King James Version · The Persian return
1 Esdras 1
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1And held the feast of in unto his , and offered the fourteenth day of the first month; 2Having set the priests according to their daily courses, being arrayed in long garments, in of . 3And he spake unto the , the ministers of Israel, that they should hallow themselves unto , to set the in the house that king had built: 4And said, Ye shall no more bear the ark upon your shoulders: now therefore your , and minister unto his people Israel, and prepare you after your families and kindreds, 5According as the king of Israel prescribed, and according to the magnificence of his son: and standing in according to the several dignity of the families of you the , who minister in the of your brethren the , 6Offer in order, and make ready the for your brethren, and keep according to the of , which was given unto . 7And unto the people that was found there gave thirty thousand lambs and kids, and three thousand calves: these things were given of the king’s allowance, according as he promised, to the people, to the priests, and to the . 8And Helkias, , and Syelus, the governors of , gave to the priests for two thousand and six hundred sheep, and three hundred calves. 9And Jeconias, and , and his brother, and Assabias, and Ochiel, and , captains over thousands, gave to the for five thousand sheep, and seven hundred calves. 10And when these things were done, the priests and , having the , stood in very comely order according to the kindreds, 11And according to the several dignities of the fathers, before the people, to offer to , as in the book of : and thus did they in the morning. 12And they roasted with , as appertaineth: as for the , they sod them in brass pots and pans with a good savour, 13And set them before all the people: and afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests their brethren, the sons of . 14For the priests offered until night: and the prepared for themselves, and the priests their brethren, the sons of . 15The singers also, the sons of , were in their order, according to the appointment of , to wit, , , and Jeduthun, who was of the king’s retinue. 16Moreover the porters were at every ; it was not lawful for any to go from his ordinary : for their brethren the prepared for them. 17Thus were the things that belonged to the of accomplished in that day, that they might hold , 18And offer upon the of , according to the of king . 19So the which were present held at that time, and the feast of sweet bread seven days. 20And such a was not kept in Israel since the time of the . 21Yea, all the kings of Israel held not such a as , and the priests, and the , and the , held with all Israel that were found dwelling at . 22In the eighteenth year of the reign of was this kept. 23And the works or were upright before his with an full of godliness. 24As for the things that came to pass in his time, they were written in former times, concerning those that , and did wickedly against above all people and kingdoms, and how they grieved him exceedingly, so that the words of rose up against Israel. 25Now after all these acts of it came to pass, that the king of came to raise war at Carchamis upon : and went out against him. 26But the king of sent to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, O king of ? 27I am not sent out from against thee; for my war is upon : and now is with me, yea, is with me hasting me forward: depart from me, and be not against . 28Howbeit did not his chariot from him, but undertook to fight with him, not regarding the words of the spoken : 29But joined battle with him in the plain of Magiddo, and the princes came against king . 30Then said the king unto his servants, Carry me away out of the battle; for I am very weak. And immediately his servants took him away out of the battle. 31Then gat he up upon his second chariot; and being brought back to , and was buried in his ’s . 32And in all they mourned for , yea, the for , and the chief men with the women made for him unto this day: and this was given out for an to be done continually in all the nation of Israel. 33These things are written in the book of the stories of the kings of Judah, and every one of the acts that did, and his , and his understanding in of , and the things that he had done before, and the things now recited, are reported in the book of the kings of Israel and . 34And the people took Joachaz the son of , and made him king instead of his , when he was twenty and three years old. 35And he reigned in and in three months: and then the king of deposed him from reigning in . 36And he set a tax upon the land of an hundred of silver and one of gold. 37The king of also made king his brother king of and . 38And he bound and the nobles: but Zaraces his brother he apprehended, and brought him out of . 39Five and twenty years old was when he was made king in the land of and ; and he did evil before . 40Wherefore against him the king of came up, and bound him with a chain of brass, and carried him into . 41 also took of the vessels of , and carried them away, and set them in his own temple at . 42But those things that are recorded of him, and of his uncleanness and impiety, are written in the chronicles of the kings. 43And his son reigned in his stead: he was made king being eighteen years old; 44And reigned but three months and ten days in ; and did evil before . 45So after a year sent and caused him to be brought into with the vessels of ; 46And made Zedechias king of and , when he was one and twenty years old; and he reigned eleven years: 47And he did evil also in the sight of , and cared not for the words that were spoken unto him by the from . 48And after that king had made him to by the name of , he forswore himself, and rebelled; and hardening his neck, , he transgressed the laws of of Israel. 49The governors also of the people and of the priests did many things against the laws, and passed all the pollutions of all nations, and defiled of , which was in . 50Nevertheless the of their fathers sent by his to call them back, because he spared them and his also. 51But they had his in derision; and, look, when spake unto them, they made a sport of his : 52So far forth, that he, being wroth with his people for their great ungodliness, commanded the kings of the Chaldees to come up against them; 53Who slew their young men with , yea, even within the compass of their temple, and spared neither young man nor maid, old man nor child, among them; for he all into their hands. 54And they took all the vessels of , both great and small, with the vessels of the , and the king’s , and carried them away into . 55As for the , they burnt it, and brake down the walls of , and set upon her towers: 56And as for her things, they never ceased till they had consumed and brought them all to nought: and the people that were not slain with he carried unto : 57Who became servants to him and his children, till the reigned, to fulfil the word of spoken : 58Until the land had enjoyed her , the whole time of her desolation shall she rest, until the full term of seventy years.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The Persian return, 539 BC to 332 BC ›
Persia takes Babylon and reverses its policy, sending exiled peoples home to rebuild their temples. Judah returns as a small province, rebuilding under imperial permission rather than independence.
- Persia
- The largest empire the world had yet seen, from the Indus to the Aegean, run through provinces, a royal road, and a postal system. Its policy on conquered peoples was to send them home and fund their temples, in exchange for loyalty and prayers for the king. The Cyrus Cylinder states the policy in Cyrus's own words, and Ezra opens with the same policy applied to Judah.
- Judah
- A small, poor province called Yehud, a fraction of the old kingdom, with a rebuilt temple that made the people who remembered the first one weep. No king, and no prospect of one. Leadership passes to priests and scribes, which shapes everything afterward.
- Greece
- Persia and Greece collide at Marathon and Salamis, Persia loses, and Athens spends the following decades on the Parthenon, tragedy, and Socrates. Herodotus writes the first history in order to explain that war. Then Plato and Aristotle, whose vocabulary the church will still be using at Nicaea eight centuries later.
- Further afield
- Rome throws out its kings and becomes a republic. In India and China this is the age of the Buddha's early followers and of Confucian teaching taking hold. More of what the world still thinks with was invented in this era than in almost any other.