World English Bible · The Persian return
Nehemiah 4
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But when heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and was very indignant, and mocked the . He spoke before his brothers and the army of , and said, "What are these feeble doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they ? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?" Now the was by him, and he said, "What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall." "Hear, our , for we are despised. their on their own head. Give them up for a plunder in a land of . Don't cover their . Don't let their be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders." So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a to work. But when , , the , , and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of went forward, and that the breaches began to be filled, they were very angry; and they all conspired together to come and fight against , and to cause confusion among us. But we made our to our , and set a watch against them day and night because of them. Judah said, "The strength of the bearers of burdens is fading and there is much rubble, so that we are not able to build the wall." Our said, "They will not know or see, until we come in among them and kill them, and cause the work to cease." When the who lived by them came, they said to us ten times from all places, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us." Therefore I set guards in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in the open places. I set the people by family groups with their , their spears, and their bows. I looked, and rose up, and said to the nobles, to the , and to the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them! Remember , who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses." When our heard that it was known to us, and had brought their to nothing, all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work. From that time forth, half of my servants did the work, and half of them held the spears, the shields, the bows, and the coats of mail; and the were behind all the house of Judah. Those who built the wall, and those who bore burdens loaded themselves; everyone with one of his hands did the work, and with the other held his weapon. Among the builders, everyone wore his at his side, and so built. He who sounded the was by me. 19I said to the nobles, and to the and to the rest of the people, "The work is great and widely spread out, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. Wherever you hear the sound of the , rally there to us. Our will fight for us." So we did the work. Half of the people held the spears from the rising of the morning until the stars appeared. Likewise at the same time I said to the people, "Let everyone with his servant lodge within , that in the night they may be a guard to us, and may labor in the day." So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes. Everyone took his weapon to the water.
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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.