صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

fear, could never have been taken by force, or, indeed, by any other means than by famine.1

Thus the enemy, with the possession of the strongest holds, carried every thing before them; whilst some of the besieged exerting the last effort of which they were capable, assaulted the Roman wall of circumvallation; but enervated by long-endured afilictions, their attempts were so feeble, and so ill directed, that the assailants. were dispersed, and driven to the only shelter that subterranean caverns could afford them. The Romans at the same time becoming masters of the city barriers, could hardly reconcile themselves to the belief of their being conquerors, as the opposition made against them had been so small and ineffectual. The legions divided, and, with sword in hand, ranged through every street; killing, without distinction, all whom they encountered on their way at the same time burning houses, which were filled with the putrid carcasses of the famished people.2

The

1 These were the three towers before mentioned: Hippicus, Phasælus and Mariamne (see page 46).

2 I WILL NO MORE PITY THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND, SAITH THE LORD: BUT, LO, I WILL DELIVER THE MEN EVERY ONE INTO HIS NEIGHBOUR'S HAND, AND INTO THE HAND OF HIS KING: AND THEY SHALL SMITE THE LAND, AND OUT OF THEIR HAND I WILL NOT DELIVER THEM.

Zech. xi. 6.

Here was the fulfilment of the imprecation the Jews brought upon themselves-WE WILL HAVE NO KINg but cæsar. John, xix. 15.

WHERESOEVER THE CARCASE IS, THERE WILL THE EAGLES BE GATHERED TOGETHER. Matt. xxiv. 28.

This strongly identifies the people who were destined by the Almighty to punish the nation of the Jews-and as an exposed carcase invites the eagles to prey upon it, so the judicially dead body of the Jews called down the Roman eagles, or soldiers, to tear it piece-meal, and bear away the prey in their talons.

The horrour of this dreadful spectacle, although it excited feelings of regret for the dead, raised none of compassion for the living. The narrow passages, and some of the streets were now choked up with the bodies of the slain; and the channels of the city ran down in such copious streams of blood, as would have been sufficient to quench the fires that had been kindled. The day was devoted to slaughter, and the night

1 Bell. Jud. 6, viii. 5.

THE BLOOD OF THY SERVANTS HAVE THEY SHED LIKE WATER ROUND ABOUT

JERUSALEM, AND THERE WAS NO MAN TO BURY THEM. Psalms, lxxix. 3. This was the fulfilment of the imprecation they brought down upon themselves" HIS BLOOD BE UPON US AND UPON OUR CHILDREN."-Matt. xxvi. 25. And also particularly of that prophecy spoken against them by Christ—THAT

THE BLOOD OF ALL THE PROPHETS WHICH WAS SHED FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD MAY BE REQUIRED OF THIS GENERATION; FROM THE BLOOD OF ABEL UNTO THE BLOOD OF ZACHARIAS, WHICH PERISHED BETWEEN THE ALTAR AND THE TEMPLE: VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, IT SHALL BE REQUIRED OF THIS GENERATION. Luke xi. 50, 51.

BEHOLD, AND SEE IF THERE BE ANY SORROW LIKE UNTO MY SORROW, WHICH IS DONE UNTO ME, WHEREWITH THE LORD HATH AFFLICTED ME IN THE DAY OF HIS FIERCE ANGER. Lamen. i. 12.

Bishop Newton, remarking the correspondence between the crime of the Jews and their punishment, says " They put Jesus to death when the nation was assembled to celebrate the Passover; and when the nation was assembled too to celebrate the Passover, Titus shut them up within the walls of Jerusalem. The rejection of the true Messiah was their crime; and their following false Messiahs to their destruction, was their punishment. They sold and bought Jesus as a slave; and they themselves were afterwards sold and bought as slaves at the lowest prices. They preferred a robber and murderer to Jesus whom they crucified between two thieves; and they themselves were afterwards infested with bands of robbers and thieves. They put Jesus to death,' lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation;' and the Romans did come and take away their place and nation. They crucified Jesus before the walls of Jerusalem; they themselves were crucified in such numbers, that it is said, room was wanting for the crosses' and crosses for the bodies. I should think it hardly possible for any man to lay these things together and not conclude the Jews' own imprecation to be remarkably fulfilled upon them—“ His blood be on us and on our children."

Dissertation on the Prophecies, vol. iii. p. 326.

66

night to conflagration; till at length, on the eighth day of the month, a conclusion was put to both; "and," says Josephus, "if all the blessings it ever enjoyed from its foundation, had been in proportion to "the calamity and distress it suffered in this siege; "that city had undoubtedly been the envy of the "whole world."1

Titus, at this advanced stage, commanded none to be put to death, but such only, as were either found in arms, or continued to defy his power; intending to preserve the lives of the remainder to grace his triumphal entrance into Rome. Yet though the vanquished could hope to derive less mercy from further resistance, than by such a submission as common policy in their situation dictated; they obstinately persisted in offensive conduct, and "all," says Tacitus, "who were capable "of serving, still appeared in arms. The number of "effective men was beyond all proportion greater than "could be expected, even in so vast a multitude. "The women, no less than the men, were inflamed "with zeal and ardour; if doomed to quit their country, "life, they declared, was more terrible than death "itself."

1 Bell. Jud. 6, viii. 5.

HE SENT FORTH HIS ARMIES, AND DESTROYED THOSE MURDERERS, AND BURNT UP THEIR CITY.

Matt. xxii. 7.

THERE SHALL BE GREAT TRIBULATION, SUCH AS WAS NOT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THIS TIME, NO; NOR EVER SHALL BE.

Matt. xxiv. 21.-Mark iii. 19.

THERE SHALL BE GREAT DISTRESS IN THE LAND, AND WRATH UPON THIS PEOPLE.

*

Luke xxi. 23.

"Indeed," says Bishop Newton, "all history cannot furnish us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews."

Dissertation on Prophecies, ii. p. 253.

"And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it."

Luke xix. 41.

itself."

All the rest, above seventeen years of age, were made prisoners, and sent to work the mines in Egypt.2

John and Simon, the leaders of the expiring factions, and authors of every evil, having made the most surprising efforts to escape by mining, were at last driven by the distress of hunger from their hiding vaults; and begged that mercy of the Romans which they had so long, and so often despised. John, therefore, was made a prisoner for life, and Simon preserved to grace the triumph. Titus now laid the whole city in ashes, excepting the three forts which the Jews had forsaken

upon

i Arma cunctis, qui ferre possent; et plures, quam pro numero; audebant. Obstinatio viris fæminisque par: ac si transferre sedes cogerentur, major vitæ metus quam mortis. Hist. v. 13.

2 HALF OF THE CITY SHALL GO FORTH INTO CAPTIVITY, AND THE RESIDUE OF THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF FROM THE CITY. Zach. xiv. 2.

AND THE LORD SHALL BRING THEE INTO EGYPT AGAIN WITH SHIPS, BY THE WAY WHEREOF I SPAKE UNTO THEE, THOU SHALT SEE IT NO MORE AGAIN: AND THERE YE SHALL BE SOLD UNTO YOUR ENEMIES FOR BOND-MEN AND BOND

WOMEN, AND NO MAN SHALL BUY YOU. Deut. xxviii. 68.

NOW WILL HE REMEMBER THEIR INIQUITY AND VISIT THEIR SINS; THEY SHALL RETURN TO EGYPT. Hosea, viii. 13-also ix. 6.

Vide also Jer. xliv. 7-14; and 2 Esd. xv. 10.

3 Josephus, speaking of these tyrants, says, "There was a contest between "them for dominion, but a concord in crimes." Bell. Jud. 5. x. 4.

4 Simon, when he found it impossible to escape, shewed himself above ground in a white tunic and purple coat, on the spot where the Temple had stood, with the hope of astonishing and deceiving the Romans. But when the guards required him to declare who he was, he desired a conference with the commander Terentius Rufus, who put him in chains. Afterwards he was led in triumph to Rome; then with a halter about him, dragged to that part of the city where malefactors were executed, and there scourged and slain. Bell. Jud. 7, ii. 1.

AND THOU SHALT BE BROUGHT DOWN, AND SHALT SPEAK OUT OF THE GROUND, AND THY SPEECH SHALL BE LOW OUT OF THE DUST, AND THY VOICE SHALL BE, AS OF ONE THAT HATH A FAMILIAR SPIRIT, OUT OF THE GROUND, AND THY SPEECH SHALL WHISPER OUT OF THE DUST.

Isaiah, xxix. 4.

This

upon his first entrance into the upper city; these he preserved as monuments of his victory and good fortune, for without them he never could have effected that which he had at length achieved.

The number of the prisoners taken, during the time of the whole siege, amounted to ninety-seven thousand, and the slaughtered to one million, three hundred and fifty-seven thousand, six hundred and sixty! They who perished in the siege itself; one million, one hundred thousand; out of which six hundred thousand were buried at the public charge; the greater part of them Jews by nation, though not all natives of Judea; the time of this overthrow being, as before related, at the general assemblage of the Jews to celebrate the great feast of the Passover; and, indeed, "the destruc"tion of the rest of their cities served to increase the "number of the besieged. A prodigious influx poured “ in

This, in its prophetic sense, applies to the humiliation and overthrow of Jerusalem; its literal signification singularly describes John's present situation and circumstances.

1 Josephus (Bell. Jud. 6, ix. 3.) gives this account of the number of the prisoners and those who perished in the siege. To estimate the whole number of those who came up and were in Jerusalem to celebrate former Passovers, we must reckon by what he further mentions, that there were two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred lambs or sacrifices, and ten persons to each; making an amount of two millions five hundred and sixty-five thousand at that time in the city. Tacitus computes the number of the besieged at six hundred thousand. "Multitudinem obsessorum omnis ætatis, virile ac “muliebre sexus, sexcenta millia accepimus."-This could not possibly be the number of the besieged, but might be meant for those only who were buried at the public charge, as stated by Josephus (5. xiii. 7); or Tacitusmight imagine it to be the number of permanent inhabitants of Jerusalem, the surplus being made up by Jews and Proselytes from Galilee, Samaria, Judea, Perea, and other remoter parts.

war,

Justus

From the beginning to the conclusion of the Jewish Lipsius (de Constantia) has calculated the number of the slaughtered Jews

at

« السابقةمتابعة »