Jerusalem. The repeated references in chapter 56 and following to
conditions in Jerusalem have led all to recognize their Palestinian
origin. The evidence, however, regarding chapters 40-55 is almost equally
convincing. The vocabulary and literary figures employed throughout are
those peculiar to the agricultural life of Palestine and not to the
commercial civilization of Babylon. The problems also are those of the
Judean community. The class to whom the prophet addresses his messages is
evidently the same as that to which Haggai and Zechariah speak. Jerusalem,
not a Jewish colony in Babylon, is the constant object of the prophet's
appeal. Babylon is only one of the distant lands of the dispersion. It is
from Jerusalem that the prophet ever views the world. Thus in 43:5,6 he
declares in the name of Jehovah:

Fear not, for I am with thee.
From the east I will bring thine offspring,
And from the west I will gather them;
I will say to the north, Give up!
And to the south, Withhold not!
Bring my sons from afar,
And my daughters from the ends of the earth.

Interpreted in the light of their true geographical setting, these
Prophecies gain at once a new and clearer meaning.

IV. Their Probable Date. The reference in 43:23, 24 to the offerings
brought by the people to Jehovah's temple clearly implies that it had
already been built. Furthermore, the charges preferred against the Judean
community are very similar to those in the book of Malachi, which is
generally assigned to the period immediately preceding the arrival of
Nehemiah in 445 B.C. (cf. Section XCVII). From the parallels in chapter 48