unto Jehovah," shall be written, not only upon their hearts and foreheads, but upon all their possessions, down to the very " bells of their horses," and the " pots " which they shall use to prepare their food.[1]
Now follows a beautiful picture of restored and flourishing Jerusalem. No longer shall the holy city, and the land of which it is the metropolis, be depopulated by wars and other grievous calamities, and lie desolate; no longer shall such terrible sights be witnessed in her streets as are described by inspired writers who witnessed the siege and capture of the city by the Babylonians, which, however, were surpassed in the still more awful and horrible condi tions which prevailed during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and in subsequent sieges since then when old and young were cut off without mercy, and those children and sucklings who were not destroyed by the sword " fainted for hunger in the top of every street."[2] But the promises contained already in the law, of prolongation of life and numerous offspring, which in the past have been only at certain intervals partially fulfilled, because of Israel's sin and disobedience, shall, under the new and unconditional covenant, into which the people shall then be brought, be fully realised. There and then " there shall be no more an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days" Then "they shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people, and My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands"
(Isa. Ixv. 20-22). And thus it shall come to pass, saith Jehovah of hosts, that " there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand, for multitude of days. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof" " The two opposite pictures," to adopt words of
- ↑ Chap. xiv. 20, 21. See also Isa. i. 26: " Thou shall be called The City of Righteousness, The Faithful City"; Ix. 14: "They shall call thee The City of Jehovah, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel"; Ixii. 12: "They shall call them The Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord."
- ↑ Lam. ii. 11-19; P S - Ixxviii. 63, 64.
