He also restored [1] to them the sacred vessels which Nabuchodonozor had carried away. Thereupon more than forty thousand Israelites, under the leadership of Prince Zorobabel and of the High Priest Josue, returned to Judaea, the name thenceforward given to the ancient kingdom of Juda, together with the remnants of the other ten tribes, which had joined themselves to Juda and Benjamin before the downfall of Israel. They immediately built an altar[2], and offered sacrifice every morning and evening.
One year after the return from captivity, the foundations of the new Temple were laid in Jerusalem. The priests and the Levites were there with their trumpets and cymbals, as of old, singing to the Lord canticles of praise and thanksgiving, while the people all rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when, after many years, the Temple was completed, it was consecrated and dedicated with great solemnity.
Many of the old people who remembered the former Temple, wept to see that the new one did not equal the old in magnificence.
But the prophet Aggeu[3] consoled them with the assurance that the second Temple would be more glorious than the first, because the Messias, the Desired of all nations, would be seen in it, and would honour it with His presence. The same prediction was made by the prophet Zacharias[4].
About eighty years after their return from captivity, the Jews, by command of the king of Persia, commenced to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The Samaritans opposed them and tried even by violence to prevent the people from rebuilding their city. But the Jews prayed to God to assist them, and in order to
- ↑ Restored. Cyrus gave back 5,400 vessels of gold and silver which had belonged lo the Temple.
- ↑ Built an altar. On the same spot where the altar of holocausts used to stand.
- ↑ Aggeus. “Yet one little while”, said Aggeus, “and the Desired of all nations shall come (the Messias, whom, as Jacob [chapter XXVII] had already prophesied, all nations should expect), and great shall be the glory of this house more than of the first” (Agg. 2, 7 — 10).
- ↑ Zacharias. “Rejoice greatly”, said he, “daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king will come to thee, the Just, the Saviour. He is poor, and riding on the foal of an ass”, i. e. on a young ass never yet ridden, not on a proud horse such as the kings of this earth ride on (Zach. 9, 9).
