38. Why was it fitting for Jehovah’s angel to call out to the Jewish exiles: “Make your escape, you who are dwelling with the daughter of Babylon”?

³⁸ In the calamities suffered at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the larger part of the Jewish survivors were taken into exile in Babylon and its territories, which included territories taken from the former Assyrian Empire. It was therefore quite fitting for the angel of Jehovah of armies now to cry out: “Hey there, Zion! Make your escape, you who are dwelling with the daughter of Babylon.

Zechariah 2:7-9.

39. In crying out, “Hey there, Zion,” to whom was Jehovah calling out to make an escape?

³⁹ Ancient Zion, which is here the same as Jerusalem, represented the whole nation, not merely the exiled former inhabitants of the capital city. Now that Babylon had been overthrown in 539 B.C.E. and Cyrus the Persian conqueror had issued his decree of liberation to the Jewish exiles, the call to Zion was really addressed to all the exiled Jews. They were dwelling as exiles “with the daughter of Babylon,” the city of Babylon being spoken of as a woman no longer an unviolated virgin daughter.

44. How was there a reversal as regards the Babylonian worship and the worship by Jehovah’s people?

⁴⁴ Also, because of the difference between religion of the Persian worshipers of Zoroaster and the religion of the old Babylonian cultists, the magic-practicing priests, conjurers, Chaldeans and astrologers became overshadowed religiously and finally felt obliged to move from the religious center of Babylon. It appears that they transferred westward to Pergamum in Asia Minor and then from there over to Italy. (Revelation 2:12, 13) In sharp contrast with this, the worshipers of Jehovah won favor from the conquerors of Babylon, and their priests and Levites were reinstated in the posts of service at the rebuilt temple of Jehovah on its original site in Jerusalem. Thus “Zion” escaped homeward from Babylon.