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[131]
NOW the king of Babylon was very intent and earnest upon the siege
of Jerusalem; and he erected towers upon great banks of earth, and from
them repelled those that stood upon the walls; he also made a great number
of such banks round about the whole city, whose height was equal to those
walls. However, those that were within bore the siege with courage and
alacrity, for they were not discouraged, either by the famine, or by the
pestilential distemper, but were of cheerful minds in the prosecution of
the war, although those miseries within oppressed them also, and they did
not suffer themselves to be terrified, either by the contrivances of the
enemy, or by their engines of war, but contrived still different engines
to oppose all the other withal, till indeed there seemed to be an entire
struggle between the Babylonians and the people of Jerusalem, which had
the greater sagacity and skill; the former party supposing they should
be thereby too hard for the other, for the destruction of the city; the
latter placing their hopes of deliverance in nothing else but in persevering
in such inventions in opposition to the other, as might demonstrate the
enemy's engines were useless to them. And this siege they endured for eighteen
months, until they were destroyed by the famine, and by the darts which
the enemy threw at them from the towers.
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