Antiquities of the Jews — Book 9, Chapter 10

1. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Amaziah, Jeroboam the son of
Joash reigned over Israel in Samaria forty years. This king was guilty
of contumely against God, 18 and became very wicked in worshipping of
idols, and in many undertakings that were absurd and foreign. He was
also the cause of ten thousand misfortunes to the people of Israel. Now
one Jonah, a prophet, foretold to him that he should make war with the
Syrians, and conquer their army, and enlarge the bounds of his kingdom
on the northern parts to the city Hamath, and on the southern to the
lake Asphaltitis; for the bounds of the Canaanites originally were
these, as Joshua their general had determined them. So Jeroboam made an
expedition against the Syrians, and overran all their country, as Jonah
had foretold.

2. Now I cannot but think it necessary for me, who have promised to give
an accurate account of our affairs, to describe the actions of this
prophet, so far as I have found them written down in the Hebrew books.
Jonah had been commanded by God to go to the kingdom of Nineveh; and
when he was there, to publish it in that city, how it should lose the
dominion it had over the nations. But he went not, out of fear; nay, he
ran away from God to the city of Joppa, and finding a ship there, he
went into it, and sailed to Tarsus, in Cilicia 19 and upon the rise of a
most terrible storm, which was so great that the ship was in danger of
sinking, the mariners, the master, and the pilot himself, made prayers
and vows, in case they escaped the sea: but Jonah lay still and covered
[in the ship,] without imitating any thing that the others did; but as
the waves grew greater, and the sea became more violent by the winds,
they suspected, as is usual in such cases, that some one of the persons
that sailed with them was the occasion of this storm, and agreed to
discover by lot 20 which of them it was. When they had cast lots, 21 the
lot fell upon the prophet; and when they asked him whence he came, and
what he had done? he replied, that he was a Hebrew by nation, and a
prophet of Almighty God; and he persuaded them to cast him into the sea,
if they would escape the danger they were in, for that he was the
occasion of the storm which was upon them. Now at the first they durst
not do so, as esteeming it a wicked thing to cast a man who was a
stranger, and who had committed his life to them, into such manifest
perdition; but at last, when their misfortune overbore them, and the
ship was just going to be drowned, and when they were animated to do it
by the prophet himself, and by the fear concerning their own safety,
they cast him into the sea; upon which the sea became calm. It is also
reported that Jonah was swallowed down by a whale, and that when he had
been there three days, and as many nights, he was vomited out upon the
Euxine Sea, and this alive, and without any hurt upon his body; and
there, on his prayer to God, he obtained pardon for his sins, and went
to the city Nineveh, where he stood so as to be heard, and preached,
that in a very little time they should lose the dominion of Asia. And
when he had published this, he returned. Now I have given this account
about him as I found it written [in our books.]

3. When Jeroboam the king had passed his life in great happiness, and
had ruled forty years, he died, and was buried in Samaria, and his son
Zachariah took the kingdom. After the same manner did Uzziah, the son of
Amaziah, begin to reign over the two tribes in Jerusalem, in the
fourteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam. He was born of Jecoliah, his
mother, who was a citizen of Jerusalem. He was a good man, and by nature
righteous and magnanimous, and very laborious in taking care of the
affairs of his kingdom. He made an expedition also against the
Philistines, and overcame them in battle, and took the cities of Gath
and Jabneh, and brake down their walls; after which expedition he
assaulted those Arabs that adjoined to Egypt. He also built a city upon
the Red Sea, and put a garrison into it. He, after this, overthrew the
Ammonites, and appointed that they should pay tribute. He also overcame
all the countries as far as the bounds of Egypt, and then began to take
care of Jerusalem itself for the rest of his life; for he rebuilt and
repaired all those parts of the wall which had either fallen down by
length of time, or by the carelessness of the kings, his predecessors,
as well as all that part which had been thrown down by the king of
Israel, when he took his father Amaziah prisoner, and entered with him
into the city. Moreover, he built a great many towers, of one hundred
and fifty cubits high, and built walled towns in desert places, and put
garrisons into them, and dug many channels for conveyance of water. He
had also many beasts for labor, and an immense number of cattle; for his
country was fit for pasturage. He was also given to husbandry, and took
care to cultivate the ground, and planted it with all sorts of plants,
and sowed it with all sorts of seeds. He had also about him an army
composed of chosen men, in number three hundred and seventy thousand,
who were governed by general officers and captains of thousands, who
were men of valor, and of unconquerable strength, in number two
thousand. He also divided his whole army into bands, and armed them,
giving every one a sword, with brazen bucklers and breastplates, with
bows and slings; and besides these, he made for them many engines of war
for besieging of cities, such as cast stones and darts, with grapplers,
and other instruments of that sort.

4. While Uzziah was in this state, and making preparation [for
futurity], he was corrupted in his mind by pride, and became insolent,
and this on account of that abundance which he had of things that will
soon perish, and despised that power which is of eternal duration [which
consisted in piety towards God, and in the observation of the laws]; so
he fell by occasion of the good success of his affairs, and was carried
headlong into those sins of his father, which the splendor of that
prosperity he enjoyed, and the glorious actions he had done, led him
into, while he was not able to govern himself well about them.
Accordingly, when a remarkable day was come, and a general festival was
to be celebrated, he put on the holy garment, and went into the temple
to offer incense to God upon the golden altar, which he was prohibited
to do by Azariah the high priest, who had fourscore priests with him,
and who told him that it was not lawful for him to offer sacrifice, and
that "none besides the posterity of Aaron were permitted so to do." And
when they cried out that he must go out of the temple, and not
transgress against God, he was wroth at them, and threatened to kill
them, unless they would hold their peace. In the mean time a great
earthquake shook the ground and a rent was made in the temple, and the
bright rays of the sun shone through it, and fell upon the king's face,
insomuch that the leprosy seized upon him immediately. And before the
city, at a place called Eroge, half the mountain broke off from the rest
on the west, and rolled itself four furlongs, and stood still at the
east mountain, till the roads, as well as the king's gardens, were
spoiled by the obstruction. Now, as soon as the priests saw that the
king's face was infected with the leprosy, they told him of the calamity
he was under, and commanded that he should go out of the city as a
polluted person. Hereupon he was so confounded at the sad distemper, and
sensible that he was not at liberty to contradict, that he did as he was
commanded, and underwent this miserable and terrible punishment for an
intention beyond what befitted a man to have, and for that impiety
against God which was implied therein. So he abode out of the city for
some time, and lived a private life, while his son Jotham took the
government; after which he died with grief and anxiety at what had
happened to him, when he had lived sixty-eight years, and reigned of
them fifty-two; and was buried by himself in his own gardens.