or holy places; but, so far as
I remember, never gives that character of the court of the Gentiles. See
B. V. ch. 9. sect. 2.

[8] This appellation of Jerusalem given it here by Simon, the general of
the Idumeans, "the common city" of the Idumeans, who were proselytes of
justice, as well as of the original native Jews, greatly confirms that
maxim of the Rabbins, here set down by Reland, that "Jerusalem was not
assigned, or appropriated, to the tribe of Benjamin or Judah, but every
tribe had equal right to it [at their coming to worship there at the
several festivals]." See a little before, ch. 3. sect. 3, or "worldly
worship," as the author to the Hebrews calls the sanctuary, "a worldly
sanctuary."

[9] Some commentators are ready to suppose that this "Zacharias, the son
of Baruch," here most unjustly slain by the Jews in the temple, was the
very same person with "Zacharias, the son of Barachias," whom our Savior
says the Jews "slew between the temple and the altar," Matthew 23:35.
This is a somewhat strange exposition; since Zechariah the prophet was
really "the son of Barachiah," and "grandson of Iddo, Zechariah 1:1;
and how he died, we have no other account than that before us in St.
Matthew: while this "Zacharias" was "the son of Baruch." Since the
slaughter was past when our Savior spake these words, the Jews had then
already slain him; whereas this slaughter of "Zacharias, the son of
Baruch," in Josephus, was then about thirty-four years future. And since
the slaughter was "between the temple and the altar," in the court
of the priests, one of the most sacred and remote parts of the whole
temple; while this was, in Josephus's own words, in the middle of the
temple, and much the most probably in the court of Israel only [for we
have had no intimation that the zealots had at this time profaned the
court of the priests. See B. V. ch. 1. sect. 2]. Nor do I believe that
our Josephus, who always insists on the peculiar sacredness of the
inmost court, and of the holy house that was in it, would have omitted
so material an aggravation of this barbarous murder, as perpetrated in.
a place so very holy, had that been the true place of it. See Antiq. B.
XI. ch. 7. sect. 1, and the note here on B. V. ch. 1. sect. 2.

[10] This prediction, that the city [Jerusalem] should then "be taken,
and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invade
Jews, and their own hands should pollute that temple;" or, as it is