King James Version · The Persian return
Zechariah 10
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Ask ye of in the time of the ; so shall make bright clouds, and give them of , to every one grass in the field. For the idols have spoken , and the have seen a lie, and have told false ; they comfort in : therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no . Mine was kindled against the , and I punished the goats: for of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle. Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together. And they shall be as , which tread down their in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded. And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will the , and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am their , and will hear them. And they of shall be like a mighty man, and their shall rejoice as through : yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their shall rejoice in . I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have them: and they shall increase as they have increased. And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again. I will bring them again also out of the land of , and gather them out of ; and I will bring them into the land of and ; and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of shall be brought down, and the sceptre of shall depart away. And I will strengthen them in ; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith .
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.