imperial tax and refrained from open violence they were probably allowed
to rule themselves in accordance with their own laws. The elders of the
different families directed the affairs of the community and acted as
judges, except in the case of capital offences which were punished in the
name of Nebuchadrezzar (Jer. 29 22). Thus for a long time the exiles
constituted a little Judah within the heart of the Babylonian empire,
maintaining their racial integrity even more completely than the Jews
resident in Egypt.

Babylonia was the scene of an intense commercial activity. The
opportunities and allurements of the far-reaching traffic which passed
up and down the great rivers and across the neighboring deserts were
eventually too strong for the Jews to resist. Hence in Babylonia, as in
Egypt, they gradually abandoned their inherited agricultural habits and
were transformed into a nation of traders. In the recently discovered
records of the transactions of the famous Babylonian banking house which
flourished during the earlier part of the Persian period, under the
direction of succeeding generations of the Murashu family, are found many
familiar Jewish names. These indicate that within a century after the fall
of Jerusalem many sons of the exiles had already won a prominent place in
the commercial life of that great metropolis.

III. Their Religious Life. With this transformation in their occupation
came a great temptation to forget their race and to lose sight of its
ideals. The temptation was all the greater because their capital city and
temple were in ruins and the belief was widely held that Jehovah had
forsaken his land and people and retired to his "mount in the uttermost
parts of the north" (Isa. 14:13 Ezek. 1:4). Their actual experiences had
proved so fundamentally different from their hopes that there was
undoubtedly in the minds of many a dread doubt as to whether Jehovah was