2. =There was a change in habits.= Before the captivity the Jews were a secluded people, having scarcely any relation with the world. The captivity brought them into contact with other nations, and greatly modified their manner of living. Hitherto they had been mostly farmers, living on their own fields; now they became merchants and traders, and filled the world with their commerce. Rarely now do we find a Jew who cultivates the ground for his support. They are in the cities, buying and selling. This tendency began with the Bab-y-lo'ni-an captivity, and has since been strengthened by the varied experiences, especially by the persecutions, of the Jews during the centuries. 3. =There was a change in character.= This was the most radical of all. Before the captivity the crying sin of Ju'dah, as well as of Is'ra-el, was its tendency to idolatry. Every prophet had warned against it and rebuked it, reformers had risen up, kings had endeavored to extirpate it; but all in vain--the worshipers of God were the few; the worshipers of idols were the many. After the captivity there was a wonderful transformation. From that time we never read of a Jew bowing his knee before an idol. The entire nation was a unit in the service of Je-ho'vah. Among all the warnings of the later prophets, and the reforms of Ez'ra and Ne-he-mi'ah, there is no allusion to idolatry. That crime was utterly and forever eradicated; from the captivity until to-day the Jews have been the people of the one, invisible God, and intense in their hatred of idols. 4. =There were new institutions= as the result of the captivity. Two great institutions arose during the captivity: 1.) The _synagogue_, which grew up among the exiles, was carried back to Pal'es-tine, and was established throughout the Jew'ish world. This was a meeting of Jews for worship, for reading the law, and for religious instruction. It had far greater influence than the temple after the captivity; for while there was but one temple in all the Jewish world, there was a synagogue in every city and village where Jews lived; and while the temple was the seat of a priestly and ritualistic service, the synagogue promoted freedom of religious thought and utterance. Out of the synagogue, far more than the temple, grew the Christian church. 2.) _The order of scribes_ was also a result of the captivity. The days of direct inspiration through prophets were passing away, and those of the written Scripture, with a class of men to study and interpret it, came in their place. During the captivity the devout Jews studied the books of their literature, the law, the psalms, the histories, and the prophets. After the captivity arose a series of scholars who were the expounders of the Scriptures. Their founder was Ez'ra, at once a priest, a scribe, and a prophet (Ezra 7. 1-10), who arranged the books and in a measure completed the canon of Old Testament Scripture.