Zionides () are piyyutim which express the longing of the Jewish nation to see the hill of Zion and the city of Jerusalem shine again in all their former glory. They date back to the time immediately after the destruction of Solomon's Temple. Since that period the poets and singers of Israel have devoted their best talent to painting in the most brilliant colors the ancient glories of Zion. By far the greater number of these songs unite in voicing a heartfelt desire to see the nation, the city of Jerusalem, Mount Zion, and the Temple restored to their former splendor. Biblical songs The oldest song of Zion in Jewish literature was written around the fifth century BCE, and is a lamentation that the enemy compels Israel to live on foreign soil; this is the celebrated Psalm 137:1-3. A similar Zionide of the same period is Psalm 86; in it the poet, full of hope, sings of the day when the Captivity shall be over and the joyfully returning exiles shall sing a new song of Zion. The fifth chapter of Lamentations is an elegy ending with a desire for deliverance. Middle Ages During the Middle Ages, Zionides from the pens of the greatest poets formed the chief comfort and consolation of the people. As early as the time of Ibn Gabirol (11th century) songs of Zion were incorporated in the liturgy, partly as lamentations for Tisha B'Av and partly as tefillot and piyyutim. Notable lamentations for Zion which are sung on Tisha B'Av include: a song beginning with the words and giving a vivid description of the destruction of Zion; the well-known song which begins with the words , and in which Samaria and Jerusalem try to excel each other in the description of the misfortune which has fallen upon them; and, above all, the Eli Tzion with its refrain: Zion and her cities wail like a woman in childbirth, and like a virgin clothed in sackcloth for the man of her youthful choice. Also notable are several strophes of the song "Lekhah Dodi", which is sung in the Sabbath eve service. The most important of Ibn Gabirol's Zionides are the poem beginning with the words: Send a prince to the condemned people which is scattered hither and thither and that beginning: Turn thy face, O God, to the conquered, who is delivered up into the hand of Babel