Does it begin to be light towards Hebron?” The priests and elders led the procession; the people followed, and the slaves with the camels were placed in the midst of them, the Levites had distributed themselves with their instruments among the multitude, and as they set forward they sung this psalm: How am I glad when they say unto me, I will go up to the house of Jehovah! My foot hath stood already in thy gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem, thou beautifully built; Chief city, where all unite together! Thither do the tribes go up, The tribes of Jehovah to the festival of remembrance, To praise the name of Jehovah. There are the thrones of judgment, The thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; May they prosper that love thee! Peace be in thy walls, Prosperity in thy palaces! For my brethren and companions’ sake, I wish thee peace! For the sake of the temple of our God, I bless thee with good.—Ps. cxxii. Footnote 91: Numb. xiii. 22. Footnote 92: Josh. xiv. 14. Footnote 93: 1 Mac. v. 65. Footnote 94: Gen. xiii. 18.; xviii. 1.; xxiii. 17. It is impossible to conceive of the soul-felt exultation with which this psalm was sung, and of its effect on old and young. Now the voices rose, like the notes of the mounting lark, on the summit of the hills, now sunk again in the depths of the valleys. How differently did it operate now upon the heart of Helon, and when he sung it before to his solitary harp on his roof in Alexandria! How did he bless the memory of Samuel, who had given his schools of the prophets the harp and the flute;[95] and of David, who, bred up among them, did not forget them even when seated on his throne,[96] but appointed Levites for the cultivation of music; and himself often laid down his sceptre, to assume the harp. It was on such a pilgrimage, with such accompaniments, that the sublimity and force of the psalms, and the superiority of Jewish poetry, made itself fully felt. Footnote 95: 1 Sam. x. 5.; xix. 20. Footnote 96: 2 Chron. vii. 6. Helon was astonished at the effect which they had upon himself and all around him. The youths and maidens bounded for joy, and tears of pleasure stood in the eyes of the aged. Those who were going up for the first time to the festival looked and listened to those who had already been there, as if to hear from them an explanation of the full meaning of what they sung. The old heard in these festive acclamations the echo of their own youthful joys, and while their hearts swelled with the remembrance of the feelings of their earliest pilgrimage, they beat yet higher with gratitude to Jehovah, who had permitted them, in their grey hairs, to behold such glorious days for Israel, the Syrian tyranny overthrown, and Hyrcanus seated on the throne.