This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[160]
There was now one Joseph, young in age, but of great reputation among
the people of Jerusalem, for gravity, prudence, and justice. His father's
name was Tobias; and his mother was the sister of Onias the high priest,
who informed him of the coming of the ambassador; for he was then sojourning
at a village named Phicol, 1
where he was born. Hereupon he came to the city [Jerusalem], and reproved
Onias for not taking care of the preservation of his countrymen, but bringing
the nation into dangers, by not paying this money. For which preservation
of them, he told him he had received the authority over them, and had been
made high priest; but that, in case he was so great a lover of money, as
to endure to see his country in danger on that account, and his countrymen
suffer the greatest damages, he advised him to go to the king, and petition
him to remit either the whole or a part of the sum demanded. Onias's answer
was this: That he did not care for his authority, and that he was ready,
if the thing were practicable, to lay down his high priesthood; and that
he would not go to the king, because he troubled not himself at all about
such matters. Joseph then asked him if he would not give him leave to go
ambassador on behalf of the nation. He replied, that he would give him
leave. Upon which Joseph went up into the temple, and called the multitude
together to a congregation, and exhorted them not to be disturbed nor aftrighted,
because of his uncle Onias's carelessness, but desired them to be at rest,
and not terrify themselves with fear about it; for he promised them that
he would be their ambassador to the king, and persuade him that they had
done him no wrong. And when the multitude heard this, they returned thanks
to Joseph. So he went down from the temple, and treated Ptolemy's ambassador
in a hospitable manner. He also presented him with rich gifts, and feasted
him magnificently for many days, and then sent him to the king before him,
and told him that he would soon follow him; for he was now more willing
to go to the king, by the encouragement of the ambassador, who earnestly
persuaded him to come into Egypt, and promised him that he would take care
that he should obtain every thing that he desired of Ptolemy; for he was
highly pleased with his frank and liberal temper, and with the gravity
of his deportment.
1 The name of this place, Phicol, is the very same with that of the chief captain of Abimelech's host, in the days of Abraham, Genesis 21:22, and might possibly be the place of that Phicol's nativity or abode, for it seems to have been in the south part of Palestine, as that was.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.