AND thus was Jerusalem taken, in the second year of the reign of
Vespasian, on the eighth day of the month Gorpeius [Elul]. It had been
taken five 281
times before, though this was the second time of its desolation; for Shishak,
the king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey, and after
them Sosius and Herod, took the city, but still preserved it; but before
all these, the king of Babylon conquered it, and made it desolate, one
thousand four hundred and sixty-eight years and six months after it was
built. But he who first built it. Was a potent man among the Canaanites,
and is in our own tongue called [Melchisedek], the Righteous King, for
such he really was; on which account he was [there] the first priest of
God, and first built a temple [there], and called the city Jerusalem, which
was formerly called Salem. However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected
the Canaanites, and set-tied his own people therein. It was demolished
entirely by the Babylonians, four hundred and seventy-seven years and six
months after him. And from king David, who was the first of the Jews who
reigned therein, to this destruction under Titus, were one thousand one
hundred and seventy-nine years; but from its first building, till this
last destruction, were two thousand one hundred and seventy-seven years;
yet hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion
of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness of the veneration
paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient to preserve it from
being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of Jerusalem.