Chapter III: The Captivity Ended

=1. In the first year of his reign=, B. C. 536, Cyrus issued a decree of liberty to the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, Ezra 1:2‒4.

=2. No more than 42,360=, including children, could be persuaded to return. But in addition there were over 7,000 male and female servants. Of the priestly clans, only four out of twenty-four were ready to go out, but these added 4,000. Of the Levites, only seventy-four cared to leave Babylon. This multitude, of about 50,000, set out as a caravan to reach Palestine, many of them having to travel the whole distance on foot, as only 8,136 animals, for carriage, accompanied them. The journey occupied about four months and when they arrived they found much of the land preoccupied by the surrounding nations.

But, after much labor and considerable opposition, the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt and, after longer delay, the walls arose from the ruins. B. C. 516 is the date of the second Temple, and B. C. 445 of the rebuilt walls.

THE NUMBER OF THE JEWS AS A RACE.

=3. The number of those= who returned to Palestine was small compared with the number of the Jews as a race at this time. During the reign of David a census of the nation was taken. Of this census there are two accounts, one in 2 Sam. 24:9, the other in 1 Chron. 21:5. The first gives 800,000 as the number in Israel, and 500,000 in Judah, of those “who drew the sword.” In these statements the tribes of both Levi and Benjamin were omitted, the former because they were not subject to military duty, and the latter for the reason stated in the text, 1 Chron. 21:6.

=4. This census= made the number of men capable of bearing arms 1,300,000. It seems from 1 Chron. 27:1 that there was a standing army of 24,000, renewed every month from Israel, and drawn from an established organization of twelve times that number, which Joab, who took the census, may not have included in the number of the census of Israel, 2 Sam. 24:9, but which has been added by the writer of 1 Chron. 21:5. This increases the number by about 300,000, so that the total would be about 1,600,000 of both Israel and Judah, with the exception of the number lost by a pestilence which immediately followed upon the census. But the tribes of Levi and Benjamin, which were not numbered, as we have shown above, would fully replace the number lost by the pestilence. Hence at the time of David the able-bodied men of the entire nation were about 1,600,000, and this number could not have been materially lessened at the beginning of the captivities.

=5. An important fact= connected with the captivities was that the members of the ablest families, the wealthiest and most influential, were chiefly included among the captives, and, in the case of Judah, not only the most learned, but the most devoutly attached to the Mosaic law of all the tribes, went into captivity.

=6. What became of a large part= of the Jewish people just before these times is plain from the references to those who had fled during the various wars of the captivities, or who might have been taken captive or retired to other nations than the Assyrian, 2 Kings 25:4, 22, 26; 2 Chron. 28:17, 18; Jer. 29:4; 41:10. So that we may reasonably suppose that large numbers, especially from the ten tribes of Israel, either remained in Palestine after the captivity, or departed to the east of the Jordan or to Egypt, and perhaps to other countries. A considerable number of the people of Judah who were left after the beginning of the captivity went down as we have said, page 166, into Egypt, taking the prophet Jeremiah with them;[107] but all probably perished there, as foretold by that prophet, Jer. 42:19‒22.

CONDITION OF JERUSALEM AT THE RETURN.

=7. Jerusalem was in ruins.= Its walls were broken down, and its palaces and Temple and all the chief houses and monuments of every description were levelled and burned so far as was possible. Judging from the allusions to the destroyed city which are occasionally found in Jewish writers, and from the accounts of similar destructions by Assyrian and Babylonish kings, it is probable that the city was more utterly ruined and made more uninhabitable than ever before or since.

In the time of Amaziah, king of Judah, B. C. 826, the wall for about 600 feet was broken down by Jehoash, king of Israel, 2 Kings 14:13, but the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar’s “captain of the guard” was far more terrible, since it extended to the entire city, as well as to the walls, and probably to the smallest dwellings.

THE HISTORY AFTER THE RETURN.

=8. The worship at Jerusalem= soon became prominently important throughout the land. The strict observance of the Law and a deep hatred of idolatry seem fully to have occupied the minds of the people, and the feast of the Passover was observed at Jerusalem with the other feasts, in strict accordance with the Law. The sacrifices were made and burnt-offerings offered before the foundations of the Temple were laid, only the altar having been set up upon the former site and in the open air.

=9. Very few, if any, of those Jews= who had been scattered abroad came from the remnants of the ten tribes around the distant places of northern Assyria and from the other regions; but a new immigration, under Ezra, came from Babylon bringing in about 6,000 more.[108] This last immigration was not until fifty-eight years after the second Temple had been built under Zerub´babel,[109] who went out with the Jews from Babylon under the edict of Cyrus, at the first departure of the captives, B. C. 588.

=10. Much of the history of these times= is derived from the historian Josephus, but something may be learned from the writings of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai encouraged Zerubbabel in the building of the Temple, Ezra 5:1, 2. He first appears in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, B. C. 521. About two months[110] after Haggai the prophet Zechariah began to prophesy in Jerusalem. Malachi, the last of the prophets, uttered his warnings and reproofs, and foretold the coming Messiah, about 125 years after Haggai and Zechariah, or probably about B. C. 397.

=11. One of the books= of the Bible contains the history of Esther, which reveals to us the extent of Jewish settlement and growth in the Persian provinces at about the era of Xerxes, who came to the throne of Persia B. C. 485, fifty years after the return of the Jews to Palestine.[111]

Cyrus had been succeeded by his son Cambyses, whose reign was spent chiefly in attempting to reconquer Egypt, until his death by suicide, B. C. 522. He was succeeded by Darius, who reigned till B. C. 486, and during that reign the Jews had peace and prosperity, both in Palestine and Persia.

At the death of Darius, Xerxes began his reign of twenty-one years. This king, known as Xerxes among the Greeks, was called Ahasuerus among the Hebrews, and is so presented to us in the book of Esther.

=12. The king was spending= his time at his splendid capital Susa, when he gave a feast of unexampled extravagance. It was at this feast that he became enraged at his queen because she refused to present herself, at the order of the king, before the half-drunken revellers of the occasion. The queen was deposed, and Esther was chosen in her place. The new queen was an orphan maiden of the tribe of Benjamin, and, about B. C. 478, she appeared before the king and the royal crown was placed upon her head.

Through jealousy a plot was originated by Haman to destroy the Jews. This plot was prevented by Esther, and the Jews were permitted to defend themselves and slay all who should attempt their destruction, throughout the “one hundred and twenty-seven provinces” of the Empire.

=13. The recent explorations=, by the French archæologist M. Marcel Dieulafoy, in the extensive mounds of the site of ancient Susa, have shown a very surprising accuracy in the description, both of the palace and its ornaments, as found in the book of Esther. “The brilliant coloring of the glazed tiles, the gorgeous decoration of the palace walls, the handsome friezes and enormous capitals,”[112] forming part of the collection brought together at the Musée du Louvre, together with the plan of the palace, its courts and gardens, afford sufficient evidence that the unknown author of the history of Esther must have been well acquainted not only with the structure of the palace, but with the customs of the people.

SUSA.

=14. Susa was the Greek name= of the place called Shushan in Neh. 1:1, and frequently so in the book of Esther.[113] It has been identified with extensive ruins 175 miles north of the Persian Gulf and 275 miles east of Babylon. One of the mounds shows the remains of a vast palace with one central hall containing thirty-six columns about sixty feet in height. Other halls and columns with porches make it certain that this is the palace called so frequently “Shushan the palace” in the history of Esther. It was the capital of Elam, the country around being called Susiana. It was an ancient city and was captured by the Assyrian king Assur-bani-pal about B. C. 650. When the father of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopolassar king of Babylon, and Cyaxares king of Media, conquered Nineveh and divided the empire between them, Shushan fell to Babylon. The wealth of the city may be known from the fact that at the Macedonian conquest of this region Alexander found treasure here of the value of $60,000,000. It is situated on the east bank of the Shapur River, which is supposed to have been the Ulai (pronounced u´-la-i) of the book of Daniel, Dan. 8:1, 2, 27.

=15. It was in the palace in Susa= that Nehemiah held the office of cup-bearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, B. C. 446, thirty-two years after Esther was crowned, B. C. 478.

=16. It is shown by this history= that the Jews, fifty-eight years after their freedom was granted them, B. C. 536 to B. C. 478, had already spread over the provinces of Persia. The extent of these provinces was such, according to Rawlinson, that Persia deserved the title of a mighty empire,[114] having in the middle of the sixth century before the Christian era “established itself on the ruins of the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms.”

The monotheistic nature of the religion of the Persians, and the fact that it allowed no idolatry nor any representation of the Supreme Being under any material form,[115] rendered the Jewish settlement far less objectionable in Persia than in any other land, and it is, therefore, not improbable that the Jewish population was greater in the Persian Empire alone than it was at the same period in Palestine after the return from Babylon.

The population of Susa in the time of Xerxes is supposed to have been about “a half a million.”[116]

=17. As the recently discovered monuments= have, in several instances, enabled us to correct the errors of the Greek writers of this age, we have given a complete view of the Persian successions from Cyrus to Alexander the Great.[117]

=Cyrus, B. C. 538.= Captured Babylon. The Persian army entered Babylonia from the south. June 16 the Persian general Gobryas marched in. In October Cyrus himself entered his new capital.

=B. C. 536.= THE PROCLAMATION to the Jews, ending captivity.

=B. C. 529.= DEATH OF CYRUS.

=Cambyses, B. C. 529.= Invaded and conquered Egypt; entered Ethiopia――Oasis of Ammon; committed suicide after eight years’ reign alone, two years having been with Cyrus. GOMATES, a Magian, usurped the throne for less than a year, from six to eight months.

=Darius I., B. C. 521.= Son of Hystaspes. Slew Gomates. ZOROASTRIANISM declared the religion of the empire. SUSA revolted and BABYLON also; the former soon subdued, but Babylon required two years, the Persians entering during a festival by marching along the dry channel of the Euphrates. Herodotus errs in attributing this work to Cyrus. The city was taken B. C. 519, in June. Eight consecutive revolts. Darius conquered all and centralized the empire in himself. He conquered the Punjab (India). The Thracian coast and Macedonia became tributary. Darius died in the 63d year of his age, 36th of his reign, B. C. 486.

=Xerxes, B. C. 486.= Attempted to continue the war with Athens. Lost his army, lost the Ægean isles, the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, the coast of Thrace, and the command of the Hellespont. Before this campaign he burned the temple of Belus in Babylon. He was murdered B. C. 466. He invaded Egypt B. C. 484. It was during this reign that Esther became queen.

=Artaxerxes I., B. C. 466.= Longimanus, so called from his long hands. Succeeded after crushing the Bactrians under Hystaspes and murdering another brother. B. C. 455 put down a revolt in Egypt. B. C. 449 treaty of peace between Athens and Persia in which the Greek colonies in Asia Minor were relinquished. A satrap of Syria extorted terms of peace. It was during this reign that Nehemiah was cup-bearer to the king at Susa, called Shushan.

=Xerxes II., B. C. 425.= Assassinated, after forty-five days’ reign, by his illegitimate brother Sogdianus, and he in turn by Ochus after six months. He took the name of Darius.

=Darius II., B. C. 424.= Called Nothus. His reign a series of revolts for nineteen years. He lost Egypt, but by the destruction of the Athenian power regained the Greek colonies of Asia Minor.

=Artaxerxes II., B. C. 405.= Called Mnemon from his great memory. His younger brother, who was satrap in Asia Minor, revolted and with 113,000 soldiers, 13,000 of whom were Greeks under Xenophon, fought for the Persian throne, but lost his life at Cunaxa, and the retreat of the Greeks under Xenophon became one of the great feats of history. Sparta’s forces, however, made themselves masters of Western Asia B. C. 399‒395, but it was restored through Persian gold and dissension at home. Died B. C. 359.

=Ochus, B. C. 359.= He destroyed all the other princes of the royal family. He failed at first to recover Egypt and lost Phœnicia and Cyprus, but his general Bagoas reconquered Egypt and destroyed Sidon, and for six years there was peace until B. C. 338, when Ochus was poisoned.

=Arses, B. C. 338.= Was raised to the throne by Bagoas after murdering all his brothers. Two years after, Arses and his children were murdered and Bagoas placed the crown on the head of Codomannus, who took the name of Darius III.

=Darius III., B. C. 336.= Called Codomannus. B. C. 334 his army was defeated by Alexander the Great at the plain of Issus, near the northeast corner of the Mediterranean.

=Alexander.= Alexander then passed on to Tyre and besieged and captured it. After this he visited Jerusalem during the high-priesthood of Jaddua and did honor to the city and Temple.[118]

=Alexandria built B. C. 332.= He then captured Gaza and entered Egypt and the Oasis of Ammon. He returned to Babylonia, and B. C. 331 at Gaugamela, ten miles east of Nineveh, defeated Darius, who fled and was murdered. The Persian Empire fell now to Alexander.