The great event preparatory to the reign of the Messiah is the gathering of the exiles, “ḳibbuzgaliyyot.” This hope, voiced in Deut. xxx. 3; Isa. xi. 12; Micah iv. 6, vii. 11; Ezek. xxxix. 27; Zech. xi. 10-12 and Isa. xxxv. 8, is made especially impressive by the description in Isa. xxvii. 13 of the return of all the strayed ones from Assyria and Egypt, and by the announcement that “the Gentiles themselves shall carry Israel’s sons and daughters on their arms to Jerusalem with presents for the Lord” (Isa. xlix. 22, lx. 4-9, lxvi. 20). It was accordingly dwelt upon as a miraculous act in the synagogal liturgy and song (Shemoneh ‘Esreh; Meg. 17a; Cant. xi. 1, xvii. 31), as well as in apocalyptic visions (Apoc. Abraham, xxxi.; II Esd. xiii. 13; Matt. xxiv. 31). God shall bring them back from the East and the West (Baruch, iv. 37, v. 5 et seq.; Ecclus. [Sirach] xxxvi. 13; Tobit xiii. 13); Elijah shall gather them and the Messiah summon them together (Ecclus. [Sirach] xlviii. 10; Sibyllines, ii. 171-187; Cant. xvii. 26; Targ. Yer. to Ex. vi. 18, xl. 9-10, Num. xxiv. 7, Deut. xxx. 4, Jer. xxxiii. 13). In wagons carried by the winds the exiles shall be borne along with a mighty noise (Enoch, lvii. 1 et seq.; Zeb. 116a; Cant. R. and Haggadat Shir ha-Shirim to Cant. iv. 16; Midr. Teh. to Ps. lxxxvii. 6), and a pillar of light shall lead them (Philo, “De Execrationibus,” 8-9). The Lost Ten Tribes shall be miraculously brought back across the mighty waters of the River Euphrates (II Esd. xiii. 39-47; Syriac Apoc. Baruch, lxxvii.; Sanh. x. 13; Tan., Miḳḳez and Shelaḥ, i. 203, iii. 79, ed. Buber, after Isa. xi. 15; see Arzareth; Sambation; Ten Tribes).