Page:Jerusalem's captivities lamented, or, A plain description of Jerusalem (2).pdf/5

This page has been validated.

5

towers, the second wall had fourteen, and the third wall had sixty. Agrippa built a fourth wall ten cubits high, but did not finish it, lest Claudius Cæsar should think that he designed to rebel; yet the Jews afterwards built it twenty cubits high, and raised a battlement two cubits, and built three towers thereon; all their towers were built of white marble, each stone being twenty cubits long, ten broad, and five thick, so curiously joined, that they seened but one stone, and the compass of the city, from the north to the west, was forty-three furlongs.

Within the city was the king's palace, surpassing all in the world for largeness and workmanship, environed with a wall, which was thirty cubits high, adorned with towers, and beautified with houses to an hundred of the nobility; and in every room were many vessels of gold and silver, and porches adorned with curious pillars, and many pleasant walks, with all manner of trees and fountains, which spouted out water, with cisterns and brazen statues, from which water ran continually.

The temple was built upon a rocky mountain, and the place at the top, was not at first big enough for the temple and court, the hill being very steep, but the people every day brought earth thither, and they at last made it plain, and large enough, with wonderful curiosity and labour, inclosed with three walls, which were many days labour, with the cost of all the holy treasure offered to God from all parts; the foundation of the temple was laid three hundred