World English Bible · The Persian return
Ezra 2
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Now these are the children of the province who went up out of of those who had been , whom the king of had to , and who returned to and Judah, everyone to his city; who came with , , , , Reelaiah, , Bilshan, Mispar, , , and . The number of the men of the people of Israel: The children of , two thousand one hundred seventy-two. The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two. The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy-five. The children of , of the children of and , two thousand eight hundred twelve. The children of , one thousand two hundred fifty-four. The children of , nine hundred forty-five. The children of , seven hundred sixty. The children of , six hundred forty-two. The children of , six hundred twenty-three. The children of , one thousand two hundred twenty-two. The children of , six hundred sixty-six. The children of , two thousand fifty-six. The children of , four hundred fifty-four. The children of , of , ninety-eight. The children of , three hundred twenty-three. The children of , one hundred twelve. The children of , two hundred twenty-three. The children of , ninety-five. The children of , one hundred twenty-three. The men of Netophah, fifty-six. The men of , one hundred twenty-eight. The children of Azmaveth, forty-two. The children of Kiriath Arim, , and , seven hundred forty-three. The children of and , six hundred twenty-one. The men of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two. The men of and , two hundred twenty-three. The children of , fifty-two. 30The children of Magbish, one hundred fifty-six. The children of the other , one thousand two hundred fifty-four. The children of , three hundred twenty. The children of , Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-five. The children of , three hundred forty-five. The children of Senaah, three thousand six hundred thirty. The priests: the children of , of the house of , nine hundred seventy-three. The children of , one thousand fifty-two. The children of , one thousand two hundred forty-seven. The children of , one thousand seventeen. The : the children of and , of the children of , seventy-four. The singers: the children of , one hundred twenty-eight. The children of the gatekeepers: the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, in all one hundred thirty-nine. servants: the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , 46the children of Hagab, the children of Shamlai, the children of , 47the children of , the children of , the children of , 48the children of , the children of , the children of Gazzam, the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of Nephisim, 51the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , the children of , 54the children of , the children of . The children of servants: the children of , the children of Hassophereth, the children of , the children of Jaalah, the children of , the children of , the children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Hazzebaim, the children of . All servants, and the children of servants, were three hundred ninety-two. These were those who went up from Tel Melah, Tel , , Addan, and ; but they could not show their fathers' houses and their , whether they were of Israel: the children of Delaiah, the children of , the children of , six hundred fifty-two. Of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of , and the children of , who took a wife of the daughters of the Gileadite, and was called after their name. These sought their place among those who were registered by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were deemed disqualified and removed from the priesthood. The governor told them that they should not eat of the most things until a priest stood up to with and with . The whole together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty, in addition to their male servants and their female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven; and they had two hundred singing men and singing women. 66Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six; their mules, two hundred forty-five; 67their camels, four hundred thirty-five; their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred twenty. Some of the heads of fathers' households, when they came to house which is in , offered willingly for house to set it up in its place. They gave according to their ability into the of the work sixty-one thousand darics of gold, five thousand of silver, and one hundred priests' garments. So the priests and the , with some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and servants, lived in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.
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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.