Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

18:9-17
And every shipmaster and everyone who sails anywhere,
and every sailor, and as many as make their living by the
sea, stood at a distance,
18 and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
saying: Who is like the Great City?
19 And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out,
weeping and mourning, saying: Woe, woe, the Great
City, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her
costliness, for in one hour she has been laid waste!
20 Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles
and prophets, because God has judged your judgment
against her!
9-10 Three classes of people lament for the destruction
of Jerusalem. The first group comprises the kings of the
earth, the nations of the empire who aided and abetted
the faithless Covenant people in their apostasy from
God. The destruction of the Harlot is a fearful sign to
them of God’s rigorous and inexorable judgment. They
see the smoke of her burning – a symbol borrowed
from the destruction of Sodom (Gen. 19:28) and the
later, metaphorical description of the fall of Edom (Isa.
34:10) – and are reminded that a similar judgment on
themselves cannot be long in coming. God declared to
the prophet Jeremiah that the nations of the earth
would be forced to drink the cup of His fierce wrath:
“And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your
hand to drink, then you will say to them, Thus says the
LORD of hosts: You shall surely drink! For behold, I am
beginning to work calamity in this City which is called
by My name, and shall you be completely free from
punishment? You will not be free from punishment; for
I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of
the earth, declares the LORD of hosts” (Jer. 25:28-29).
The lament of each group ends with the words, Woe,
woe, the Great City! This expression would turn out to
have great significance for those living in Jerusalem in
the years before and during the Tribulation. Josephus
tells of a Jewish prophet (interestingly, his name was
Jesus) in the Last Days, whose cry of “Woe, woe!”
became a familiar aspect of life in the City.
A portent still more alarming had appeared four years
before the war at a time when profound peace and prosperity
still prevailed in the city [i. e., A.D. 62]. One Jesus, the son of
Ananias, an uncouth peasant, came to the feast at which
every Jew is expected to put up a tabernacle for God [i.e., the
Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkoth]; as he stood in the Temple
courts he suddenly began to cry out: “A voice from the east,
a voice from the west, a voice from the Four Winds, a voice
against Jerusalem and the Sanctuary, a voice against the
Bridegroom and the Bride, a voice against the whole people!”
Day and night he uttered this cry as he went about all the
alleys.
Some of the leading citizens, seriously annoyed at these
ominous pronouncements, laid hold of the man and beat him
savagely. But he, without uttering a word in his own defense,
or for the private information of those who were beating him,
persisted in uttering the same warnings as before. Thereupon,
the magistrates, rightly concluding that some supernatural
impulse was responsible for his behavior, took him before the
Roman governor. There, although flayed to the bone with
scourges, he neither begged for mercy nor shed a tear, but,
raising his voice to a most mournful cry, answered every
stroke with “Woe, woe, to Jerusalem!” When Albinus, the
governor, asked him who he was and whence he came and
why he uttered these cries, he made no reply whatever, but
endlessly repeated his dirge over the city, until Albinus
released him because he judged him insane.
Throughout this time, until the war broke out, he never
approached another citizen nor was he seen talking to any,
but daily, like a prayer that he had memorized, he recited his
lament: “Woe, woe, to Jerusalem!” He never cursed any of
those who beat him from day to day, nor did he thank those
who gave him food; his only response to anyone was that
melancholy prediction. His voice was heard most of all at the
festivals. So, for seven years and five months he continued his
wail, his voice as strong as ever and his vigor unabated, till,
during the siege, after seeing the fulfillment of his foreboding,
he was silenced. He was going his rounds, shouting in
penetrating tones from the wall, “Woe, woe, once more to the
city, and the people and the Temple!” Then, when he added
a last word – “And woe to me also!” – a stone hurled from the
ballista struck him, killing him on the spot. Thus, with those
same forebodings still upon his lips, he met his end. 7
11-17a The second and largest group of mourners is
comprised of the merchants of the Land, weeping
because no one buys their cargoes any more. The
wealth of Jerusalem was a direct result of the blessings
promised in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. God
had made her a great commercial center, but she had
abused the gift. While there are similarities between
the list of goods here and that in Ezekiel 27:12-24 (a
prophecy against Tyre), it is likely that the items
primarily reflect the Temple and the commerce
surrounding it. Ford observes that “foreign trade had a
great influence on the holy city, and the temple drew
the largest share. The chief items were food supplies,
precious metals, luxury goods, and clothing materials.” 8
Josephus described the luxurious wealth of the Temple’s
facade (cf. Luke 21:5): “The first gate was 70 cubits
high and 25 broad; it had no doors, displaying
unhampered the vast expanse of heaven; the entire face
was covered with gold, and through it the arch of the
first hall was fully visible to an onlooker without in all
its grandeur, and the surroundings of the inner gate, all
gleaming with gold, struck the beholder’s eye. . . . The
gate opening into the building was, as I said, completely
overlaid with gold, as was the whole wall surrounding
it. Above it, moreover, were the golden grapevines
from which hung grape clusters as tall as a man. In front
of these hung a veil of equal length of Babylonian
tapestry embroidered with blue, scarlet and purple, and
fine linen, wrought with marvelous craftsmanship. . . .
The exterior of the sanctuary did not lack anything
that could amaze either mind or eye. Overlaid on all
sides with massive plates of gold, it reflected in the first
rays of the sun so fierce a flash that those looking at it
were forced to look away as from the very rays of the
sun. To strangers as they approached it, it seemed in the
distance like a mountain clad with snow; for any part
not covered with gold was of the purest white.” 9
Josephus also records that one of the priests, named
Jesus, turned over the treasures of the Temple to Titus:
“He came out and handed from over the wall of the
7. Josephus, The Jewish War, vi.v.3. 8. Ford, p. 305. 9. Josephus, The Jewish War, v.v.4, 6.
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