here shall be no king in Israel. That long ago hesitation of Samuel. has proved to be prescient. What an enormous journey it has been, from a parochial god who helps in battle to an attempt to form a nation with a hereditary king to this utter defeat, then leap to universality.

Of course the defeat must be utter, even Josiah's reforms are temporary. A series of subjections, first by the Assyrians, then the Babylonians. Live among them in good cheer and keep to your rituals in regard to Yaweh; he is unfolding a great plan for you, the exiles are told, by their prophets. But I can't help thinking of that cry of sorrow

By the rivers of Babylon

we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.

How can we sing her old songs in a strange land?

Jeremiah is even cited for treason. How hard it is to give up one's tribe. It is still going on today.

Then Cyrus of Persia defeats the Babylonians and is hailed as a just king, even, some said, the Messiah.

What a leap!

I am behind again in my reading, so am reading right through the chapters. Again, this kind of reading makes me aware of a great sweep of history, and its great leaps of insight on the part of the prophets. Judaism is really a salvation story, the same as Christianity

Cyrus allows the exiles to return to their lands and their worship.

Second Isaiah posits an end to tribalism, an end to nations even, Yahweh is King of all people, individuals are to follow his path of justice in exile or at home.. This vision can fit any time, even our own..

But back to earth. Messiahs come and go. The Jews may have been jaded with messiahs by the time Jesus came along. The temple is to be rebuilt. It is Cyrus's idea, The work is blocked over and over by the northern tribes. Nehemiah is sent from the Persian court to get the work going again. Another emissary, Ezra, is sent to lay down the .Deuteronomic Law to men who have taken foreign wives. They must divorce these women. The universalism of Isaiah and Jeremiah is nowhere evident except in the books of Ruth and Jonah.

A foreigner, Ruth the Moabite, upon losing her husband, leaves her tribe to follow her mother-in-law Naomi to a foreign land, Judah,, where she marries again and bears the descendants of David. How can Judah have forgotten this, even though they dismiss Jeremiah as a traitor, and Isaiah as a mad man? .

And Jonah, told by Yahweh to go and preach to the sinful Assyrians in Nineveh, refuses, is swallowed by a fish, and saved only by carrying out the commission.. Still he sulks. Universalism isn't easy! ,

Back to earth. Even though the temple is being rebuilt, the end time is being portrayed in apocalyptic visions. Guilt is piling up