to cover and conceal. From this deformed monster the ambassadors passed over to Cyprus, and from thence proceeded to execute their commission in all the other countries to which they were sent.

h

Anno 135. John Hyr

canus 1.

In the month of Shebat (which was in the latter end of the Jewish year, and in the beginning of the Julian,) Simon, making a progress through the cities of Judah, to take care for the well ordering of all things in them, came to Jericho, having then two of his sons, Judas and Mattathias, there in company with him, Ptolemy, the son of Abubus, who had married one of his daughters, being governour of the place under him, invited him to the castle which he had built in the neighbourhood, to partake of an entertainment he had there provided for them. Simon and his sons, suspecting no evil from so near a relation, accepted of the invitation, and went thither. But the perfidious wretch, having laid a design for the usurping of the government of Judea to himself, and concerted the matter with Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, for the accomplishing of it, wickedly plotted the destruction of Simon and his sons; and therefore, having hid men in the castle, where the entertainment was made, when his guests had well drunk, he brought forth these murderers upon them, and assassinated them all three, while they were sitting at his banquet, and all those that attended upon them; and, thinking immediately hereupon to make himself master of the whole land, sent a party to Gazara, where John resided, to slay him also; and wrote letters to the commanders of the army that had their station in those parts, to come over to him, proffering them gold and silver, and other rewards, to draw them into his designs. But John, having received notice of what had been done at Jericho, before this party could reach Gazara, he was there provided for them; and therefore fell on them, and cut them all off, as soon as they approached the place; and then, hastening to Jerusalem, secured that city, and the mountain of the temple, against those whom the traitor had sent to seize both.

h 1 Maccab. xvi, 14-22. Joseph. lib, 13, c. 14.

And, being thereupon declared high priest and prince of the Jews, in the place of his father Simon, he took care every where to provide for the security of the country, and the peace of all those that dwelt in it. Whereon Ptolemy, being defeated of all those plots which he had laid for the compassing of his designs, had nothing now left to do, but to send to Antiochus to come with an army for the accomplishing of them by open force; without which being no longer able to support himself against John in Judea, he fled to Zeno, surnamed Cotyla, who was then tyrant of Philadelphia, and there waited till Antiochus should arrive. What became of him afterwards is uncertain. For, although Antiochus came at his call into Judea, and a bitter war thereon ensued, yet, after his flight to Zeno, no more mention is made of him. Although the treason might be acceptable enough to that king, because of the fair prospect that was given him by the advantage of it, again to recover Judea to his crown, yet he could not but abhor such an execrable traitor, and perchance dealt with him according to what his wickedness deserved. But here ending the history of the Maccabees, as contained in the apocryphal books of Scripture known by that name, I shall here also end this fourth book of my present work.

THE

Old and New Testaments

CONNECTED, &c.

BOOK V.

a

ANTIOCHUS SIDETES, king of Syria, having received from Ptolemy, the son of Abubus,

An. 135.

canus 1.

the account which he had sent him of the John Hyrdeath of Simon and his sons, made haste to take the advantage of it, for the reducing of Judea again under the Syrian empire; and therefore forthwith marched thitherward with a great army, and having over-run the country, and driven Hyrcanus out of the field, shut him up and all his forces with him in Jerusalem, and there besieged him with his whole army divided into seven camps, whereby he enclosed him all round; and, to do this the more effectually, he caused two large and deep ditches to be drawn round the city, one of circumvallation, and the other of contravallation; so that, by reason hereof, none could come out from the besieged to make their escape, or any get into them, to bring them relief. And therefore, when Hyrcanus, to rid himself of unprofitable mouths which consumed the stores of the besieged, without helping them in the defence of the place, put all such as were useless for the wars out of the city; they could not pass the ditch that enclosed them, but were pent up between that and the walls of the city, and were there forced to abide; till at length Hyrcanus found it necessary, for the saving of them from perishing by famine, to receive them in again. This siege continued till about the time of the beginning of autumn; the be

a 1 Maccab. xvi, 18. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 13, c. 16.

siegers all this while making their assaults, and the besieged as valiantly defending themselves against them, always repulsing the enemy, and often making sallies upon them, and, in these sallies, sometimes burning their engines, and destroying their works; and thus it went on till the time of the Jews' feast of tabernacles, which was always held in the middle of the first autumnal moon. On the approach of that holy time, Hyrcanus sent to Antiochus, to pray a truce during the festival; which he not only readily granted, but also sent beasts, and other things necessary for the sacrifices then to be offered; which giving Hyrcanus an instance of the equity and benignity, as well as of the piety of that prince, this encouraged him to send to him again for terms of peace; which message being complied with, a treaty thereon commenced, in which Hyrcanus having yielded, that the besieged should deliver up their arms, that Jerusalem should be dismantled, and that tribute should be paid the king for Joppa, and the other towns held by the Jews out of Judea, peace was made upon those terms. It was demanded also by Antiochus, that the fortress at Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and a garrison again received into it; but this Hyrcanus would not consent to, remembering the damage and mischief which the Jews had received from the former garrison in that place; but rather chose to pay the king five hundred talents to buy it off. Whereon such of those terms as were capable of an immediate execution being accordingly executed, and hostages given for the performance of the rest (one of which was a brother of Hyrcanus,) the siege was raised, and peace again restored to the whole land. This was done in the ninth month after the death of Simon.

When Hyrcanus sent to Antiochus for peace, he was brought almost to the last extremity, through want of provisions, all the stores of the city being in a manner spent and exhausted; which being well known in the camp of the besiegers, those that were about Antiochus pressed him hard to make use of this opportu

b Joseph. Antiq. lib 13, c. 16. Diodor. Sic. lib. 34, eclog. 1, p. 901, & apud Photium in Biblioth. cod. 244, p. 1150.

nity for the destroying and utterly extirpating the whole nation of the Jews. They urged against them, that they had been driven out of Egypt as an impious people hated by God and man; that they treated all mankind besides themselves as enemies, refusing communication with all, excepting those of their own sect, neither eating, nor drinking, nor freely conversing with any other, nor worshipping any of the same gods with them, but using laws, customs, and a religion quite different from all other nations; and that therefore they deserved that all other nations should treat them with the same aversion and hatred, and cut them all off and destroy them, as declared enemies to all mankind. And Diodorus Siculus, as well as Josephus, tells us, that it was wholly owing to the generosity and clemency of Antiochus, that the whole nation of the Jews were not at this time totally cut off, and utterly destroyed, but had peace granted unto them upon the terms abovementioned.

e

C

Of the five hundred talents which, by the terms of this peace, were to be paid to Antiochus, three hundred were laid down in present,d for the payment of the other two hundred, time was allowed. Josephus tells us, that Hyrcanus, to find money for this and other occasions of the government, broke up the sepulchre of David, and took from thence three thousand talents; and the like he afterwardse tells us of Herod, as if he also had robbed the same sepulchre, and taken great treasures from it: but both these stories are very improbable. David had been now dead near nine hundred years; and what is told of this matter, supposeth his treasure to have been buried up with him all this time; it supposeth, that as often as the city of Jerusalem, the palace, and the temple, had, during the reigns of the kings of Judah, been plundered of all their wealth and treasure by prevailing enemies (as they f had often been;) this dead stock still remained safe from all rifle or violation; it supposeth, that, as

c Joseph. Antiq. lib. 13, c. 16. Diodor. Sic. lib. 34, eclog. 1, p. 901, & apud Photium in Bibliotheca, cod. 244, p. 1150.

d Joseph. Antiq. lib. 13, c. 16.

e Joseph. Antiq. lib. 16, c. 11.

f 1 Kings xiv, 25. 2 Kings xiv, 14. 2 Chron. xii, 9; xxi, 17; xxv, 24.