centre, Netophah and Bethlehem; and in the south Tekoa, Keilah, and
Bethzur. The lot of these, who are later known as the people of the land,
was pitiable indeed. There are many references in Lamentations and Ezekiel
to the persecutions to which they were subjected by their malignant foes,
the Moabites and Ammonites on the east and the Philistines on the west.
Even more cruel and aggressive were the Edomites, who had suffered many
wrongs at the hands of the Hebrews. It was probably about this time that
this half-nomadic people began to be driven northward by the advance of
the Nabateans, an Arab people who came from the south. Dislodged from
their homes, the Edomites took advantage of the weakness of the Jews and
seized southern Judah, including the ancient capital Hebron. The doom
which Ezekiel pronounces upon the Edomites in 25[12] is because of the
revenge that they wreaked upon the Jews at this time. It is significant
that Ezekiel's sermons in the period immediately following the fall of
Jerusalem contain dire predictions of divine vengeance upon all these
foes. After the overthrow of Gedaliah's kingdom, the Jews who remained in
Palestine appear to have been left wholly without defences or defenders.
Ezekiel, in 33:23-29, speaks of those who inhabit the waste places in the
land of Israel, who live in the strongholds and the caves. Some of them
appear to have turned robbers. Foreign settlers came in from every side
and in time intermarried with the natives and led them into idolatry.
Ezekiel sternly condemns their immorality and apostasy.

From the references in Jeremiah 41:5 and Ezra 3:3 it is clear that even
during this reign of terror many of the people continued to offer
sacrifices to Jehovah at the great altar cut in native rock which stood
before the ruins of their temple in Jerusalem. Priests were also doubtless
found in the land to conduct these services. The ancient feasts, however,
with their joyous merrymaking and the resulting sense of divine favor,
were no longer observed. Instead, the people celebrated in sackcloth and