and forgiving it to him, on account that his brother was quite overcome by his wicked inclinations. But as more and more still came around him every day, and the clamors concerning it became greater, he finally spoke to Anileus about these clamors, reproving him for his former actions and desiring him to abandon them for the future and send the woman back to her relations. But nothing was gained by these criticisms, for as the woman perceived what an uproar was made among the people on her account and was afraid for Anileus, lest he should come to any harm for his love for her, she infused poison into Asineus’ food, and thereby took him away, and was now secure in prevailing, when her lover was to be [the] judge of what should be done concerning her.

6. So Anileus took the government on himself alone, and led his army against the villages of Mithridates, who was a man of principal authority in Parthia and had married King Artabanus’ daughter; he also plundered them, and among that spoil was found much money, and many slaves, as also a great number of sheep, and many other things, which, when gained, make men’s condition fortunate. Now when Mithridates, who was there at this time, heard that his villages were taken, he was very greatly displeased to find that Anileus had first begun to injure him and to insult him in his present dignity, when he had not offered any injury to him beforehand; and he gathered the greatest body of horsemen he was able, and those out of that number which were of an age fit for war, and came to fight Anileus; and when he had arrived at a certain village of his own, he lay still there, as intending to fight him on the following day, because it was the Sabbath, the day on which the Jews rest. And when Anileus was informed of this by a Syrian stranger of another village, who not only gave him an exact account of other circumstances, but told him where Mithridates would have a feast, he took his supper at a proper time and marched by night, with an intent of falling on the Parthians while they were unapprised of what they should do; so he fell on them around the fourth watch of the night, and some of them he slew while they were asleep, and others he put to flight, and took Mithridates alive, and set him naked on a donkey which, among the Parthians, is considered the greatest offense possible. And when he had brought him into a forest with such a resolution, and his friends desired him to kill Mithridates, he soon told them his own mind to the contrary and said that it was not right to kill a man who was of one of the principal families among the Parthians and greatly honored with matching into the royal family; that as far as they had gone thus far was tolerable, for although they had insulted Mithridates, yet if they preserved his life, this benefit would be remembered by him to the advantage of those that gave it [to] him; but that if he was finally put to death, the king would not be at rest until he had made a great slaughter of the Jews that dwelt at Babylon, “to whose safety we ought to have regard, both on account of our relation to them, and because if any misfortune happens to us, we have no other place to retreat to, since he has gotten the flower of their youth under him.” By this thought, and this speech of his made in council, he persuaded them to act accordingly; so Mithridates was let go. But when he had gotten away, his wife reproached him, that although he was [the] son-in-law to the king, he neglected to avenge himself on those that had insulted him, while he took no concern for it, but was satisfied to have been made a captive by the Jews and to have escaped them; and she commanded him either to go back like a man of courage, or else she swore by the gods of their royal family that she would certainly dissolve her marriage with him. On this, partly because he could not bear the daily trouble of her taunts, and partly because he was afraid of her insolence, lest she should dissolve their marriage in earnest, he unwillingly, and against his inclinations, again gathered as great an army as he could and marched along with them, as himself thinking it a thing not to be endured any longer, that he, a Parthian, should owe his preservation to the Jews, when they had been too difficult for him in the war.

7. But as soon as Anileus understood that Mithridates was marching with a great army against him, he thought it too shameful a thing to tarry around the lakes and not to take the first opportunity of meeting his enemies, and he hoped to have the same success and to beat their enemies as they did before; as also, he boldly ventured on the same attempts. Accordingly, he led out his army, and a great many more joined themselves to that army, in order to commit themselves to plunder the people, and in order to terrify the enemy again by their numbers. But when they had marched ninety stadia, while the road had been through dry [and sandy] places, and around the midst of the day they had become very thirsty, Mithridates appeared and fell on them, as they were in distress for lack of water, on which account, and on account of the time of the day, they were unable to bear their weapons. So Anileus and his men were forced to a disgraceful rout, while men in despair were to attack those that were fresh and in a good plight; so a great slaughter was made, and many myriads of men fell. Now Anileus, and all that stood firm around him, ran away as fast as they were able into a forest and provided Mithridates [with] the pleasure of having gained a great victory over them. But a confluence of bad men now came to Anileus, who regarded their own lives [as] very little, if they might but gain some present ease, insomuch that they, by thus coming to him, compensated the multitude for those that perished in the fight. Yet these men were not like those that fell, because they were rash and unexercised in war; however, he came on the villages of the Babylonians with these, and a mighty devastation of all things was made there by the injuries that Anileus did them. So the Babylonians, and those that had already been in the war, sent to Neerda, to the Jews there, and demanded Anileus. But although they did not agree to their demands (for if they had been willing to deliver him up, it was not in their power to do so), yet they desired to make peace with them. To which the other replied that they also wanted to settle conditions of peace with them and sent men together with the Babylonians, who discoursed with Anileus concerning them. But the Babylonians, on taking a view of his situation, and having learned where Anileus and his men lay, secretly fell on them as they were drunk and had fallen asleep, and slew all that they caught of them, without any fear, and also killed Anileus himself.

8. The Babylonians were now freed from Anileus’ heavy incursions, which had been a great restraint to the effects of that hatred they bore toward the Jews, for they were almost always in conflict, by reason of the contrariety of their laws; and whichever party grew boldest before the other, they assaulted the other. And it was at this time in particular that on the ruin of Anileus’ party, the Babylonians attacked the Jews, which made those Jews to resent the injuries they received from the Babylonians so vehemently, that being neither able to fight them, nor bearing to live with them, they went to Seleucia, the principal city of those parts, which was built by Seleucus Nicator. It was inhabited by many of the Macedonians, but by more of the Grecians; not a few of the Syrians also dwelt there; and the Jews fled there and lived there five years, without any misfortunes. But on the sixth year, a pestilence came on these at Babylon, which caused new removals of men’s habitations from that city; and because they came to Seleucia, it happened that a still heavier calamity came on them on that account which I am going to immediately relate.

9. Now the way of living of the people of Seleucia, which were Greeks and Syrians, was commonly quarrelsome and full of discords, though the Greeks were too difficult for the Syrians. Therefore, when the Jews had come there and dwelt among them, a sedition arose, and the Syrians were too difficult for the other, by the assistance of the Jews, who are men that despise dangers and [are] very ready to fight on any occasion. Now when the Greeks had the worst in this sedition and saw that they had but one way of recovering their former authority, and that was if they could prevent the agreement between the Jews and the Syrians, every one of them discoursed with such of the Syrians as were formerly their acquaintance and promised [that] they would be at peace and friendship with them. Accordingly, they gladly agreed to do so; and when this was done by the principal men of both nations, they soon agreed to a reconciliation; and when they were so agreed, they both knew that the great arrangement of their union would be their common hatred for the Jews. Accordingly, they fell on them and slew about fifty thousand of them; indeed, the Jews were all destroyed, excepting a few who escaped, either by the compassion which their friends or neighbors provided them, in order to let them flee away. These retreated to Ctesiphon, a Grecian city, and situated near to Seleucia, where the king [of Parthia] lives in winter every year, and where the greatest part of his riches are deposited; but the Jews had no secure settlement here, those of Seleucia having little concern for the king’s honor. Now the whole nation of the Jews was in fear both of the Babylonians and of the Seleucians, because all the Syrians that live in those places agreed with the Seleucians in the war against the Jews; so most of them gathered themselves together, and went to Neerda and Nisibis, and obtained security there by the strength of those cities; besides which their inhabitants, who were a great many, were all warlike men. And this was the state of the Jews at this time in Babylonia.

BOOK XIX

Containing the Interval of Three and a Half Years. From the Departure Out of Babylon to Fadus, the Roman Procurator.

CHAPTER 1

How Gaius Was Slain by Cherea.

1. Now this Gaius did not demonstrate his madness in offering injuries only to the Jews at Jerusalem, or to those that dwelt in the neighborhood, but allowed it to extend itself through all the earth and sea, so far as was in subjection to the Romans, and filled it with ten thousand troubles—so many indeed in number as no former history relates. But Rome itself felt the most dismal effects of what he did, while he deemed that not to be [in] any way more honorable than the rest of the cities; but he pulled away and hauled off its other citizens, but especially the senate, and particularly the nobility, and such as had been dignified by illustrious ancestors; he also had ten thousand schemes against such of the equestrian order, as it was styled, who were regarded by the citizens [as] equal in dignity and wealth with the senators, because the senators themselves were chosen from them. He treated these after a disgraceful manner and removed them out of his way, while they were at once slain, and their wealth plundered, because he slew men generally in order to seize their riches. He also asserted his own divinity and insisted on greater honors to be paid him by his subjects than are due to mankind. He also frequented that temple of Jupiter which they style the Capitol, which is, with them, the most holy of all their temples, and had boldness enough to call himself the brother of Jupiter. And he did other pranks like a madman; as when he laid a bridge from the city [of] Dicearchia, which belongs to Campania, to Misenum, another city on the seaside, from one promontory to another, of the length of thirty stadia, as measured over the sea. And this was done because he considered it to be a most tedious thing to row over it in a small ship and additionally thought that it was right for him to make that bridge, since he was lord of the sea and might compel it to give marks of obedience as well as the earth; so he enclosed the whole bay within his bridge and drove his chariot over it; and he thought that, as he was a god, it was fitting for him to travel over such roads as this was. Nor did he abstain from the plunder of any of the Grecian temples, but gave an order that all the engravings and sculptures, and the rest of the ornaments of the statues and donations dedicated therein, should be brought to him, saying that the best things ought to be set nowhere except in the best place, and that the city of Rome was that best place. He also adorned his own house and his gardens with the curiosities brought from those temples, together with the houses he lay at when he traveled all over Italy; from which he did not hesitate to give a command that the statue of Jupiter Olympius, so called because he was honored at the Olympian games by the Greeks, which was the work of Phidias the Athenian, should be brought to Rome. Yet he did not reach his goal, because the architects told Memmius Regulus, who was commanded to remove that statue of Jupiter, that the workmanship was such as would be spoiled and could not undergo the removal. It was also reported that Memmius, both on that account, and on account of some such mighty prodigies as are of an incredible nature, put off taking it down and wrote to Gaius those accounts, as his apology for not having done what his letter required of him; and that when he was then in danger of perishing, he was saved by Gaius being dead himself, before he had put him to death.

2. Indeed, Gaius’ madness came to this height, that when he had a daughter born, he carried her into the Capitol, and put her on the knees of the statue, and said that the child was common to him and to Jupiter, and determined that she had two fathers, but which of these fathers were the greatest he left undetermined; and yet mankind endured him in his pranks. He also gave permission to slaves to accuse their masters of any crimes they pleased whatsoever; for all such accusations were terrible, because they were in great part made to please him, and at his suggestion, insomuch that Pollux, Claudius’ slave, had the boldness to lay an accusation against Claudius himself; and Gaius was not ashamed to be present at his trial of life and death, to hear that trial of his own uncle, in hopes of being able to take him away, although he did not succeed with his intention. But when he had filled the whole habitable world which he governed with false accusations and miseries, and had caused the greatest insults of slaves against their masters, who indeed in a great measure ruled them, there were many secret plots now laid against him; some in anger, and in order for men to avenge themselves, on account of the miseries they had already undergone from him; and others made attempts on him, in order to take him away before they should fall into such great miseries, while his death came very fortunately for the preservation of the laws of all men and had a great influence on the public welfare; and this happened most happily for our nation in particular, which would have almost utterly perished if he had not suddenly been slain. And I confess [that] I intend to give a full account of this matter particularly, because it will provide great assurance of the power of God, and great comfort to those that are under afflictions, and wise caution to those who think their happiness will never end, nor finally bring them to the most lasting miseries, if they do not conduct their lives by the principles of virtue.

3. Now there were three different conspiracies made in order to dispense with Gaius, and each of these three were conducted by excellent persons: Emilius Regulus, born at Corduba in Spain, gathered some men together and desired to dispose of Gaius, either by them or by himself; there was another conspiracy laid by them, under the lead of Cassius Cherea, the tribune [of the Praetorian Guard]; Minucianus Annius was also one of great consequence among those that were prepared to oppose his tyranny. Now the numerous causes of these men’s various hostilities and conspiracies against Gaius were these: Regulus had indignation and hatred against all injustice, for he had a mind [that was] naturally angry, and bold, and free, which made him not conceal his counsels; so he communicated them to many of his friends, and to others who seemed to him [to be] active and vigorous persons; Minucianus entered into this conspiracy, because of the injustice done to Lepidus, his particular friend, and one with the best character among all the citizens, whom Gaius had slain, as also because he was afraid for himself, since Gaius’ wrath tended to the slaughter of all alike; and for Cherea, he came in, because he thought it a deed worthy of a free, ingenious man to kill Gaius, and was ashamed of the reproaches he lay under from Gaius, as though he were a coward; as also because he was himself in danger every day from his friendship with him and the observance he paid him. These men proposed this attempt to all the rest that were concerned, who saw the injuries that were offered them and were desirous that Gaius’ slaughter might succeed by their mutual assistance of one another, and they themselves might escape being killed by the disposing of Gaius; that perhaps they should gain their goal, and that it would be a fortunate thing, if they should gain it, to approve themselves to so many excellent persons, as earnestly wished to be partakers with them in their plan for the delivery of the city and of the government, even at the risk of their own lives. But still Cherea was the most zealous of them all, both out of a desire for getting himself the greatest name, and also by reason of his access to Gaius’ presence with less danger, because he was tribune and could therefore more easily kill him.

4. Now the horse races came on at this time [(Circensian games)]; the view of which games was eagerly desired by the people of Rome, for they come with great eagerness into the hippodrome at such times and petition their emperors, in great multitudes, for what they stand in need of; who usually did not think [it] fitting to deny them their requests, but readily and gratefully granted them. Accordingly, they most demandingly desired that Gaius would now ease them in their tributes and somewhat abate the rigor of their taxes imposed on them; but he would not hear their petition; and when their clamors increased, he sent soldiers: some one way, and some another, and gave an order that they should lay hold on those that made the clamors, and bring them out without any more trouble, and put them to death. These were Gaius’ commands, and those who were commanded executed the same; and the number of those who were slain on this occasion was very great. Now the people saw this and endured it so far that they ceased clamoring, because they saw with their own eyes that this petition to be relieved, as to the payment of their money, brought immediate death on them. These things made Cherea more resolute to go on with his plot, in order to put an end to this barbarity of Gaius against men. Then at several times he thought to fall on Gaius, even as he was feasting, yet he restrained himself by some considerations; not that he had any doubt in himself about killing him, but as watching for a proper season, so that the attempt might not be frustrated, but that he might give the blow [in such a way] as might certainly accomplish his purpose.

5. Cherea had been in the army a long time, yet he was not pleased with conversing so much with Gaius. But Gaius had set him to require the tributes and other dues, which, when not paid in due time, were forfeited to Caesar’s treasury; and he had made some delays in requiring them, because those burdens had been doubled, and had rather indulged his own mild disposition than performed Gaius’ command; no, indeed, he provoked Gaius to anger by his sparing men and pitying the misfortunes of those from whom he demanded the taxes; and Gaius scolded him with his sloth and effeminacy in being so slow in collecting the taxes. And indeed, he not only insulted him in other respects, but when he gave him the watchword of the day, to whom it was to be given by his place, he gave him feminine words, and those of a very reproachful nature; and he gave out these watchwords, as having been initiated in the secrets of certain mysteries, which he himself had been the author of. Now although he [himself] had sometimes put on women’s clothes, and had been wrapped in some embroidered garments belonging to them, and done a great many other things in order to make the company mistake him for a woman; yet he, by way of reproach, objected to the same feminine behavior by Cherea. But when Cherea received the watchword from him, he had indignation at it, but had greater indignation at the delivery of it to others, as being laughed at by those that received it; insomuch that his fellow tribunes made him the subject of their jest; for they would foretell that he would bring them some of his usual watchwords when he was about to take the watchword from Caesar, and would thereby make him ridiculous; on which accounts he took the courage of assuming certain partners to him, as having just reasons for his indignation against Gaius. Now there was one Pompedius, a senator, and one who had gone through almost all posts in the government, but otherwise an Epicurean, and for that reason loved to lead an inactive life. Now Timidius, an enemy of his, had informed Gaius that he had used indecent reproaches against him, and he made use of Quintilia for a witness to them; she was a woman greatly beloved by many that frequented the theater, and particularly by Pompedius, on account of her great beauty. Now this woman thought it a horrible thing to attest to an accusation that touched the life of her lover, which was also a lie. Timidius, however, wanted to have her brought for torture. Gaius was irritated at this reproach on him, and commanded Cherea, without any delay, to torture Quintilia, as he used to employ Cherea in such bloody matters, and those that required torture, because he thought he would do it more barbarically in order to avoid that imputation of effeminacy which he had laid on him. But Quintilia, when she was brought to the rack, stepped on the foot of one of her associates and let him know that he might be of good courage and not be afraid of the consequence of her tortures, for she would bear them with nobility. Cherea tortured this woman in a cruel manner; unwillingly indeed, but because he could not help it. He then brought her, without being in the least moved at what she had suffered, into the presence of Gaius, and that in such a state as was sad to behold; and Gaius, being somewhat affected with the sight of Quintilia, who had her body miserably messy by the pains she had undergone, freed both her and Pompedius from the crime laid to their charge. He also gave her money to make her an honorable amends and comforted her for that maiming of her body which she had suffered and for her glorious patience under such unbearable torments.

6. This matter severely grieved Cherea, as having been the cause, as far as he could, or the instrument, of those miseries to men, which seemed worthy of consolation to Gaius himself; on which account he said to Clement and to Papinius (of whom Clement was general of the army, and Papinius was a tribune), “To be sure, O Clement, we have [in] no way failed in our guarding the emperor; for as to those that have made conspiracies against his government, some have been slain by our attention and efforts, and some have been tortured by us, and this to such a degree that he has himself pitied them. How great then is our virtue in submitting to lead his armies!” Clement held his peace, but showed the shame he was under in obeying Gaius’ orders, both by his eyes and his blushing countenance, while he thought it by no means right to accuse the emperor in express words, lest their own safety should be thereby endangered. On this, Cherea took courage, and spoke to him without fear of the dangers that were before him, and discoursed largely of the severe calamities under which the city and the government then labored, and said, “We may indeed pretend in words that Gaius is the person to whom the cause of such miseries ought to be imputed; but, in the opinion of such as are able to judge uprightly, it is I, O Clement, and this Papinius, and before us you yourself, who bring these tortures on the Romans and on all mankind. It is not done by our being subservient to the commands of Gaius, but it is done by our own consent; for whereas it is in our power to put an end to the life of this man, who has so terribly injured the citizens and his subjects, we are his guard in mischief, and his executioners instead of his soldiers, and are the instruments of his cruelty. We bear these weapons, not for our liberty, not for the Roman government, but only for his preservation, who has enslaved both their bodies and their minds; and every day we are polluted with the blood that we shed, and the torments we inflict on others; and this we do, until somebody becomes Gaius’ instrument in bringing the same miseries on ourselves. Nor does he thus employ us because he has a kindness for us, but rather because he has a suspicion of us, as also because when abundantly more have been killed (for Gaius will set no bounds to his wrath, since he aims to do all, not out of regard for justice, but for his own pleasure), we ourselves will also be exposed to his cruelty; whereas we ought to be the means of confirming the security and liberty of all, and at the same time to resolve to free ourselves from dangers.”

7. Hereon Clement openly commended Cherea’s intentions, but commanded him to hold his tongue, because in case his words should get out among many, and such things should be spread abroad as were right to be concealed, the plot would come to be discovered before it was executed, and they would be brought to punishment, but that they should leave all to the future, and the hope which then arose, so that some fortunate event would come to their assistance; that, as for himself, his age would not permit him to make any attempt in that case. “However, although perhaps I could suggest what may be safer than what you, Cherea, have planned and said, yet how is it possible for anyone to suggest what is more for your reputation?” So, Clement went on his way home, with deep reflections on what he had heard and what he himself had said. Cherea was also concerned and went quickly to Cornelius Sabinus, who was himself one of the tribunes, and whom he otherwise knew to be a worthy man and a lover of liberty, and on that account very troubled by the present management of public affairs—he being desirous to immediately come to the execution of what had been determined, and thinking it right for him to propose it to the other, and afraid lest Clement should discover them, and additionally looking on delays and avoidances to be next to [entirely] desisting from the undertaking.

8. But as all was agreeable to Sabinus, who had himself, equally without Cherea, the same plan, but had been silent for lack of a person to whom he could safely communicate that plan, so having now met with one, who not only promised to conceal what he heard, but who had already opened his mind to him, he was much more encouraged and desired of Cherea that no delay might be made therein. Accordingly, they went to Minucianus, who was as virtuous a man and as zealous to do glorious actions as themselves and suspected by Gaius on occasion of the slaughter of Lepidus; for Minucianus and Lepidus were intimate friends and both in fear of the dangers that they were under; for Gaius was terrible to all the great men, as appearing ready to act a mad part toward each of them in particular, and toward all of them in general; and these men were afraid of one another, while they were yet troubled by the posture of affairs, but avoided declaring their mind and their hatred against Gaius to one another, out of fear of the dangers they might thereby be in, although they perceived by other means their mutual hatred against Gaius, and on that account were not averse to a mutual kindness toward one another.

9. When Minucianus and Cherea had met together and saluted one another (as they had been accustomed on former conversations to give the upper hand to Minucianus, both on account of his eminent dignity, for he was the noblest of all the citizens, and highly commended by all men, especially when he made speeches to them), Minucianus began first and asked Cherea what the watchword was [that] he had received from Gaius that day, for the insult which was offered Cherea, in giving the watchwords, was famous all over the city. But Cherea made no delay so long as to reply to that question, out of the joy he had that Minucianus would have such confidence in him as to discourse with him. “But you,” he said, “give me the watchword of liberty. And I return you my thanks that you have so greatly encouraged me to exert myself in an extraordinary manner; nor do I stand in need of many words to encourage me, since both you and I are of the same mind and partakers of the same resolutions—and this before we have conferred together. Indeed, I have only one sword girt on, but this one will serve us both. Come on, therefore, [and] let us set about the work. Go first, if you want, and command me to follow you; or else I will go first, and you will assist me, and we will assist one another and trust one another. Nor is there a need for even one sword to such as have a mind inclined toward such works, by which mind the sword uses to be successful. I am zealous for this action, nor am I attentive to what I may myself undergo, for I do not have leisure to consider the dangers that may come on myself, so deeply am I troubled at the slavery our once free country is now under, and at the contempt cast on our excellent laws, and at the destruction which hangs over all men, by the means of Gaius. I wish that I may be judged by you, and that you may consider me worthy of credit in these matters, seeing we are both of the same opinion, and there is no difference between us herein.”

10. When Minucianus saw the vehemency with which Cherea delivered himself, he gladly embraced him and encouraged him in his bold attempt, commending him and embracing him; so he let him go with his good wishes; and some affirm that he thereby confirmed Minucianus in the prosecution of what had been agreed among them; for as Cherea entered into the court, the report runs, that a voice came from among the multitude to encourage him, which commanded him to finish what he was doing and take the opportunity that Providence provided; and that Cherea at first suspected that one of the conspirators had betrayed him, and he was caught, but finally perceived that it was by way of exhortation. Whether somebody that was conscious of what he was doing gave a signal for his encouragement, or whether it was God Himself, who looks on the actions of men, that encouraged him to go on boldly with his plan, is uncertain. The plot was now communicated to a great many, and they were all in their armor: some of the conspirators being senators, and some of the equestrian order, and as many of the soldiers as were made acquainted with it; for there was not [even] one of them who would not reckon it a part of his happiness to kill Gaius; and on that account, they were all very zealous in the affair, by whatsoever means anyone could come at it, that he might not be behind in these virtuous plans, but might be ready with all his eagerness or power, both by words and actions, to complete this slaughter of a tyrant. And besides these, Callistus also, who was a freedman of Gaius and was the only man that had arrived at the greatest degree of power under him—such a power, indeed, as was in a manner equal to the power of the tyrant himself, by the dread that all men had of him, and by the great riches he had acquired; for he took bribes most abundantly, and committed injuries without bounds, and was more extravagant in the use of his power in unjust proceedings than any other. He also knew the disposition of Gaius to be relentless and never to be turned from what he had decided. He additionally had many other reasons why he thought himself in danger, and the vastness of his wealth was not one of the least of them, on which account he privately ingratiated himself with Claudius and transferred his courtship to him, out of this hope: that in case, on the removal of Gaius, the government should come to him, his interest in such changes should lay a foundation for his preserving his dignity under him, since he laid a supply of merit beforehand and did Claudius good services in his promotion. He also had the boldness to pretend that he had been persuaded to dispense with Claudius, by poisoning him, but had still invented ten thousand excuses for delaying to do it. But it seems probable to me that Callistus only counterfeited this, in order to ingratiate himself with Claudius, for if Gaius had been earnestly resolved to dispose of Claudius, he would not have admitted Callistus’ excuses; nor would Callistus, if he had been ordered to do such an act as was desired by Gaius, have put it off; nor if he had disobeyed those commands of his master, would he have escaped immediate punishment; while Claudius was preserved from the madness of Gaius by a certain Divine providence, and Callistus pretended to such a piece of merit as he [in] no way deserved.

11. However, the execution of Cherea’s plans was put off day after day by the sloth of many therein concerned; for as to Cherea himself, he would not willingly make any delay in that execution, thinking every time a suitable time for it; for frequent opportunities offered themselves: as when Gaius went up to the Capitol to sacrifice for his daughter, or when he stood on his royal palace and threw gold and silver pieces of money among the people, he might be pushed down headlong, because the top of the palace, that looks toward the marketplace, was very high; and also when he celebrated the mysteries, which he had appointed at that time, for he was then [in] no way secluded from the people, but attentive to do everything carefully and decently and was free from all suspicion that he should then be assaulted by anyone; and although the gods should provide him no divine assistance to enable him to take away his life, yet he had sufficient strength himself to dispatch Gaius, even without a sword. Thus Cherea was angry at his fellow conspirators, for fear they would allow a proper opportunity to pass by; and they were themselves aware that he had just cause to be angry at them, and that his eagerness was for their advantage; yet they desired [that] he would have patience a little longer, lest, on any disappointment they might meet with, they should put the city into disorder, and an inquisition should be made after the conspiracy, and should render the courage of those that were to attack Gaius without success, while he would then secure himself more carefully than ever against them; that it would therefore be the best to set about the work when the shows were exhibited in the palace. These shows were acted in honor of that Caesar who first of all changed the popular government and transferred it to himself—galleries being fixed in front of the palace, where the Romans that were patricians became spectators, together with their children and their wives, and Caesar himself was to also be a spectator; and they reckoned, among those many myriads who would be crowded into a narrow area there, [that] they should have a favorable opportunity to make their attempt on him as he came in, because his guards that should protect him, if any of them should intend to do it, would not be able to give him any assistance here.

12. Cherea consented to this delay; and when the shows were exhibited, it was resolved to do the work [on] the first day. But fortune, which allowed a further delay to his slaughter, was too difficult for their prior resolution; and as three days of the regular times for these shows were now over, they had much difficulty in getting the business done on the last day. Then Cherea called the conspirators together and spoke thus to them: “[That] so much time passed away without effort is a reproach to us, as delaying to go through such a virtuous plan as we are engaged in; but [even] more fatal will this delay prove if we are discovered, and the plan is frustrated; for Gaius will then become more cruel in his unjust proceedings. Do we not see how long we deprive all of our friends of their liberty and still give Gaius permission to tyrannize them? while we ought to have obtained them security for the future, and, by laying a foundation for the happiness of others, gain great admiration and honor for ourselves for all time to come.” Now while the conspirators had nothing tolerable to say by way of contradiction, and yet did not quite relish what they were doing, but stood silent and astonished, he said further, “O my brave comrades! why do we make such delays? Do you not see that this is the last day of these shows, and that Gaius is about to go to sea? for he is preparing to sail to Alexandria, in order to see Egypt. Is it therefore for your honor to let a man go out of your hands who is a reproach to mankind, and to permit him to go, in a pompous manner, triumphing both at land and sea? Will we not be justly ashamed of ourselves, if we give permission to some Egyptian or other, who will think his injuries intolerable to freemen, to kill him? As for myself, I will no longer bear your slow proceedings, but will expose myself to the dangers of the undertaking this very day and cheerfully bear whatsoever the consequence of the attempt will be; nor, however great they may be, will I put them off any longer: for to a wise and courageous man, what can be more miserable than that, while I am alive, anyone else should kill Gaius and deprive me of the honor of such a virtuous action?”

13. When Cherea had spoken thus, he zealously set about the work and inspired courage into the rest to go on with it, and they were all eager to fall to it without further delay. So he was at the palace in the morning, with his equestrian sword girt on him; for it was the custom that the tribunes should ask for the watchword with their swords on, and this was the day on which Cherea was, by custom, to receive the watchword; and the multitude had already come to the palace, to be early enough for seeing the shows—and that in great crowds, and one tumultuously crushing another—while Gaius was delighted with this eagerness of the multitude, for which reason there was no order observed in seating men, nor was any peculiar place appointed for the senators, or for the equestrian order; but they sat at random, men and women together, and freemen were mixed with the slaves. So, Gaius came out in a solemn manner and offered a sacrifice to Augustus Caesar, in whose honor these shows were indeed celebrated. Now it happened, on the fall of a certain priest, that the garment of Asprenas, a senator, was filled with blood, which made Gaius laugh, although this was an evident omen to Asprenas, for he was slain at the same time with Gaius. It is also related that Gaius was that day, contrary to his usual custom, so very affable and good-natured in his conversation, that every one of those that were present were astonished at it. After the sacrifice was over, Gaius committed himself to see the shows and sat down for that purpose, as the principal of his friends also sat near him. Now the parts of the theater were so fastened together, as it used to be every year, in the following manner: it had two doors: one door led to the open air, the other was for going into or going out of the cloisters, so that those within the theater might not be thereby disturbed; but an inward passage went out of one gallery, also parted into partitions, which led into another gallery, to give room to the combatants and to the musicians to go out as occasion served. When the multitude had sat down, and Cherea, with the other tribunes, had sat down also, and the right corner of the theater was allotted to Caesar, one Vatinius, a senator, commander of the Praetorian Guard, asked of Cluvius, one that sat by him and was also of consular dignity, whether or not he had heard anything newsworthy. but he took care that nobody should hear what he said; and when Cluvius replied that he had heard no news, “Know then,” said Vatinius, “that the game of the slaughter of tyrants is to be played this day.” But Cluvius replied, “O brave comrade, hold your peace, lest another of the Achaians hear your tale.” And as there was an abundance of autumnal fruit thrown among the spectators, and a great number of birds, that were of great value to such as possessed them, on account of their rareness, Gaius was pleased with the birds fighting for the fruits and with the violence with which the spectators seized them; and here he perceived two prodigies that happened there: for an actor was introduced, by whom a leader of robbers was crucified, and the pantomime brought in a play called Cinyras, wherein he himself was to be slain, as well as his daughter Myrrha, and wherein a great deal of fictitious blood was shed, both around him that was crucified, and also around Cinyras. It was also confessed that this was the same day wherein Pausanias, a friend of Philip, the son of Amyntas, who was king of Macedonia, slew him, as he was entering into the theater. And now Gaius was in doubt whether he should tarry until the end of the shows, because it was the last day, or whether he should not go first to the bath, and to dinner, and then return and sit down as before. Hereon Minucianus, who sat over Gaius and was afraid that the opportunity might fail them, got up, because he saw Cherea had already gone out, and hurried out to confirm him in his resolution; but Gaius took hold of his garment, in an obliging way, and said to him, “O brave man! where are you going?” Whereon, out of reverence for Caesar, as it seemed, he sat down again; but his fear prevailed over him, and in a short time he got up again, and then Gaius [in] no way opposed his going out, as thinking that he went out to perform some necessities of nature. And Asprenas, who was one of the confederates, persuaded Gaius to go out to the bath, and to dinner, and then to come in again, as desirous that what had been decided might immediately be brought to a conclusion.

14. So Cherea’s associates placed themselves in order, as the time would permit them, and they were compelled to labor hard, so that the place which was appointed [to] them should not be left by them; but they had indignation at the tediousness of the delays, and that what they were doing should be put off any longer, for it was already about the ninth hour of the day; and Cherea, on Gaius’ tarrying so long, had a great mind to go in and fall on him in his seat, although he foresaw that this could not be done without much bloodshed, both of the senators, and of those of the equestrian order that were present; and although he knew this must happen, yet he had a great mind to do so, as thinking it a right thing to obtain security and freedom for all, at the expense of such as might perish at the same time. And just as they were going back into the entrance to the theater, word was brought [to] them that Gaius had arisen, whereby a commotion was made; hereon the conspirators thrust the crowd away, under pretense as if Gaius was angry at them, but in reality as desirous to have a quiet place that should have none in it to defend him, while they set about Gaius’ slaughter. Now Claudius, his uncle, had already gone out, and Marcus Vinicius, his sister’s husband, as also Valerius of Asia; whom though they had had such a mind to push out of their places, the reverence for their dignity hindered them to do so; then followed Gaius, with Paulus Arruntius. And because Gaius had now gotten within the palace, he left the direct road, along which his servants stood that were in waiting, and by which road Claudius had gone out before. Gaius turned aside into a private, narrow passage in order to go to the place for bathing, as also in order to take a view of the boys that came out of Asia, who were sent from there, partly to sing hymns in these mysteries which were now celebrated, and partly to dance in the Pyrrhic way of dancing in the theaters. So, Cherea met him and asked him for the watchword; on Gaius’ giving him one of his ridiculous words, he immediately reproached him, and drew his sword, and gave him a terrible strike with it, yet this strike was not mortal. And although there are those that say it was so planned by Cherea on purpose, that Gaius should not be killed with one blow, but should be punished more severely by a multitude of wounds, yet this story appears incredible to me, because the fear men are under in such actions does not allow them to use their reason. And if Cherea was of that mind, I consider him the greatest of all fools, in pleasing himself in his spite against Gaius, rather than immediately procuring safety for himself and for his confederates from the dangers they were in, because many things might still happen for helping Gaius’ escape, if he had not already given up the spirit; for Cherea would certainly have regard, not so much for the punishment of Gaius, as for the affliction himself and his friends were in, while it was in his power, after such success, to keep silent, and to escape the wrath of Gaius’ defenders, and not to leave it to uncertainty whether he should reach the goal he aimed at or not, and in an unreasonable manner to act as if he had intended to ruin himself and lose the opportunity that lay before him. But everyone may guess as he pleases concerning this matter. However, Gaius was staggered with the pain that the blow gave him; for the stroke of the sword falling in the middle, between the shoulder and the neck, was hindered by the first bone of the breast from proceeding any further. Nor did he either cry out (he was in such astonishment), nor did he call out for any of his friends—whether it was because he had no confidence in them, or that his mind was otherwise disordered—but he groaned under the pain he endured and presently went forward and fled, when Cornelius Sabinus, who was already prepared in his mind to do so, thrust him down on his knee, where many of them stood around him and struck him with their swords; and they cried out and encouraged one another to strike him again all at once; but everyone agrees that Aquila gave him the finishing stroke, which directly killed him. But one may justly ascribe this act to Cherea; for although many concurred in the act itself, yet he was the first deviser of it, and began long before all the rest to prepare for it, and was the first man that boldly spoke of it to the rest; and on their admission of what he said about it, he gathered the dispersed conspirators together; he prepared everything in a prudent manner, and by suggesting good advice, showed himself far superior to the rest and made obliging speeches to them, insomuch that he even compelled them all to go on, who otherwise did not have enough courage for that purpose; and when opportunity served to use his sword in hand, he appeared first of all ready to do so and gave the first blow in this virtuous slaughter; he also brought Gaius into the power of the rest easily and almost killed him himself, insomuch that it is only just to ascribe all that the rest did to the advice, and bravery, and labors of the hands of Cherea.

15. Thus, Gaius came to his end and lay dead, by the many wounds which had been given [to] him. Now Cherea and his associates, on Gaius’ slaughter, saw that it was impossible for them to save themselves, if they should all go the same way, partly on account of the astonishment they were under; for it was no small danger they had incurred by killing an emperor, who was honored and loved by the madness of the people, especially when the soldiers were likely to make a bloody inquiry after his murderers. The passages were also narrow wherein the work was done, which were also crowded with a great multitude of Gaius’ attendants, and of such of the soldiers as were of the emperor’s guard that day; from which it was that they went by other ways and came to the house of Germanicus, the father of Gaius, whom they had now killed (which house adjoined to the palace; for while the edifice was one, it was built in its various parts by those particular persons who had been emperors, and those parts bore the names of those that built them or the name of him who had begun to build its parts). So, they got away from the jeers of the multitude and then were presently out of danger, that is, so long as the misfortune which had overtaken the emperor was not known. The Germans were the first who perceived that Gaius was slain. These Germans were Gaius’ guard, and carried the name of the country from which they were chosen, and composed the Celtic legion. The men of that country are naturally passionate, which is commonly the temper of some of the other barbaric nations also, as not being accustomed to consider much about what they do; they are of robust bodies and fall on their enemies as soon as they are ever attacked by them; and whichever way they go, they perform great exploits. When, therefore, these German guards understood that Gaius was slain, they were very sorry for it, because they did not use their reason in judging about public affairs, but measured everything by the advantages they received themselves—Gaius being beloved by them because of the money he gave them, by which he had purchased their kindness for him; so they drew their swords, and Sabinus led them on. He was one of the tribunes, not by means of the virtuous actions of his progenitors, for he had been a gladiator, but he had obtained that post in the army by having a [very] robust body. So, these Germans marched along the houses in pursuit of Caesar’s murderers and cut Asprenas to pieces, because he was the first man they fell on, and whose garment it was that the blood of the sacrifices stained, as I have already stated, and which foretold that his meeting the soldiers would not be for his good. Then Norbanus met them, who was one of the principal nobles of the city and could show many generals of armies among his ancestors, but they paid no regard to his dignity; yet he was of such great strength, that he wrested the sword of the first of those that assaulted him out of his hands and plainly appeared not to be willing to die without a struggle for his life, until he was surrounded by a great number of assailants and died by the multitude of the wounds which they gave him. The third man was Anteius, a senator, and a few others with him. He did not meet with these Germans by chance, as the rest did before, but came to show his hatred for Gaius, and because he loved to see Gaius lie dead with his own eyes and took pleasure in that sight; for Gaius had banished Anteius’ father, who was of the same name with himself, and not being satisfied with that, he sent out his soldiers and slew him; so he had come to rejoice at the sight of him, now [that] he was dead. But as the house was now all in an uproar, when he was aiming to hide himself, he could not escape that careful search which the Germans made, while they barbarically slew those that were guilty and those that were not guilty—and this equally also. And thus, these [three] persons were slain.

16. But when the rumor that Gaius was slain reached the theater, they were astonished at it and could not believe it; even some that entertained his destruction with great pleasure and were more desirous of its happening than almost any other faction that could come to them, were under such fear that they could not believe it. There were also those who greatly distrusted it, because they were unwilling that any such thing could happen to Gaius, nor could they believe it, although it was certainly true, because they thought no man could possibly have so much power as to kill Gaius. These were the women, and the children, and the slaves, and some of the soldiers. This last sort had taken his pay, and in a manner tyrannized with him, and had abused the best of the citizens, in being subservient to his unjust commands, in order to gain honors and advantages for themselves; but for the women and the youth, they had been cajoled with shows, and the fighting of the gladiators, and certain distributions of meat among them, which things, in pretense, were designed for the pleasing of the multitude, but in reality to satiate the barbaric cruelty and madness of Gaius. The slaves were also sorry, because they were allowed to accuse and to despise their masters by Gaius, and they could have recourse to his assistance when they had unjustly insulted them, for he easily believed them against their masters, even when they accused them falsely; and if they would discover what money their masters had, they might soon obtain both riches and liberty, as the rewards of their accusations, because the reward of these informers was the eighth part of the criminal’s possessions. As for the nobles, although the report appeared credible to some of them, either because they knew of the plot beforehand, or because they wished it might be true, they however concealed not only the joy they had at the relation of it, but that they had heard anything about it at all. These last acted this way out of the fear they had, that if the report proved false, they should be punished, for having so quickly let men know their minds. But those that knew Gaius was dead, because they were partners with the conspirators, they concealed everything still more cautiously, as not knowing one another’s minds and fearing lest they should speak of it to some of those to whom the continuance of tyranny was advantageous; and if Gaius should prove to be alive, they might be informed against and punished. And another report went around that although Gaius had indeed been wounded, yet he was not dead, but still alive, and under the physician’s hands. Nor was anyone seen by another as faithful enough to be trusted, and to whom anyone should open his mind; for he was either a friend to Gaius, and therefore suspected to favor his tyranny, or he was one that hated him, who therefore might be suspected to deserve less credit, because of his animosity toward him. Indeed, it was said by some (and it was this indeed that deprived the nobility of their hopes and made them sad) that Gaius was in a condition to despise the dangers he had been in and had no concern for healing his wounds, but had gotten away into the marketplace, and, bloody as he was, was making a harangue to the people. And these were the conjectural reports of those that were so unreasonable as to endeavor to raise turmoil, which they turned different ways, according to the opinions of the bearers. Yet they did not leave their seats, for fear of being accused, if they should go out before the rest; for they should not be sentenced according to the real intention with which they went out, but according to the speculations of the accusers and of the judges.

17. But now a multitude of Germans had surrounded the theater with their swords drawn: all the spectators looked for nothing but death; and at every one coming in, a fear seized them, as if they were to be cut in pieces immediately; and they were in great distress, as neither having courage enough to go out of the theater, nor believing themselves safe from dangers if they tarried there. And when the Germans came on them, the cry was so great that the theater rang again with the pleas of the spectators to the soldiers, pleading that they were entirely ignorant of everything that related to such seditious plots, and that if there was any sedition raised, they knew nothing of it. Therefore, they begged that they would spare them and not punish those that did not have the least hand in such bold crimes as belonged to other persons, while they neglected to search after such as really had done whatsoever it was that had been done. Thus, these people appealed to God and deplored their misfortune with shedding tears, and beating their faces, and said everything that the most imminent danger and the utmost concern for their lives could dictate to them. This broke the fury of the soldiers and made them relent of what they intended to do to the spectators, which would have been the greatest instance of cruelty. And so it appeared to even these savages, when they had once fixed the heads of those that were slain with Asprenas on the altar, at which sight the spectators were severely afflicted, both on the consideration of the dignity of the persons, and out of a pity for their sufferings; no, indeed, they were almost in as great a disorder at the prospect of the danger they themselves were in, seeing it was still uncertain whether they would entirely escape the same calamity. From which it was that such as thoroughly and justly hated Gaius could yet [in] no way enjoy the pleasure of his death, because they themselves were in jeopardy of perishing together with him; nor did they thus far have any firm assurance of surviving.

18. There was at this time one Euaristus Arruntius, a public herald in the market, and therefore of a strong and audible voice, who vied in wealth with the richest of the Romans and was able to do what he pleased in the city, both then and afterward. This man put himself into the most mournful attire he could, although he had a greater hatred against Gaius than anyone else; his fear and his wise plan to gain his safety taught him to do so and prevailed over his present pleasure; so he put on such a mournful dress as he would have done had he lost his dearest friends in the world; this man came into the theater, and informed them of the death of Gaius, and by this means put an end to that state of ignorance the men had been in. Arruntius also went around the pillars, and called out to the Germans, as did the tribunes with him, requesting them to put away their swords, and telling them that Gaius was dead. And it was clearly this proclamation which saved those that were collected together in the theater, and all the rest who [in] any way met the Germans; for while they still had hopes that Gaius had any breath in him, they abstained from no sort of mischief; and such an abundant kindness they still had for Gaius, that they would willingly have prevented the plot against him and procured his escape from such a miserable misfortune, at the expense of their own lives. But they now ceased the passionate zeal they had to punish his enemies, now [that] they were fully satisfied that Gaius was dead, because it was now in vain for them to show their zeal and kindness toward him, when he who should reward them had perished. They were also afraid that they would be punished by the senate if they should go on in doing such injuries; that is, in case the authority of the supreme governor should revert to them. And thus, a stop was finally put—though not without difficulty—to that rage which possessed the Germans on account of Gaius’ death.

19. But Cherea was so very afraid for Minucianus, lest he should come to the Germans now [that] they were in their fury, that he went and spoke to every one of the soldiers, and pleaded with them to take care of his preservation, and made great inquiry about him himself, lest he should have been slain. And for Clement, he let Minucianus go when he was brought to him, and, with many of the other senators, affirmed the action was right and commended the virtue of those that planned it and had enough courage to execute it; and he said that “tyrants indeed please themselves and look big for a while, on having the power to act unjustly, but do not, however, depart happily from the world, because they are hated by the virtuous; and that Gaius, together with all his unhappiness, had become a conspirator against himself, before these other men who attacked him did so; and by becoming intolerable, in setting aside the wise provision the laws had made, taught his dearest friends to treat him as an enemy, insomuch that although in common discourse [it is said that] these conspirators were those that slew Gaius, yet that, in reality, he now lies dead as perishing by his own self.”

20. Now by this time the people in the theater had arisen from their seats, and those that were inside made a very great disturbance; the cause of which was this: that the spectators were too hasty in getting away. There was also one Alcyon, a physician, who hurried away, as if to cure those that were wounded, and under that pretense he sent those that were with him to fetch what things were necessary for the healing of those wounded persons, but in reality, to get them clear of the present dangers they were in. Now the senate, during this interval, had met, and the people also assembled together in the accustomed form, and both were employed in searching after the murderers of Gaius. The people did it very zealously, but the senate in appearance only; for Valerius of Asia was present, one that had been consul; this man went to the people, as they were in disorder and very uneasy that they could not yet discover who they were that had murdered the emperor; he was then earnestly asked by them all who it was that had done it. He replied, “I wish I had been the man.” The consuls also published an edict, wherein they accused Gaius and gave an order to the people then gathered, and to the soldiers, to go home; and they gave the people hopes of the abatement of the oppressions they lay under and promised the soldiers, if they would lay quiet as they used to do and would not go abroad to unjustly cause trouble, that they would bestow rewards on them; for there was reason to fear lest the city might suffer harm by their wild and ungovernable behavior, if they should once commit themselves to spoil the citizens or plunder the temples. And now the whole multitude of the senators had assembled together, and especially those that had conspired to take away the life of Gaius, who at this time put on an air of great assurance and appeared with great nobility, as if the administration of the public affairs had already transitioned to them.

CHAPTER 2

How the Senators Determined to Restore the Democracy; But the Soldiers Were for Preserving the Monarchy. Concerning the Slaughter of Gaius’ Wife and Daughter. A Character of Gaius’ Morals.

1. When the public affairs were in this posture, Claudius was suddenly hurried away out of his house; for the soldiers had a meeting together; and when they had debated about what was to be done, they saw that a democracy was incapable of managing such a vast weight of public affairs; and that if it should be established, it would not be for their advantage; and in case any one of those already in the government should obtain the supreme power, it would in all respects be to their grief, if they were not assisting him in this advancement; that it would therefore be right for them, while the public affairs were unsettled, to choose Claudius [as] emperor, who was the uncle to the deceased Gaius, and of a superior dignity and worth to every one of those that were assembled together in the senate, both on account of the virtues of his ancestors, and of the learning he had acquired in his education; and who, if once settled in the empire, would reward them according to their merits and bestow generosity on them. These were their consultations, and they executed the same immediately. Therefore, Claudius was suddenly seized by the soldiers. But Cneus Sentius Saturninus, although he understood that Claudius was seized, and that he intended to claim the government—unwillingly indeed in appearance, but in reality, by his own free consent—stood up in the senate, and, without being dismayed, made an exhortatory oration to them, and such a one as was indeed fitting for men of freedom and generosity, and spoke thus:

2. “Although it is an incredible thing, O Romans, because of the great length of time, that such an unexpected event has happened, yet we are now in possession of liberty. Indeed, how long this will last is uncertain and lies at the disposal of the gods, whose grant it is; yet it is such as is sufficient to make us rejoice and be happy for the present, although we may soon be deprived of it; for one hour is sufficient to those that are exercised in virtue, wherein we may live with a mind accountable only to ourselves, in our own country, now free and governed by such laws as this country once flourished under. As for myself, I cannot remember our former time of liberty, as being born after it was gone; but I am filled beyond measure with joy at the thoughts of our present freedom. I also regard those that were born and bred up in our former liberty fortunate men, and that those men are worthy of no less regard than the gods themselves who have given us a taste of it in this age; and I heartily wish that this quiet enjoyment of it, which we presently have, might continue for all ages. However, this single day may suffice for our youth, as well as for us that are [aged] in years. It will seem like an age to our old men, if they might die during its blessed duration: it may also be for the instruction of the younger sort, what kind of virtue those men, from whose loins we are derived, were exercised in. As for ourselves, our business is, during this span of time, to live virtuously, than which nothing can be more to our advantage, which course of virtue is alone what can preserve our liberty; for as to our ancient state, I have heard of it by the relations of others; but as to our later state, during my lifetime, I have known it by experience and learned thereby what troubles tyrannies have brought on this commonwealth, discouraging all virtue, and depriving persons of the dignity of their liberty, and proving the teachers of flattery and slavish fear, because it leaves the public administration not to be governed by wise laws, but by the humor of those that govern. For since Julius Caesar took it into his head to dissolve our democracy, and, by dominating the regular system of our laws, to bring disorders into our administration, and to get above right and justice, and to be a slave to his own inclinations, there is no kind of misery but what has tended to the subversion of this city; while all those that have succeeded him have striven with one another to overthrow the ancient laws of their country and have left it destitute of such citizens as were of generous principles, because they thought it tended to their safety to have vicious men to converse with as well, and not only to break the spirits of those that were best regarded for their virtue, but to resolve on their utter destruction. Of all which emperors, who have been many in number, and who laid on us unbearable hardships during the times of their government, this Gaius, who has been slain today, has brought more terrible calamities on us than did all the rest, not only by exercising his ungoverned rage on his fellow citizens, but also on his relatives and friends, and alike on all others, and by inflicting still greater miseries on them, as punishments, which they never deserved—he being equally furious against men and against the gods. For tyrants are not content to gain their sweet pleasure, and this by acting injuriously and in the vexation they bring both on men’s estates and their wives, but they look on that to be their principal advantage: when they can utterly overthrow the entire families of their enemies; while all lovers of liberty are the enemies of tyranny. Nor can those that patiently endure what miseries they bring on them gain their friendship, for as they are conscious of the abundant troubles they have brought on these men, and how generously they have endured their misfortunes, they cannot be unaware [of] what evils they have done, and then only depend on security from what they are suspicious of, if it may be in their power to take them out of the world completely. Since, then, we have now gotten clear of such great misfortunes and are only accountable to one another (which form of government provides us the best assurance of our present concord, and promises us the best security from evil schemes, and will be most for our own glory in settling the city in good order), you ought—every one of you in particular—to make provision for his own, and in general for the public utility: or, on the contrary, they may declare their dissent to such things as have been proposed, and this without any risk of danger to come on them, because they now have no lord set over them, who, without fear of punishment, could do trouble to the city and had an uncontrollable power to dispose of those that freely declared their opinions. Nor has anything so greatly contributed to this recent increase of tyranny as sloth and a cowardly tolerance of contradicting the emperor’s will, while men had too great an inclination to the sweetness of peace and had learned to live like slaves; and as many of us as either heard of intolerable calamities that happened at a distance from us, or saw the miseries that were near us, out of the dread of dying virtuously, endured a death joined with the utmost infamy. We ought, then, in the first place, to decree the greatest honors we are able to those that have disposed of the tyrant, especially to Cherea Cassius; for this one man, with the assistance of the gods, has, by his counsel and by his actions, been the procurer of our liberty. Nor should we forget him now [that] we have recovered our liberty, who, under the preceding tyranny, took counsel beforehand, and beforehand endangered himself for our liberties; but we should decree him proper honors, and thereby freely declare that he, from the beginning, acted with our approval. And it is certainly a very excellent thing, and what suits freemen, to repay their benefactors, as this man has been a benefactor to us all, though not at all like Cassius and Brutus, who slew Gaius Julius [Caesar]; for those men laid the foundations of sedition and civil wars in our city; but this man, together with his slaughter of the tyrant, has set our city free from all those sad miseries which arose from the tyranny.”

3. And such was the sense of Sentius’ oration, which was received with pleasure by the senators, and by as many of the equestrian order as were present. And now one Trebellius Maximus hastily rose up and took a ring from Sentius’ finger, which had a stone with the image of Gaius engraved on it, and which, in his zeal in speaking, and his earnestness in doing what he was doing, as it was supposed, he had forgotten to take off himself. This sculpture was immediately broken. But as it was now late in the night, Cherea demanded the watchword from the consuls, who gave him this word: “Liberty.” These facts were the subjects of admiration to themselves, and almost incredible; for it was one hundred years since the democracy had been laid aside, when this giving the watchword returned to the consuls; for before the city was subject to tyrants, they were the commanders of the soldiers. But when Cherea had received that watchword, he delivered it to those who were on the senate’s side, which were four regiments, who considered the government without emperors to be preferable to tyranny. So these went away with their tribunes. The people also now departed very joyfully, full of hope and of courage, as having recovered their former democracy, and were no longer under an emperor; and Cherea was [held] in very high regard with them.

4. And now Cherea was very uneasy that Gaius’ daughter and wife were still alive, and that all his family did not perish with him, since whosoever was left of them must be left for the ruin of the city and of the laws. Moreover, in order to finish this matter with the utmost zeal, and in order to satisfy his hatred for Gaius, he sent Julius Lupus, one of the tribunes, to kill Gaius’ wife and daughter. They proposed this office to Lupus as to a relative of Clement, so that he might be so far a partaker of this murder of the tyrant and might rejoice in the virtue of having assisted his fellow citizens, and that he might appear to have been a partaker with those that were first in their plans against him. Yet this action appeared to some of the conspirators to be too cruel, as to using such severity against a woman, because Gaius more indulged his own bad nature than used her advice in all that he did; from which bad nature it was that the city was in such a desperate condition with the miseries that were brought on it, and the flower of the city was destroyed. But others accused her of giving her consent to these things; indeed, they ascribed all that Gaius had done to her as the cause of it, and said she had given a potion to Gaius, which had made him obnoxious to her, and had tied him down to love her by such evil methods, insomuch that she, having rendered him distracted, had become the author of all the troubles that had happened to the Romans and that habitable world which was subject to them. So it was finally determined that she must die; nor could those of the contrary opinion at all prevail to have her saved; and Lupus was accordingly sent. Nor was there any delay made in executing what he went to do, but he was subservient to those that sent him on the first opportunity, as desirous to be [in] no way blamable in what might be done for the advantage of the people. So when he had come into the palace, he found Cesonia, who was Gaius’ wife, lying by her husband’s dead body, which also lay down on the ground and destitute of all such things as the law allows to the dead, and herself besmeared all over with the blood of her husband’s wounds and lamenting the great affliction she was under, her daughter lying by her also; and nothing else was heard in her circumstances except her complaint of Gaius, as if he had not regarded what she had often told him of beforehand; which words of hers were taken in a different sense even at that time, and are now considered equally ambiguous by those that hear of them, and are still interpreted according to the different inclinations of people. Now some said that the words denoted that she had advised him to cease his mad behavior and his barbaric cruelty toward the citizens and to govern the public with moderation and virtue, lest he should perish in the same way, on their using him as he had used them. But some said that as certain words had passed concerning the conspirators, she desired Gaius to make no delay, but to immediately put them all to death, and this whether they were guilty or not, and that he would thereby be out of the fear of any danger; and that this was what she reproached him for, when she advised him to do so, but he was too slow and gentle in the matter. And this was what Cesonia said, and what the opinions of men were about it. But when she saw Lupus approach, she showed him Gaius’ dead body and persuaded him to come nearer, with lamentation and tears; and as she perceived that Lupus was in disorder and approached her in order to execute some plan [that was] disagreeable to himself, she was well aware for what purpose he came, and stretched out her naked throat, and that very cheerfully to him, lamenting her case, like one that utterly despaired of her life, and imploring him not to hesitate at finishing the tragedy they had resolved on relating to her. So, she boldly received her death’s wound at the hand of Lupus, as did the daughter after her. So, Lupus made haste to inform Cherea of what he had done.

5. This was the end of Gaius, after he had reigned four months short [of] four years. He was, even before he came to be emperor, bad-natured and one that had arrived at the utmost degree of wickedness: a slave to his pleasures and a lover of defamation, greatly affected by every terrible accident, and on that account of a very murderous disposition where he dared show it. He enjoyed his exorbitant power for this purpose only: to injure those who least deserved it, with unreasonable insolence; and he acquired his wealth by murder and injustice. He labored to appear above regarding either what was divine or agreeable to the laws, but was a slave to the commendations of the populace; and whatsoever the laws determined to be shameful and punished, that he considered more honorable than what was virtuous. He was unmindful of his friends, howsoever intimate, and though they were persons of the highest character; and if he was once angry at any of them, he would inflict punishment on them on the smallest occasions and considered every man that endeavored to lead a virtuous life his enemy. And whatsoever he commanded, he would not accept any contradiction to his inclinations, from which it was that he had criminal conversation with his own sister; it was also chiefly from this occasion that a bitter hatred first sprang up against him among the citizens, that sort of incest not having been known for a long time; and so this provoked men to distrust him and to hate him that was guilty of it. And as for any great or royal work that he ever did, which might be for the present and for future ages, nobody can name any such [example], but only the haven that he made around Rhegium and Sicily, for the reception of the ships that brought corn from Egypt; which was indeed, without dispute, a very great work in itself, and of very great advantage for navigation. Yet this work was not brought to completion by him, but one half of it was left incomplete, by reason of his lack of application to it; the cause of which was this: that he employed his studies about useless matters, and that by spending his money on such pleasures as concerned no one’s benefit but his own, he could not exert his liberality in things that were undeniably of great consequence. Otherwise, he was an excellent orator and thoroughly acquainted with the Greek tongue, as well as with [that of] his own country or Roman language. He was also able, offhand and readily, to give answers to compositions made by others, of considerable length and accuracy. He was also more skillful in persuading others to very great things than anyone else, and this from a natural affability of temper, which had been improved by much exercise and effort; for as he was the grandson of the brother of Tiberius, whose successor he was, this was a strong inducement to his acquiring of learning, because Tiberius aspired after the highest degree of that sort of reputation; and Gaius aspired after the same glory for eloquence, being induced to that by the letters of his relative and his emperor. He was also among the first rank of his own citizens. But the advantages he received from his learning did not offset the trouble he brought on himself in the exercise of his authority, so difficult it is for those to obtain the virtue that is necessary for a wise man, who have the absolute power to do what they please without control. At first, he got himself such friends as were in all respects the most worthy, and he was greatly beloved by them, while he imitated their zealous application to the learning and to the glorious actions of the best men; but when he became insolent toward them, they laid aside the kindness they had for him and began to hate him, from which hatred came that plot which they raised against him, and wherein he perished.

CHAPTER 3

How Claudius Was Seized, and Brought Out of His House, and Brought to the Camp; And How the Senate Sent an Envoy to Him.

1. Now Claudius, as I said before, went out of that way along which Gaius had gone; and as the family was in a mighty disorder on the sad fortune of the murder of Gaius, he was in great distress [regarding] how to save himself and was found to have hidden himself in a certain narrow place, although he had no other occasion for suspicion of any dangers, besides the dignity of his birth; for while he was a private man, he himself behaved with moderation and was satisfied with his present fortune, applying himself to learning, and especially to that of the Greeks, and keeping himself entirely clear from everything that might bring on any disturbance. But as the multitude was under consternation at this time, and the whole palace was full of the soldiers’ madness, and the very emperor’s guards seemed under the same fear and disorder with private persons, the band called Praetorian, which was the purest part of the army, was in consultation [concerning] what was to be done at this juncture. Now all those that were at this consultation had little regard for the punishment Gaius had suffered, because he justly deserved such a fortune; but they were rather considering their own circumstances, how they might take the best care of themselves, especially while the Germans were busy in punishing the murderers of Gaius; which yet was done rather to gratify their own savage temper, than for the good of the public; all which things disturbed Claudius, who was afraid for his own safety, and this particularly because he saw the heads of Asprenas and his partners carried around. His station had been on a certain elevated place, where a few steps led him, and where he had retreated into the dark by himself. But when Gratus, who was one of the soldiers that belonged to the palace, saw him, but did not know well by his countenance who he was, because it was dark, though he could judge well that it was a man who was there privately on some plan, he came nearer to him; and when Claudius desired that he would withdraw, he revealed who he was and admitted himself to be Claudius. So, he said to his followers, “This is a Germanicus; come on, let us choose him for our emperor.” But when Claudius saw [that] they were making preparations for taking him away by force and was afraid they would kill him, as they had killed Gaius, he pleaded with them to spare him, reminding them how quietly he had demeaned himself, and that he was unacquainted with what had been done. Hereon Gratus smiled on him, and took him by the right hand, and said, “Cease, sir, these low thoughts of saving yourself, while you ought to have greater thoughts, even of obtaining the empire, which the gods, out of their concern for the habitable world, by taking Gaius out of the way, commit to your virtuous conduct. Therefore, go to and accept the throne of your ancestors.” So, they took him up and carried him, because he was not then able to go on foot, such was his dread and his joy at what was told [to] him.

2. Now a great number of the guards were already gathered together around Gratus; and when they saw Claudius carried off, they looked with a sad countenance, as supposing that he was carried to execution for the harms that had recently been done, while yet they thought him [to be] a man who never meddled with public affairs all his life long, and one that had met with no contemptible dangers under the reign of Gaius; and some of them thought it reasonable that the consuls should take cognizance of these matters; and as still more and more of the soldiers gathered, the crowd around him ran away, and Claudius could hardly go on, his body was then so weak; and those who carried his litter, on an inquiry that was made about his being carried off, ran away and saved themselves, as despairing of their lord’s preservation. But when they had come into the large court of the palace (which, as the report goes concerning it, was first inhabited among all the parts of the city of Rome) and had just reached the public treasury, many more soldiers came around him, as glad to see Claudius’ face, and thought it exceedingly right to make him emperor, on account of their kindness for Germanicus, who was his brother and had left behind him a vast reputation among all that were acquainted with him. They also reflected on the covetous temper of the leading men of the senate, and what great errors they had been guilty of when the senate formerly had the government; they also considered the impossibility of such an undertaking, as also what dangers they should be in if the government should come to a single person, and that such a one should possess it as they had no hand in advancing, and not to Claudius, who would take it as their grant, and as gained by their goodwill toward him, and would remember the favors they had done him, and would make them a sufficient repayment for the same.

3. These were the discourses the soldiers had with one another by themselves, and they communicated them to all such as came in to them. Now those that inquired about this matter willingly embraced the invitation that was made them to join with the rest; so they carried Claudius into the camp, crowding around him as his guard and surrounding him, one chairman still succeeding another, so that their vehement endeavors might not be hindered. But as for the populace and senators, they disagreed in their opinions. The latter were very desirous to recover their former dignity and were zealous to get clear of the slavery that had been brought on them by the injurious treatment of the tyrants, which the present opportunity provided them; but as for the people, who were envious against them and knew that the emperors were capable of curbing their covetous temper and were a refuge from them, they were very glad that Claudius had been seized and brought to them and thought that if Claudius were made emperor, he would prevent a civil war, such as there was in the days of Pompey. But when the senate knew that Claudius was brought into the camp by the soldiers, they sent to him those of their body which had the best character for their virtues, so that they might inform him that he ought to do nothing by violence in order to gain the government; that he who was a single person, one either already or hereafter to be a member of their body, ought to yield to the senate, which consisted of such a great number; that he ought to let the law take place in the disposal of all that related to the public order and to remember how greatly the former tyrants had afflicted their city and what dangers both he and they had escaped under Gaius; and that he should not hate the heavy burden of tyranny, when the injury is done by others, while he himself willfully treated his country in a mad and insolent manner; that if he would comply with them and demonstrate that his firm resolution was to live quietly and virtuously, he would have the greatest honors decreed on him that a free people could bestow; and by subjecting himself to the law, would obtain this branch of commendation: that he acted like a man of virtue, both as a ruler and a subject; but that if he would act foolishly and learn no wisdom by Gaius’ death, they would not permit him to go on; that a great part of the army had gathered together for them, with plenty of weapons, and a great number of slaves, which they could make use of; that good hope was a great matter in such cases, as was also good fortune; and that the gods would never assist any others but those that undertook to act with virtue and goodness, who can be none other than such as fight for the liberty of their country.

4. Now these ambassadors, Veranius and Brocchus, who both of them were tribunes of the people, made this speech to Claudius; and falling down on their knees, they begged of him that he would not throw the city into wars and misfortunes; but when they saw what a multitude of soldiers surrounded and guarded Claudius, and that the forces that were with the consuls were, in comparison to them, perfectly inconsiderable, they added that if he desired the government, he should accept it as given by the senate; that he would prosper better and be happier if he came to it not by injustice, but by the goodwill of those that would bestow it on him.

CHAPTER 4

What Things King Agrippa Did for Claudius; And How Claudius, When He Had Taken the Government, Commanded the Murderers of Gaius to Be Slain.

1. Now Claudius, although he was aware after what an insolent manner the senate had sent to him, yet according to their advice, presently behaved with moderation himself, but not so much that he could not recover himself from his fright; so he was encouraged [to claim the government] partly by the boldness of the soldiers, and partly by the persuasion of King Agrippa, who exhorted him not to let such a dominion slip out of his hands, when it thus came to him of its own accord. Now this Agrippa, with relation to Gaius, did what suited one that had been so greatly honored by him, for he embraced Gaius’ body after he was dead, and laid it on a bed, and covered it as well as he could, and went out to the guards, and told them that Gaius was still alive; but he said that they should call for physicians, since he was very ill from his wounds. But when he had learned that Claudius was carried away violently by the soldiers, he rushed through the crowd to him, and when he found that he was in disorder and ready to resign the government up to the senate, he encouraged him and desired him to keep the government; but when he had said this to Claudius, he retired home. And on the senate’s sending for him, he anointed his head with ointment, as if he had recently accompanied with his wife and had dismissed her, and then came to them; he also asked the senators what Claudius did, who told him the present state of affairs and then asked his opinion about the settlement of the public. He told them in words that he was ready to lose his life for the honor of the senate, but desired them to consider what was for their advantage, without any regard for what was most agreeable to them; for those who grasp at government will stand in need of weapons and soldiers to guard them, unless they will be established without any preparation for it, and so fall into danger. And when the senate replied that they would bring in weapons in abundance, and money, and that as for an army, a part of it was already collected together for them, and they would raise a larger one by giving the slaves their liberty, Agrippa responded, “O senators! may you be able to reach what you have a mind for; yet I will immediately tell you my thoughts, because they tend toward your preservation. Take notice, then, that the army which will fight for Claudius has been long trained in military affairs; but our army will be no better than a rude multitude of raw men, and those such as have been unexpectedly made free from slavery and ungovernable; we must then fight against those that are skillful in war, with men who know not so much as how to draw their swords. So that my opinion is, that we should send some persons to Claudius, to persuade him to lay down the government; and I am ready to be one of your ambassadors.”

2. On this speech of Agrippa, the senate complied with him, and he was sent among others, and privately informed Claudius of the disorder the senate was in, and gave him instructions to answer them in a somewhat commanding strain, and as one invested with dignity and authority. Accordingly, Claudius said to the ambassadors that he did not doubt [that] the senate had no desire to have an emperor over them, because they had been harassed by the barbarity of those that had formerly been at the head of their affairs; but that they should taste of an equitable government under him, and moderate times, while he should only be their ruler in name, but the authority should be equally common to them all; and since he had passed through many and various scenes of life before their eyes, it would be good for them not to distrust him. So the ambassadors, on their hearing his answer, were dismissed. But Claudius discoursed with the army which was gathered together there, who took oaths that they would persist in their fidelity to him. On this, he gave each [of] the guards five thousand drachmas apiece and a proportionate quantity to their captains and promised to give the same to the rest of the armies wherever they were.

3. And now the consuls called the senate together into the temple of Jupiter the Conqueror, while it was still night; but some of those senators concealed themselves in the city, being uncertain what to do on the hearing of this summons; and some of them went out of the city to their own farms, as foreseeing where the public affairs were going and despairing of liberty; indeed, these supposed it [to be] much better for them to be slaves without danger to themselves and to live a lazy and inactive life, than by claiming the dignity of their forefathers, to run the risk of their own safety. However, one hundred and no more were gathered together; and as they were in consultation concerning the present state of affairs, a sudden clamor was made by the soldiers that were on their side, desiring that the senate would choose them an emperor and not bring the government into ruin by setting up a multitude of rulers. So they fully professed themselves to be for giving the government not to all, but to one; but they gave the senate permission to look for a person worthy to be set over them, insomuch that the affairs of the senate were now much worse than before, because they had not only failed in the recovery of their liberty, which they boasted themselves of, but were also in dread of Claudius. Yet there were those that yearned after the government, both on account of the dignity of their families and that accruing to them by their marriages; for Marcus Minucianus was illustrious, both by his own nobility, and by his having married Julia, the sister of Gaius, who was accordingly very ready to claim the government, although the consuls discouraged him and made one delay after another in proposing it: that Minucianus also, who was one of Gaius’ murderers, restrained Valerius of Asia from thinking of such things; and a prodigious slaughter there would have been if permission had been given to these men to set up [the government] for themselves and oppose Claudius. There were also a considerable number of gladiators in addition, and of those soldiers who kept watch by night in the city, and rowers of ships, who all ran into the camp; insomuch that, of those who put in for the government, some ceased their pretensions in order to spare the city, and others out of fear for their own lives.

4. But as soon as it was day, Cherea, and those that were with him, came into the senate and attempted to make speeches to the soldiers. However, the multitude of those soldiers, when they saw that they were making signals for silence with their hands and were ready to begin to speak to them, grew tumultuous and would not let them speak at all, because they were all zealous to be under a monarchy; and they demanded of the senate one for their ruler, as not enduring any further delays: but the senate hesitated about either their own governing, or how they themselves should be governed, while the soldiers would not accept them to govern, and the murderers of Gaius would not permit the soldiers to dictate to them. When they were in these circumstances, Cherea was unable to contain the anger he had and promised that if they desired an emperor, he would give them one, if anyone would bring him the watchword from Eutychus. Now this Eutychus was charioteer of the green-band faction, styled Prasine, and a great friend of Gaius, who used to harass the soldiers with building stables for the horses and spent his time in disgraceful labors, which caused Cherea to reproach them with him and to abuse them with much other defamatory language; and he told them he would bring them the head of Claudius and that it was an amazing thing, that, after their former madness, they should commit their government to a fool. Yet they were not moved with his words, but drew their swords, and took up their ensigns, and went to Claudius, to join in taking the oath of fidelity to him. So, the senate was left without anyone to defend them, and the very consuls [themselves] differed in no way from private persons. They were also under consternation and sorrow, men not knowing what would become of them, because Claudius was very angry at them, so they fell to reproaching one another and regretted what they had done. At which juncture Sabinus, one of Gaius’ murderers, threatened that he would sooner come into the midst of them and kill himself, than consent to make Claudius emperor and see slavery returning to them; he also abused Cherea for loving his life too much, while he who was the first in his contempt of Gaius, could think it a good thing to live, when, even by all that they had done for the recovery of their liberty, they found it impossible to do it. But Cherea said he had no manner of doubt in him about killing himself—yet that he would first question the intentions of Claudius before he did it.

5. These were the debates [in the senate]; but in the camp, everybody was crowding on all sides to pay their court to Claudius; and the other consul, Quintus Pomponius, was reproached by the soldiers, as having rather exhorted the senate to recover their liberty, whereon they drew their swords and were going to assault him, and they would have done it if Claudius had not hindered them, who snatched the consul out of the danger he was in and set him by him. But he did not receive that part of the senate which was with Quintus in the same honorable manner; indeed, some of them received blows and were thrust away as they came to salute Claudius; indeed, Aponius went away wounded, and they were all in danger. However, King Agrippa went up to Claudius and desired [that] he would treat the senators more gently; for if any harm should come to the senate, he would have no others over whom to rule. Claudius complied with him, and called the senate together into the palace, and was carried there himself through the city, while the soldiers led him, although this was to the great vexation of the multitude; for Cherea and Sabinus, two of Gaius’ murderers, went in the forefront of them, in an open manner, while Pollio, whom Claudius, shortly before, had made captain of his guards, had sent them an epistolary edict to forbid them to appear in public. Then Claudius, on his coming to the palace, gathered his friends together and desired their supplications about Cherea. They said that the work he had done was a glorious one; but they accused him that he did it treacherously and thought it just to inflict the punishment [of death] on him, to dissuade such actions for the time to come. So Cherea was led to his execution, and Lupus and many other Romans with him. Now it is reported that Cherea bore this calamity courageously; and this not only by the firmness of his own behavior under it, but by the reproaches he laid on Lupus, who fell into tears; for when Lupus laid his garment aside and complained of the cold, he said that cold was never hurtful to Lupus [(a wolf)]. And as a great many men went along with them to see the sight, when Cherea came to the place, he asked the soldier who was to be their executioner, whether this office was what he was accustomed to, or whether this was the first time of his using his sword in that manner, and desired him to bring him that very sword with which he himself slew Gaius. So, he was happily killed with one stroke. But Lupus did not meet with such good fortune in going out of the world, since he was fearful and had many blows leveled at his neck, because he did not stretch it out boldly [as he ought to have done].

6. Now, a few days after this, just as the Parentalia was at hand, the Roman multitude made their usual oblations to their various spirits, and put portions into the fire in honor of Cherea, and pleaded with him to be merciful to them and not continue his anger against them for their ingratitude. And this was the end of the life that Cherea came to. But as for Sabinus, although Claudius not only set him free, but gave him permission to retain his former command in the army, yet he thought it would be unjust in him to fail of performing his obligations to his fellow confederates; so he fell on his sword and killed himself—the wound reaching up to the very hilt of the sword.

CHAPTER 5

How Claudius Restored to Agrippa His Grandfather’s Kingdoms and Increased His Dominions; And How He Published an Edict in Behalf of the Jews.

1. Now when Claudius had taken all those soldiers whom he suspected out of the way, which he did immediately, he published an edict, and therein confirmed that kingdom to Agrippa which Gaius had given him, and therein highly commended the king. He also made an addition to it of all that country over which Herod, who was his grandfather, had reigned (that is, Judea and Samaria); and he restored this to him as due to his family. But for Abila of Lysanias, and all that lay at Mount Lebanon, he bestowed them on him, as out of his own territories. He also made a covenant with this Agrippa, confirmed by oaths, in the middle of the forum, in the city of Rome. He also took away from Antiochus that kingdom which he had possession of, but gave him a certain part of Cilicia and Commagene. He also set Alexander Lysimachus, the alabarch, free, who had been his old friend, and steward to his mother Antonia, but had been imprisoned by Gaius, whose son [Marcus] married Bernice, the daughter of Agrippa. But when Marcus, Alexander’s son, was dead, who had married her when she was a virgin, Agrippa gave her in marriage to his brother Herod and begged for Claudius to [give] him the kingdom of Chalcis.

2. Now about this time there was a sedition between the Jews and the Greeks in the city of Alexandria, for when Gaius was dead, the nation of the Jews, which had been very greatly mortified under the reign of Gaius and reduced to very great distress by the people of Alexandria, recovered itself and immediately took up their arms to fight for themselves. So Claudius sent an order to the president of Egypt to quiet that uproar; he also sent an edict, at the requests of King Agrippa and King Herod, both to Alexandria and to Syria, whose contents were as follows: “Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, high priest and tribune of the people, ordains thus: Since I am assured that the Jews of Alexandria, called Alexandrians, have been joint inhabitants in the earliest times with the Alexandrians and have obtained from their kings equal privileges with them, as is evident by the public records that are in their possession, and the edicts themselves; and that after Alexandria had been subjected to our empire by Augustus, their rights and privileges have been preserved by those presidents who have been sent there at various times; and that no dispute had been raised about those rights and privileges, even when Aquila was governor of Alexandria; and that when the Jewish ethnarch was dead, Augustus did not prohibit establishing such ethnarchs, as willing that all men should be so subject [to the Romans] as to continue in the observation of their own customs and not be forced to transgress the ancient rules of their own national religion; but that, in the time of Gaius, the Alexandrians became insolent toward the Jews that were among them, which Gaius, out of his great madness and lack of understanding, reduced the nation of the Jews very low, because they would not transgress the religious worship of their country and call him a god: I therefore will that the nation of the Jews not be deprived of their rights and privileges, on account of the madness of Gaius, but that those rights and privileges which they formerly enjoyed be preserved to them, and that they may continue in their own customs. And I charge both parties to take very great care that no troubles may arise after the promulgation of this edict.”

3. And such were the contents of this edict on behalf of the Jews that was sent to Alexandria. But the edict that was sent into the other parts of the habitable earth was this which follows: “Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, high priest, tribune of the people, chosen consul the second time, ordains thus: On the petition of King Agrippa and King Herod—who are very dear persons to me—that I would grant [that] the same rights and privileges should be preserved to the Jews which are in all the Roman empire, which I have granted to those of Alexandria, I very willingly comply with it; and this grant I make not only for the sake of the petitioners, but as judging those Jews for whom I have been petitioned worthy of such a favor, on account of their fidelity and friendship to the Romans. I think it [is] also very just that no Grecian city should be deprived of such rights and privileges, since they were preserved to them under the great Augustus. It will therefore be fitting to permit the Jews, who are in all the world under us, to keep their ancient customs without being hindered to do so. And I also charge them to use my kindness toward them with moderation, and not to show a contempt of the superstitious observances of other nations, but to keep their own laws only. And I will that this decree of mine be engraved on tables by the magistrates of the cities, and colonies, and municipal places, both those within Italy and those outside it, both kings and governors, by the means of the ambassadors, and to have them exposed to the public for a full thirty days, in such a place from which it may plainly be read from the ground.”

CHAPTER 6

What Things Were Done by Agrippa at Jerusalem When He Had Returned Back Into Judea; And What It Was That Petronius Wrote to the Inhabitants of Doris, in Behalf of the Jews.

1. Now Claudius Caesar, by these decrees of his which were sent to Alexandria and to all the habitable earth, made known what opinion he had of the Jews. So, he soon sent Agrippa away to take his kingdom, now [that] he was advanced to a more illustrious dignity than before, and sent letters to the presidents and procurators of the provinces that they should treat him very kindly. Accordingly, he returned in haste, as was likely he would, now [that] he returned in much greater prosperity than he had before. He also came to Jerusalem, and offered all the sacrifices that belonged to him, and omitted nothing which the Law required; on which account he ordained that many of the Nazarites should have their heads shaved. And as for the golden chain which had been given [to] him by Gaius, of equal weight with that iron chain with which his royal hands had been bound, he hung it up within the limits of the temple, over the treasury, so that it might be a memorial of the severe fate he had lain under, and a testimony of his change for the better; that it might be a demonstration [of] how the greatest prosperity may have a fall, and that God sometimes raises up what has fallen down: for this chain thus dedicated provided a document to all men that King Agrippa had once been bound in a chain for a small cause, but recovered his former dignity again; and a little while afterward, got out of his bonds and was advanced to be a more illustrious king than he was before. From this, men may understand that all that partake of human nature, however great they might be, may fall; and that those that fall may gain their former illustrious dignity again.

2. And when Agrippa had completely finished all the duties of the Divine worship, he removed Theophilus, the son of Ananus, from the high priesthood and bestowed that honor of his on Simon the son of Boethus, whose name was also Cantheras, whose daughter King Herod married, as I have related above. Simon, therefore, had the [high] priesthood with his brothers, and with his father, in like manner as the sons of Simon, the son of Onias, who were three, formerly had it under the government of the Macedonians, as we have related in a former book.

3. When the king had settled the high priesthood after this manner, he returned the kindness which the inhabitants of Jerusalem had showed him; for he released them from the tax on houses, every one of which paid it before, thinking it a good thing to repay the tender affection of those that loved him. He also made Silas the general of his forces, as a man who had partaken with him in many of his troubles. But after a very short time, the young men of Doris, preferring a rash attempt before piety, and being naturally bold and insolent, carried a statue of Caesar into a synagogue of the Jews and erected it there. This action of theirs greatly provoked Agrippa, for it plainly tended toward the dissolution of the laws of his country. So, he came without delay to Publius Petronius, who was then president of Syria, and accused the people of Doris. Nor did he resent what was done [any] less than Agrippa, for he judged it a piece of impiety to transgress the laws that regulate the actions of men. So he wrote the following letter to the people of Doris in an angry strain: “Publius Petronius, the president under Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, to the magistrates of Doris, ordains as follows: Since some of you have had the boldness—or rather madness—after the edict of Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was published, for permitting the Jews to observe the laws of their country, not to obey the same, but have acted in complete opposition to that, as forbidding the Jews to assemble together in the synagogue by removing Caesar’s statue and setting it up therein, and have thereby offended not only the Jews, but the emperor himself, whose statue is more serviceably placed in his own temple than in a foreign one, where the place of assembling together is; while it is but a part of natural justice that everyone should have the power over the place uniquely belonging to themselves, according to the determination of Caesar—to say nothing of my own determination, which it would be ridiculous to mention after the emperor’s edict, which gives the Jews [explicit] permission to make use of their own customs, as [it] also gives an order that they equally enjoy the rights of citizens with the Greeks themselves—I therefore ordain that Proculus Vitellius, the centurion, bring those men to me, who, contrary to Augustus’ edict, have been so insolent as to do this thing, at which those very men, who appear to be of principal reputation among them, also have an indignation and allege for themselves that it was not done with their consent, but by the violence of the multitude, so that they may give an account of what has been done. I also exhort the principal magistrates among them, unless they intend to have this action considered done with their consent, to inform the centurion of those that were guilty of it and take care that no opportunity be henceforth taken for raising a sedition or quarrel among them; which those seem to me to be doing who encourage such doings; while both I myself, and King Agrippa, for whom I have the highest honor, have nothing more under our care, than that the nation of the Jews may have no reason given [to] them for gathering together, under the pretense of avenging themselves, and become tumultuous. And, so that it may be more publicly known what Augustus has decided concerning this whole matter, I have subjoined those edicts which he has recently caused to be published at Alexandria, and which, although they may be well known to all, yet King Agrippa, for whom I have the highest honor, read them at that time before my tribunal and pleaded that the Jews should not be deprived of those rights which Augustus has granted them. I therefore charge you, that you do not, for the time to come, pursue any cause of sedition or disturbance, but that everyone be allowed to follow their own religious customs.”

4. Thus, Petronius took care of this matter, so that such a breach of the law might be corrected, and that no such thing might be attempted against the Jews afterward. And now King Agrippa took the [high] priesthood away from Simon Cantheras, and put Jonathan, the son of Ananus, into it again, and admitted that he was more worthy of that dignity than the other. But this was not an acceptable thing to him, to recover his former dignity, so he refused it and said, “O king! I rejoice in the honor that you have for me and receive it kindly that you would give me such a dignity from your own inclinations, although God has judged that I am not at all worthy of the high priesthood. I am satisfied with having already put on the sacred garments, for I then put them on in a more holy manner than I should now receive them again. But if you desire that a person more worthy than myself should have this honorable employment, give me permission to name you such a one. I have a brother that is pure from all sin against God, and of all offenses against yourself; I recommend him to you, as one that is right for this dignity.” So, the king was pleased with these words of his, and passed by Jonathan, and, according to his brother’s desire, bestowed the high priesthood on Matthias. Nor was it long before Marcus succeeded Petronius as president of Syria.

CHAPTER 7

Concerning Silas and on What Account It Was That King Agrippa Was Angry at Him. How Agrippa Began to Surround Jerusalem with a Wall; And What Benefits He Bestowed on the Inhabitants of Berytus.

1. Now Silas, the general of the king’s horse[men], because he had been faithful to him under all his misfortunes and had never refused to be a partaker with him in any of his dangers, but had oftentimes undergone the most hazardous dangers for him, was full of assurance and thought he might expect a sort of equality with the king, on account of the firmness of the friendship he had showed to him. Accordingly, he would not let the king sit as his superior anywhere and took the same liberty in speaking to him on all occasions, until he became troublesome to the king, when they were having fun together, extolling himself beyond measure and often reminding the king of the severity of fortune he had undergone, so that he might, by way of ostentation, demonstrate what zeal he had showed in his service; and he was continually harping on this string—what efforts he had undertaken for him—and still greatly enlarged on that subject. The repetition of this so frequently seemed to reproach the king, insomuch that he took this ungovernable liberty of talking very badly at his hands. For the commemoration of times when men have been under humiliation is by no means agreeable to them; and he is a very silly man who is perpetually relating to a person what kindness he had done him. At last, therefore, Silas had so thoroughly provoked the king’s indignation that he acted rather out of passion than good consideration, and not only turned Silas out of his place, as general of his horse[men], but sent him in bonds into his own country. But the edge of his anger wore off by length of time and made room for more just reasonings as to his judgment about this man; and he considered how many labors he had undergone for his sake. So, when Agrippa was celebrating his birthday, and he gave festival entertainments to all his subjects, he suddenly sent for Silas to be his guest. But as he was a very frank man, he thought he now had a just reason given [to] him to be angry, which he could not conceal from those that came for him, but said to them, “What honor is this the king invites me to, which I conclude will soon be over? For the king has not let me keep those original marks of the goodwill I bore him, which I once had from him; but he has plundered me—and that unjustly also. Does he think that I can cease that liberty of speech, which, on the consciousness of my merits, I will practice more loudly than before and will relate how many misfortunes I have been delivered from [and] how many labors I have undergone for him, whereby I obtained him deliverance and respect, as a reward for which I have borne the hardships of bonds and a gloomy prison? I will never forget this usage. Indeed, perhaps my very soul, when it has departed out of the body, will not forget the glorious actions I did on his account.” This was the clamor he made, and he ordered the messengers to tell it to the king. So, he perceived that Silas was incurable in his folly and still allowed him to lie in prison.

2. As for the walls of Jerusalem that were adjoining to the new city [of Bezetha], he repaired them at the public’s expense and built them wider in breadth and higher in altitude; and he would have made them too strong for all human power to demolish, if Marcus, the president of Syria at that time, had not informed Claudius Caesar by letter of what he was doing. And when Claudius had some suspicion of attempts for innovation, he sent to Agrippa to presently cease the building of those walls. So he obeyed, as not thinking it proper to contradict Claudius.

3. Now this king was by nature very benevolent and liberal in his gifts and very ambitious to compel people with such large donations; and he made himself very illustrious by the many expensive presents he made them. He took delight in giving and rejoiced in living with good reputation. He was not at all like that Herod who reigned before him, for Herod was bad-natured, and severe in his punishments, and had no mercy on those that he hated; and every one perceived that he was more friendly to the Greeks than to the Jews, for he adorned foreign cities with large presents in money, with building them baths and theaters in addition; indeed, in some of those places he erected temples, and porticoes in others; but he did not grant to raise one of the least edifices in any Jewish city, or make them any donation that was worth mentioning. But Agrippa’s temper was mild and equally liberal to all men. He was humane to foreigners and made them aware of his liberality. He was, in like manner, rather of a gentle and compassionate temper. Accordingly, he loved to continually live in Jerusalem and was careful in the precise observance of the laws of his country. He therefore kept himself entirely pure; nor did any day pass over his head without its appointed sacrifice.

4. However, there was a certain man of the Jewish nation at Jerusalem, who appeared to be very accurate in the knowledge of the Law. His name was Simon. This man gathered an assembly, while the king was absent at Caesarea, and had the insolence to accuse him as not living devoutly, and that he might justly be excluded out of the temple, since it belonged only to native Jews. But the general of Agrippa’s army informed him that Simon had made such a speech to the people. So, the king sent for him; and as he was sitting in the theater, he commanded him to sit down by him and said to him with a low and gentle voice, “What is there done in this place that is contrary to the Law?” But he had nothing to say for himself, but begged his pardon. So, the king was more easily reconciled to him than one could have imagined, as regarding mildness a better quality in a king than anger and knowing that moderation is more fitting in great men than passion. So, he made Simon a small present and dismissed him.

5. Now as Agrippa was a great builder in many places, he paid a particular regard to the people of Berytus, for he erected a theater for them, superior to many others of that sort, both in splendor and elegance, as also an amphitheater, built at vast expenses; and besides these, he built them baths and porticoes and spared no expenses in any of his edifices, to render them both beautiful and large. He also spent a great deal on their dedication, and exhibited shows in them, and brought musicians of all sorts there, and such as made the most delightful music of the greatest variety. He also showed his magnificence in the theater, in his great number of gladiators; and it was there that he exhibited various antagonists, in order to please the spectators—indeed, no fewer than seven hundred men to fight with seven hundred other men; and he allotted all the criminals he had for this exercise, so that both the criminals might receive their punishment and that this operation of war might be a recreation in peace. And thus, these criminals were all destroyed at once.

CHAPTER 8

What Other Acts Were Done by Agrippa Until His Death; And After What Manner He Died.

1. When Agrippa had finished at Berytus what I have related above, he departed to Tiberias, a city of Galilee. Now he was in high regard among other kings. Accordingly, there came to him Antiochus, king of Commagene, Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa, and Cotys, who was king of lesser Armenia, and Polemo, who was king of Pontus, as also his brother Herod, who was king of Chalcis. He treated all of these with pleasant entertainments, and in an obliging manner, and so as to exhibit the greatness of his mind and to appear worthy of those respects which the kings paid to him, by thus coming to see him. However, while these kings stayed with him, Marcus, the president of Syria, came there. So the king, in order to preserve the respect that was due to the Romans, went out of the city to meet him, as far as seven stadia. But this proved to be the beginning of a difference between him and Marcus, for he took with him in his chariot those other kings as his assessors. But Marcus had a suspicion [of] what the meaning could be of such a great friendship of these kings with one another and did not think such a close agreement of so many potentates to be for the interest of the Romans. Therefore, he sent some of his servants to every one of them and ordered them to go their ways home without further delay. This was taken very poorly by Agrippa, who became his enemy after that. And now he took the high priesthood away from Matthias and made Elioneus, the son of Cantheras, high priest in his stead.

2. Now when Agrippa had reigned three years over all Judea, he came to the city [of] Caesarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower; and there he exhibited shows in honor of Caesar, on his being informed that there was a certain festival celebrated to make vows for his safety. At this festival a great multitude had gathered together of the principal persons and such as were of dignity throughout his province. On the second day of these shows, he put on a garment made entirely of silver, and of a truly wonderful fabric, and came into the theater early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays on it, shone out in a surprising manner and was so resplendent as to spread terror over those that looked intently on him; and presently his flatterers cried out—one from one place, and another from another (though not for his good)—that he was a god; and they added, “Be merciful to us; for although we have thus far revered you only as a man, yet we will henceforth acknowledge you as superior to mortal nature.” On this, the king neither rebuked them, nor rejected their impious flattery. But afterward, as he presently looked up, he saw an owl sitting on a certain rope over his head and immediately understood that this bird was the messenger of bad tidings, as it had once been the messenger of good tidings to him; and he fell into the deepest sorrow. A severe pain also arose in his belly and began in a most violent manner. He therefore looked on his friends and said, “I, whom you call a god, am presently commanded to depart this life, while Providence thus rebukes the lying words you have just now said to me; and I, who was called immortal by you, am to be rushed away by death immediately. But I am bound to accept what Providence allots, as it pleases God; for we have by no means lived badly, but in a splendid and blessed manner.” When he said this, his pain had become violent. Accordingly, he was carried into the palace, and the rumor went abroad everywhere that he would certainly die in a short time. But the multitude presently sat in sackcloth, with their wives and children, after the law of their country, and pleaded with God for the king’s recovery. All places were also full of mourning and lamentation. Now the king rested in a high chamber, and as he saw them lying prostrate on the ground below, he could not refrain from weeping himself. And when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life, being in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in the seventh year of his reign; for he reigned four years under Gaius Caesar, three of them were over Philip’s tetrarchy only, and on the fourth he had that [domain] of Herod added to it; and he reigned, besides those, three years under the reign of Claudius Caesar; in which time he reigned over the aforementioned countries, and also had Judea added to them, as well as Samaria and Caesarea. The revenues that he received out of them were very great—no less than twelve million drachmas. Yet he borrowed great sums from others, for he was so very liberal that his expenses exceeded his incomes, and his generosity was boundless.

3. But before the multitude were made aware of Agrippa’s death, Herod, the king of Chalcis, and Helcias, the master of his horse[men], and the king’s friend, sent Aristo, one of the king’s most faithful servants, and slew Silas, who had been their enemy, as if it had been done by the king’s own command.

CHAPTER 9

What Things Were Done After the Death of Agrippa; And How Claudius, on Account of the Youth and Unskillfulness of the Junior Agrippa, Sent Cuspius Fadus to Be Procurator of Judea and of the Entire Kingdom.

1. And thus, King Agrippa departed this life. But he left behind him a son, Agrippa by name, a youth in the seventeenth year of his age, and three daughters; one of which, Bernice, was married to Herod, his father’s brother, and was sixteen years old; the other two, Mariamne and Drusilla, were still virgins; the former was ten years old, and Drusilla six. Now these daughters of his were thus espoused by their father; Mariamne to Julius Archelaus Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus, the son of Chelcias; and Drusilla to the king of Commagene. But when it was known that Agrippa had departed this life, the inhabitants of Caesarea and of Sebaste forgot the kindnesses he had bestowed on them and acted the part of the bitterest enemies; for they cast such reproaches on the deceased as are not right to be spoken of; and so many of them as were then soldiers, which were a great number, went to his house, and hastily carried off the statues of this king’s daughters, and all at once carried them into the brothel-houses, and when they had set them on the tops of those houses, they abused them to the limit of their power and did such things to them as are too indecent to be related. They also laid themselves down in public places and celebrated general feastings, with garlands on their heads, and with ointments and libations to Charon, and drinking to one another for joy that the king had expired. Indeed, they were not only unmindful of Agrippa, who had extended his liberality to them in abundance, but of his grandfather Herod also, who had himself rebuilt their cities and had erected them havens and temples at vast expenses.

2. Now Agrippa, the son of the deceased, was at Rome and brought up with Claudius Caesar. And when Caesar was informed that Agrippa was dead, and that the inhabitants of Sebaste and Caesarea had abused him, he was sorry for the first news and was displeased with the ingratitude of those cities. He was therefore inclined to presently send the junior Agrippa away to succeed his father in the kingdom and was willing to confirm him in it by his oath. But those freemen and friends of his, who had the greatest authority with him, dissuaded him from it and said that it was a dangerous experiment to permit such a vast kingdom to come under the government of such a very young man—and one [who had] barely yet arrived at years of discretion, who would not be able to take sufficient care of its administration—while the weight of a kingdom is heavy enough for a grown man. So, Caesar thought what they said to be reasonable. Accordingly, he sent Cuspius Fadus to be procurator of Judea and of the entire kingdom and paid that [degree of] respect to the deceased, so as not to introduce Marcus, who had been in conflict with him, into his kingdom. But he determined, in the first place, to send orders to Fadus, that he should chastise the inhabitants of Caesarea and Sebaste for those abuses they had offered to him that was deceased and their madness toward his daughters that were still alive; and that he should remove that body of soldiers that were at Caesarea and Sebaste, with the five regiments, into Pontus, so that they might do their military duty there; and that he should choose an equal number of soldiers out of the Roman legions that were in Syria to supply their place. Yet those that had such orders were not actually removed, for by sending ambassadors to Claudius, they placated him and obtained permission to still abide in Judea; and these were the very men that became the source of very great calamities to the Jews in times after and sowed the seeds of that war which began under Florus; from which it was that when Vespasian had subdued the country, he removed them out of his province, as we will relate hereafter.

BOOK XX

Containing the Interval of Twenty-Two Years. From Fadus the Procurator to Florus.

CHAPTER 1

A Sedition of the Philadelphians Against the Jews; And Also Concerning the Vestments of the High Priest.

1. On the death of King Agrippa, which we have related in the preceding book, Claudius Caesar sent Cassius Longinus as successor to Marcus, out of regard for the memory of King Agrippa, who had often desired of him by letters, while he was alive, that he would not allow Marcus to be president of Syria any longer. But Fadus, as soon as he had come into Judea as procurator, found quarrelsome things happening between the Jews that dwelt in Perea, and the people of Philadelphia, around their borders, at a village called Mia, which was filled with men of a combative temper; for the Jews of Perea had taken up arms without the consent of their principal men and had destroyed many of the Philadelphians. When Fadus was informed of this procedure, it provoked him very much that they had not left the determination of the matter to him, if they thought that the Philadelphians had done them any wrong, but had rashly taken up arms against them. So, he seized three of their principal men, who were also the causes of this sedition, and ordered them to be bound, and afterward had one of them slain, whose name was Hannibal; and he banished the other two, Amram and Eleazar. Tholomy also, the chief-robber, was, after some time, brought to him bound and was slain, but not until he had caused a world of trouble to Idumea and the Arabians. And indeed, from that time on, Judea was cleared of robberies by the care and providence of Fadus. At this time, he also sent for the high priests and the principal citizens of Jerusalem, and this at the command of the emperor, and admonished them that they should lay up the long garment and the sacred vestment, which it is customary for nobody but the high priest to wear, in the Tower of Antonia, so that it might be under the power of the Romans, as it had formerly been. Now the Jews dared not contradict what he had said, but however desired Fadus and Longinus (the latter of which had come to Jerusalem and had brought a great army with him, out of fear that the [rigid] orders of Fadus might force the Jews to rebel), that they might, in the first place, have permission to send ambassadors to Caesar, to petition him that they may have the holy vestments under their own power; and that, in the next place, they would tarry until they knew what answer Claudius would give to that their request. So, they replied that they would give them permission to send their ambassadors, provided they would give them their sons as pledges [for their peaceful behavior]. And when they had agreed to do so and had given them the pledges they desired, the ambassadors were sent accordingly. But when, on their coming to Rome, the junior Agrippa, the son of the deceased, understood the reason why they came (for he dwelt with Claudius Caesar, as we said before), he pleaded with Caesar to grant the Jews their request concerning the holy vestments and to send a message to Fadus accordingly.

2. Hereon Claudius called for the ambassadors, and told them that he granted their request, and commanded them to return their thanks to Agrippa for this favor, which had been bestowed on them on his request. And besides these answers of his, he sent the following letter by them: “Claudius Caesar Germanicus, tribune of the people the fifth time, and designated consul the fourth time, and imperator the tenth time, the father of his country, to the magistrates, senate, and people, and the whole nation of the Jews: Greetings. On the presentation of your ambassadors to me by Agrippa—my friend, whom I have brought up and now have with me, and who is a person of very great piety—who have come to give me thanks for the care I have taken of your nation, and to implore me, in an earnest and obliging manner, that they may have the holy vestments, with the crown belonging to them, under their power—I grant their request, as that excellent person Vitellius, who is very dear to me, had done before me. And I have complied with your desire, in the first place, out of regard for that piety which I profess and because I would have every one worship God according to the laws of their own country; and I also do this because I will hereby highly gratify King Herod, and the junior Agrippa, whose sacred regards for me, and earnest goodwill toward you, I am well acquainted with, and with whom I have the greatest friendship, and whom I highly esteem and look on as persons of the best character. Now I have written about these affairs to Cuspius Fadus, my procurator. The names of those that brought me your letter are Cornelius, the son of Cero, Trypho, the son of Theudio, Dorotheus, the son of Nathaniel, and John, the son of John. This letter is dated before the fourth of the calends of July, while Rufus and Pompeius Sylvanus are consuls.”

3. Herod also, the brother of the deceased Agrippa, who was then in possession of the royal authority over Chalcis, petitioned Claudius Caesar for the authority over the temple, and the money of the sacred treasure, and the choice of the high priests, and obtained all that he petitioned for. So that after that time, this authority continued among all his descendants until the end of the war. Accordingly, Herod removed the last high priest, called Cantheras, and bestowed that dignity on his successor Joseph, the son of Camus.

CHAPTER 2

How Helena, the Queen of Adiabene, and Her Son Izates, Embraced the Jewish Religion; And How Helena Supplied the Poor with Corn, When There Was a Great Famine at Jerusalem.

1. It was about this time that Helena, queen of Adiabene, and her son Izates, changed their course of life and embraced the Jewish customs, and this on the following occasion: Monobazus, the king of Adiabene, who also had the name of Bazeus, fell in love with his sister Helena, and took her to be his wife, and begot a child with her. But as he was in bed with her one night, he laid his hand on his wife’s belly, and fell asleep, and seemed to hear a voice, which commanded him to take his hand off his wife’s belly and not harm the infant that was therein, which, by God’s providence, would be safely born and have a blessed end. This voice put him into disorder; so he awoke immediately and told the story to his wife; and when his son was born, he called him Izates. Indeed, he had Monobazus, his elder brother, by Helena also, as he additionally had other sons by other wives. Yet he openly placed all his affections on his only begotten son Izates, which was the origin of that envy which his other brothers, by the same father, bore to him, while they hated him more and more on this account and were all under great affliction that their father should prefer Izates before them. Now although their father was very aware of these passions of theirs, yet he forgave them, as not indulging those passions out of a bad disposition, but out of a desire [that] each of them had to be beloved by their father. However, he sent Izates, with many presents, to Abennerig, the king of Charax-Spasini—and that out of the great dread he was in concerning him, lest he should come to some misfortune by the hatred his brothers bore him; and he committed his son’s preservation to him. On this, Abennerig gladly received the young man, and had a great affection for him, and married him to his own daughter, whose name was Samacha: he also bestowed a country on him, from which he received large revenues.

2. But when Monobazus had grown old and saw that he only had a short time to live, he intended to come to the sight of his son before he died. So he sent for him, and embraced him in the most affectionate manner, and bestowed on him the country called Carrae; it had a soil that bore amomum in great abundance; there are also in it the remains of that ark, wherein it is related that Noah escaped the Deluge, and where they are still shown to such as are desirous to see them. Accordingly, Izates abided in that country until his father’s death. But the very day that Monobazus died, Queen Helena sent for all the nobles, and governors of the kingdom, and for those that had the armies committed to their command; and when they had come, she made the following speech to them: “I believe you are not unaware that my husband desired [that] Izates should succeed him in the government and thought him worthy to do so. However, I await your determination; for blessed is he who receives a kingdom, not from a single person only, but from the willing support of a great many.” She said this in order to try those that were invited and to discover their sentiments. On the hearing of which, they first of all paid their homage to the queen, as was their custom, and then they said that they confirmed the king’s determination and would submit to it; and they rejoiced that Izates’ father had preferred him before the rest of his brothers, as being agreeable to all their wishes: but that first of all, they were desirous to slay his brothers and relatives, so that the government might securely come to Izates, because if they were once destroyed, all that fear which might arise from their hatred and envy toward him would be ended. Helena replied to this that she returned them her thanks for their kindness to herself and to Izates, but desired that they would however defer the execution of this slaughter of Izates’ brothers until he should be there himself and give his consent to it. So, since these men had not prevailed with her when they advised her to slay them, they exhorted her to at least keep them in bonds until he should come—and that for their own security; they also gave her counsel to set up someone whom she could put the greatest trust in, as a governor of the kingdom in the meantime. So Queen Helena complied with this counsel of theirs, and set up Monobazus, the eldest son, to be king, and put the diadem on his head, and gave him his father’s ring, with its signet, as also the ornament which they call Sampser, and exhorted him to administer the affairs of the kingdom until his brother should come: who suddenly came on hearing that his father was dead and succeeded his brother Monobazus, who resigned the government up to him.

3. Now, during the time Izates abided at Charax-Spasini, a certain Jewish merchant, whose name was Ananias, got among the women that belonged to the king and taught them to worship God according to the Jewish religion. He, moreover, by their means, became known to Izates, and persuaded him, in like manner, to embrace that religion; he also, at the earnest request of Izates, accompanied him when he was sent for by his father to come to Adiabene; it also happened that Helena, about the same time, was instructed by a certain other Jew and went over to them. But when Izates had taken the kingdom, and had come to Adiabene, and saw his brothers and other relatives in bonds there, he was displeased at it; and as he thought it an instance of impiety either to slay or imprison them, but still thought it a dangerous thing to let them have their liberty with the remembrance of the injuries that had been offered them, he sent some of them and their children as hostages to Rome, to Claudius Caesar, and sent the others to Artabanus, the king of Parthia, with the same intentions.

4. And when he perceived that his mother was highly pleased with the Jewish customs, he made haste to convert and to completely embrace them; and as he supposed that he could not fully be a Jew unless he was circumcised, he was ready to have it done. But when his mother understood what he was doing, she endeavored to hinder him from doing it and said to him that this thing would bring him into danger; and that, as he was a king, he would thereby bring himself into great disgust among his subjects, when they should understand that he was so fond of rites that were strange and foreign to them; and that they would never bear to be ruled over by a Jew. It was this that she said to him, and presently persuaded him to refrain. And when he had related what she had said to Ananias, he confirmed what his mother had said; and when he had also threatened to leave him, unless he complied with him, he went away from him and said that he was afraid lest such an action, having once been made public to all, he should himself be in danger of punishment for having been the cause of it and having been the king’s instructor in actions that were of a bad reputation; and he said that he might worship God without being circumcised, even though he resolved to follow the Jewish law entirely, which worship of God was of a superior nature to circumcision. He added that God would forgive him, even though he did not perform the operation, while it was omitted out of necessity and for fear of his subjects. So, the king at that time complied with these persuasions of Ananias. But afterward, as he had not quite ceased his desire of doing this thing, a certain other Jew that came out of Galilee, whose name was Eleazar, and who was considered very skillful in the learning of his country, persuaded him to do the thing; for as he entered into his palace to salute him and found him reading the Law of Moses, he said to him, “You do not consider, O king, that you unjustly break the principal of those laws and are injurious to God Himself [by neglecting to be circumcised]; for you should not only read them, but chiefly practice what they command you. How long will you continue uncircumcised? But if you have not yet read the law about circumcision and do not know how great an impiety you are guilty of by neglecting it, read it now.” When the king had heard what he said, he delayed the thing no longer, but retired to another room, and sent for a surgeon, and did what he was commanded to do. He then sent for his mother, and Ananias his tutor, and informed them that he had done the thing; on which they were presently struck with astonishment and fear—and that to a great degree, lest the thing should be openly discovered and censured, and the king should risk the loss of his kingdom, while his subjects would not bear to be governed by a man who was so zealous in another religion; and lest they should themselves run some risk, because they would be supposed the cause of his doing so. But it was God Himself who hindered what they feared from taking effect; for He preserved both Izates himself and his sons when they fell into many dangers, and secured their deliverance when it seemed to be impossible, and demonstrated thereby that the fruit of piety does not perish as to those that have regard for Him and fix their faith on Him alone. But we will relate these events hereafter.

5. But as for Helena, the king’s mother, when she saw that the affairs of Izates’ kingdom were in peace and that her son was a fortunate man and admired among all men, and even among foreigners, by the means of God’s providence over him, she intended to go to the city of Jerusalem in order to worship at that temple of God, which was so very famous among all men, and to offer her thank-offerings there. So she desired her son to give her permission to go there; on which, he gave his consent to what she desired very willingly, and made great preparations for her departure, and gave her a great deal of money, and she went down to the city [of] Jerusalem, her son leading her on her journey a great distance. Now her coming was of very great advantage to the people of Jerusalem; for whereas a famine oppressed them at that time, and many people died for lack of what was necessary to obtain food as well, Queen Helena sent some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of corn, and others of them to Cyprus, to bring a cargo of dried figs. And as soon as they had come back and had brought those provisions, which was done very quickly, she distributed food to those that were in need of it and left a most excellent memorial behind her of this benefaction, which she bestowed on our whole nation. And when her son Izates was informed of this famine, he sent great sums of money to the principal men in Jerusalem. However, what favors this queen and king conferred on our city [of] Jerusalem will be further related hereafter.

CHAPTER 3

How Artabanus, the King of Parthia, Out of Fear of the Secret Schemes of His Subjects Against Him, Went to Izates and Was Reinstated in His Government by Him; As Also How His Son Bardanes Pronounced War Against Izates.

1. But now Artabanus, king of the Parthians, perceiving that the governors of the provinces had framed a plot against him, did not think it safe for him to continue among them, but resolved to go to Izates, in hopes of finding some way for his preservation by his means, and, if possible, for his return to his own dominions. So, he came to Izates, and brought one thousand of his relatives and servants with him, and met him on the road, while he knew Izates well, but Izates did not know him. When Artabanus stood near him, and, in the first place, paid homage to him, according to the custom, he then said to him, “O king! do not overlook me, your servant, nor proudly reject the suit I make you; for as I am reduced to a low estate, by the change of fortune, and of a king have become a private man, I stand in need of your assistance. Therefore, have regard for the uncertainty of fortune and esteem the care you will take of me to be taken of yourself also; for if I am neglected, and my subjects go off unpunished, many other subjects will become [all] the more insolent toward other kings also.” And Artabanus made this speech with tears in his eyes, and with a dejected countenance. Now as soon as Izates heard Artabanus’ name and saw him stand as a supplicant before him, he leaped down from his horse immediately and said to him, “Take courage, O king! nor be disturbed at your present calamity, as if it were incurable, for the change of your sad condition will be sudden; for you will find me to be more your friend and your assistant than your hopes can promise you, for I will either reestablish you in the kingdom of Parthia, or lose my own.”

2. When he had said this, he set Artabanus on his horse and followed him on foot, in honor of a king whom he acknowledged as greater than himself; which, when Artabanus saw [it], he was very troubled by it, and swore by his present fortune and honor that he would get down from his horse, unless Izates would get on his horse again and go before him. So he complied with his desire and leaped on his horse; and when he had brought him to his royal palace, he showed him all sorts of respect when they sat together, and he also gave him the higher place at festivals, as not regarding his present fortune, but his former dignity—and that on this consideration also: that changes of fortune are common to all men. He also wrote to the Parthians, to persuade them to receive Artabanus again; and he gave them his right hand and his faith, so that he should forget what was past and done, and that he would undertake for this as a mediator between them. Now the Parthians themselves did not refuse to receive him again, but pleaded that it was not in their power to do so now, because they had committed the government to another person, who had accepted it, and whose name was Cinnamus; and that they were afraid lest a civil war would arise on this account. When Cinnamus understood their intentions, he wrote to Artabanus himself, for he had been brought up by him and was also of a good and gentle nature, and he desired him to put confidence in him and to come and take his own dominions again. Accordingly, Artabanus trusted him and returned home, at which time Cinnamus met him, paid homage to him, and saluted him as a king, and took the diadem off his own head and put it on the head of Artabanus.

3. And thus, Artabanus was restored to his kingdom again by the means of Izates, when he had lost it by the means of the nobles of the kingdom. Nor was he unmindful of the benefits he had conferred on him, but rewarded him with such honors as were of the highest regard among them; for he gave him permission to wear his tiara upright, and to sleep on a golden bed, which are privileges and marks of honor peculiar to the kings of Parthia. He also cut off a large and fruitful country from the king of Armenia and bestowed it on him. The name of the country is Nisibis, wherein the Macedonians had formerly built that city which they called Antioch of Mygodonia. And these were the honors that were paid Izates by the king of the Parthians.

4. But in a short time, Artabanus died and left his kingdom to his son Bardanes. Now this Bardanes came to Izates and would have persuaded him to join him with his army and to assist him in the war he was preparing to make with the Romans, but he could not prevail with him. For Izates knew the strength and good fortune of the Romans so well that he took Bardanes [as if] attempting what was impossible to do; and having additionally sent his sons, five in number, and they but young also, to accurately learn the language of our nation, together with our learning, as well as [because] he had sent his mother to worship at our temple, as I have already stated, was contrary to compliance [with Bardanes’ request]; and he restrained Bardanes, continuously telling him of the great armies and famous actions of the Romans, and thought thereby to terrify him, and desired thereby to hinder him from that expedition. But the Parthian king was provoked at his behavior and immediately pronounced war against Izates. Yet he gained no advantage by this war, because God cut off all his hopes therein; for the Parthians perceiving Bardanes’ intentions, and how he had determined to make war with the Romans, slew him and gave his kingdom to his brother Gotarzes. He also, in a short time, perished by a plot made against him, and his brother Vologases succeeded him, who committed two of his provinces to two of his brothers by the same father: that of the Medes to the elder, Pacorus; and Armenia to the younger, Tiridates.

CHAPTER 4

How Izates Was Betrayed by His Own Subjects and Fought Against by the Arabians, and How Izates, by the Providence of God, Was Delivered Out of Their Hands.

1. Now when the king’s brother Monobazus and his other relatives saw how Izates, by his piety for God, had become highly regarded by all men, they also had a desire to leave the religion of their country and to embrace the customs of the Jews; but that act of theirs was discovered by Izates’ subjects. Whereon the nobles were very displeased and could not contain their anger at them, but had an intent, when they should find a proper opportunity, to inflict a punishment on them. Accordingly, they wrote to Abia, king of the Arabians, and promised him great sums of money if he would make an expedition against their king; and they further promised him that, on the first assault, they would desert their king, because they were desirous to punish him, by reason of the hatred he had for their religious worship; then they obligated themselves, by oaths, to be faithful to each other and desired that he would hurry with this scheme. The king of Arabia complied with their desires, and brought a great army into the field, and marched against Izates; and, in the beginning of the first assault, and before they came to a close fight, those nobles, as if they had a panic [of] terror on them, all deserted Izates, as they had agreed to do, and, turning their backs on their enemies, ran away. Yet Izates was not dismayed at this, but when he understood that the nobles had betrayed him, he also retreated into his camp and made inquiry into the matter; and as soon as he knew who they were that made this conspiracy with the king of Arabia, he cut off those that were found guilty; and renewing the fight on the next day, he slew the greatest part of his enemies and forced all the rest to commit themselves to flight. He also pursued their king, and drove him into a fortress called Arsamus, and following on the siege vigorously, he captured that fortress. And when he had plundered it of all the prey that was in it, which was not insignificant, he returned to Adiabene; yet he did not take Abia alive, because, when he found himself surrounded on every side, he slew himself.

2. But although the nobles of Adiabene had failed in their first attempt, as being delivered up by God into their king’s hands, yet not even then would they be quiet, but wrote again to Vologases, who was then king of Parthia, and desired that he would kill Izates and set some other potentate over them, who should be from a Parthian family; for they said that they hated their own king for annulling the laws of their forefathers and embracing foreign customs. When the king of Parthia heard this, he boldly made war on Izates; and as he had no just pretense for this war, he sent to him and demanded back those honorable privileges which had been bestowed on him by his father, and threatened, on his refusal, to make war on him. On hearing of this, Izates was under no small trouble of mind, as thinking it would be a reproach on him to appear to resign those privileges that had been bestowed on him out of cowardice; yet because he knew, that though the king of Parthia should receive back those honors, yet he would not be quiet, he resolved to commit himself to God, his Protector, in the present danger he was in of his life; and as he regarded Him to be his principal assistant, he entrusted his children and his wives to a very strong fortress, and laid up his corn in his citadels, and set the hay and the grass on fire. And when he had thus put things in order as well as he could, he awaited the coming of the enemy. And when the king of Parthia had come with a great army of footmen and horsemen, which he did sooner than was expected (for he marched in great haste), and had cast up an embankment at the river that parted Adiabene from Media, Izates also pitched his camp not far off, having six thousand horsemen with him. But a messenger came to Izates, sent by the king of Parthia, who told him how large his dominions were, as reaching from the Euphrates River to Bactria, and enumerated that king’s subjects; he also threatened him that he should be punished, as a person ungrateful to his lords, and said that the God whom he worshiped could not deliver him out of the king’s hands. When the messenger had delivered his message, Izates replied that he knew the king of Parthia’s power was much greater than his own; but that he knew also that God was much more powerful than all men. And when he had returned this answer [to] him, he committed himself to make supplication to God, and threw himself on the ground, and put ashes on his head, in testimony of his confusion, and fasted, together with his wives and children. Then he called on God and said, “O Lord and Governor, if I have not committed myself to Your goodness in vain, but have justly determined that You alone are the Lord and principal of all beings, come now to my assistance and defend me from my enemies, not only on my own account, but on account of their insolent behavior with regard to Your power, while they have not feared to lift up their proud and arrogant tongue against You.” Thus, he lamented and grieved himself with tears in his eyes, whereon God heard his prayer. And immediately that very night, Vologases received letters, the contents of which were these: that a great band of Dahae and Sacae, despising him now [that] he had gone on such a long journey from home, had made an expedition and laid Parthia waste, so that he [was forced to] turn back without doing anything. And thus it was that Izates escaped the threats of the Parthians by the providence of God.

3. It was not long until Izates died, when he had completed fifty-five years of his life and had ruled his kingdom twenty-four years. He left behind him twenty-four sons and twenty-four daughters. However, he gave an order that his brother Monobazus should succeed [him] in the government, thereby repaying him, because, while he was himself absent after their father’s death, he had faithfully preserved the government for him. But when his mother Helena heard of her son’s death, she was in deep sorrow, as was only natural, on her loss of such a most devoted son; yet it was a comfort to her that she heard [that] the succession came to her eldest son. Accordingly, she went to him in haste; and when she had come into Adiabene, she did not outlive her son Izates [for] long. But Monobazus sent her bones, as well as those of his brother Izates, to Jerusalem, and gave an order that they should be buried at the pyramids which their mother had erected; they were three in number and no more than three stadia away from the city [of] Jerusalem. But as for the actions of Monobazus the king, which he did during the rest of his life, we will relate them hereafter.

CHAPTER 5

Concerning Theudas and the Sons of Judas the Galilean; As Also What Calamity Fell on the Jews on the Day of the Passover.

1. Now it came to pass, while Fadus was procurator of Judea, that a certain magician, whose name was Theudas, persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with them and follow him to the Jordan River; for he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide the river and provide them an easy passage over it; and many were deluded by his words. However, Fadus did not permit them to make any gain from his wild attempt, but sent a troop of horsemen out against them, who, falling on them unexpectedly, slew many of them and took many of them alive. They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his head, and carried it to Jerusalem. This was what happened to the Jews in the time of Cuspius Fadus’ government.

2. Then Tiberius Alexander came as successor to Fadus; he was the son of Alexander the alabarch of Alexandria, which Alexander was a principal person among all his contemporaries, both for his family and wealth: he was also more renowned for his piety than his son Alexander, for he did not continue in the religion of his country. Under these procurators, that great famine happened in Judea in which Queen Helena bought corn in Egypt at a great expense and distributed it to those that were in need, as I have already related. And besides this, the sons of Judas of Galilee were now slain—I mean [the sons] of that Judas who caused the people to revolt, when Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of the Jews, as we have showed in a preceding book. The names of those sons were James and Simon, whom Alexander commanded to be crucified. But now Herod, king of Chalcis, removed Joseph, the son of Camydus, from the high priesthood, and made Ananias, the son of Nebedeus, his successor. And it was now that Cumanus came as successor to Tiberius Alexander, as also that Herod, brother of Agrippa the great king, departed this life, in the eighth year of the reign of Claudius Caesar. He left three sons behind him: Aristobulus, whom he had by his first wife, with Bernicianus and Hyrcanus, both [of] whom he had by Bernice, his brother’s daughter. But Claudius Caesar bestowed his dominions on the junior Agrippa.

3. Now while the Jewish affairs were under the administration of Cumanus, a great uproar occurred at the city of Jerusalem and many of the Jews perished therein. But I will first explain the occasion from which it was derived. When that feast which is called the Passover was at hand, at which time our custom is to use unleavened bread, and a great multitude was gathered together from all parts to that feast, Cumanus was afraid lest some attempt of innovation should then be made by them; so he ordered that one regiment of the army should take up their arms and stand in the temple cloisters to repress any attempts of innovation, if perhaps any such should begin; and this was no more than what the former procurators of Judea did at such festivals. But on the fourth day of the feast, a certain soldier let down his breeches and exposed his genitals to the multitude, which put those that saw him into a furious rage and made them cry out that this impious action was not done to reproach them, but God Himself; indeed, some of them reproached Cumanus and pretended that the soldier was sent by him, which, when Cumanus heard [it], he was also himself greatly provoked at such reproaches laid on him; yet he exhorted them to cease such seditious attempts and not to cause a commotion at the festival. But when he could not induce them to be quiet, for they still continued in their reproaches at him, he gave an order that the whole army should take their entire armor and come to Antonia, which was a fortress, as we have already stated, which overlooked the temple; but when the multitude saw the soldiers there, they were frightened at them and ran away hastily; but as the passages out were only narrow, and as they thought their enemies followed them, they were crowded together in their flight and a great number were pressed to death in those narrow passages; nor indeed was the number fewer than twenty thousand that perished in this stampede. So, instead of a festival, they had, in the end, a mournful day of it, and all of them forgot their prayers and sacrifices and committed themselves to lamentation and weeping—so great an affliction did the brazen obsceneness of a single soldier bring on them.

4. Now before their first [period of] mourning was over, another trouble also happened to them, for some of those that raised the aforementioned commotion, when they were traveling along the public road, about one hundred stadia from the city, robbed Stephanus, a servant of Caesar, as he was journeying, and plundered him of all that he had with him; which things, when Cumanus heard of [them], he immediately sent soldiers and ordered them to plunder the neighboring villages and to bring the most eminent persons among them in bonds to him. Now as this devastation was happening, one of the soldiers seized the laws of Moses that lay in one of those villages, and brought them out before the eyes of everyone present, and tore them to pieces; and this was done with reproachful language and much denigration; which things, when the Jews heard of [them], they ran together—and that in great numbers—and came down to Caesarea, where Cumanus then was, and pleaded with him that he would avenge, not themselves, but God Himself, whose laws had been offended; for they could not bear to live any longer if the laws of their forefathers must be offended in this manner. Accordingly, Cumanus, out of fear lest the multitude should go into a sedition, and also by the advice of his friends, took care that the soldier who had offered the offense to the laws should be beheaded and thereby put a stop to the sedition which was ready to be kindled a second time.

CHAPTER 6

How a Quarrel Between the Jews and the Samaritans Happened; And How Claudius Put an End to Their Differences.

1. Now a quarrel arose between the Samaritans and the Jews on the following occasion: it was the custom of the Galileans, when they came to the holy city at the festivals, to take their journeys through the country of the Samaritans; and at this time, a village that was called Ginea lay in the road they took, which was situated in the limits of Samaria and the great plain, where certain persons belonging to it fought with the Galileans and killed a great many of them. But when the principal ones among the Galileans were informed of what had been done, they came to Cumanus and desired him to avenge the murder of those that were killed; but he was induced by the Samaritans, with money, to do nothing in the matter, on which the Galileans were greatly displeased and persuaded the multitude of the Jews to commit themselves to arms and to regain their liberty, saying that slavery was in itself a bitter thing, but that when it was joined with direct injuries, it was completely intolerable; and when their principal men endeavored to pacify them and promised to endeavor to persuade Cumanus to avenge those that were killed, they would not listen to them, but took their weapons and requested the assistance of Eleazar, the son of Dineus, a robber who had made his abode in the mountains [for] many years, with which assistance they plundered many villages of the Samaritans. When Cumanus heard of this action of theirs, he took the band of Sebaste, with four regiments of footmen, and armed the Samaritans, and marched out against the Jews, and caught them, and slew many of them, and took a great number of them alive; whereon those who were the most eminent persons at Jerusalem—and that both in regard to the respect that was paid [to] them, and the families they were from—as soon as they saw to what a height things had gone, put on sackcloth, and heaped ashes on their heads, and by all possible means pleaded with the seditious, and persuaded them that they should set before their eyes the utter subversion of their country, the fiery destruction of their temple, and the slavery of themselves, their wives, and children, which would be the consequences of what they were doing; and [furthermore, that] they should alter their minds, cast away their weapons, and for the future, remain quiet and return to their own homes. These persuasions of theirs convinced them. So, the people dispersed themselves, and the robbers went away again to their places of strength; and from this time on, all [of] Judea was overrun with robberies.

2. But the principal ones of the Samaritans went to Ummidius Quadratus, the president of Syria, who at that time was at Tyre, and accused the Jews of setting their villages on fire and plundering them; and they additionally stated that they were not so much displeased at what they had suffered, as they were at the contempt thereby shown [to] the Romans, while if [the Jews] had received any injury, they should have made them the judges of what had been done, and not presently make such devastation, as if they did not have the Romans for their governors; on which account they came to him, in order to obtain that vengeance they wanted. This was the accusation which the Samaritans brought against the Jews. But the Jews affirmed that the Samaritans were the authors of this uproar and fighting, and that, in the first place, Cumanus had been corrupted by their gifts and passed over the murder of those that were slain in silence; which allegations, when Quadratus heard [them], he delayed the hearing of the cause and promised that he would give sentence when he should come into Judea and should have a more exact knowledge of the truth of that matter. So, these men went away without success. Yet it was not long before Quadratus came to Samaria, where, on hearing the cause, he supposed that the Samaritans were the authors of that disturbance. But when he was informed that certain of the Jews were making innovations, he ordered those to be crucified whom Cumanus had taken [as] captives. From which he came to a certain village called Lydda, which was not less than a city in size, and there he heard the Samaritan cause before his tribunal a second time. And he learned from a certain Samaritan there that one of the chief of the Jews, whose name was Dortus, and some other innovators with him, four in number, persuaded the multitude to revolt from the Romans, whom Quadratus ordered to be put to death; but he still sent Ananias the high priest, and Ananus the commander [of the temple], in bonds to Rome, to give an account of what they had done to Claudius Caesar. He also ordered the principal men, both of the Samaritans and of the Jews, as also Cumanus the procurator, and Celer the tribune, to go to Italy, to the emperor, so that he might hear their cause and determine their differences with one another. But he came to the city of Jerusalem again, out of his fear that the multitude of the Jews might attempt some innovations; but he found the city in a peaceable state and celebrating one of the usual festivals of their country to God. So, he believed that they would not attempt any innovations, and left them at the celebration of the festival, and returned to Antioch.

3. Now Cumanus, and the principal of the Samaritans, who were sent to Rome, had a day appointed [to] them by the emperor whereon they were to have pleaded their cause concerning the quarrels they had with one another. But now Caesar’s freedmen and his friends were very zealous on behalf of Cumanus and the Samaritans; and they would have prevailed over the Jews, if the junior Agrippa, who was then at Rome, had not seen the principal of the Jews hard-pressed and earnestly implored Agrippina, the emperor’s wife, to persuade her husband to hear the cause, so as was agreeable to his justice, and to condemn those to be punished who were really the authors of this revolt from the Roman government: whereon Claudius was so well inclined beforehand, that when he had heard the cause and found that the Samaritans had been the ringleaders in those troublesome actions, he gave an order that those who came up to him should be slain and that Cumanus should be banished. He also gave an order that Celer the tribune should be carried back to Jerusalem, and should be drawn through the city in the sight of all the people, and then should be slain.

CHAPTER 7

Felix Is Made Procurator of Judea; As Also Concerning the Junior Agrippa and His Sisters.

1. So Claudius sent Felix, the brother of Pallas, to take care of the affairs of Judea; and when he had already completed the twelfth year of his reign, he bestowed on Agrippa the tetrarchy of Philip and Batanea, and added Trachonitis to that, with Abila; the latter of which had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias; but he took Chalcis from him, when he had been governor thereof [for] four years. And when Agrippa had received these countries as the gift of Caesar, he gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, king of Emesa, on his consent to be circumcised; for Epiphanes, the son of King Antiochus, had refused to marry her, because, after he had formerly promised her father to come over to the Jewish religion, now he would not perform that promise. He also gave Mariamne in marriage to Archelaus, the son of Helcias, to whom she had formerly been betrothed by her father Agrippa, from which marriage was derived a daughter, whose name was Bernice.

2. But as for the marriage of Drusilla with Azizus, it was dissolved a short time afterward on the following occasion: while Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla and fell in love with her; for she indeed exceeded all other women in beauty; and he sent a person to her whose name was Simon, one of his friends; he was a Jew, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician and endeavored to persuade her to forsake her present husband and marry him [(Felix)]; and he promised that if she would not refuse him, he would make her a happy woman. Accordingly, she acted badly, and because she desired to avoid her sister Bernice’s envy, for she was very poorly treated by her on account of her beauty, she was persuaded to transgress the laws of her forefathers and to marry Felix; and when he had had a son by her, he named him Agrippa. But after what manner that young man perished with his [(Felix’s)] wife at the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in the days of Titus Caesar, will be related hereafter.

3. But as for Bernice, she lived a widow a long while after the death of Herod [king of Chalcis], who was both her husband and her uncle; but when the report went that she had criminal conversation with her brother, [the junior Agrippa,] she persuaded Poleme, who was king of Cilicia, to be circumcised, and to marry her, as supposing that by this means she should prove those defamations on her to be false; and Poleme was persuaded, and that chiefly on account of her riches. Yet did not this matrimony endure long; but Bernice left Poleme, and, as was said, with impure intentions. So he forsook at once this matrimony, and the Jewish religion; and, at the same time, Mariamne put away Archelaus, and was married to Demetrius, the principal man among the Alexandrian Jews, both for his family and his wealth; and indeed he was then their alabarch. So she named her son whom she had by him Agrippinus. But of all these particulars we will hereafter discuss more precisely.

CHAPTER 8

After What Manner, on the Death of Claudius, Nero Succeeded [Him] in the Government; As Also What Barbaric Things He Did. Concerning the Robbers, Murderers, and Impostors That Arose While Felix and Festus Were Procurators of Judea.

1. Now Claudius Caesar died when he had reigned thirteen years, eight months, and twenty days; and a report went around that he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Her father was Germanicus, the brother of Caesar. Her husband was Domitius Aenobarbus, one of the most illustrious persons that was in the city of Rome; after whose death, and her long continuance in widowhood, Claudius took her for a wife. She brought along with her a son, Domitius, of the same name as his father. Before this, he had slain his wife Messalina out of jealousy, by whom he had his children Britannicus and Octavia; their eldest sister was Antonia, whom he had by his first wife Pelina. He also married Octavia to Nero; for that was the name that Caesar gave him afterward, on his adopting him for his son.

2. But now Agrippina was afraid, lest, when Britannicus should come to man’s estate, he should succeed his father in the government, so she desired to seize the principality beforehand for her own son [Nero]; on this, the report went that she therefore plotted the death of Claudius. Accordingly, she immediately sent Burrhus, the general of the army, and with him the tribunes and also such of the freemen as were of the greatest authority, to bring Nero away into the camp and to salute him [as] emperor. And when Nero had thus obtained the government, he got Britannicus to be poisoned in such a way that the multitude would not perceive it, although he publicly put his own mother to death not long afterward, making her this repayment, not only for being born from her, but for bringing it so about by her schemes that he obtained the Roman empire. He also slew his own wife Octavia and many other illustrious persons, under this pretense: that they plotted against him.

3. But I omit any further discourse about these affairs, for there have been a great many who have composed the history of Nero; some of which have departed from the truth of facts out of favor, as having received benefits from him; while others, out of hatred toward him, and the great animosity which they bore him, have so impudently raved against him with their lies, that they justly deserve to be condemned. Nor do I wonder at such as have told lies of Nero, since they have not in their writings preserved the truth of history as to those facts that were earlier than his time, even when the actors could have no way incurred their hatred, since those writers lived a long time after them. But as for those that have no regard for truth, they may write as they please, for they take delight in that; but as for ourselves, who have made truth our direct aim, we will briefly touch on what only belongs remotely to this undertaking, but will relate what has happened to us Jews with great accuracy and will not grudge our pains in giving an account, both of the calamities we have suffered and of the crimes we have been guilty of. Therefore, I will now return to the relation of our own affairs.

4. For in the first year of the reign of Nero, on the death of Azizus, king of Emesa, his brother Soemus succeeded [him] in his kingdom, and Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king of Chalcis, was entrusted by Nero with the government of lesser Armenia. Caesar also bestowed on Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, Tiberias, and Taricheae, and ordered them to submit to his jurisdiction. He also gave him Julias, a city of Perea, with fourteen villages that lay around it.

5. Now as for the affairs of the Jews, they continually grew worse and worse, for the country was again filled with robbers and impostors, who deluded the multitude. Yet Felix caught and put to death many of those impostors every day, together with the robbers. He also caught Eleazar, the son of Dineas, who had gathered a company of robbers together; and this he did by treachery, for he gave him assurance that he would suffer no harm and thereby persuaded him to come to him; but when he came, he bound him and sent him to Rome. Felix also bore an animosity toward Jonathan, the high priest, because he frequently gave him admonitions about governing the Jewish affairs better than he did, lest he should himself have complaints made of him by the multitude, since it was he who had desired Caesar to send him as procurator of Judea. So, Felix devised a method whereby he might get rid of him, now [that] he had become so continually troublesome to him; for such continual admonitions are grievous to those who are inclined to act unjustly. Therefore, Felix persuaded one of Jonathan’s most faithful friends, a citizen of Jerusalem, whose name was Doras, to bring the robbers on Jonathan, in order to kill him; and he did this by promising to give him a great deal of money for doing so. Doras complied with the proposal and devised matters such that the robbers might murder him after the following manner: certain of those robbers went up to the city, as if they were going to worship God, while they had daggers under their garments, and by thus mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew Jonathan; and as this murder was never avenged, the robbers went up with the greatest security at the festivals after this time; and having weapons concealed in a similar way as before and mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew certain of their own enemies and were subservient to other men for money; and they slew others, not only in remote parts of the city, but also in the temple itself, for they had the boldness to murder men there, without thinking of the impiety of which they were guilty. And this seems to me to have been the reason why God, out of His hatred of these men’s wickedness, rejected our city; and as for the temple, He no longer regarded it [as] sufficiently pure for Him to inhabit therein, but brought the Romans on us, and threw a fire on the city to purge it, and brought slavery on us, our wives, and children, as desirous to make us wiser by our calamities.

6. These works, that were done by the robbers, filled the city with all sorts of impiety. And now these impostors and deceivers persuaded the multitude to follow them into the wilderness and pretended that they would exhibit manifest wonders and signs that should be performed by the providence of God. And many that were persuaded by them suffered the punishments of their folly, for Felix brought them back and then punished them. Moreover, about this time someone that said he was a prophet came out of Egypt to Jerusalem and advised the multitude of the common people to go along with him to the Mount of Olives, as it was called, which lay opposite the city and at the distance of five stadia. He said further that he would show them from hence how, at his command, the walls of Jerusalem would fall down; and he promised them that he would provide them [with] an entrance into the city through those walls when they had fallen down. Now when Felix was informed of these things, he ordered his soldiers to take their weapons, and they came against them with a great number of horsemen and footmen from Jerusalem and attacked the Egyptian and the people that were with him. He also slew four hundred of them and took two hundred alive. But the Egyptian himself escaped out of the fight, but did not appear anymore. And the robbers again stirred up the people to make war with the Romans and said they should not obey them at all; and when any persons would not comply with them, they set fire to their villages and plundered them.

7. And it was at this time that a great sedition arose between the Jews that inhabited Caesarea and the Syrians who also dwelt there, concerning their equal right to the privileges belonging to citizens; for the Jews claimed the preeminence, because Herod their king was the builder of Caesarea, and because he was a Jew by birth. Now the Syrians did not deny what was alleged about Herod, but they said that Caesarea was formerly called Strato’s Tower, and that there was not one Jewish inhabitant then. When the presidents of that country heard of these disorders, they caught the authors of them on both sides, and tormented them with stripes, and by that means put a stop to the disturbance for a time. But the Jewish citizens, depending on their wealth, and on that account despising the Syrians, reproached them again and hoped to provoke them by such reproaches. However, the Syrians, although they were inferior in wealth, yet valuing themselves highly on this account, that the greatest part of the Roman soldiers that were there were either of Caesarea or Sebaste, they also for some time used reproachful language toward the Jews; and thus it was, until they finally came to throwing stones at one another, and several were wounded and fell on both sides, though the Jews were still the conquerors. But when Felix saw that this quarrel had become a kind of war, he came on them suddenly and desired the Jews to desist; and when they refused to do so, he armed his soldiers, and sent them out on them, and slew many of them, and took more of them alive, and permitted his soldiers to plunder some of the houses of the citizens, which were full of riches. Now those Jews that were more moderate, and of principal dignity among them, were afraid for themselves and desired of Felix that he would sound a retreat to his soldiers, and spare them for the future, and provide them room for conversion for what they had done; and Felix was persuaded to do so.

8. About this time, King Agrippa gave the high priesthood to Ishmael, who was the son of Fabi. And now a sedition arose between the high priests and the principal men of the multitude of Jerusalem, each of which got themselves a company of the boldest sort of men, and around them those that loved innovations, and became leaders to them; and when they struggled together, they did it by casting reproachful words against one another, and also by throwing stones. And there was nobody to reprove them; but these disturbances were done in a lawless manner in the city, as if it had no government over it. And such was the impudence and boldness that had seized the high priests, that they had the hardiness to send their servants into the threshing-floors, to take away those tithes that were due to the priests, insomuch that it so happened that the poorest sort of the priests died from hunger. The violence of the seditious prevailed over all goodness and justice to this degree.

9. Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix by Nero, the principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Caesarea went up to Rome to accuse Felix; and he would certainly have been brought to punishment if Nero had not yielded to the persistent solicitations of his brother Pallas, who was at that time held in the greatest honor by him. Two of the principal Syrians in Caesarea persuaded Burrhus, who was Nero’s tutor, and secretary for his Greek letters, by giving him a great sum of money, to annul that equality of the Jewish privileges of citizens which they thus far enjoyed. So Burrhus, by his solicitations, obtained permission from the emperor that a letter should be written to that purpose. This letter became the occasion of the following miseries that happened to our nation; for when the Jews of Caesarea were informed of the contents of this letter to the Syrians, they were more disorderly than before, until a war was kindled.

10. On Festus’ coming into Judea, it happened that Judea was afflicted by the robbers, while all the villages were set on fire and plundered by them. And it was then that the Sicarii, as they were called, who were robbers, grew numerous. They made use of small swords, not much different in length from the Persian acinacae, but somewhat crooked, and like the Roman sicae [(sickles)], as they were called; and these robbers got their designation from these weapons; and they slew a great many with these weapons, for they mingled themselves among the multitude at their festivals when they had come up in crowds from all parts to the city to worship God, as we said before, and easily slew those that they had intended to slay. They also frequently came against the villages belonging to their enemies, with their weapons, and plundered them, and set them on fire. So, Festus sent forces, both horsemen and footmen, to fall on those that had been seduced by a certain impostor, who promised them deliverance and freedom from the miseries they were under, if they would just follow him as far as the wilderness. Accordingly, those forces that were sent destroyed both him that had deluded them, and also those that were his followers.

11. About the same time, King Agrippa built himself a very large dining room in the royal palace at Jerusalem, near to the portico. Now this palace had been erected long before by the children of Asamoneus, and was situated on an elevation, and provided a most delightful prospect to those that wanted to take a view of the city, which prospect was desired by the king; and there he could lie down, and eat, and then observe what was done in the temple; which thing, when the chief men of Jerusalem saw [it], they were very greatly displeased at it, for it was not agreeable to the institutions of our country or law that what was done in the temple should be viewed by others, especially what belonged to the sacrifices. They therefore erected a wall on the uppermost building which belonged to the inner court of the temple toward the west, which wall when it was built, not only impeded the view of the dining room in the palace, but also of the western cloisters that belonged to the outer court of the temple, where it was that the Romans kept guards for the temple at the festivals. At these acts, both King Agrippa, and principally Festus the procurator, were very displeased; and Festus ordered them to pull the wall down again, but the Jews petitioned him to give them permission to send an envoy concerning this matter to Nero, for they said they could not endure to live if any part of the temple should be demolished; and when Festus had given them permission to do so, they sent ten of their principal men to Nero, as also Ishmael the high priest, and Helcias, the keeper of the sacred treasure. And when Nero had heard what they had to say, he not only forgave them for what they had already done, but also gave them permission to let the wall they had built stand. This was granted [to] them in order to gratify Poppea, Nero’s wife, who was a religious woman, and had requested these favors of Nero, and who gave an order to the ten ambassadors to go on their way home; but she retained Helcias and Ishmael as hostages with herself. As soon as the king heard this news, he gave the high priesthood to Joseph, who was called Cabi, the son of Simon, formerly high priest.

PREFACE

BOOK I

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

BOOK II

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

BOOK III

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

BOOK IV

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

BOOK V

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

BOOK VI