=The Messiah.=--Israel deserved its afflictions, but there would be a
limit to the chastisement. "O my people," says Isaiah in the name of
Jehovah, "be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a
rod ... after the manner of Egypt ... for yet a very little while and
the indignation shall cease ... and the burden shall be taken away
from off thy shoulder." The prophets taught the people to look for the
coming of Him who should deliver them; they prepared the way for the
Messiah.
THE JEWISH PEOPLE
=Return to Jerusalem.=--The children of Judah, removed to the plain of
the Euphrates, did not forget their country, but sang of it in their
chants: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept
when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the
midst thereof, for there they that carried us away required a song ...
saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.' How shall we sing the
Lord's song in a strange land?" After seventy years of captivity,
Cyrus, victor over Babylon, allowed the Israelites to return to
Palestine. They rebuilt Jerusalem, reconstructed the temple, restored
the feasts, and recovered the sacred books.
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