World English Bible · The Persian return
Zechariah 6
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Again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of bronze. In the first chariot were red horses. In the second chariot were black horses. In the third chariot were white horses. In the fourth chariot were dappled horses, all of them powerful. Then I asked who talked with me, "What are these, my ?" answered me, "These are the four winds of , which go out from standing before of all the earth. The one with the black horses goes out toward the north country; and the white went out after them; and the dappled went out toward the south country." The strong went out, and sought to go that they might walk back and forth through the earth. He said, "Go around and through the earth!" So they walked back and forth through the earth. Then he called to me, and spoke to me, saying, "Behold, those who go toward the north country have quieted in the north country." word came to me, saying, "Take of them of , even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah; and come the same day, and go into the house of the son of Zephaniah, where they have come from . Yes, take silver and gold, and make , and set them on the head of the son of , the ; and speak to him, saying, ' of Armies says, "Behold, the man whose name is the Branch! He will grow up out of his place; and he will build temple. He will build temple. He will bear the , and will sit and rule on his . He will be a priest on his . The of peace will be between them both. The shall be to Helem, to Tobijah, to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in temple. Those who are far off shall come and build in temple; and you shall know that of Armies has sent me to you. This will happen, if you will diligently your voice."'"
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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.