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[121]
NOW upon John's entry into Jerusalem, the whole body of the people
were in an uproar, and ten thousand of them crowded about every one of
the fugitives that were come to them, and inquired of them what miseries
had happened abroad, when their breath was so short, and hot, and quick,
that of itself it declared the great distress they were in; yet did they
talk big under their misfortunes, and pretended to say that they had not
fled away from the Romans, but came thither in order to fight them with
less hazard; for that it would be an unreasonable and a fruitless thing
for them to expose themselves to desperate hazards about Gischala, and
such weak cities, whereas they ought to lay up their weapons and their
zeal, and reserve it for their metropolis. But when they related to them
the taking of Gischala, and their decent departure, as they pretended,
from that place, many of the people understood it to be no better than
a flight; and especially when the people were told of those that were made
captives, they were in great confusion, and guessed those things to be
plain indications that they should be taken also. But for John, he was
very little concerned for those whom he had left behind him, but went about
among all the people, and persuaded them to go to war, by the hopes he
gave them. He affirmed that the affairs of the Romans were in a weak condition,
and extolled his own power. He also jested upon the ignorance of the unskillful,
as if those Romans, although they should take to themselves wings, could
never fly over the wall of Jerusalem, who found such great difficulties
in taking the villages of Galilee, and had broken their engines of war
against their walls.
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