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and Bethzur, which were now chiefly occupied by apostate Jews who were afraid to quit these strongholds.

Jonathan, being now comparatively at rest from enemies, proceeded to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and then repaired the buildings of the city, and erected a palace for his own residence. The particular history of Jerusalem for several following years is little more than an account of the efforts made by the Maccabean princes to get possession of the citadel in Jerusalem, and of the Syrian kings to retain it in their hands. At length, in the year 142 B.C., the garrison was forced to surrender to Simon, who then altogether demolished the castle, that it might not again be used against the citizens by their enemies. Simon then proceeded to strengthen the fortifications of the mountain on which the temple stood, and built there a palace for himself. This building was afterwards turned into a regular fortress by John Hyrcanus, and was ever after the residence of the Maccabean princes. It is called by Josephus "the castle of Baris," but after it was greatly strengthened and enlarged by Herod the Great, it was known as the castle of Antonia, under which name it

makes a great figure in the history of the Jewish war with the Romans.

Of Jerusalem itself we find no further particulars of consequence till it was taken by Pompey for the Romans, in the summer of the year 68 B.C., upon the very day which was observed by the Jews as a day of fasting and lamentation in commemoration of the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

Twelve

thousand Jews were on that day massacred in the temple courts, including many priests, who died at the very altar rather than suspend the sacred rites. After the rage of victory had subsided and the thirst for blood had been appeased, Pompey, attended by his generals, entered the temple, and examined, with curious eyes, even the most holy place; but he left untouched all its treasures and sacred things. He was less gracious with respect to the military defences of the city, for he caused the wall to be demolished.

From this time we are to regard Jerusalem and Judæa as under the dominion of the Romans.

The treasures which Pompey had spared were seized, a few years after, by Crassus, who removed everything that appeared to him

worth taking; and the value of his plunder is estimated at ten thousand talents. Eight years after, 43 B.C., the walls of the city, which Pompey had demolished, were, by the permission of the Romans, rebuilt by Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, and the first use to which they were turned was, to enable the inhabitants to hold out for six months, in 37 B.C., against this very Herod. This remarkable man had been nominated king of Judæa by the Romans; and, at this time, having obtained the assistance of a Roman force, made a grand effort to get possession of the metropolis, which held out against him in favour of Antigonus, the last of the Maccabean princes. Exasperated by the protracted defence of the city, the Romans, having taken it by storm, plundered it, and massacred the inhabitants without mercy, in spite of the remonstrances of Herod, who exclaimed that they were going to make him king of a desert, and at length paid down a large sum of money to induce them to desist.

This is that Herod under whom Jerusalem was destined to assume that new and more magnificent aspect which it bore in the time of Christ, and which constitutes the Jerusalem

described by Josephus. Herod had, in fact, a passion for building and improvement, from which many towns in his territory, and even beyond it, largely benefited, and none more so than Jerusalem, for which he did nearly as much comparatively as his friend and master Augustus did for Rome. The London which our old men remember is, probably, not so different in comparison with the London which our youths survey, as was the Jerusalem which Herod found from the Jerusalem which he left. In fact, there is great reason to suspect that Jerusalem was never before, not even in the time of Solomon, so magnificent, so strong, so convenient, and so populous, as it became in the time of Herod, and as it continued through the time of Christ and his apostles, till it was destroyed by Titus.

CHAPTER VII.

JERUSALEM IN THE TIME OF CHRIST.

We will now stay the current of our history to survey, so well as our means allow, the city as thus improved. This is the aspect of Jerusalem which is more than any other interesting to us as Christians; for we are now to behold the temple in whose courts our Divine Saviour taught and wrought miracles, and whose "goodly stones" the apostles regarded with admiration; the buildings on which his eyes often rested, and which often cast their shadows over his path, and the streets in which his sacred feet walked up and down.

This account of the ancient town we shall endeavour so to frame as to furnish the reader with as distinct a picture of the whole city as can now be realized, with particular notice of such parts, or buildings, as are mentioned in Scripture, with the view of enabling the Christian reader to study, with more advantage

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