doing so, following meanwhile the advice of Jeremiah, by taking every
precaution that the seed of Israel should not be diminished.* The
imagination of pious writers of a later date delighted to represent the
exiled Jews as giving way to apathy and vain regrets: "By the rivers of
Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon
the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps. For there
they that led us captive required of us songs, and they that wasted
us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How
shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"**

* Jer. xxix. 1-7.

** Ps. cxxxvii. 1-4.

This was true of the priests and scribes only. A blank had been made in
their existence from the moment when the conqueror had dragged them
from the routine of daily rites which their duties in the temple service
entailed upon them. The hours which had been formerly devoted to their
offices were now expended in bewailing the misfortunes of their nation,
in accusing themselves and others, and in demanding what crime had
merited this punishment, and why Jahveh, who had so often shown clemency
to their forefathers, had not extended His forgiveness to them. It
was, however, by the long-suffering of God that His prophets, and
particularly Ezekiel, were allowed to make known to them the true cause
of their downfall. The more Ezekiel in his retreat meditated upon
their lot, the more did the past appear to him as a lamentable conflict
between divine justice and Jewish iniquity. At the time of their sojourn
in Egypt, Jahveh had taken the house of Jacob under His protection,
and in consideration of His help had merely demanded of them that they
should be faithful to Him. "Cast ye away every man the abominations of