Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

560 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
Priests And Alexander was exceedingly wroth with the
priests, and he slew them.
And it came to pass that one of the priests
escaped and came and stood up in the enclosure
of the Sanctuary, and he smote the threshold with
his foot three times, and said, "O Zechariah,
"Zechariah, art thou not satisfied? Behold, all
"those who slew thee are slain." Now formerly
Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, had prophesied
concerning [p. 359] the coming of our Lord, saying,
"Rejoice, O daughter of Zion, and be glad, O
Prophecy of "daughter ofJerusalem, for behold thy King cometh,
"righteous and lowly, and riding upon an ass, and
"upon the colt of an ass,"' and for this reason
they slew him upon the threshold of the Temple.
And God Almighty commanded the threshold, and
it was rent asunder, and it swallowed up Zechariah
the Prophet, and his blood oozed forth from the
threshold until the coming of Alexander the kino-.
Alexander And it Came to pass that after Alexander the
Illdet "king had slain the priests he took the scarlet cloak
cloak.
^^^ wore it for three days, but afterwards he took
it off him and folded it up, and said, "O God, my
"God, let Thy Will be done in the matter of this
"cloak;" and he laid it down. Then Alexander
He goes to sct out and came to the Country of the Blessed,
the Island of . i -i ,
, . .
^
the Blessed, and he passed over to them and made enquiries
of them how they had come thither and what
manner of life they led in that country. And he
^ Zechariah ix. 9.