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.
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Bede
AD 735
In a higher sense, the seventh month suggests the Holy Spirit’s grace, which is described in the prophet Isaiah and in the Revelation of Saint John as sevenfold. And certainly in that month, after our captivity, we gather in Jerusalem, where we are washed from our filthiness and the errors of vice, and protected by the defense of good works and finally are illumined by the greater grace of that same Spirit, so that we are lit in the love of supreme peace, which is contained in the true unity: Jerusalem, indeed, means “vision of peace.”
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.
Month. Tisri, famous for the feasts of trumpets, of expiation, and of tabernacles. (Du Hamel)
The Israelites might spend four months on their journey, and two in making preparations for the feast of tabernacles, (Tirinus) and in erecting huts for themselves. (Calmet)
