“And I have sent to thee Andreas, the captain of my guard, and Aristeus, men whom I have in very great esteem; by whom I have sent those first-fruits which I have dedicated to the temple, and to the sacrifices, and to other uses, to the value of a hundred talents; and if thou wilt send to us, to let us know what thou wouldst have further, thou wilt do a thing acceptable to me.” When this epistle of the King was brought to Eleazar, he wrote an answer to it with all the respect possible:— “Eleazar the high priest to King Ptolemy, sendeth greeting. If thou and thy queen Arsinoe, and thy children, be well, we are entirely satisfied. When we received thy epistle, we greatly rejoiced at thy intentions; and when the multitude were gathered together, we read it to them, and thereby made them sensible of the piety thou hast towards God. We also showed them the twenty vials of gold, and thirty of silver, and the five large basins, and the table for the shew-bread; as also the hundred talents for the sacrifices, and for the making what shall be needful at the temple: which things Andreas and Aristeus, those most honoured friends of thine, have brought us; and truly they are persons of an excellent character, and of great learning, and worthy of thy virtue. “Know then that we will gratify thee in what is for thy advantage, though we do what we used not to do before; for we ought to make a return for the numerous acts of kindness which thou hast done to our countrymen. We immediately, therefore, offered sacrifices for thee and thy sister, with thy children and friends; and the multitude made prayers, that thy affairs may be to thy mind; and that thy kingdom may be preserved in peace, and that the translation of our law may come to the conclusion thou desirest, and be for thy advantage. “We have also chosen six elders out of every tribe, whom we have sent, and the law with them. It will be thy part, out of thy piety and justice, to send back the law when it hath been translated; and to return those to us that bring it in safety. Farewell!” This was the reply which the high priest made; but it does not seem to me to be necessary to set down the names of the seventy elders who were sent by Eleazar, and carried the law, which yet were subjoined at the end of the Epistle. However, I thought it not improper to give an account of those very valuable and artificially contrived vessels which the King sent to God, that all may see how great a regard the King had for God, for the King allowed a vast deal of expenses for these vessels, and came often to the workmen, and viewed their work, and suffered nothing of carelessness or negligence to be any damage to their operations; and I will relate how rich they were as well as I am able, although, perhaps, the nature of this history may not require such a description; but I imagine I shall thereby recommend the elegant taste and magnanimity of this King to those that read this history.