Leviticus 26:33

33. I will scatter you This admonitory prophecy looks beyond the captivity of Israel in Babylon, its first fulfilment, to that world-wide dispersion which began at the destruction of Jerusalem and continues to this day, a miracle of national life perpetuated in spite of all opposing forces and destructive agencies, a people “scattered and peeled,” dwelling in every nation, yet resisting absorption and assimilation. “THE DISPERSION” was the general title applied to those Jews who remained in foreign countries after the return from Babylon, during the period of the second temple. Most of them were in bondage, and shut out from the full privileges of the chosen race. John 7:35; James 1:1, notes. There are legends pointing to settlements of Jews in Arabia, Ethiopia and Abyssinia. At the beginning of the Christian era the “dispersion” was divided into three great sections the Babylonian, the Syrian, and the Egyptian. For the breadth of the dispersion, see Acts 2:9-11, note. Its influence on the rapid promulgation of Christianity can scarcely be overrated. The course of apostolic preaching follows, in a regular progress, the line of Jewish settlements. Thus the wickedness of Israel was overruled for the furtherance of the Gospel.