[242]
When I had laid these commands upon them, I gave them orders, and
bid them take their arms and bring three days' provision with them, and
be with me the next day. I also parted those that were about me into four
parts, and ordained those of them that were most faithful to me to be a
guard to my body. I also set over them centurions, and commanded them to
take care that not a soldier which they did not know should mingle himself
among them. Now, on the fifth day following, when I was at Gabaroth, I
found the entire plain that was before the village full of armed men, who
were come out of Galilee to assist me: many others of the multitude, also,
out of the village, ran along with me. But as soon as I had taken my place,
and began to speak to them, they all made an acclamation, and called me
the benefactor and savior of the country. And when I had made them my acknowledgments,
and thanked them [for their affection to me], I also advised them to fight
with nobody, 1
nor to spoil the country; but to pitch their tents in the plain, and be
content with their sustenance they had brought with them; for I told them
that I had a mind to compose these troubles without shedding any blood.
Now it came to pass, that on the very same day those who were sent by John
with letters, fell among the guards whom I had appointed to watch the roads;
so the men were themselves kept upon the place, as my orders were, but
I got the letters, which were full of reproaches and lies; and I intended
to fall upon these men, without saying a word of these matters to any body.
1 Josephus's directions to his soldiers here are much the same that John the Baptist gave, Luke 3:14, "Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages." Whence Dr. Hudson confirms this conjecture, that Josephus, in some things, was, even now, a follower of John the Baptist, which is no way improbable. See the note on sect. 2.
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