of the presence of Jehovah from the midst of His people, commenced Israel's Ichabod period, and the long night of darkness which has rested on the people and on the land. But not for ever has Jehovah forsaken His land and cast off His people. " I will go," He said through the prophet Hosea, " and return to My place // // they acknowledge their offence " (or, lit, " till they declare themselves guilty "), " and seek My face: in their affliction (lit., in their tribulation ) they shall seek Me early." Then He will return unto them with mercies, and " His going forth is sure as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that wateretJi the earth" (Hos. v. 15, vi. 1-3).
In its fulness, to repeat again some sentences from the notes on the first vision, this promise will only be fulfilled when this same Jesus, Whom at His first coming they handed over to the Gentiles to be crucified, and Who, after His resurrection, ascended back into heaven to the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, shall return in the manner, and under the circumstances, described by the same prophet in the last three chapters of his prophecy.
Then Jehovah, in the person of the Messiah, " will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem" which shall become the centre of His governmental dealings with the world, and the place whence light and truth shall go forth unto all the nations. " And Jerusalem shall be called Ir ha-emeth, the City of Truth "; first, because it shall be the seat of the El-emeth) " The God of Truth "; and, secondly, because " the remnant of Israel," which shall then dwell in it, " shall not any longer do iniquity, nor speak lies" (Zeph. iii. 13), but be known throughout the earth for their truth and fidelity toward God and man. " And the mountain of Jehovah of hosts" i.e., Mount Zion, shall be called " The Holy Mountain" because there the Holy One of Israel shall once more take up His abode, and by His presence in their midst sanctify His people, so that they, too, shall be holy; and, Qodesh la- Yehovah " Holiness (or holy )
