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However, neither did Eleazar once think of flying away, nor would
he permit any one else to do so; but when he saw their wall burned down
by the fire, and could devise no other way of escaping, or room for their
further courage, and setting before their eyes what the Romans would do
to them, their children, and their wives, if they got them into their power,
he consulted about having them all slain. Now as he judged this to be the
best thing they could do in their present circumstances, he gathered the
most courageous of his companions together, and encouraged them to take
that course by a speech
1
which he made to them in the manner following: "Since we, long ago,
my generous friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to
any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind,
the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice.
And let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves for self-contradiction,
while we formerly would not undergo slavery, though it were then without
danger, but must now, together with slavery, choose such punishments also
as are intolerable; I mean this, upon the supposition that the Romans once
reduce us under their power while we are alive. We were the very first
that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them; and
I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God hath granted us, that it is
still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath
not been the case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very
plain that we shall be taken within a day's time; but it is still an eligible
thing to die after a glorious manner, together with our dearest friends.
This is what our enemies themselves cannot by any means hinder, although
they be very desirous to take us alive. Nor can we propose to ourselves
any more to fight them, and beat them. It had been proper indeed for us
to have conjectured at the purpose of God much sooner, and at the very
first, when we were so desirous of defending our liberty, and when we received
such sore treatment from one another, and worse treatment from our enemies,
and to have been sensible that the same God, who had of old taken the Jewish
nation into his favor, had now condemned them to destruction; for had he
either continued favorable, or been but in a lesser degree displeased with
us, he had not overlooked the destruction of so many men, or delivered
his most holy city to be burnt and demolished by our enemies. To be sure
we weakly hoped to have preserved ourselves, and ourselves alone, still
in a state of freedom, as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves against
God, nor been partners with those of others; we also taught other men to
preserve their liberty. Wherefore, consider how God hath convinced us that
our hopes were in vain, by bringing such distress upon us in the desperate
state we are now in, and which is beyond all our expectations; for the
nature of this fortress which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved
a means of our deliverance; and even while we have still great abundance
of food, and a great quantity of arms, and other necessaries more than
we want, we are openly deprived by God himself of all hope of deliverance;
for that fire which was driven upon our enemies did not of its own accord
turn back upon the wall which we had built; this was the effect of God's
anger against us for our manifold sins, which we have been guilty of in
a most insolent and extravagant manner with regard to our own countrymen;
the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans, but from God
himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will be more moderate
than the other. Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children
before they have tasted of slavery; and after we have slain them, let us
bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves
in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us. But first let us destroy
our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured that this will
be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon
our bodies, and shall fall of our wealth also; and let us spare nothing
but our provisions; for they will be a testimonial when we are dead that
we were not subdued for want of necessaries, but that, according to our
original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery."