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Destruction of Jerusalem
17
was imprisoned and scourged; but no complaint escaped his lips. To
insult and abuse he answered only, “Woe to Jerusalem! woe, woe
to the inhabitants thereof!” His warning cry ceased not until he was
slain in the siege he had foretold.
Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem.
Christ had given his disciples warning, and all who believed his
words watched for the promised sign. After the Romans had sur-
rounded the city, they unexpectedly withdrew their forces, at a time
when everything seemed favorable for an immediate attack. In the
providence of God the promised signal was thus given to the waiting
Christians, and without a moment’s delay they fled to a place of
safety,—the refuge city Pella, in the land of Perea, beyond Jordan.
Terrible were the calamities which fell upon Jerusalem in the
siege of the city by Titus. The last desperate assault was made
at the time of the passover, when millions of Jews had assembled
within its walls to celebrate the national festival. Their stores of
provision, which if carefully preserved would have been sufficient
to supply the inhabitants for years, had previously been destroyed
through the jealousy and revenge of the contending factions, and
now all the horrors of starvation were experienced. A measure of
wheat was sold for a talent. Great numbers of the people would
steal out at night, to appease their hunger by devouring herbs and
wild plants growing outside the city walls, though they were often
[33]
detected, and punished with torture and death. Some would gnaw
the leather on their shields and sandals. The most inhuman tortures
were inflicted by those in power to force from the want-stricken
people the last scanty supplies which they might have concealed.
And these cruelties were not infrequently practiced by men who
were themselves well fed, and who were merely desirous of laying
up a store of provision for the future.
Thousands perished from famine and pestilence. Natural affec-
tion seemed to have been utterly destroyed. Children would be seen
snatching the food from the mouths of their aged parents. The ques-
tion of the prophet, “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” [
Isaiah
49:15
.] received the answer within the walls of that doomed city,
“The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children;
they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
[
Lamentations 4:10
.]