Idolatry and Sabbath-breaking, which were besetting sins with the Hebrews in the wilderness, and which there laid the foundation for their dispersion from their own land,[222] had ever cleaved unto them. And now when their destruction was impending from the overwhelming power of the king of Babylon, they were so deeply attached to these and kindred sins, that they would not regard the voice of warning. Before entering the sanctuary of God upon his Sabbath, they first slew their own children in sacrifice to their idols![223] Thus iniquity came to its hight, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost. “They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon, and they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the king of Persia.”[224] While the Hebrews were in captivity at Babylon, God made to them an offer of restoring them to their own land and giving them again a city and a temple under circumstances of wonderful glory.[225] The condition of that offer being disregarded,[226] the offered glory was never inherited by them. In this offer were several allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord, and also to the festivals of the Hebrews.[227] One of these allusions is worthy of particular notice for the distinctness with which it discriminates between the Sabbath and the other days of the week:— “Thus saith the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east, shall be shut THE SIX WORKING DAYS; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.”[228] Six days of the week are by divine inspiration called “the six working days;” the seventh is called the Sabbath of the Lord. Who shall dare confound this marked distinction? After the Jews had returned from their captivity in Babylon, and had restored their temple and city, in a solemn assembly of the whole people they recount in an address to the Most High all the great events of God’s providence in their past history. Thus they testify respecting the Sabbath:—