World English Bible · The Persian return
Nehemiah 10
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Now those who sealed were: the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and , , , , , , , , , , , , , Daniel, Ginnethon, , , , , , Bilgai, and . These were the priests. The : the son of Azaniah, of the sons of , ; and their brothers, , , , , , , , , , , , 13, , and . The chiefs of the people: , , , , , , , , , , , 17, , Azzur, , , , 19Hariph, , Nobai, 20, , , 21, , , 22, , Anaiah, 23, , , 24Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, , Hashabnah, , 26, , Anan, 27, , and . The rest of the people, the priests, the , the gatekeepers, the singers, servants, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to of , their wives, their sons, and their daughters—everyone who had knowledge and understanding— joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into and into an , to walk in , which was given by the , and to observe and do all of our , and his ordinances and his ; and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons; and if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the to sell, that we would not buy from them on the , or on a day; and that we would forego the seventh year crops and the exaction of every debt. Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a for the of the house of our : for the show bread, for the continual , for the continual burnt offering, for the , for the new moons, for the set feasts, for the things, for the to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our . We, the priests, the , and the people, cast lots for the wood , to bring it into the house of our , according to our fathers' houses, at times appointed year by year, to burn on our , as in ; and to bring the of our ground and the of all fruit of all kinds of trees, year by year, to house; also of our sons and of our livestock, as in , and of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our , to the priests who minister in the house of our ; and that we should bring the of our dough, our wave , the fruit of all kinds of trees, and the and the oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our ; and the of our ground to the ; for they, the , take the in all our farming villages. The priest, the descendent of , shall be with the when the take . The shall bring up the of the to the house of our , to the rooms, into the house. For the and the children of shall bring the wave of the grain, of the , and of the oil, to the rooms where the vessels of are, and the priests who minister, with the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not forsake the house of our .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.