King James Version · The Persian return
Zechariah 1
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In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of unto , the son of , the son of the , saying, hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former have cried, saying, Thus saith of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor unto me, saith . Your fathers, where are they? and , do they live for ever? But my words and , which I commanded my servants , did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of unto , the son of , the son of the , saying, I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white. Then said I, O my , what are these? And that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. And they answered that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Then answered and said, O , how long wilt thou not have mercy on and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had these threescore and ten years? And answered that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. So that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith of hosts; I am and for with a great . And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore thus saith ; I am returned to with : my house shall be built in it, saith of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon . Cry yet, saying, Thus saith of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and shall yet comfort , and shall yet choose . Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four . And I said unto that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the which have scattered Judah, Israel, and . And shewed me four carpenters. Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the of the , which lifted up their over the land of Judah to scatter it.
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.