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1. 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 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.
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