rdered and stole as they pleased. It is not strange that many of
these poor people felt that all was over for the Hebrew or Jewish
nation. Many of them ceased to worship Jehovah and became heathen,
like the other tribes around Canaan.

VOICES OF COMFORT AND HOPE

It was not easy, however, to crush the courage of the Jews. Out of the
darkness of those days we hear a whole chorus of voices, all of them
saying: "This is _not_ the end of everything for us. Jehovah has not
forgotten his promises to our ancestors. He will bring back the exiles
from Babylon, and from other distant lands whither they have escaped,
and will rebuild Jerusalem in all its beauty, and will restore the
glory of our nation in the land of Canaan."

=The prophecies in Isaiah.=--Many of these voices are found in short
passages scattered through the writings of the older prophets. Two of
them are in Isaiah 9 and 11.

="The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:
... the rod of his oppressor thou hast broken.... For all the
armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled
in blood, shall even be for burning, for fuel of fire. For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the
government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace."=

"In other words," he reasoned, "Jehovah will free us from the
tyrannical Babylonians, give us an ideal king, who shall be wise and
just and faithful, and under whose rule we shall see no more of the
horror and cruelty of war."

=Ezekiel's prophecies of hope.=--Away off in Babylonia itself Ezekiel
helped to keep alive the hopes of the exiles. Even though the nation
is dead, he told them, Jehovah can bring it to life. It will be as
though the dry and bleaching bones in some valley where a battle was
long ago fought should suddenly come together as human skeletons, and
warm living flesh should grow upon them once more. Ezekiel worked out
a kind of constitution for the new nation and the temple when these
should be restored.

All these brave leaders helped the Jews to believe in themselves as a
people. They listened to these men as they spoke in their synagogues
in Judaea and in Babylonia. They handed from one to another the rolls
on which their words were written. And ever the children heard from
their mothers these hopes which kept them from being completely
discou