Ezra 8:31-32 – “On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was upon us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived in Jerusalem, where we rested three days.”

The people of Israel were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah. The people was far from Jerusalem and cried together at the rivers of Babylon because they could not worship the Lord (Psalm 137:1) When the time revealed in the prophecy had been fulfilled, the people returned to Jerusalem under the hand of the priest Ezra to build the temple.

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