World English Bible · The Persian return
Malachi 2
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"Now, you priests, this is for you. If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to , to give to my name," of Armies, "then I will send the on you, and I will your . Indeed, I have them already, because you do not take it to . Behold, I will rebuke , and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. You will know that I have sent this to you, that my may be with ," of Armies. "My was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name. of truth was in his , and unrighteousness was not found in his . He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from . For the priest's should keep knowledge, and they should seek at his ; for he is of of Armies. But you have turned away from . You have caused many to stumble in . You have corrupted of ," of Armies. "Therefore I have also made you contemptible and before all the people, according to you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in . Don't we all have one ? Hasn't one created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning of our fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously, and an is committed in Israel and in ; for Judah has profaned the of which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign . will the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of and him who offers an to of Armies. "This again you do: you cover with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn't regard the any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. Yet you say, 'Why?' Because has been between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and the wife of your . Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of ? Why one? He sought godly . Therefore take heed to your , and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. One who hates and divorces", , the of Israel, "covers his garment with !" of Armies. "Therefore pay attention to your , that you don't be . You have wearied with your words. Yet you say, 'How have we wearied him?' In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in sight, and he delights in them;' or 'Where is the of justice?'
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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.