splendor, and made those
who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as
they would have done at the sun's own rays. But this temple appeared to
strangers, when they were coming to it at a distance, like a mountain
covered with snow; for as to those parts of it that were not gilt, they
were exceeding white. On its top it had spikes with sharp points, to
prevent any pollution of it by birds sitting upon it. Of its stones,
some of them were forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six
in breadth. Before this temple stood the altar, fifteen cubits high,
and equal both in length and breadth; each of which dimensions was fifty
cubits. The figure it was built in was a square, and it had corners like
horns; and the passage up to it was by an insensible acclivity. It was
formed without any iron tool, nor did any such iron tool so much as
touch it at any time. There was also a wall of partition, about a cubit
in height, made of fine stones, and so as to be grateful to the sight;
this encompassed the holy house and the altar, and kept the people that
were on the outside off from the priests. Moreover, those that had the
gonorrhea and the leprosy were excluded out of the city entirely; women
also, when their courses were upon them, were shut out of the temple;
nor when they were free from that impurity, were they allowed to go
beyond the limit before-mentioned; men also, that were not thoroughly
pure, were prohibited to come into the inner [court of the] temple; nay,
the priests themselves that were not pure were prohibited to come into
it also.

7. Now all those of the stock of the priests that could not minister
by reason of some defect in their bodies, came within the partition,
together with those that had no such imperfection, and had their share
with them by reason of their stock, but still made use of none except
their own private garments; for nobody but he that officiated had on his
sacred garments; but then those priests that were without any blemish
upon them went up to the altar clothed in fine linen. They abstained
chiefly from wine, out of this fear, lest otherwise they should
transgress some rules of their ministration. The high priest did also go
up with them; not always indeed, but on the seventh days and new moons,
and if any festivals belonging to our nation, which we celebrate every
year, happened. When he officiated, he had on a pair of breeches that
reached beneath his privy pa