tried to steal out at night to search for herbs and roots, but such as were surprised were scourged and crucified by the Romans, and before long the crosses on which they were put to death stood like a forest round the Roman camp. To prevent any attempt at escape from the doomed city, and to ensure its reduction by starvation, Titus caused a wall to be built all round it. The famine was so great, that the inhabitants devoured the most loathsome things, old leather, mouldy hay, and even cow-dung. One mother killed and ate her own child I Added to the famine, there raged a devastating plague, and in the course of seven weeks no less than 716,000 dead bodies were carried away or thrown over the walls into the enemy’s camp.
After the storming of Fort Antonia, the attack was directed against the mount on which the Temple was built. After vain efforts to take the Temple by storm, Titus commanded that its gates and colonnade of cedar wood should be set on fire. He wished to save the actual Temple, but, in the excitement of the battle, a soldier threw a burning brand into the Sanctuary, and soon the glorious Temple was a heap of ruins. The fight was so furious that blood flowed literally in streams down the steps of the Temple. Finally, the upper city on Mount Sion was taken. Every Jew whom the conquerors met was cut down, and the houses with their inhabitants within were burnt. For two days and two nights the conflagration lasted, and on the third day nothing remained of the holy city but a heap of ashes.
Over a million people perished during the siege, and 97,000 were carried away into captivity and slavery. The ruins of the city and of the Temple were cleared away and the ground levelled. As our Lord foretold, there did not remain one stone upon another. And the Jews were scattered over the face of the earth.
In the year 363 A. D., the Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate, wished to rebuild the Temple, in order to bring to nought the prophecy of Jesus; but an earthquake shattered what foundations remained, and fire was vomited from the earth, killing many heathen and Jewish workmen and making the place unapproachable; so that the work had to be given up. Not long afterwards Julian was killed in an expedition against the Persians, and he died with these words on his lips: “Galilean (meaning our Lord), Thou hast conquered.”
The Divinity of Jesus Christ. His prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem, which was so exactly fulfilled, is a proof of His Divinity, for only God could foreknow all that would occur both before and at the destruction of the holy city.
The End of the World. The exact fulfilment of our Lord’s words about the destruction of Jerusalem is a pledge that what He foretold about the end of the world and His second coming will be equally fulfilled. The signs which will precede the end of the world will be similar to those which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem: wars, sedition, and earthquakes. The Gospel will first be preached to all
