No  internal  history  of  the  Babylonian  Exile  has  been
written ;  but  the  picture  of  the  desolation  of  the  land,  the
sad  silence  in  the  streets  and  gates  of  Jerusalem,  which
used  to  ring  with  the  joy  of  the  feasts,  and  the  sense  of
abasement  and  contempt  into  which  the  people  had  fallen
as  a  nation  among  the  nations,  together  with  the  flickerings
of  a  faith  in  the  sure  mercies  of  the  Lord  that  refused  to
be  quenched  (Lam.  iii.  22), — all  this  may  be  seen  in  the
exquisite  collection  of  elegies  known  as  the  Lamentations,
written  not  many  years  after  the  fall  of  the  city ;  while
the  delirium  of  hope  raised  somewhat  later  by  the  victories
of  Cyrus,  and  the  approaching  downfall  of  Babylon,  and
the  brilliant  religious  anticipations  of  the  destruction  of
idolatry  and  the  conversion  of  the  nations  to  the  true
religion  of  Jehovah  through  the  ministration  of  Israel
restored,  "  the  servant  of  the  Lord,"  fill  the  pages  of  the
second  half  of  Isaiah  (chs.  xl.— Ixvi.).
The  fortunes  of  the  returning  exiles  are  described  in
Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  and  their  hopes  and  despondencies
in  the  three  prophets  of  the  Eeturn  (Zechariah,  Haggai,
Malachi) ;  while  the  aims  and  faith  and  hopes  of  the  godly
Israel  during  the  Maccabean  struggles  are  reflected  in  the
Book  of  Daniel.  Thus,  amidst  all  the  vicissitudes  of  its
eventful  history,  the  literary  activity  of  Israel  knew  no
intermission.  The  great  literary  period  extends  from  800
to  400  B.C.  ;  but  much  of  the  finest  historical  writing  is
anterior  to  this  period,  while  several  important  books,  as
Chronicles,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Daniel,  fall  later.
28     THE  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT

8.   Literary  and  Historical  Criticism  in  relation  to  Old
Testament  Theoloyy.
