King James Version · The Persian return
Nehemiah 6
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Now it came to pass, when , and , and the , and the rest of our , heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the ;) That and sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. And I sent unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner. Then sent his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand; Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and saith it, that thou and the think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words. And thou hast also appointed to preach of thee at , saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take together. Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own . For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O , strengthen my hands. Afterward I came unto the house of the son of the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of , within , and let us shut the doors of : for they will come to thee; yea, in the night will they come to thee. And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into to his life? I will not go in. And, lo, I perceived that had not sent him; but that he pronounced this against me: for and had hired him. Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and , and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might me. My , think thou upon and according to these their works, and on the , and the rest of , that would have put me in fear. So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month , in fifty and two days. And it came to pass, that when all our heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our . Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto , and the letters of came unto them. For there were many in Judah unto him, because he was the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son had taken the daughter of the son of . Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. And sent letters to put me in fear.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.