World English Bible · The Persian return
Ezra 8
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Now these are the heads of their fathers' households, and this is the genealogy of those who 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 , of the sons of , ; and with him were listed by genealogy of the males one hundred fifty. Of the sons of , Eliehoenai the son of ; and with him two hundred males. 5Of the sons of , the son of ; and with him three hundred males. Of the sons of , Ebed the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males. Of the sons of , the son of ; and with him seventy males. Of the sons of Shephatiah, the son of Michael; and with him eighty males. Of the sons of , the son of Jehiel; and with him two hundred eighteen males. 10Of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him one hundred sixty males. Of the sons of , the son of ; and with him twenty-eight males. Of the sons of , the son of Hakkatan; and with him one hundred ten males. Of the sons of , who were the last, their names are: , , and ; and with them sixty males. Of the sons of , and Zabbud; and with them seventy males. I gathered them together to the river that runs to ; and there we encamped three days. Then I looked around at the people and the priests, and found there were none of the . Then I sent for , for , for , for , for , for , for , for , and for , chief men; also for and for , who were teachers. I sent them out to the chief at the place ; and I told them what they should tell and his brothers servants at the place , that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our . According to the good hand of our on us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of , the son of , the son of Israel, namely , with his sons and his brothers, eighteen; and , and with him of the sons of , his brothers and their sons, twenty; and of servants, whom and the princes had given for the of the , two hundred twenty temple servants. All of them were mentioned by name. Then I proclaimed a there at the river , that we might humble ourselves before our , to seek from him a straight way for us, for our little ones, and for all our possessions. For I was to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against on , because we had spoken to the king, saying, "The hand of our is on all those who seek him, for good; but his and his is against all those who forsake him." So we and begged our for this, and he granted our request. Then I twelve of the chiefs of the priests, even , , and ten of their brothers with them, and weighed to them the silver, the gold, and the vessels, even the for the house of our , which the king, his , his princes, and all Israel there present, had offered. I weighed into their hand six hundred fifty of silver, one hundred of silver vessels, one hundred of gold, twenty bowls of gold weighing one thousand darics, and two vessels of fine bright bronze, precious as gold. I said to them, "You are to , and the vessels are . The silver and the gold are a free will to , the of your fathers. Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the chiefs of the priests, the , and the princes of the fathers' households of Israel at , in the rooms of house." So the priests and the received the weight of the silver, the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to to the house of our . Then we departed from the river on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to . The hand of our was on us, and he us from the hand of and the bandits by . We came to , and stayed there three days. On the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed in the house of our into the hand of the son of the priest; and with him was the son of ; and with them were the son of , and the son of , the . 34Everything was counted and weighed; and all the weight was written at that time. The children of , who had come out of , offered burnt offerings to the of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats for a . All this was a burnt offering to . They the king's commissions to the king's local governors and to the governors beyond . So they supported the people and house.
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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.