King James Version · The Persian return
Malachi 3
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Behold, I will send , and he shall prepare before me: and , whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even of , whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith of hosts. But who may the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s , and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the , and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto an in . Then shall the of Judah and be pleasant unto , as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to ; and I will be a swift against the sorcerers, and against the , and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the , and , and that turn aside the from his right, and fear not me, saith of hosts. For I am , I change not; therefore ye sons of are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob ? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In and . Ye are with : for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the into the , that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of , and pour you out a , that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith of hosts. And all nations shall call you : for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith of hosts. Your words have been stout against me, saith . Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is to : and what profit is it that we have kept his , and that we have walked mournfully before of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that are even . Then they that feared spake often one to another: and hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared , and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between , between him that serveth and him that serveth him not.
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.