World English Bible · The Persian return
Zechariah 1
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In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, word came to the the son of , the son of , saying, " was very displeased with your fathers. Therefore tell them, of Armies says: 'Return to me,' of Armies, 'and I will return to you,' of Armies. Don't you be like your fathers, to whom the former proclaimed, saying: of Armies says, 'Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;' but they didn't hear nor listen to me, . Your fathers, where are they? And , do they live ? But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants , didn't they overtake your fathers? "Then they and said, ' as of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.'" On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month , in the second year of Darius, word came to the the son of , the son of , saying, "I had a in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses. Then I asked, 'My , what are these?'" who talked with me said to me, "I will show you what these are." The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, "They are the ones has sent to go back and forth through the earth." They reported to who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, "We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace." Then replied, "O , how long will you not have mercy on and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had these seventy years?" answered who talked with me with kind and comforting words. So who talked with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, ' of Armies says: "I am and for with a great . I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity." Therefore says: "I have returned to with mercy. My house shall be built in it," of Armies, "and a line shall be stretched out over ."' "Proclaim further, saying, ' of Armies says: "My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and will again comfort , and will again choose ."'" I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four . I asked who talked with me, "What are these?" He answered me, "These are the which have scattered Judah, Israel, and ." showed me four craftsmen. Then I asked, "What are these coming to do?" He said, "These are the which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the of the nations that lifted up their against the land of Judah to scatter it."
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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.