The short-lived Babylonian Empire was finished by 539 BC. Conquered by Cyrus, ruler of Medo-Persian Empire, it was his policy to allow all captive nations to return to their homelands. With Daniel serving in the Imperial Court, you can be sure Cyrus looked with extra favor on the Jews. Our study will take Ezra and Nehemiah as the text.
It is noteworthy Ezra is given credit for a tremendous amount of work, keeping in mind he probably finished projects many others started. He is viewed as the quintessential Priestly Rabbi. For all we can tell, he may have been the final editor of the Chronicles, for his own book starts off with much the same tone. Indeed, it seems he and his servants were the final editors of the Ezra-Nehemiah scroll, as it appears a single book in most Hebrew collections. His work shows the new seriousness given to observing the Law of Moses.
Ezra 1 -- The decree from Cyrus includes permission to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The decree was published and willing Jews began gathering and making ready for the move. To the group the Imperial Treasurer delivered all the Temple articles taken by Nebuchadnezzar. Quite likely all the larger furnishings, including the Ark of Covenant, were destroyed with the Temple. The appointed governor of the resettled Jews was named Sheshbazzar. This name was a holdover from the Babylonian language, and the man probably held a similar position under Babylon. Near as we can guess, he was the fourth son of Jehoiachin, and uncle to the next governor, Zerubbabel. Most imperial rulers appointed members of their subject nations' indigenous royal families as governors. If these two men are thus related, we can safely assume their time in office would overlap, much as kings would grant co-regency to their successors. Thus, we read in the text both are referred to as having charge of the Returnees.
2 -- The actual departure took place roughly a year after the decree. Records indicate they arrived in the area of Jerusalem after two years of travel. The census in this chapter amounts to roughly 50,000 people. Obviously, this group is a minority of the Jews living in Babylon. Indeed, at one point it was alleged the soil of Mesopotamia was more holy than that of Jerusalem, since the greatest number Mosaic scholars stayed behind. We also have indications some few families of the Northern Tribes managed to reconnect with their Nation. However, there is great dispute as to whether it was a tiny trickle or a significant portion. Research seems to favor the former. We note while thousands of priests opted to return, a mere handful of Levites came willingly. There seems no explanation for their reluctance. The folks called Nethinim were most likely the Temple servants from the treaty with the old Gibeonite Confederacy (Joshua 9). They were grouped with Servants of Solomon, described as the combined contingent of his war captives and hostages, hereditary servants of the Royal House. The families of undetermined lineage (v. 62) went along in hope of a priest arising who could settle the issue with the holy lots (Urim and Thummim); sadly it never came about. The Shekinah Glory departed for the last time from the Temple in 593 BC (Ezekiel 8) and there could be no such word from God.
3 -- When the Babylonian governor, Gedaliah, was murdered by the escaped nobles, their flight to Egypt included a number of the peasants left behind for agricultural work. Thus, quite a bit of Judah was simply vacant. At some point, the Edomites and some other nations took up residence in some of the vacant cities in the south. However, there were still plenty of places for the Returnees to live. It was all but impossible to resettle them all in Jerusalem. The western ridge of the city was completely unsalvagable for quite some time, so the restored Jerusalem was only slightly larger than what Solomon had: Ophel, the old Jebusite city on the lower ridge; Zion, the upper ridge occupied by the Temple, palaces, fortress and court; and some of the upper area of the Central Valley. Most of the lower Central Valley was filled with rubble from the Babylonian destruction.
At the Feast of Trumpets (seventh month), the scene was a badly ravaged once-grand city. The Temple plaza and royal courts were piles of rubble at best. Tradition indicates parts of Ophel still stood, as did sections of the eastern wall. Tents would be visible over usable ruins, and people were beginning to clear space for rebuilding. The court before the Temple had been cleared, and the bronze altar had been replaced with a new one. Thus, when the nation appeared for the feast, there was ready a place to offer burnt offerings. It was at this point the sacrifices were restored to their proper cycle according to Moses. The collected free-will offerings were used to pay laborers to begin clearing and rebuilding the foundation of the Temple. Agricultural produce was sent to Tyre and Sidon in exchange for cedar beams, which would arrive sometime later. Folks stayed around the city a few weeks until the Feast of Tabernacles mid-month.
Just over two years after their return --535 BC -- the Temple foundation was laid. To celebrate, the Temple orchestra and choir put on a mass performance. The crowd drawn to see the foundation were torn. The eldest, who would remember the glory of Solomon's Temple, wept for the much smaller size of the new one. The rest of the crowd was joyful to see the progress. Observers could not tell which group was the loudest, only that the noise was deafening.
4:1-5 -- We recall Esarhaddon had brought in a large group of people from across the Assyrian Empire to replace the people of the Kingdom of Israel, sometime around 680 BC. In response to their appeal for priests of the local religion, Assyria found only a few back-slidden priests. They produced a highly edited version of the Torah and revived the paganized worship at Bethel. Under several kings of Judah, there were attempts to correct some of the corruptions, but seldom for long. After some fifty years of Judean Exile, they had lapsed into a very impure worship of someone they claimed was Jehovah. Upon seeing the Temple reconstruction under way, these Samaritans sent a delegation to Jerusalem. They asked how they might get involved, and observed they had been worshiping the same God all along. The biggest change in Jews during the Exile was taking the Law of Moses very seriously, completely reshaping the culture to emphasize the necessity of knowing the Law and obeying it in detail. Thus, they rejected the Samaritan overtures. The confrontation established a permanent wall of bitterness between the two nations. The Jews referred to Samaritans as filthy pagans, and Samaritans of Jews as arrogant snobs deserving contempt. Samaritans eventually built their own temple on Mount Gerizim. By this time, Daniel was gone, and there was no strong protector of Jewish interests in the Imperial Court.
4:6-24 -- While not in keeping with the chronology of the story, we are given a sample of Samaritan behavior. The Samaritans learned to bribe the court officials to give them an edge in how to petition the Emperor to harass the Jews. During the next 15 year, under two more Emperors, they kept the Jews in check on the Temple. While things turned for the better under Darius the Great, his successor Xerxes I believed the Samaritan lies. The next Emperor, Artaxerxes I, also believed them. During his reign, the Jews made some effort to start work on the city walls, but were stopped by troops sent direct from the Imperial Court. The damage to the city from this attack is what brings tears to Nehemiah. This section closes by bringing us back to the main story line, noting the Temple rebuilding was stopped until the second year of Darius (520 BC).
While the text is silent on contemporary events, we note Cyrus is replaced by Cambyses (530-522 BC), who passed by on his way to conquer Egypt in 525 BC. On his death, a usurper named Gaumata tried to seize the throne, but was executed by Darius I ("the Great"). For the next two years, Darius is busy putting down a wide-spread revolt. His warfare brought the Medo-Persian Empire to its greatest size and most stable period. It us when things settle down the Jews were able to get the Emperor's ear.
[ Return to Lesson Index ]
[ <-- Previous Lesson ]
[ --> Next Lesson ]
Ed Hurst
18 June 2005
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior -- "be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23)