CHAPTER XVII.
COMMENCEMENT OF WAR.
The Voice of Warning—Horrible Oppression—Stones thrown at Agrippa—Massacre at Masada—Advance and Retreat of Cestius—Escape of the Christians.
Festus did not long hold the reins of government. He yielded them up to Albinus, a man of character so extortionate, that he was said to be the real head of all the robbers in the country.
It was during the brief period of his rule, that a wailing cry was heard by those who assembled to keep the feast of tabernacles:—“A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!” The cry of woe was from a poor husbandman, upon whose soul the shadow of coming national affliction lay like a heavy burden. Irritated by his mournful forebodings, the populace laid hold on the man, and beat him severely; but they could not silence the voice which cried Woe to the doomed city.
DENOUNCING WOE UPON JERUSALEM.
The rulers brought the peasant before Albinus, at whose command he was barbarously scourged, even till his bones were laid bare. Yet he uttered no prayer for mercy, nor could pain wring from him a tear; but at every torturing stroke he repeated, “Woe, woe to Jerusalem!”