And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
When the seventh month was come. The departure of "the children of the province" (Ezra 2:1: cf. Nehemiah 8:6) - the returning exiles of Judah and Benjamin-from Babylon took place in spring; and for some time after their arrival they were occupied in the necessary work of rearing habitations to themselves amid the ruins of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, because there were neither streets, gates, nor fortified walls, nor commodious houses for their reception and protection. This preliminary work being completed, they addressed themselves to rebuild the altar of burnt offering, and, as the seventh month of the sacred year was at hand-corresponding to the latter end of our September-when the feast of tabernacles (Leviticus 23:1-44) fell to be observed, they resolved to celebrate that religious festival, just as if the temple had been fully restored.