And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
All Commentaries on Ezra 3:1 Go To Ezra 3
Bede
AD 735
The king's great faith and great mercy is evident in these words - faith in that he understood that, before other nations, the people of Israel are God's people; mercy because without exception he allowed all who wished to return to their homeland to do so as free people; faith because he acknowledged that the same Lord God not only dwelt in heaven and was in Jerusalem but also could go up with each of those who were returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. Is it not clearer than light that Cyrus believed this God to be not corporeal and confinable in terms of place but a spirit and present everywhere? He confessed that God was present in Jerusalem and in the temple and yet did not doubt that he ruled simultaneously in the kingdom of heaven. And he believed that he ruled in heaven in such a way that he was nevertheless with his faithful on earth and guided their hearts and hands to the doing of those things which are salutary.
