The harps of Judah were silent--the disconsolate Israelites hung them on the willows of Babylon--no songs of Zion were heard in that land of captivity, where, for seventy long years, they wore the galling yoke of bondage, bereft of home and all its blessings--the land of their forefathers in the possession of strangers--Jerusalem in ruins--her palaces consumed--the Temple destroyed--the spot trodden down by the Heathen--themselves exposed to the taunts of their conquerors, and compelled to bow before the idolatrous image of Chaldean superstition.[117] Well might Judah's sons weep by the waters of Babylon, whose murmurings recalled to their recollection the stream which gushed from Horeb's mount.[118] The remembrance of past blessings increases the weight of present misery. How changed their state, and changed to punish their awful rebellions against the Lord of Sabaoth! Yet the God of Israel was not unmindful of his promise--he cheered their drooping spirits with the assurance of speedy deliverance from their captive state. The prayer of Daniel entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts--the command was given--swiftly the angel, even Gabriel, flew to reveal his Lord's decrees unto the mourning prophet--that "man greatly beloved" of his God. Daniel was commissioned to foretel the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon--the building of Jerusalem and its walls in troublous times; and to him, Jehovah was graciously pleased to renew the promise of the Prince, Messiah, whose appearance all the patriarchs and prophets had foretold. The nearer that glorious epoch approached, the more minutely was it described. The Lord gave Daniel to "know and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, should be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks." The period here styled weeks, is generally allowed to be sabbaths of years. This appears to be the sense of the passage, for the Jews were accustomed to reckon their time and feasts by weeks or sabbaths. The week of days was from one seventh or sabbath day to another. The week of years was from one seventh or sabbatical year to another; in the seventh, or sabbatical year, they neither sowed their fields nor pruned their vineyards; it was a sabbath of rest unto the land.[119] In the regulation of the year of Jubilee, they were commanded to number "seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to thee forty and nine years."[120] We therefore only follow the Mosaic rule, (to which Moses' disciples cannot object,) if we consider these seven weeks, and three score and two weeks, as seven times sixty-nine, or four hundred and eighty-three years, which should be between "the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince." There were four distinct decrees or commandments granted by the kings of Persia, in favour of