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But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus,
the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years
before the war began, and at a time when the city was in very
great peace and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our
custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in the temple,
began on a sudden to cry aloud, "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!" This was his
cry, as he went about by day and by night, in all the lanes of
the city. However, certain of the most eminent among the populace
had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the
man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not
he either say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to
those that chastised him, but still went on with the same words
which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the
case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the
man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped
till his bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any
supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his
voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of
the whip his answer was, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" And when
Albinus (for he was then our procurator) asked him, Who he was?
and whence he came? and why he uttered such words? he made no
manner of reply to what he said, but still did not leave off his
melancholy ditty, till Albinus took him to be a madman, and
dismissed him. Now, during all the time that passed before the
war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, nor was
seen by them while he said so; but he every day uttered these
lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe
to Jerusalem!" Nor did he give ill words to any of those that
beat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food;
but this was his reply to all men, and indeed no other than a
melancholy presage of what was to come. This cry of his was the
loudest at the festivals; and he continued this ditty for seven
years and five months, without growing hoarse, or being tired
therewith, until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest
fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased; for as he was going round
upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, "Woe, woe to
the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!" And
just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also!" there
came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed
him immediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages he
gave up the ghost.
[The Jews of course were slaughtered by the Romans and Titus, who
was infamously brutal to the Jews, ensured that the Great
Temple was destroyed. (As foretold by Christ: with not one stone upon
another) The "wailing wall" is all that is left of the
foundation of the "Great Temple."]
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