overnors or dynasts, on inscriptions or stelae in Egypt, in the letters
of the scribes, and in the rescripts of the great king. From Nisib
to Baphia, between the Tigris and the Mediterranean, it gradually
supplanted most of the other dialects--Semitic or otherwise--which had
hitherto prevailed. Phoenician held its ground in the seaports, but
Hebrew gave way before it, and ended by being restricted to religious
purposes, as a literary and liturgical language. It was in the
neighbourhood of Babylon itself that the Judaean exiles had, during the
Captivity, adopted the Aramaic language, and their return to Canaan
failed to restore either the purity of their own language or the dignity
and independence of their religious life. Their colony at Jerusalem
possessed few resources; the wealthier Hebrews had, for the most part,
remained in Chaldaea, leaving the privilege of repopulating the holy city
to those of their brethren who were less plenteously endowed with this
world's goods. These latter soon learned to their cost that Zion was not
the ideal city whose "gates shall be open continually; they shall not
be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the wealth of
the nations;" far from "sucking the milk of nations and the breast of
kings,"* their fields produced barely sufficient to satisfy the more
pressing needs of daily life. "Ye have sown much, and bring in little,"
as Jahveh declared to them "ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink,
but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none
warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with
holes."**

* An anonymous prophet in Isa. lx. 11-16.

** Hagg. i. 6.

They quickly relinquished the work of restoration, finding themselves
forgotten by all--their Babylonian brethren included--in the midst of
the great events which were then agitating the world, the preparations
for the conquest of Egypt, the usurpation of the pseudo-Smerdis, the
accession of Darius, the Babylonian and Median insurrections. Possibly
they believed that the Achaemenides had had their day, and that a new
Chaldaean empire, with a second Nebuchadrezzar at its head, was about to
regain the ascendency. It would seem that the downfall of Nadintav-bel
inspired them with new faith in the future and encouraged them to
complete their task: in the second year of Darius, two prophets, Haggai
and Zechariah, arose in their midst and lifted up their voices.

[Illustr