been accustomed to pay to the king of Egypt, and which he for three years was not ashamed to pay. But in the third year, hearing that the Egyptians were about to make war upon Babylon, he postponed making the payment. On which account Nebuchadnezzar put him to death as a rebel, and led three thousand men of Judah captive to Babylon, among whom was the prophet Ezekiel, who was as yet a boy ; and then he set Joachim, who is also called Jeconiah, over them as king. But not many days after, Nebuchadnezzar, in the eleventh year of his reign, took Jeconiah, who was coming to meet him with his mother and some of his people, and carried him to Babylon, and instead of him he set Zedekiah, his uncle, whom he also called Mattaniah, over Judah and Jerusalem. But this Zedekiah, not long after, began to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, who had adjured him by the Lord, and to act with hostility against his liberal benefactor. And then again Nebuchadnezzar returned, to wit, in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, and carried him away captive to Babylon, and threw down the wall of the city, and burnt the temple, and carried off all the vessels of the house of the Lord with him, and placed them in the temple of his own god. Daniel also, and the three children, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, who were of the royal blood, were carried off as captives, whom Nebuchadnezzar of his liberality caused to be instructed in the literature of the province and also in that of the Chaldees. Moreover the fire of the altar of burnt-offerings was taken away by the priests, and hidden in a deep and dry well, and there preserved with great diligence. There too Jeremiah the prophet caused the tabernacle of the covenant and the ark, and the altar of incense, to be taken with him to mount Abaris, which Moses had once ascended, that he might see the inheritance of the Lord ; and Jeremiah found a cave there, and he placed those things in it, offering the sacrifice of the consummation of the temple. Then he blocked up the mouth of the cave, and all those things are hidden there to tins day. But in the ark were contained the golden pot which held the manna, and the rod of Aaron which had blossomed, and the tables of the covenant. The kingdom of the nation of Judah remained there up to the present devastation and destruction of the temple, nine hundred and fourteen years and six months and ten days.