know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord."

Jehoiachin's Release (2 Kings xxv. 27–30). And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year1 of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison; and he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon; and changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life. And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.

1 seven and thirtieth year. 561 в. C. Evil-merodach (Amel-Marduk) was the son of Nebuchadrezzar. He reigned 562-560 B. C.

The prophetic religion was continued by the Jewish exiles in Babylonia. The earlier captives from North Israel were scattered widely through the Assyrian provinces, and though they have often been imagined as maintaining themselves somewhere as the "lost Ten Tribes," they were doubtless absorbed into the native communities. The fugitives to Egypt became estranged from the prophetic tradition. But in Babylonia the Jews advanced their national faith. Their loyalty is touchingly expressed in the 137th psalm:

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down, yea, we wept,
When we remembered Zion.

Upon the willows in the midst thereof

We hanged up our harps.

For there they that led us captive required of us songs;

And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,

"Sing us one of the songs of Zion."

How shall we sing the Lord's song

In a strange land?

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,

Let my right hand forget her cunning.

Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,

If I remember not thee!

XII

THE RENEWAL OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN

1

2

PALESTINE

The Decree of Cyrus (Ezra i. 1-8). Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout. all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying: "Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all his people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem."

Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in

1 the first year of Cyrus. That is, his first year as king of Babylon, 538 B. C. Cyrus, at first king of Anshan, a district of Elam, became master of Media in 549 B. C. After consolidating the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, he turned its army against Croesus of Lydia, and finally against Babylonia, the most powerful and wealthy country within his view. The Babylonian king Nabonidus had given his subjects offence by centralizing the worship of the provinces within the capital, so that Cyrus had partisans in Babylon itself, who, after the defeat of their army, opened the city gates to him. A recently found proclamation of Cyrus shows that he was conciliatory towards the religious prejudices of his new subjects. He declares that Babylon had been delivered to him by its own god Marduk, and he invokes the favor of Bel and Nebo. "The gods of the land of Sumer and Akkad," he says, "whom Nabona'id had brought to Babylon, I caused to resume their abode in their own shrines." To restore to the Jews their sacred vessels, and permit the rebuilding of their temple, would be part of the same policy.

2 "For thus saith Jehovah, After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place." Jer. xxix. 10.

Jerusalem. And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods; even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

1

The Refounding of the Temple (Ezra iii.; iv. 1-5, 24). And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. And they set the altar in its place; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required; and afterward offered the continual burnt offering, and the offerings of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea unto Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.

Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem, to lay the foundation of the house of the Lord. And they appointed the

1 prince. "whom he had made governor." Ezra v. 14.

Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord. Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

Now when the adversaries1 of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the

temple unto the Lord God of Israel; then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them: "Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur,2 which brought us up hither." But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them: "Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we

1 the adversaries. The Samaritans, here called 'adversaries' by anticipation. 2 Esar-haddon was king of Assyria 681-668 B. C.

ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us." Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.1

The Building Recommenced (Haggai i.). In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai2 the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying: "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built."

Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying: "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled 3 houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands."

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of

1 Darius reigned 521-485 B. C., so that work on the temple was interrupted for about sixteen years.

2 Haggai was seconded in his work of exhortation by Zechariah, whose addresses aimed to maintain and guide the devotion of the temple-builders.

8 ceiled. Panelled.