their
liberty, with the remembrance of the injuries that had been offered
them, he sent some of them and their children for hostages to Rome, to
Claudius Caesar, and sent the others to Artabanus, the king of Parthia,
with the like intentions.

4. And when he perceived that his mother was highly pleased with the
Jewish customs, he made haste to change, and to embrace them entirely;
and as he supposed that he could not be thoroughly a Jew unless he
were circumcised, he was ready to have it done. But when his mother
understood what he was about, she endeavored to hinder him from doing
it, and said to him that this thing would bring him into danger; and
that, as he was a king, he would thereby bring himself into great odium
among his subjects, when they should understand that he was so fond of
rites that were to them strange and foreign; and that they would never
bear to be ruled over by a Jew. This it was that she said to him, and
for the present persuaded him to forbear. And when he had related what
she had said to Ananias, he confirmed what his mother had said; and when
he had also threatened to leave him, unless he complied with him, he
went away from him, and said that he was afraid lest such an action
being once become public to all, he should himself be in danger of
punishment for having been the occasion of it, and having been the
king's instructor in actions that were of ill reputation; and he said
that he might worship God without being circumcised, even though he did
resolve to follow the Jewish law entirely, which worship of God was of
a superior nature to circumcision. He added, that God would forgive him,
though he did not perform the operation, while it was omitted out
of necessity, and for fear of his subjects. So the king at that time
complied with these persuasions of Ananias. But afterwards, as he had
not quite left off his desire of doing this thing, a certain other Jew
that came out of Galilee, whose name was Eleazar, and who was esteemed
very skillful in the learning of his country, persuaded him to do the
thing; for as he entered into his palace to salute him, and found him
reading the law of Moses, he said to him, "Thou dost not consider, O
king! that thou unjustly breakest the principal of those laws, and art
injurious to God himself, [by omitting to be circumcised]; for thou
oughtest not only to read them, but chiefly to practice what they enjoin
thee. How long wilt thou continue uncircumcised? But