Chapter 8.
HOW THE KING OF BABYLON TOOK 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.
FJAJ 10.35
1. NOW the king of Babylon was very intent and earnest upon the siege
of Jerusalem; and he erected towers upon great banks of earth, and from
them repelled those that stood upon the walls; he also made a great number
of such banks round about the whole city, whose height was equal to those
walls
However, those that were within bore the siege with courage and
alacrity, for they were not discouraged, either by the famine, or by the
pestilential distemper, but were of cheerful minds in the prosecution of
the war, although those miseries within oppressed them also, and they did
not suffer themselves to be terrified, either by the contrivances of the
enemy, or by their engines of war, but contrived still different engines
to oppose all the other withal, till indeed there seemed to be an entire
struggle between the Babylonians and the people of Jerusalem, which had
the greater sagacity 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 this siege they endured for eighteen
months, until they were destroyed by the famine, and by the darts which
the enemy threw at them from the towers.FJAJ 10.36
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 abode himself in the city of Riblah
The names of these generals
who ravaged and subdued Jerusalem, if any one desire to know them, were
these: Nergal Sharezer, Samgar Nebo, Rabsaris, Sorsechim, and Rabmag
And
when the city was taken about midnight, and the enemy's generals were entered
into the temple, and when Zedekiah was sensible of it, he took his wives,
and his children, and his captains, and his friends, and with them fled
out of the city, through the fortified ditch, and through the desert; and
when certain of the deserters had informed the Babylonians of this, at
break of day, they made haste to pursue after Zedekiah, and overtook him
not far from Jericho, and encompassed him about
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 was 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 keep 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," said he, "God is great, who hated that
conduct of thine, and hath brought thee 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, (14)
This observation of Josephus about the seeming disagreement of Jeremiah,
ch. 32:4, and 34:3, and Ezekiel 12:13, but real agreement at last, concerning
the fate of Zedekiah, is very true and very remarkable. See ch. 7. sect.
2. Nor is it at all unlikely that the courtiers and false prophets might
make use of this seeming contradiction to dissuade Zedekiah from believing
either of those prophets, as Josephus here intimates he was dissuaded thereby.
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.FJAJ 10.37
3. We have said thus 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 after 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 any thing 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.FJAJ 10.38
4. And after this manner have the kings of David's race ended their
lives, being in number twenty-one, until the last king, who all together
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, though he was not of the same tribe with the rest.FJAJ 10.39
5. And now it was 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 even 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 befell 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 particularly 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 which, together with the vessels which they had pillaged, he carried
to the king of Babylon to 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 Josedek
the high priest 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.FJAJ 10.40
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 Phidens, and
Phideas's son was Sudeas, and Sudeas's son was Juelus, and Juelus's son
was Jotham, and Jotham's son was Urias, and Urias's son was Nerias, and
Nerias's son was Odeas, and his son was Sallumus, and Sallumus's son was
Elcias, and his son [was Azarias, and his son] was Sareas, (15)
I have here inserted in brackets this high priest Azarias, though he be
omitted in all Josephus's copies, out of the Jewish chronicle, Seder Olam,
of how little authority soever I generally esteem such late Rabbinical
historians, because we know from Josephus himself, that the number of the
high priests belonging to this interval was eighteen, Antiq. B. XX. ch.
10., whereas his copies have here but seventeen. Of this character of Baruch,
the son of Neriah, and the genuineness of his book, that stands now in
our Apocrypha, and that it is really a canonical book, and an appendix
to Jeremiah, see Authent. Rec. Part I. p. 1--11.
and his son was Josedec, who was carried captive to Babylon
All these
received the high priesthood by succession, the sons from their father.FJAJ 10.41
7. When the king was 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.FJAJ 10.42