King James Version · The Persian return
Ezra 10
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Now when had , and when he had , weeping and casting himself down before the house of , there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore. And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of , answered and said unto , We have trespassed against our , and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a with our to all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the of my , and of those that tremble at the of our ; and let it be done according to . Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it. Then arose , and made the , the , and all Israel, to that they should do according to this word. And they sware. Then rose up from before the house of , and went into the chamber of the son of : and when he came thither, he did eat , nor drink water: for he mourned because of the of them that had been . And they made proclamation throughout Judah and unto all the children of , that they should gather themselves together unto ; And that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the of the princes and the , all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from of those that had been . Then all the men of Judah and gathered themselves together unto within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of , trembling because of this matter, and for the great . And the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. Now therefore make unto of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. Then all answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do. But the people are many, and it is a time of much , and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing. Let now our of all stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at , and with them the of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce of our for this matter be turned from us. Only Jonathan the son of and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and and the helped them. And the children of did so. And the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. 17And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month. And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange wives: namely, of the sons of the son of , and his brethren; , and , and , and . And they gave their hands that they would their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass. And of the sons of ; , and . And of the sons of ; , and , and , and Jehiel, and . And of the sons of Pashur; , , , Nethaneel, , and Elasah. Also of the ; , and , and Kelaiah, (the same is ,) , Judah, and . 24Of the singers also; : and of the porters; , and Telem, and . Moreover of Israel: of the sons of ; Ramiah, and Jeziah, and Malchiah, and Miamin, and , and , and . And of the sons of ; , , and Jehiel, and , and , and Eliah. And of the sons of ; , , , and , and Zabad, and Aziza. Of the sons also of ; , Hananiah, , and Athlai. And of the sons of ; , , and , , and Sheal, and . And of the sons of ; Adna, and Chelal, , , , Bezaleel, and , and Manasseh. And of the sons of ; , Ishijah, Malchiah, , Shimeon, 32, , and . Of the sons of ; , Mattathah, Zabad, , Jeremai, Manasseh, and . 34Of the sons of ; Maadai, , and Uel, 35, Bedeiah, Chelluh, 36Vaniah, , , 37, , and Jaasau, 38And , and , , 39And , and , and , 40Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41Azareel, and , , 42, , and Joseph. Of the sons of ; Jeiel, , Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, . All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.
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.