sion to restore " his fhthers' sepulchres,'* and the walls of his native city, and is sent to Jerusalem with large powers. This is the crisis which decided the natioi^ restoration of the Jewish people ; for before their dty was fortified they had no defence against the now con- firmed enmity of their Samaritan neighbors ; and, in fact, before the walls could be built, several princes around were able to offer great opposition. See San- BALLAT. The Jewish population was overwhelmed ' with debt, and had genendly mortgaged their little estates to the rich ; but Nehemiah's influence succeed- ed in bringing about a general forfeiture of debts, or, at least, of interest ; after which we may regard the new order of things to have been finally established in Judaea. See Nehemiah. From this time forth it is probable that numerous fiimilies returned in small par- ties, as to a secure home, until all the waste land in the neighborhood was reoccupied.
The great mass of the Israelitieh race nevertheless remained in the lands to which they had been scat- tered. Previous to the captivity, many Israelites bad settled in Egypt (Zecb. x, 11 ; Isa. xix, 18), and many Jews afterward fled thither firom Nebuzaradan (Jer. xli, 17). Others appear to have established themselves in Sheba (see Jest's GfMckichie, otc.), where Jewish in- fluence became very powerful. See Sheba. Among those that returned to Judea, about 80,000 are speci- fled (comp. Ezra ii and Neh. vii) as belonging to the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. It has been in- ferred (Prideaux, sub' ann. 586) that the remaining 12,000 belonged to the tribes of Israel (comp. Ezra vi, 17). Also from the fact that out of the twenty-four courses of priests only four returned (Ezra ii, 86), it has been inferred that the whole number of exiles who chose to continue in Assyria was about six times the number of those who returned. Those who remained (Esth. viii, 9, 11), and kept up thehr national distinc- tion, were known as The Dispersion (John vii, 85 ; 1 Pet. i, 1; James i, 1); and in course of time they served a great purpose in diffusing a knowledge of the true God, and in affording a point for the commence- ment of the efforts of the evangelists of the Christian fiuth. See below, apd comp. Bestoration (of the Jews).
5. Effects of (he Captivity. — ^The exile was a period of change Sn the vernacular language of the Jews (see Neh. viii, 8, and comp. Chaldeb Lakouage) and in the national character. The Jews who returned were remarkably tree from the old sin of idolatry : a great spiritual renovation, in accordance with the divine promise (Ezek. xxxvi, 24-28), was wrought in them. A new and deep feeling of reverence for at least the letter of the law and the institutions of Moses was probably a result of the religious service which was perfbrmed in the synagogues. At the same time their theosophical nnd dsBmonological views were developed by their contact with Oriental systems, and perhaps by the polemics thereby engendered, and especially by their review of their own religious resources, and their more carefhl study of the didactic portions of the O.-T. Scriptures ; certain it is that fh>m this period we can date not only a fuller angelology [see Akoel], but also more subtle philosophical distinctions [see Philosophy], and in particular a more distinct recog- nition of the great doctrines of the immortality of the soul, and even of the resurrection of the body, which we subsequently find so unquestioned by the orthodox Pharisees. See Sects (of the Jews). All this was the natural consequence of the absence of the ritual services of the Temple, which brought out the more spiritual elements of Mosaism, and thus was the na- tion better prepared for the dispensation of the Gospel. A new impulse of commercial enterprise and activity was also implanted in them, and developed in the days of the Dispersion (see James iv, 18), which they have continued to feel even to the present time. In fine, an innovation was effected upon the narrow and one-
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sided notions of Jadaism by the associations of the ex- ile, vhidi, although it resulted in the defection of many from tlie nfi^onal &ith (bat of these few cared to retom to their native land), yet — like the earlier Scjonrn in Egypt (with which, in the glowing pletores of prophecy, it was often compared)— ended in the ool- onizadon of Palestine with a fresh and more thor- oogfaly cultured population, yet more scrupoloosly devoted than ever to the theocratio cnltus, who volun- teered with pious seal to lay anew the foundations of the Hebrew polity.