8. (a) What hint of hope did Ezekiel’s enactment contain? (b) How did the prophetic statement about the “few strands” come true?

⁸ However, Ezekiel’s prophetic enactment also contained a hint of hope. Regarding the hair that Ezekiel had shaved off, Jehovah told the prophet: “Take a few strands . . . and wrap them up in the folds of your garment.” (Ezek. 5:3) That command indicated that a few of the Jews who would be scattered among the nations would be preserved. Some of those “few strands” would be among the exiles who were to return to Jerusalem after the 70-year-long captivity in Babylon. (Ezek. 6:8, 9; 11:17) Did that prophetic statement come true? Yes. A number of years after the end of the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Haggai reported that some of the scattered Jews had indeed returned to Jerusalem. They were the “old men who had seen the former house,” that is, Solomon’s temple. (Ezra 3:12; Hag. 2:1-3) Jehovah saw to it that pure worship was preserved, just as he had promised.

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  “Wrap”

  Some exiles would return to Jerusalem, and pure worship would be preserved