with the house of Juda. Not according to the covenants which I made with their fathers, which they made void. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. I will give my law and will write it on their hearts[1], and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.”
The captive Jews[2] were treated with kindness by the king of Babylon, but they longed for the land of their fathers and for the city of Jerusalem. This longing of their hearts is beautifully expressed in one of the Psalms: “Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Sion. On the willows[3] in the midst thereof we hung[4] up our instruments, for there they that led us into captivity required of us the words of songs[5]. How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?[6] If I[7] forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee, if I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joys."
During the captivity God did not abandon His people, but sent the prophet Ezechiel, who admonished and instructed them. He also consoled them by telling them of a divine vision which foreshadowed the deliverance of the people from their captivity. The spirit of the Lord brought Ezechiel to a plain filled with bones of dead men. Being told by God, he commanded the bones to come together, which was done, and they were covered with flesh and skin, but there was no spirit in them. And the Lord told Ezechiel to say to the spirit: “Come, spirit, and let them live again.” The spirit entered into them, and they lived; they stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then the Lord said: “These bones are the house of Israel; they say that our
- ↑ On their hearts. This new covenant will be an inward covenant of grace.
- ↑ The captive Jews. As also the scattered Israelites, who from this time were usually termed Jews.
- ↑ Willows. The species known as weeping willow.
- ↑ Hung up. As a sign of grief, for it was impossible for them to make music, or sing joyful songs.
- ↑ Songs, i. e. sacred songs of joy which were sung to the accompaniment of music, which was not the case with songs of mourning.
- ↑ A strange land. They regarded it as an act of desecration to sing divine canticles in a heathen land, for the entertainment of their captors.
- ↑ If I. These words express a kind of oath. They mean, I would rather be maimed or dead than cease to be a Jew, a lover of Sion.
