World English Bible · The Persian return
Nehemiah 12
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Now these are the priests and the who went up with the son of , and : , , , 2, , , 3, , , , Ginnethoi, , 5, Maadiah, , , , , Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, and . These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of . Moreover the were , , , , Judah, and , who was over the songs, he and his brothers. Also and Unno, their brothers, were close to them according to their offices. became of , and became of , and became of , 11and became of Jonathan, and Jonathan became of . In the days of were priests, heads of fathers' households: of , Meraiah; of , ; 13of , ; of , ; 14of Malluchi, Jonathan; of , Joseph; 15of , Adna; of , Helkai; 16of , ; of Ginnethon, ; 17of , ; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai; 18of , ; of , Jehonathan; 19of , ; of , ; 20of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, ; 21of Hilkiah, ; of , . As for the , in the days of , , , and , there were recorded the heads of fathers' households; also the priests, in the reign of Darius the . The , heads of fathers' households, were written in the book of the chronicles, even until the days of the son of . The chiefs of the : , , and the son of , with their brothers close to them, to and according to the of the , section next to section. , , , , , and were gatekeepers keeping the watch at the storehouses of the . These were in the days of the son of , the son of , and in the days of the governor, and of the priest and . At the dedication of the wall of , they sought the out of all their places, to bring them to to keep the dedication with gladness, both with giving thanks and with singing, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and with harps. The sons of the singers gathered themselves together, both out of the plain around and from the villages of the Netophathites; also from Beth and out of the fields of and Azmaveth, for the singers had built themselves villages around . The priests and the purified themselves; and they purified the people, the , and the wall. Then I brought the princes of Judah up on the wall, and appointed two great companies who gave thanks and went in procession. One went on on the wall toward the dung gate; 32and after them went Hoshaiah, with half of the princes of Judah, and , , and , 34Judah, , , , and some of the priests' sons with : the son of Jonathan, the son of , the son of , the son of Micaiah, the son of , the son of ; and his brothers, , , Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, , Judah, and , with the musical instruments of the ; and the was before them. By the spring , and straight before them, they went up by the stairs of city, at the ascent of the wall, above house, even to the water gate eastward. The other company of those who gave thanks went to meet them, and I after them, with the half of the people on the wall above the tower of the furnaces, even to the wide wall, and above the of , and by the old , and by the fish gate, , and the tower of Hammeah, even to the sheep gate; and they stood still in the of the guard. So the two companies of those who gave thanks in house stood, and I and the half of the with me; 41and the priests, , , Miniamin, Micaiah, , , and , with ; and , , Eleazar, , , , , and . The singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer. They offered great that day, and rejoiced, for had made them rejoice with great joy; and the women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of was heard even far away. On that day, men were appointed over the rooms for the , for the wave , for the , and for the , to gather into them according to the fields of the cities the portions appointed by for the priests and ; for Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the who . They performed the duty of their and the duty of the purification, and so did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the of and of his son. For in the days of and of old there was a chief of the singers, and songs of and to . All Israel in the days of and in the days of gave the portions of the singers and the gatekeepers, as every day required; and they that which was for the ; and the that which was for the sons of .
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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.