(271) While the holy house was on fire, everything was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were killed; nor was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all killed in the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, and brought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplication for their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. (272) The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were killed; and because this hill was high, and the works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine anything either greater or more terrible than this noise; (273) for there was at once a shout of the Roman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor of the rebellious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword. The people also that were left above were beaten back upon the enemy, and under a great consternation, and made sad moans at the calamity they were under; (274) the multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with those that were upon the hill. And besides, many of those that were worn away by the famine, and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire of the holy house, they exerted their utmost strength, and broke out into groans and outcries again: Perea did also return the echo, as well as the mountains around [the city], and augmented the force of the entire noise. (275) Yet was the misery itself more terrible than this disorder; for one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the temple stood, was seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it, that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were killed more in number than those that killed them; (276) for the ground did nowhere appear visible, for the dead bodies that lay on it; but the soldiers went over heaps of those bodies, as they ran upon such as fled from them. (277) And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were thrust out [of the inner court of the temple by the Romans] and had much ado to get into the outward court, and from there into the city, while the remainder of the populace fled into the passage of that outer court. (278) As for the priests, some of them plucked up from the holy house the spikes that were upon it, with their bases, which were made of lead, and shot them at the Romans instead of darts. (279) But then as they gained nothing by so doing, and as the fire burst out upon them, they retried to the wall that was eight cubits broad, and there they waited; (280) yet did two of these of eminence among them, who might have saved themselves by going over to the Romans, or have borne up with courage, and taken their fortune with the others, throw themselves into the fire, and were burned together with the holy house; their names were Meirus the son of Belgas, and Joseph the son of Daleus.

(281) And now the Romans, judging that it was in vain to spare what was around the holy house, burned all those places, as also the remains of the passages and the gate, two excepted; the one on the east side, and the other on the south; both which, however, they burnt afterward. (282) They also burned down the trasury chambers, in which was an immense quantity of money, and an immense number of garments, and other precious goods there reposited; and, to speak all in a few words, there it was that the entire riches of the Jews were heaped up together, while the rich people had there built themselves chambers [to contain such furniture]. (283) The soldiers also came to the rest of the passages that were in the outer [court of the] temple, where the women and children, and a great mixed multitude of the people, fled, in number about six thousand. (284) But before Caesar had determined anything about these people, or given the commanders any orders relating to them, the soldiers were in such a rage, that they set that passage on fire; by which means it came to pass that some of these were destroyed by throwing themselves down headlong, and some were burned in the passages themselves. Nor did any one of them escape with his life. (285) A false prophet was the occasion of these people's destruction, who had made a public proclamation in the city that very day, that God commanded them to get upon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. (286) Now there was then a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose on the people, who pronounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance from God; and this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes. (287) Now a man that is in adversity does easily comply with such promises; for when such a seducer makes him believe that he shall be delivered from those miseries which oppress him, then it is that the patient is full of hopes of such his deliverance.