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[513]
AND now Gallus, seeing nothing more that looked towards an innovation
in Galilee, returned with his army to Cesarea: but Cestius removed with
his whole army, and marched to Antipatris; and when he was informed that
there was a great body of Jewish forces gotten together in a certain tower
called Aphek, he sent a party before to fight them; but this party dispersed
the Jews by affrighting them before it came to a battle: so they came,
and finding their camp deserted, they burnt it, as well as the villages
that lay about it. But when Cestius had marched from Antipatris to Lydda,
he found the city empty of its men, for the whole multitude 1
were gone up to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles; yet did he destroy
fifty of those that showed themselves, and burnt the city, and so marched
forwards; and ascending by Betboron, he pitched his camp at a certain place
called Gabao, fifty furlongs distant from Jerusalem.
1 Here we have an eminent example of that Jewish language, which Dr. Wail truly observes, we several times find used in the sacred writings; I mean, where the words "all" or" whole multitude,"etc. are used for much the greatest part only; but not so as to include every person, without exception; for when Josephus had said that "the whole multitude" [all the males] of Lydda were gone to the feast of tabernacles, he immediately adds, that, however, no fewer than fifty of them appeared, and were slain by the Romans. Other examples somewhat like this I have observed elsewhere in Josephus, but, as I think, none so remarkable as this. See Wall's Critical Observations on the Old Testament, p. 49, 50.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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