King James Version · The Persian return
Haggai 2
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In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of by the , saying, Speak now to the son of , governor of Judah, and to the son of Josedech, the , and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first ? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O , saith ; and be strong, O , son of Josedech, the ; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith , and work: for I am with you, saith of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of , so remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake , and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with , saith of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith of hosts. The of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith of hosts. In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of by the , saying, Thus saith of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning , saying, If one bear in the of his garment, and with his do touch bread, or pottage, or , or oil, or any meat, shall it be ? And the priests answered and said, No. Then said , If one that is by a body touch any of these, shall it be ? And the priests answered and said, It shall be . Then answered , and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith ; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is . And now, I you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in of : Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith . Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of ’s temple was laid, consider it. Is the yet in the barn? yea, as yet , and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I you. 20And again unto in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying, Speak to , governor of Judah, saying, I will shake and the earth; And I will overthrow of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one of his brother. In that day, saith of hosts, will I take thee, O , my servant, the son of , saith , and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith of hosts.
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.