For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and
the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women
ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity,
and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the
city.--Zechariah xiv. 2.
Imperial Rome, to whom the world once bowed, and whose power
could command armies from "all nations," had conquered Judea, and
received from her the yearly tribute of her subjection:[138] but,
through the oppression of the Roman governors, and the madness
of the people, the standard of revolt was planted, and the Jews
attempted to break their yoke of bondage. The Roman legions, inured
to war, and accustomed to the shout of victory, hastened to subdue
the rebellious Israelites: they passed from city to city, and from
province to province; slaughter and death marked their course; the
strife was desperate; the conflict bloody; the Jews fought like
men determined to conquer or to die: two hundred and forty-seven
thousand seven hundred were slain before their provinces were
subjugated, and an immense number made prisoners: amongst whom was
Josephus, the historian of the war, who was governor of the two
Galilees, and who defended them with skill and bravery. The Romans,
having conquered the provinces, approached to assault Jerusalem,
which was then a dreadful scene. The sound of war was heard through
all her gates; regardless of the approaching foe, the Jews had
turned their arms against each other; three several factions were
busily engaged in the work of slaughter and destruction. Eleazar and
the Zealots seized the temple; John of Gischala and his followers
occupied its out-works; and Simon, the son of Gorias, possessed the
whole of the lower, and a great part of the upper, town. Jerusalem
was built on two hills; the highest, on which stood the temple, was
called the upper town, and the other the lower: between these lay a
valley covered with houses; the suburbs of the city were extensive,
and encircled by a wall; two other walls also surrounded Jerusalem,
the interior one of remarkable strength. Neither of the three
factious parties had any just claim to supremacy or power, though
all contended for dominion, and fought for plunder. The Zealots
were the smallest party, but, from their situation, possessed the
advantage: they sallied from their strong holds to attack John, who
seized every opportunity of assaulting Simon; thus John maintained
a double war, and was often obliged to divide his forces, being
attacked by Eleazar and Simon at the same time. In these furious
contests, no age or sex was spared; the slaughter was dreadful.
When either party was repelled, the other set fire to the building,
without any distinction. Regardless of their contents, they consumed
granaries and store-houses, which contained a stock of corn and
other necessaries of life, sufficient to maintain the inhabitants
during a siege of many years; but nearly the whole was burnt, and
this circumstance made way for a calamity more horrid than even war
itself. Famine soon showed her meagre form, and all classes felt
the dreadful effects of a scarcity of food. Such was the miserable
state of Jerusalem when the Roman general Titus (son of the reigning
emperor, Vespasian,) prepared to attack the city. The sight of a
powerful foreign foe at their gates, with all the artillery of
war, could not quell the factions within; it is true, when closely
pressed by the Romans, the three parties joined to repel the common
enemy, but no sooner had they breathing time, than the spirit of
contention arose, and they resumed the slaughter of each other:
thus they maintained a fierce contest with the besiegers, and, at
the same time, seized every opportunity of destroying each other.
The misery of the city was soon beyond precedent, from the dreadful
effects of famine, the price of provisions became exorbitant,
and, when no longer offered for sale, the houses were entered and
searched, and the wretched owners tortured till they confessed where
the slender pittance was concealed; at length the distress became
so great, that persons parted with the whole of their property
to obtain a bushel of wheat, which they eat before it could be
baked, or even ground; and happy was he who could catch a morsel
of meat, half roasted, half raw, from the fire. No kind of cruelty
was omitted in search of food: at length their sufferings were so
severe, that the wretched inhabitants were necessitated to search
the vaults and sinks for sustenance, and even fed on articles
too offensive to be named. The ties of nature and humanity were
forgotten, the wife seized the food from her husband, the child
from the parent, and even the mother from her infant.[139] The
excruciating pain of famine so far overpowered the tenderest and
finest affections in nature, that a woman, descended from a rich and
respectable family, even killed, boiled, and ate, her own child, a
son in all the artless and endearing simplicity of infancy! Well
may the British mother tremble at the horrid sound, and pity the
wretched Israelitish female, thus sunk below the brute. Pestilence
now stalked abroad, for the air was tainted by the dead: though
no less than six hundred thousand dead bodies were carried out
of the city during the time Titus encamped before the walls, yet
there was an incredible number who had no friends to bury them, and
their bodies were enclosed in large buildings, or laid in heaps in
the open air. "O Jerusalem, thou didst drink at the hand of the
Lord the cup of his fury, thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup
of trembling, and wrung them out" even desolation, destruction,
famine and sword, "thy houses rifled, thy women ravished" by Jewish
ruffians, and the city at length taken by the Roman general.
Titus had again and again offered the Jews honourable terms of
capitulation; but they rejected all his overtures with proud
disdain, and when his soldiers took the city, exasperated at the
hardships they had endured, they spared neither sex, age, or rank.
Sword and fire destroyed Jerusalem and her children, and closed
this horrid war, in which one million one hundred thousand Jews were
slain, and ninety-seven thousand made prisoners.
[138] Luke ii. 1. Matthew xxii. 17.
[139] Deut. xxviii. 48-59.