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[529]
Thus did Simon unexpectedly march into Idumea, without bloodshed,
and made a sudden attack upon the city Hebron, and took it; wherein he
got possession of a great deal of prey, and plundered it of a vast quantity
of fruit. Now the people of the country say that it is an ancienter city,
not only than any in that country, but than Memphis in Egypt, and accordingly
its age is reckoned at two thousand and three hundred years. They also
relate that it had been the habitation of Abram, the progenitor of the
Jews, after he had removed out of Mesopotamia; and they say that his posterity
descended from thence into Egypt, whose monuments are to this very time
showed in that small city; the fabric of which monuments are of the most
excellent marble, and wrought after the most elegant manner. There is also
there showed, at the distance of six furlongs from the city, a very large
turpentine tree 1
and the report goes, that this tree has continued ever since the creation
of the world. Thence did Simon make his progress over all Idumen, and did
not only ravage the cities and villages, but lay waste the whole country;
for, besides those that were completely armed, he had forty thousand men
that followed him, insomuch that he had not provisions enough to suffice
such a multitude. Now, besides this want of provisions that he was in,
he was of a barbarous disposition, and bore great anger at this nation,
by which means it came to pass that Idumea was greatly depopulated; and
as one may see all the woods behind despoiled of their leaves by locusts,
after they have been there, so was there nothing left behind Simon's army
but a desert. Some places they burnt down, some they utterly demolished,
and whatsoever grew in the country, they either trod it down or fed upon
it, and by their marches they made the ground that was cultivated harder
and more untractable than that which was barren. In short, there was no
sign remaining of those places that had been laid waste, that ever they
had had a being.
1 Some of the ancients call this famous tree, or grove, an oak others, a turpentine tree, or grove. It has been very famous in all the past ages, and is so, I suppose, at this day; and that particularly for an eminent mart or meeting of merchants there every year, as the travelers inform us.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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