Thy children, like olive plants around thy table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth Jehovah:
Jehovah will bless thee out of Zion.
Thou shalt see the prosperity of Jerusalem thine whole life long,
Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!—Ps. cxxviii.
During this time others had come up, and soon the news was spread through the whole assemblage, that Mardochai of Ziph was once more among them; and nearly all the pilgrims came and formed a circle about him. The judges and elders of Hebron were among them, and all greeted the venerable pair and wished them peace.
“Ye shall lead the procession!” said an elder of Hebron! “The place of honour belongs to you. The pilgrims of Hebron cannot advance with any blessing better or more rare.”
The sons took their father, the daughters their mother, in their arms, the priests and elders followed, and the march began again to complete the ten sabbath-days’ journies which they were still distant from Jerusalem.
Far from the expressions of joy being exhausted by all the songs and acclamations of the morning, they seemed only to be beginning, when they set forward again. From the pools of Solomon they took their way through the hills to Bethlehem. The cymbals, cornets, and timbrels of the Levites struck up their music again, and many a soul-inspiring psalm was heard from the lips of an assemblage now swollen to several thousand persons. In a pilgrimage to the temple, could he be forgotten, whose pious heart first conceived the wish to build a house for Jehovah? The warrior-bard was commemorated in the following psalm: