"So Abram, when he had saved the captive Sodomites, who had been taken
by the Assyrians, and Lot also, his kinsman, returned home in peace. Now
the king of Sodom met him at a certain place, which they called the
King's Dale, where Melchisedec, king of the city 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 afterwards called Salem Jerusalem." Book I. chap. X. par.
2.
| King of Salem.
King's Dale. |
"But the king of Jerusalem took it to heart, that the Gibeonites had
gone over to Joshua; so he called upon the kings of the neighbouring
nations to join together, and make war against them." V. I. 17.
| King of Jerusalem. |
"And when they had taken the greatest part of them [the cities], they
besieged Jerusalem; and when they had taken the lower city, which was
not under a considerable 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." V. II. 2.
| The allies, that is, the tribes of Judah and Simeon.
The
lower city. |
"Now the Jebusites, who were the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and were by
extraction Canaanites, shut their gates, and placed the blind, and the
lame, and all their maimed persons, upon 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
alacrity therein, as intending by the taking of this place to
demonstrate his power, and to intimidate all others that might be of the
like [evil] disposition towards him; so he took the lower city by force,
but the citadel held out still; whence 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 upon him. So they all were ambitious to ascend, and thought no
pains too great in order to ascend thither; out of their desire of the
chief command. However, Joab, the son of Zeruiah, prevented the rest;
and as soon as he was got up to the citadel, cried out to the king, and
claimed the chief command." VII. III. 1.
| David takes the city by assault. |
"When David had cast the Jebusites out of the citadel, he also rebuilt
Jerusalem, and named it, 'The City of David,' and abode there all the
time of his reign." VII. III. 2.
| City of David. |
"Hiram also, the king of the Tyrians, sent ambassadors to him, and made
a league of mutual friendship and assistance with him. He also sent him
presents, cedar-trees and mechanics, and men skilful in building and
architecture, that they might build him a royal palace at Jerusalem. Now
David made buildings round about the lower city: he also joined the
citadel to it, and made it one body; and when he had encompassed all
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] Solyma." VII. III. 2.
| Hiram, king of Tyre.
The lower city united with the upper. |
"I shall 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 good-will he bore to the Hebrews, and a particular benignity and
affection which he had to the king himself, which I shall take a more
seasonable opportunity to speak a little of afterwards." VII. III. 3.
| Araunah the Jebusite is saved by David. |
"Joab's armour-bearers stood round about 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 upon him till the cavity was filled up, and had
both the appearance and bigness of a grave." VII. X. 2.
| Tomb of Absalom. |
"Now Absalom had erected for himself a marble pillar in the king's dale,
two furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which he named Absalom's Hand."
VII. X. 3.
| Absalom's Pillar.
King's Dale. |
"And when he was come to Gibeon, which is a village forty furlongs
distant from Jerusalem." VII. XI. 7.
| Gibeon forty furlongs from Jerusalem. |
"And sent Gad the prophet to him, and commanded him to go up immediately
to the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, and build an altar
there to God, and offer sacrifices." VII. XIII. 4.
| Altar in the threshing floor of Araunah. |
"Now it happened that Abraham came and offered his son Isaac for a
burnt-offering at that very place." VII. XIII. 4.
| Mount Moriah. |
"Now when king David saw that God had heard his prayer, and had
graciously accepted of his sacrifice, he resolved to call that entire
place the altar of all the people, and to build a temple to God there."
VII. XIII. 4.
| Place of the temple. |
"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."
VII. XV. 3.
| David buried at Jerusalem. |
"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 thenceforward he managed public affairs very peaceably." VIII. II.
1.
| Solomon fortifies Jerusalem. |
"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." VIII. III. 2.
| Foundations of the temple. |
"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." VIII. III.
3.
| Dimensions of the temple. |
"Solomon made the altar which he built for the burnt-offerings twenty
cubits long, twenty broad, and ten high." VIII. III. 7.
| Altar of burnt offerings. |
"Some of these [houses] Solomon built with stones of ten cubits." VIII.
V. 2.
| Size of the stones. |
"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 upon
them." VIII. VI. 1.
| Solomon increases the fortifications of Jerusalem. |
"And when Solomon saw that he was of an active and bold disposition, he
made him the curator of the walls which he built round Jerusalem." VIII.
VII. 7.
| Jeroboam. |
"So Solomon died when he was already an old man, having reigned eighty
years, and lived ninety-four. He was buried in Jerusalem." VIII. VII. 8.
| Solomon interred at Jerusalem. |
"So when Shishak had taken the city without fighting, because Rehoboam
was afraid, and received him into it, yet did not Shishak stand to 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 ten
thousands of gold and silver, and left nothing at all behind him." VIII.
X. 3.
| The Egyptian king Shishak at Jerusalem. |
"Now when Sennacherib was returning from his Egyptian war to Jerusalem,
he found his army, under Rabshakeh his general, in danger [by a plague,
for] God had sent a pestilential distemper upon his army; and on the
very first night of the siege a hundred fourscore and five thousand,
with their captains and generals, were destroyed." X. I. 5.
| Destruction of Sennacherib's army. |
"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 King's palace, and overthrew the city. Now the temple was
burnt four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days after it
was built." X. VIII. 5.
| Nebuchadnezzar burns the temple. |
"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 an
agony and under terror." XI. VIII. 4.
| Alexander the Great at Jerusalem. |
"It reached to a place called Sapha, which name, translated into Greek,
signifies a prospect; for you have thence a prospect both of Jerusalem
and of the temple." XI. VIII. 5.
| Sapha. |
"Syria, by the means of Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, underwent the reverse
of that denomination of Saviour which he then had. He also seized upon
Jerusalem, and for that end made use of deceit and treachery; for he
came into the city on a sabbath-day, as if he would offer sacrifices."
XII. I. 1.
| Ptolemy, son of Lagus, at Jerusalem. |
"King Antiochus returning out of Egypt, for fear of the Romans, made an
expedition against the city Jerusalem; and when he was there, in the
hundred forty and third year of the kingdom of the Seleucidæ, 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." XII. V. 3.
| Antiochus Epiphanes at Jerusalem. |
"And when he had pillaged the whole city, some of the inhabitants he
slew, and some he carried 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 into it a garrison of Macedonians." XII. V. 4.
| Cruelty of Antiochus, who builds the citadel in the lower
part of the city. |
"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." XII. VI. 1.
| Mattathias. |
"Judas also rebuilt the walls round about the city, and reared towers of
great height against the incursions of enemies, and set guards therein."
XII. VII. 7.
| Judas repairs the walls of Jerusalem. |
"He also took the citadel of Jerusalem by siege, and cast it down to the
ground, that it might not be any more a place of refuge to their enemies
when they took it, to do them mischief, as it had been till now. And
when he had done this, he thought it their best way, and most for their
advantage, to level the very mountain itself upon which the citadel
happened to stand, that so the temple might be higher than it." XIII.
VI. 7.
| Simon, master of the citadel of Jerusalem, razes it with the
ground. |
"But Hyrcanus opened the sepulchre of David, who excelled all other
kings in riches, and took out of it three thousand talents. He was also
the first of the Jews that, relying on his wealth, maintained foreign
troops." XIII. VIII. 4.
| Hyrcanus opens the tomb of David. |
"Aristobulus yielded to these imputations, but took care both that his
brother should not suspect him, and that he himself might not run the
hazard 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)." XIII. XI. 2.
| Aristobulus causes the death of Antigonus. |
"So Antigonus, suspecting no treachery, but depending on the good-will
of his brother, came to Aristobulus armed, as he used to be, with his
entire armour, in order to show it to him; but when he was come to a
place which was called Strato's Tower, where the passage happened to be
exceeding dark, the guards slew him." XIII. XI. 2.
| Antigonus killed in the tower of Strato. |
"At this Pompeius was very angry, and put Aristobulus into prison, and
came himself to the city, which was strong on every side, excepting the
north, which was not so well fortified, for there was a broad and deep
ditch that encompassed the city, and included within it the temple,
which was itself encompassed with a very strong stone wall." XIV. IV. 1.
| Pompeius approaches Jerusalem. |
"Pompeius pitched his camp within [the wall], on the north part of the
temple, where it was most practicable; but even on that side there were
great towers, and a ditch had been dug, and a deep valley begirt it
round about, for on the parts towards the city were precipices, and the
bridge on which Pompeius had gotten in was broken down." XIV. IV. 2.
| Pompeius pitches his camp on the north side of the temple. |
"His dead body also lay, for a good while, embalmed in honey, till
Antonius afterward sent it to Judea, and caused him to be buried in the
royal sepulchre." XIV. VII. 4.
| Aristobulus interred in the tomb of the kings. |
"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." XIV. XVI. 1.
| Troops of Herod and Sosius. |
"The first wall was taken in forty days, and the second in fifteen more,
when some of the cloisters that were about the temple were burnt, which
Herod gave out 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." XIV. XVI. 2.
| Herod's siege. |
"He built a theatre at Jerusalem, as also a very great amphitheatre in
the plain." XV. VIII. 1.
| Herod's theatre, amphitheatre. |
"He had now the city fortified by the palace in which he lived and by
the temple which had a strong fortress by it, called Antonia." XV. VIII.
5.
| Herod's two fortresses. |
"So Herod took away the old foundations, and laid others, and erected
the temple upon them, being in length a hundred cubits, and in height
twenty additional cubits, which [twenty], upon the sinking of their
foundations, fell down; and this part it was 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." XV. XI. 3.
| Dimensions of Herod's temple. |
"Now on the north side [of the temple] was built a citadel, whose walls
were square, and strong, and of extraordinary firmness. This citadel was
built by the kings of the Asamonean race, who were also high-priests
before Herod, and they called it the Tower." XV. XI. 4.
| Tower of Baris, afterwards called Antonia. |
"... 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." XV. XI. 4.
| Tower Antonia. |
"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 thence up again by the
ascent; for the city lay over against the temple in the manner of a
theatre, and was encompassed with a deep valley along the entire south
quarter." XV. XI. 5.
| Four gates to the north of the temple-enclosure. |
"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 for himself a tower, that he might have the opportunity of a
subterraneous ascent to the temple, in order to guard against any
sedition which might be made by the people against their kings." XV. XI.
7.
| Herod's subterranean gallery from the Antonia tower to the
eastern gate. |
"... he had a great while an intention to make the attempt; and at this
time he opened that sepulchre by night and went into it, and endeavoured
that it should not be at all known in the city, but took only his most
faithful friends with him. As for any money, he found none, as Hyrcanus
had done, but that furniture of gold, and those precious goods that were
laid up there; all 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 upon those that went in, as the report was. So he
was terribly affrighted, 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 sepulchre, and at a great expense also." XVI. VII. 1.
| Herod opens the tomb of David. |
"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 furlongs. However, the Jews were not pleased
with what had been done about this water; and many ten thousands of the
people got together and made a clamour against him, and insisted that he
should leave off that design." XVIII. III. 2.
| Pilate constructs acqueducts. |
"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 him both many of
the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. 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 the first did not forsake 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." XVIII. III. 3.
| Jesus Christ. |
"As for the walls of Jerusalem, that were adjoining to the new city
[Bezetha], he repaired them at the expense of the public, and built them
wider in breadth, and higher in altitude; and he had made them too
strong for all human power to demolish, unless Marcus, the then
president of Syria, had by letter informed Claudius Cæsar of what he was
doing. And when Claudius had some suspicion of attempts for innovation,
he sent to Agrippa to leave off the building of those walls presently.
So he obeyed; as not thinking it proper to contradict Claudius." XIX.
VII. 2.
| King Agrippa begins to fortify Jerusalem, but is prevented
from proceeding by Claudius. |
"But Monobazus sent her bones, as well as those of Izates, his brother,
to Jerusalem, and gave order that they should be buried at the pyramids
which their mother had erected; they were three in number, and distant
no more than three furlongs from the city of Jerusalem." XX. IV. 3.
| Pyramids of Helena three furlongs from the city. |
"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 of old by the children of Asamoneus, and was situated
upon an elevation, and afforded a most delightful prospect to those that
had a mind to take a view of the city, which prospect was desired by the
king; and there he could lie down and eat, and thence observe what was
done in the temple: which thing, when the chief men of Jerusalem saw,
they were very much 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 upon the uppermost building which belonged
to the inner court of the temple towards the west, which wall, when it
was built, did not only intercept the prospect of the dining-room in the
palace, but also of the western cloisters that belonged to the outer
court of the temple also, where it was that the Romans kept guards for
the temple at the festivals." XX. VIII. 11.
| Agrippa's palace, whence could be seen all that passed in the
temple. |
"Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled
the Sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus,
who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others [or some of
his companions] and when he had formed an accusation against them as
breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned." XX. IX. 1.
| The younger Ananus, high-priest, puts S. James to death. |
"... so they [the people] persuaded him to rebuild the eastern
cloisters. These cloisters belonged to the outer court, and were
situated in a deep valley, and had walls that reached four hundred
cubits [in length], and were built of square and very white stones, the
length of each of which stones was twenty cubits, and their height six
cubits. This was the work of king Solomon, who first of all built the
entire temple." XX. IX. 7.
| King Agrippa refuses to rebuild the eastern gate of the
temple. |