The elders of the different cities had soon agreed about the order of the march from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. The venerable pair, Mardochai of Ziph and his wife, were borne before, the elders followed, but without any distinctive badge, and the people arranged themselves as they chose. Some time, however, elapsed before they set out. There were greetings of friends and acquaintance, who met after a long interval; those who had travelled furthest needed refreshment. At length the Levites began their music and their songs, and the people set forward. They had soon descended from the heights of Bethlehem into the valley of Rephaim. As the living stream poured down from the hills, among the corn-fields and mulberry-groves of the vale, this was the praise of Jerusalem which ascended in a mingled strain of voices and instruments. They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, Which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are around Jerusalem, So the Lord is round about his people, From henceforth and for evermore: For the sceptre of the wicked shall not remain on the lot of the righteous. Do good, O Lord, unto those that are good, To them that are upright in their hearts! As for those that turn aside into crooked ways, Jehovah shall destroy them, with all the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel!—Ps. cxxv. When they had proceeded about two sabbath-days’ journies, or a little more, from Bethlehem, they approached the grave of Rachel.[103] At another time this place of the rest of Jacob’s beloved wife, the hardly earned recompense of his labours, might have produced some melancholy emotions, but now such thoughts were banished by the universal joy. Helon remarked to Elisama, that this was not the time of which their prophet had spoken: “In Rama was heard a voice, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children.”[104] “May it be always so with the children of Israel,” replied Elisama. Footnote 103: Gen. xxxv. 16. Footnote 104: Jer. xxxi. 15. The eager haste of the multitudes now increased with every step, and their impatience for the first sight of Jerusalem was expressed in the following psalm: