a large body of people were very angry
on account of their gross breaches of their laws, and [illegal]
judicatures, insomuch that although some part might commiserate them,
those would be quite overborne by the majority.

CHAPTER 4.

The Idumeans Being Sent For By The Zealots, Came Immediately
To Jerusalem; And When They Were Excluded Out Of The City,
They Lay All Night There. Jesus One Of The High Priests
Makes A Speech To Them; And Simon The Idumean Makes A Reply
To It.

1. Now, by this crafty speech, John made the zealots afraid; yet durst
he not directly name what foreign assistance he meant, but in a covert
way only intimated at the Idumeans. But now, that he might particularly
irritate the leaders of the zealots, he calumniated Ananus, that he was
about a piece of barbarity, and did in a special manner threaten them.
These leaders were Eleazar, the son of Simon, who seemed the most
plausible man of them all, both in considering what was fit to be done,
and in the execution of what he had determined upon, and Zacharias, the
son of Phalek; both of whom derived their families from the priests.
Now when these two men had heard, not only the common threatenings which
belonged to them all, but those peculiarly leveled against themselves;
and besides, how Artanus and his party, in order to secure their own
dominion, had invited the Romans to come to them, for that also was
part of John's lie; they hesitated a great while what they should do,
considering the shortness of the time by which they were straitened;
because the people were prepared to attack them very soon, and because
the suddenness of the plot laid against them had almost cut off all
their hopes of getting any foreign assistance; for they might be under
the height of their afflictions before any of their confederates could
be informed of it. However, it was resolved to call in the Idumeans; so
they wrote a short letter to this effect: That Ananus had imposed on
the people, and was betraying their metropolis to the Romans; that
they themselves had revolted from the rest, and were in custody in the
temple, on account of the preservation of their liberty; that there was
but a small time left wherein they might hope for their deliverance; and
that unless they would come immediately to their assistance, they should
themselves be soon in the power of Artanus, and the city would be in the
power of the Romans. They also charged the mes