Helon's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Volume 1 (of 2): A picture of Judaism, in the century which preceded the advent of our Savior.Strauss, Friedrich
History
Helon's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Volume 1 (of 2): A picture of Judaism, in the century which preceded the advent of our Savior.
Strauss, Friedrich
Jews -- History -- To 70 A.D. -- Fiction
Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah,
That walketh in his ways.
For thou shalt eat of the labour of thy hands:
Happy art thou, and it is well with thee!
Thy wife is a fruitful vine, by the walls of thine house,
Thy children, like olive plants around thy table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth Jehovah:
Jehovah will bless thee out of Zion.
Thou shalt see the prosperity of Jerusalem thine whole life long,
Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!—Ps. cxxviii.
During this time others had come up, and soon the news was spread
through the whole assemblage, that Mardochai of Ziph was once more among
them; and nearly all the pilgrims came and formed a circle about him.
The judges and elders of Hebron were among them, and all greeted the
venerable pair and wished them peace.
“Ye shall lead the procession!” said an elder of Hebron! “The place of
honour belongs to you. The pilgrims of Hebron cannot advance with any
blessing better or more rare.”
The sons took their father, the daughters their mother, in their arms,
the priests and elders followed, and the march began again to complete
the ten sabbath-days’ journies which they were still distant from
Jerusalem.
Far from the expressions of joy being exhausted by all the songs and
acclamations of the morning, they seemed only to be beginning, when they
set forward again. From the pools of Solomon they took their way through
the hills to Bethlehem. The cymbals, cornets, and timbrels of the
Levites struck up their music again, and many a soul-inspiring psalm was
heard from the lips of an assemblage now swollen to several thousand
persons. In a pilgrimage to the temple, could _he_ be forgotten, whose
pious heart first conceived the wish to build a house for Jehovah? The
warrior-bard was commemorated in the following psalm:
Lord remember David!
All his afflictions.
How he sware unto the Lord
And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob;
Surely I will not go into mine house,
Nor go up into my bed;
I will not give sleep to mine eyes,
Nor slumber to mine eyelids,
Until I find out a place for the Lord,
A habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob.
Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah,
We found it in the fields of Jaar:
Let us go into his tabernacle,
Let us worship at his footstool!—Ps. cxxxii.
It seemed as if the multitude could not leave the last strophe, which
they repeated over and over again. They then went on to the second part
of the psalm, which was probably sung at the dedication of the temple,
and repeated in the same way the elevating words with which it
concludes,
Jehovah hath chosen Zion,
He hath desired it for his habitation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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