re naturally mild in
their conquests, and preferred what was profitable, before what their
passions dictated to them; which profit of theirs lay not in leaving the
city empty of inhabitants, nor the country a desert; on which account
Caesar did now offer them his right hand for their security. Whereas,
if he took the city by force, he would not save any of them, and
this especially, if they rejected his offers in these their utmost
distresses; for the walls that were already taken could not but assure
them that the third wall would quickly be taken also. And though their
fortifications should prove too strong for the Romans to break through
them, yet would the famine fight for the Romans against them.

4. While Josephus was making this exhortation to the Jews, many of them
jested upon him from the wall, and many reproached him; nay, some threw
their darts at him: but when he could not himself persuade them by such
open good advice, he betook himself to the histories belonging to their
own nation, and cried out aloud, "O miserable creatures! are you so
unmindful of those that used to assist you, that you will fight by your
weapons and by your hands against the Romans? When did we ever conquer
any other nation by such means? and when was it that God, who is the
Creator of the Jewish people, did not avenge them when they had been
injured? Will not you turn again, and look back, and consider whence it
is that you fight with such violence, and how great a Supporter you have
profanely abused? Will not you recall to mind the prodigious things done
for your forefathers and this holy place, and how great enemies of yours
were by him subdued under you? I even tremble myself in declaring the
works of God before your ears, that are unworthy to hear them; however,
hearken to me, that you may be informed how you fight not only against
the Romans, but against God himself. In old times there was one Necao,
king of Egypt, who was also called Pharaoh; he came with a prodigious
army of soldiers, and seized queen Sarah, the mother of our nation.
What did Abraham our progenitor then do? Did he defend himself from
this injurious person by war, although he had three hundred and eighteen
captains under him, and an immense army under each of them? Indeed he
deemed them to be no number at all without God's assistance, and only
spread out his hands towards this holy place, [16] which you have
now polluted, and reckoned upon him as upon his invinci