the land was destitute of inhabitants until the return under Joshua and Zerubbabel. Since the family of David was not then restored to the throne the care of Yahweh for the temple was indicated by his moving gentile kings to rebuild it and to provide for the worship. Hence we learn of the decrees of Cyrus and his successors. Cyrus recognises Yahweh as God of heaven who has given him his power (Ezra 1 : 1-3); Darius encourages the work of rebuilding and provides for the sacrifices (6:6-12); Artaxerxes goes beyond either of them and authorizes Ezra to enforce the Mosaic Law, exempts the temple servants from taxation, and provides lavishly from the public revenues for the carrying on of the service (7 17-26). The performance of the ritual is the most important thing in the world, overshadowing the restoration of Israel's nationality. If the service cannot be provided for by a king of David's line, the next best thing is to have a gentile king attend to it. Hence the evident satisfaction with which these various decrees are reproduced (we cannot tell from what source) in the narrative.

A considerable part of the book (Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah) is taken up by genealogies, and this fact is explicable when we remember the priestly point of view. By divine command the temple service is in the hands of the priests and Levites. These must be of genuine Levitical blood. The community which lives about the temple in like manner must be genuinely Israelitic, for it was the descendants of Jacob whom Yahweh had chosen to be his people. The line was, therefore, sharply drawn in the postexilic community between the people of the land who were suspected of Canaanitish admixture and those who could show their purity of blood. These last alone were (in theory, at least) admitted to membership in the new community. The book of Ezra shows us the rigid logic of the purists, who demanded the divorce of foreign wives even when they had borne children to their husbands. So drastic a measure can hardly have been carried through, but the demand shows the standard set by the legalists, of whom Ezra is the type. The

most important man in the community is now the scribe, to whom the written law is everything, and obedience to it is the whole duty of man. To enforce this lesson is the purpose of the literature we have been considering.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MESSIANIC HOPE

THE history of the Jews in the Persian period is very imperfectly known. In the early part of it Zerubbabel, apparently a descendant of David, was civil governor in Jerusalem, and the little community under his rule rebuilt the temple. The city had lost its earlier importance and the district subject to it was insignificant in size. The people were discouraged, the city walls were not restored, and the temple itself was a sorry structure compared to the one erected by Solomon. It was nearly a century after the Persian conquest of Babylon before the fortunes of the sacred city began to revive, and the impetus then came from outside of Palestine an energetic Jew arrived from the court of the great king armed with authority from his master and animated by patriotic zeal for the city of his fathers. Under his influence other Jews came from the East and took up their residence in Palestine. These immigrants looked upon themselves as the true Israel and distrusted the remnant in Palestine who claimed to be of the same stock. Their unyielding temper is revealed by Nehemiah's own record, which shows how antagonism existed from the time of his arrival. The introduction of the priestly law and the measures taken against foreign marriages accented the division. On one side was the party of those who came from the East with such of the "people of the land" as accepted the Law; on the other was the country party, led by one Sanballat, prefect of Samaria, which, when finally excluded from Jerusalem, built a témple on Mount Gerizim and became the sect of the Samaritans. The postexilic community nourished its intellectual life on

the books which had come down from earlier times and read into them more hope for the future than they actually contained. It was easy to find in the stories of the patriarchs pledges for the continued favour of God. The narrative of the deliverance from Egypt afforded a parallel to the hopedfor redemption from another slavery. The experiences of the exile had strengthened the sense of sin, but this sense of sin had always beneath it the faith that repentance would be followed by pardon and restoration. The precedent was set by the narratives of the wilderness wandering which told how the rebels had actually been forgiven. Nehemiah's prayer gives an affecting picture of this state of mind. The penitent, after confessing the sins of the fathers, reminds his God that Moses had given assurance that the outcast Israelites should be gathered again if only they would turn to Yahweh (Neh. 1 : 6-9).

It was natural that much attention should be given to passages which were predictive in form. The literary device of putting such passages into the mouth of ancient worthies was not unknown even in the pre-exilic period. Thus the patriarch Jacob is made to foresee the fate of his sons. The promise of dominion to Judah had been amply verified by the kingship given to David. But the postexilic Jew found it impossible to believe that that fulfilment was final. It was more in accordance with the richness of divine grace to expect a larger verification in the time yet to come. The same is true of the utterances of Balaam. This enigmatic seer had been called to pronounce a curse on Israel, but the curse had been turned into a blessing. And the most striking part of it was the vision of a star out of Jacob and a sceptre from Israel (Num. 23: 21; 24: 17). Whatever might be said of the fulfilment in David, the religious reader could hardly bring himself to suppose that a word of God would exhaust its full meaning in any one age. It is true that to us, who have the trained historical sense, this seeking of a double meaning in Scripture seems to be fallacious, but there can hardly be a doubt that by just this method

many fainting souls have been strengthened not only in Judaism but also in Christianity.

The books of the prophets were studied in this way and they were also supplemented by the scribes to whom the severity of the early message was often intolerable. Some hopeful features may have been discovered in the messages of these great preachers, even though the message was (as it so often was) one of denunciation. Thus, underneath the sombre accusations of Hosea there was the thought that Yahweh still loved Israel though forced to cast her off. Isaiah at some time in his career had given hints of a remnant which would survive the coming calamity. It was he who had declared that a sure corner-stone was laid in Zion. Even Jeremiah had intimated that a restoration would come after seventy years. The intention of the prophet was, as we know, to discourage the optimism of the exiles, who were looking for an early redemption; to impress upon them the need of adjusting themselves to the life in Babylon. But now the seventy years had passed and the hope of revival became vivid. In like manner Ezekiel had thought of forty years as the duration of the captivity (Ezek. 29 : 11–13). Ezekiel, in fact, was the man who gave definite form to the hope of a restoration. His programme, which we have already considered, was thoroughly supernatural—that is, it looked for an act of God to change the nature of the soil of Canaan and to change also the hearts of the people. The change in the soil had not come, but thoroughly penitent Israelites might hope that the divine grace had already operated on their hearts.

The definite lines with which Ezekiel had drawn his picture of the future commonwealth made a deep impression on his people. His scheme included three essential features of what we know from his time on as the Messianic hope. These were: the punishment of the hostile world-power, the restoration of Israel to its own land, and the dwelling of Yahweh in the midst of the new commonwealth. The headship of a prince of the house of David is included, but this