Within a month after the surrender of Hamadan, the congregation of the
people assembled in the square of the great mosque, now converted into a
synagogue. The multitude was disposed in ordered ranks, and the terrace
of every house was crowded. In the centre of the square was an altar of
cedar and brass, and on each side stood a company of priests guarding
the victims, one young bullock, and two rams without blemish.
Amid the flourish of trumpets, the gates of the synagogue opened, and
displayed to the wondering eyes of the Hebrews a vast and variegated
pavilion planted in the court. The holy remnant, no longer forlorn,
beheld that tabernacle of which they had so long dreamed, once more
shining in the sun, with its purple and scarlet hangings, its curtains
of rare skins, and its furniture of silver and gold.
A procession of priests advanced, bearing, with staves of cedar, run
through rings of gold, a gorgeous ark, the work of the most cunning
artificers of Persia. Night and day had they laboured, under the
direction of Jabaster, to produce this wondrous spectacle. Once more
the children of Israel beheld the cherubim. They burst into a triumphant
hymn of thanksgiving, and many drew their swords, and cried aloud to be
led against the Canaanites.
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