Jerusalem Explored Part 55

"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.

[Sidenote: Gibeon forty furlongs from Jerusalem.]

"And when he was come to Gibeon, which is a village forty furlongs distant from Jerusalem." VII. XI. 7.

[Sidenote: Altar in the thres.h.i.+ng floor of Araunah.]

"And sent Gad the prophet to him, and commanded him to go up immediately to the thres.h.i.+ng floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, and build an altar there to G.o.d, and offer sacrifices." VII. XIII. 4.

[Sidenote: Mount Moriah.]

"Now it happened that Abraham came and offered his son Isaac for a burnt-offering at that very place." VII. XIII. 4.

[Sidenote: Place of the temple.]

"Now when king David saw that G.o.d 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 G.o.d there."

VII. XIII. 4.

[Sidenote: David buried at Jerusalem.]

"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.

[Sidenote: Solomon fortifies 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.

[Sidenote: Foundations of the temple.]

"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.

[Sidenote: Dimensions 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.

[Sidenote: Altar of burnt offerings.]

"Solomon made the altar which he built for the burnt-offerings twenty cubits long, twenty broad, and ten high." VIII. III. 7.

[Sidenote: Size of the stones.]

"Some of these [houses] Solomon built with stones of ten cubits." VIII.

V. 2.

[Sidenote: Solomon increases the fortifications of Jerusalem.]

"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 encompa.s.sed 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.

[Sidenote: Jeroboam.]

"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.

[Sidenote: Solomon interred at Jerusalem.]

"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.

[Sidenote: The Egyptian king s.h.i.+shak at Jerusalem.]

"So when s.h.i.+shak had taken the city without fighting, because Rehoboam was afraid, and received him into it, yet did not s.h.i.+shak stand to the covenants he had made, but he spoiled the temple, and emptied the treasures of G.o.d, 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.

[Sidenote: Destruction of Sennacherib's army.]

"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] G.o.d 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.

[Sidenote: Nebuchadnezzar burns the temple.]

"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.

[Sidenote: Alexander the Great at Jerusalem.]

"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.

[Sidenote: Sapha.]

"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.

[Sidenote: Ptolemy, son of Lagus, at Jerusalem.]

"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.

[Sidenote: Antiochus Epiphanes 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 Seleucidae, 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.

[Sidenote: Cruelty of Antiochus, who builds the citadel in the lower part of the city.]

"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 mult.i.tude 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.

[Sidenote: Mattathias.]

"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 mult.i.tude 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.