King James Version · The Persian return
Ezra 5
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Then , the , and the son of , prophesied unto the that were in Judah and in the name of the of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up the son of , and the son of , and began to build the house of which is at : and with them were of helping them. At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shethar–boznai, and their companions, and said thus unto them, Who hath commanded you to build this house, and to make up this wall? 4Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building? But the eye of their was upon the of the , that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to : and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter. The copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shethar–boznai, and his companions the Apharsachites, which were on this side the river, sent unto the king: They sent a letter unto him, wherein was written thus; Unto the king, all peace. Be it known unto the king, that we went into the province of , to the house of the great , which is builded with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls, and this work goeth on, and prospereth in their hands. Then asked we those , and said unto them thus, Who commanded you to build this house, and to make up these walls? 10We asked their names also, to certify thee, that we might write the names of the men that were the chief of them. And thus they returned us answer, saying, We are the servants of the of and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up. But after that our fathers had provoked the of unto , he gave them into the hand of the king of , the , who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into . But in the first year of the king of the same king made a to build this house of . And the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of , which took out of that was in , and brought them into of , those did the king take out of of , and they were unto one, whose name was , whom he had made governor; And said unto him, Take these vessels, go, carry them into that is in , and let the house of be builded in his place. Then came the same , and laid the foundation of the house of which is in : and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and yet it is not finished. Now therefore, if it seem good to the king, let there be search made in the king’s house, which is there at , whether it be so, that a was made of the king to build this house of at , and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.
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.