It was only now that the Sabbath, which had been referred to in Isaiah, took on a new significance (this is inferred because records show that the most popular new name at this time was ‘Shabbetai’). Shabbatum, as was mentioned in an earlier chapter, was originally a Babylonian word and custom, meaning ‘full moon day’, when no work was done.6 There is even some evidence that the idea of a ‘Covenant’ with God derives from this time of exile. It is reminiscent of an old idea in Zoroastrianism and, as we shall see, the man who eventually freed the Jews from exile, Cyrus the Great, was a
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