tained those stones, to give the artificers leave to
choose out what sorts of them they pleased. He withal appointed, that
a hundred talents in money should be sent to the temple for sacrifices,
and for other uses. Now I will give a description of these vessels, and
the manner of their construction, but not till after I have set down a
copy of the epistle which was written to Eleazar the high priest, who
had obtained that dignity on the occasion following: When Onias the high
priest was dead, his son Simon became his successor. He was called
Simon the Just [5] because of both his piety towards God, and his kind
disposition to those of his own nation. When he was dead, and had left a
young son, who was called Onias, Simon's brother Eleazar, of whom we are
speaking, took the high priesthood; and he it was to whom Ptolemy wrote,
and that in the manner following: "King Ptolemy to Eleazar the high
priest, sendeth greeting. There are many Jews who now dwell in my
kingdom, whom the Persians, when they were in power, carried captives.
These were honored by my father; some of them he placed in the army, and
gave them greater pay than ordinary; to others of them, when they came
with him into Egypt, he committed his garrisons, and the guarding of
them, that they might be a terror to the Egyptians. And when I had taken
the government, I treated all men with humanity, and especially those
that are thy fellow citizens, of whom I have set free above a hundred
thousand that were slaves, and paid the price of their redemption to
their masters out of my own revenues; and those that are of a fit age,
I have admitted into them number of my soldiers. And for such as are
capable of being faithful to me, and proper for my court, I have put
them in such a post, as thinking this [kindness done to them] to be
a very great and an acceptable gift, which I devote to God for his
providence over me. And as I am desirous to do what will be grateful
to these, and to all the other Jews in the habitable earth, I have
determined to procure an interpretation of your law, and to have it
translated out of Hebrew into Greek, and to be deposited in my library.
Thou wilt therefore do well to choose out and send to me men of a good
character, who are now elders in age, and six in number out of every
tribe. These, by their age, must be skillful in the laws, and of
abilities to make an accurate interpretation of them; and when this
shall be finished, I shall think t