significance attached to names in Scripture, we shall scarcely suppose
it accidental that these two, who had similar work to do, bore the
same name as the solitary third, of whom they were pale shadows, the
greater Joshua, who brings His people from bondage into His own land
of peace, and builds the Temple.

Zerubbabel ('Sown in Babylon') belonged to a collateral branch of the
royal family. The direct Davidic line through Solomon died with the
wretched Zedekiah and Jeconiah, but the descendants of another son of
David's, Nathan, still survived. Their representative was one
Salathiel, who, on the failure of the direct line, was regarded as the
'son of Jeconiah' (1 Chron. iii. 17). He seems to have had no son, and
Zerubbabel, who was really his nephew (1 Chron. iii. 19), was legally
adopted as his son. In this makeshift fashion, some shadow of the
ancient royalty still presided over the restored people. We see
Zerubbabel better in Haggai and Zechariah than in Ezra, and can
discern the outline of a strong, bold, prompt nature. He had a hard
task, and he did it like a man. Patient, yet vigorous, glowing with
enthusiasm, yet clear-eyed, self-forgetful, and brave, he has had
scant justice done him, and ought to be a very much more familiar and
honoured figure than he is. 'Who art thou, O great mountain? Before
Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.' Great mountains only become
plains before men of strong wills and fixed faith.

There is something very pathetic in the picture of the assembled
people groping amid the ruins on the Temple hill, to find 'the bases,'
the half-obliterated outlines, of the foundations of the old altar of
burnt offerings. What memories of Araunah's threshing-floor, and of
the hovering angel of destruction, and of the glories of Solomon's
dedication, and of the long centuries during which the column of smoke