King James Version · The Persian return
Nehemiah 8
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And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto the to bring the book of of , which had commanded to Israel. And the priest brought before both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of . And the stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood , and Shema, and Anaiah, and , and Hilkiah, and , hand; and on his left hand, , and Mishael, and Malchiah, and , and Hashbadana, , and . And opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: And , the great . And all the people answered, , , with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and with their faces to the ground. Also , and , and , , , , Hodijah, , , , , , , and the , caused the people to understand : and the people stood in their place. So they read in the book in of distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. And , which is the Tirshatha, and the priest the , and the that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is unto your ; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of . Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat , and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is unto our : neither be ye sorry; for the joy of is your strength. So the stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is ; neither be ye grieved. And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the , unto the , even to understand the words of . And they found written in which had commanded by , that the should in in the feast of the seventh month: And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in , saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive , and pine , and myrtle , and palm , and of thick trees, to make , as . So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves , every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of , and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the of . And all of them that were come again out of made , and sat under the : for since the days of the son of unto that day had not the done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of of . And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn , according unto the manner.
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.