There was a community of Levites at a place called Casiphia,[90] under the direction of a leader named Iddo. It would be interesting to think that this community was really a sort of Levitical college, a school of students of the Torah; but we have no data to go upon in forming an opinion. One thing is certain. We cannot suppose that the new edition of The Law had been drawn up in this community of the Levites, because Ezra had started with it in his hand as the charter of his great enterprise; nor, indeed, in any other Levitical college, because it was not at all according to the mind of the Levites. [90] The site of this town has not been identified. It could not have been far from Ahava. After completing his company by the addition of the Levites, Ezra made a solemn religious preparation for his journey. Like the Israelites after the defeat at Gibeah in their retributive war with Benjamin;[91] like the penitent people at Mizpeh, in the days of Samuel, when they put away their idols;[92] like Jehoshaphat and his subjects when rumours of a threatened invasion filled them with apprehension,[93]--Ezra and his followers fasted and humbled themselves before God in view of their hazardous undertaking. The fasting was a natural sign of the humiliation, and this prostration before God was at once a confession of sin and an admission of absolute dependence on His mercy. Thus the people reveal themselves as the "poor in spirit" to whom our Lord directs his first beatitude. They are those who humble themselves, and therefore those whom God will exalt. [91] Judges xx. 26. [92] 1 Sam. vii. 6. [93] 2 Chron. xx. 3.