King James Version · The Persian return
Ezra 8
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These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from , in the reign of the king. Of the sons of ; : of the sons of ; Daniel: of the sons of ; . Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh; : and with him were by genealogy of the males an hundred and fifty. Of the sons of ; Elihoenai the son of , and with him two hundred males. 5Of the sons of Shechaniah; the son of , and with him three hundred males. Of the sons also of ; Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males. And of the sons of ; the son of , and with him seventy males. And of the sons of Shephatiah; the son of Michael, and with him fourscore males. Of the sons of ; the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males. 10And of the sons of Shelomith; the son of Josiphiah, and with him an hundred and threescore males. And of the sons of ; the son of , and with him twenty and eight males. And of the sons of ; the son of Hakkatan, and with him an hundred and ten males. And of the last sons of , whose names are these, , Jeiel, and , and with them threescore males. Of the sons also of ; , and Zabbud, and with them seventy males. And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to ; and there abode we in tents three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the . Then sent I for , for , for , and for , and for , and for , and for , and for , and for , chief men; also for , and for , men of understanding. And I sent them with unto the chief at the place , and I told them what they should say unto , and to his brethren the Nethinims, at the place , that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our . And by the good hand of our upon us they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of , the son of , the son of Israel; and , with his sons and his brethren, eighteen; And , and with him of the sons of , his brethren and their sons, twenty; Also of the Nethinims, whom and the princes had appointed for the of the , two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them were expressed by name. Then I proclaimed a there, at the river of , that we might afflict ourselves before our , to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against in : because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our is upon all them for good that seek him; but his and his is against all them that forsake him. So we and besought our for this: and he was intreated of us. Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, , , and ten of their brethren with them, And weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the of the house of our , which the king, and his counsellors, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered: I even weighed unto their hand six hundred and fifty of silver, and silver vessels an hundred , and of gold an hundred ; Also twenty basons of gold, of a thousand drams; and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold. And I said unto them, Ye are unto ; the vessels are also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill unto of your fathers. Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the , and chief of the fathers of Israel, at , in the chambers of the . So took the priests and the the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to unto the house of our . Then we departed from the river of on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto : and the hand of our was upon us, and he us from the hand of , and of such as lay in wait by . And we came to , and abode there three days. Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our by the hand of the son of the priest; and with him was the son of ; and with them was the son of , and the son of , ; 34By number and by weight of every one: and all the weight was written at that time. Also the children of those that had been , which were come out of , offered burnt offerings unto the of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he goats for a : all this was a burnt offering unto . And they the king’s commissions unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors on this side the river: and they furthered the people, and the house of .
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.