And Jesus said unto them, see ye not all these things?.... "These great buildings", as in Mark; all these goodly stones, so beautiful and large, and so firmly put together:
verily, I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down; or broken, as Munster's Hebrew Gospel reads it: which prediction had a full and remarkable accomplishment; and which is not only attested by Josephus y, who relates, that both the city and temple were dug up, and laid level with the ground; but also by other Jewish writers; who tell us z that
"on the ninth of Ab, a day prepared for punishments, Turnus Rufus the wicked, חרש את ההיכל, "ploughed up the temple", and all round about it, to fulfil what is said, "Zion shall be ploughed as a field".''
Yes, and to fulfil what Christ here says too, that not one stone should be left upon another, which a plough would not admit of.
y De Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 7. z Maimon. Hilch. Taaniot, c. 5. sect. 3. T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 23. 1. & Gloss. in ib.