“Thus saith the Lord: If My covenant be not with day and night, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;” (_Ibid._ 25.) “then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David My servant,...” (_Ibid._ 26.) “But fear not thou, O Jacob My servant, Neither be dismayed, O Israel; For, lo, I will save thee from afar, And thy seed from the land of their captivity; And Jacob shall again be quiet and at ease, And none shall make him afraid.” (_Ibid._ xlvi. 27.) Ezekiel the Priest, the son of Buzi, prophesied in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Cebar, about five hundred and ninety-five, to five hundred and seventy-four years before the civil era. In the thirty-sixth chapter he describes the restoration of Judah and Israel in words so plain and clear that nobody could possibly mistake them, and in the next chapter, by the wonderful vision of dry bones reviving, he shows that, however unpromising the state of Israel may seem, while they are dispersed through the world, yet will God most certainly effect the reunion of the tribes which is here foretold:―― “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them――it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will establish them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for ever.” (_Ibid._ xxxvii. 26.) Chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine give a most circumstantial description of the return, which excluded the possibility of an allegorical explanation. Obadiah prophesied about five hundred and eighty-seven years before the civil era:―― “But in Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, And it shall be holy; And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.” (Obadiah i. 17.) “And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, That are among the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath, And the captivity of Jerusalem, that is in Sepharad, Shall possess the cities of the South.” (_Ibid._ 20.) Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, prophesied about five hundred and twenty years before the civil era, to those that had returned from captivity. He had the idea of a great future restoration. “And it shall come to pass that, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands be strong.” (Zechariah viii. 13.) “I will bring them back also out of the land of Egypt, And gather them out of Assyria; And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, And place shall not suffice them.” (_Ibid._ x. 10.) Malachi prophesied about four hundred and twenty years before the civil era:―― “And all nations shall call you happy; For ye shall be a delightsome land, Saith the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi iii. 12.)