10 
ISRAEL. 
“ And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, 
in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, 
lor good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy 
fathers.” 1 
Those declarations evidently imply both dispersion and restoration on a larger scale, 
than any which had been experienced before the Roman overthrow of Judah. The fall of 
the kingdom of Israel under Babylon was an extinction, not a dispersion. The Babylonish 
captivity of Judah was not a dispersion, but an exile. The restoration under Ezra and 
Nehemiah, instead of displaying the redundant prosperity of a renewed kingdom, and 
still more the rekindled glory, and boundless blessing, of this great prophecy, was the 
return of a feeble remnant, 50,000 liberated prisoners, to a desolate country, constantly 
under the yoke of the heathen, trampled by every power which drew the sword for 
Eastern supremacy, and finally crushed under Roman massacre. 
The fulfilment is yet to come. It is still in clouds, but those clouds will clear away; 
the sun is behind; and a burst of consummate splendour, which only awaits the appointed 
time, Avill yet irradiate the triumph of Judah and her Redeemer. 
“ The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to 
love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest 
live.” 2 
“ The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest 
do it.” 3 
The Commission given to Moses was fulfilled by his advance to the Promised land. 
He was now one hundred and twenty years old, and, though “ his eye was not dim, nor his 
natural force abated,” it was revealed to him that he must die. He resigned himself to the 
Divine command; closing his career with an inspired hymn, which he left to be sung by 
the nation through all ages; as a brief, yet most magnificent, summary of the protection, 
the love, and the miracles of Jehovah, the hazards of the national crimes, and the ultimate 
and exhaustless mercy, which would watch over them even in the darkest hours of the 
Divine justice. 4 
The march was now resumed. God was the king of the tribes; the impression of his 
actual sovereignty was essential; and it was sustained in every form capable of acting on 
the senses or the mind. The tabernacle was less a temple, than the pavilion of a monarch 
living in the midst of his people, the tent of a great chieftain leading his army; 0 all the 
sacrifices were in the open air. From within the curtains of that tent, Moses constantly 
received his orders for the march, and his counsel in the difficulties of the government. In 
the inner chamber sat the Divine Presence, in glory, above the cherubim. In the outer 
were placed the furnitures of Oriental royalty; a kingly table covered with gold, and 
1 Deut. xxx. 1—9. 2 Ibid. 6. 3 Ibid. 14. 4 Deut. xxxii. 
5 Jaliu, Hebrew Commonwealth. 
