World English Bible · The Persian return
Nehemiah 1
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The words of the son of Hacaliah. Now in the month , in the twentieth year, as I was in the palace, , one of my brothers, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them about the who had escaped, who were left of , and concerning . They said to me, " who are left of there in the province are in great affliction and . The wall of is also broken down, and its are burned with ." When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned several days; and I and before the of , and said, "I beg you, , the of , the great and awesome who keeps and with those who love him and keep his , let your ear now be attentive and your eyes open, that you may listen to the of which I before you at this time, day and night, for the your servants, while I the of the which we have against you. Yes, I and house have . We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept , nor the , nor the ordinances, which you commanded . "Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded , saying, 'If you trespass, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to me, and keep my and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of , yet I will gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to there.' "Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have by your great and by your strong hand. , I beg you, let your ear be attentive now to the of , and to the of your servants who delight to fear your name; and please prosper today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Now I was bearer to the king.
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.