Page 31 - The Minor Prophets - Student textbook

The Persian period (538-333)
Cyrus the Persian (c. 559-530) was regarded in the second part of Isaiah as an instrument appointed by
God to deliver the Israelite exiles. In 539 BCE the army of Cyrus took Babylon, and Babylonia and its
dependencies were incorporated into the Persian Empire. Cyrus followed a more tolerant policy toward
subject peoples and their religions than that of Assyria or Babylonia. Throughout his empire Cyrus
favored local cultural autonomy and respected local gods and their temples. The Jews also benefited
from this policy, for Cyrus decreed in 538 BCE that the Temple of Yahweh, God of heaven, should be
rebuilt in Jerusalem and that Jews wishing to return to Judah could do so.

Sheshbazzar, a prince of Judah and perhaps a son of Jehoiachin, was appointed governor of Judah. He
led the first group of 42,360 returnees. With them they carried, with Cyrus’s permission, vessels of gold
and silver which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. On their arrival in Jerusalem
the returnees set up an altar and began the foundations of a new Temple. They were suspicious of the
racial purity and religious orthodoxy of the Israelites who had not gone into exile and refused to let
them help in rebuilding the Temple. These “people of the land” retaliated by urging the Persian
authorities to halt the construction of the Temple and the walls.

Another much larger group of Jewish exiles returned with Zerubbabel, who was a nephew of
Sheshbazzar, and followed him as governor of Judah. With Zerubbabel came many priests and Levites
led by the high priest Joshua. In 520 BCE work was begun again on the Temple with the encouragement
of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and the permission of King Darius I (522-486). Finally in 516 BCE
this second Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem was completed 70 years after the fall of Jerusalem.

Then in 445 BCE, Nehemiah was sent to Jerusalem by Artaxerxes, king of Persia to rebuild the
destroyed walls of Jerusalem. He was declared governor of Judah, returned with other exiles, and
rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days. After 12 years as governor, he returned to the king in Susa.
After some time in Susa he returned to Jerusalem, only to find that the people had fallen back into their
evil ways. Non-Jews were permitted to conduct business inside Jerusalem on the Sabbath and to keep
rooms in the Temple. Greatly angered, he and Ezra purified the Temple and the priests and Levites and
enforced the observance of the Laws of Moses.

Empires of Ancient Persian explained in 10 minutes

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