World English Bible · The Persian return
Nehemiah 5
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Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the . For there were some who said, "We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live." There were also some who said, "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the ." There were also some who said, "We have borrowed money for the king's tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral. Yet now our is as of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards." I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the , and said to them, "You exact usury, everyone of his brother." I held a great against them. I said to them, "We, after our ability, have our brothers the that were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us?" Then they held their peace, and found not a word to say. Also I said, "The thing that you do is not good. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our because of the of the nations, our ? I likewise, my brothers and my servants, lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury. Please restore to them, even today, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the , and the oil, that you are charging them." Then they said, "We will restore them, and will require nothing of them. We will do so, even as you say." Then I called the priests, and took an of them, that they would do according to this promise. Also I shook out my lap, and said, "So may shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that doesn't perform this promise; even may he be shaken out and emptied like this." All said, "," and praised . The people did according to this promise. Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to -second year of the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor. But the former governors who were before me were supported by the people, and took bread and from them, plus forty of silver; yes, even their servants ruled over the people, but I didn't do so, because of . Yes, I also continued in the work of this wall. We didn't buy any land. All my servants were gathered there to the work. Moreover there were at my table, of the and the , one hundred fifty men, in addition to those who came to us from among the nations that were around us. Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep. Also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days a store of all sorts of . Yet for all this, I didn't demand the governor's pay, because the bondage was heavy on this people. Remember me, my , for all the good that I have done for this people.
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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.