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and profaning the holy vessels which had been taken from the Temple. Belshazzar was slain in the very night of that vision. Babylon was conquered (538), and soon the name of Cyrus, king of Persia, filled the earth. He added victory to victory, until his sway was acknowledged from the Ægean Sea to the Indus, and from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean. The Jews became subjects of the Persians, and Daniel, still treated with honour and distinction, was appointed one of the great monarch's satraps.

XIII. THE JEWS UNDER PERSIAN RULE.

(538-330.)

152. RETURN OF THE JEWS TO CANAAN (538).

[EZRA I. II.]

THE religion of the Persians had important points of resemblance with that of the Jews. The Persians suffered no representation of the Deity, nor any idols; they held even temples superfluous, believing that the abode of the gods is everywhere as far as the world extends. Cyrus, therefore, evinced deep reverence for the God of the Jews, and warm sympathy with their loss of country and independence. He determined to restore them to their old homes and institutions, and in the very first year after his conquest of Babylon, he issued this edict throughout his empire: Thus, says Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has charged me to build Him a House at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people-his God be with him-who will go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the House of the Lord God of Israel? He is the God.' This edict stirred the hearts of the captive Jews with enthusiasm. Jerusalem and the Temple, as the emblems of freedom and prosperity, rose before their enchanted vision; the name of Cyrus was blessed by every lip; and it is enshrined in

the sublime pages of the second Isaiah. Soon the land rang with busy preparations for the homeward journey ; the Jews received from the Persians and Babylonians, as parting gifts, gold and costly ornaments, and all kinds of cattle; and Cyrus not only granted them large sums for defraying the first expenses of their new settlement, but he restored to them all the gold and silver vessels-5,400 in number-which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from the Temple, and which he and his successors had so often desecrated at their licentious banquets. At last the great caravan set out on its way; it consisted of 42,360 souls, men, women, and children, among whom there was a large proportion of priests and Levites (more than 4,600), besides about 7,000 men- and maid-servants. They were led by Zerubbabel (or Sheshbazzar), the son of Shealtiel, descended from the royal house of David, a man well qualified for the great task. It must not be supposed, however, that the appeal was responded to by all classes of captive Jews alike; on the contrary, it was chiefly welcomed by the poorer people, while many of those who had found happy and prosperous homes in Babylon, hesitated to entrust their fortune to what they considered a hazardous enterprise, especially as they urged, with apparent justice, that they were merely to change their place of abode, but not their condition of dependence; that they were not to become a really free people, with their own ruler and their own laws, but that they were destined to remain under the yoke of Persia, which they would feel in Jerusalem as much as in Babylon. Thus, as later Jewish writers expressed it, 'the chaff' only returned to Palestine, while the wheat' remained in Babylon. But there was in that small band of colonists a strength and a vitality which have outlasted for millenniums the vast empire of Persia.

153. THE BUILDING OF THE SECOND TEMPLE

(536).
[EZRA III.-VI.]

When the immigrants arrived in Palestine, they chose for their dwellings, as far as they possibly could, the towns and places which they or their ancestors had occupied before the captivity, while the priests and Levites took up their abodes throughout the territory of Judah, and especially in and around Jerusalem. They had been careful to reach their destination before the commencement of the rainy season, and they had fairly settled down towards the end of the summer. When, therefore, the seventh month of the Hebrew year approached, and with it the series of high festivals prescribed in the Pentateuch, they were anxious at once to testify their zeal by celebrating those sacred days in the ordained manner. 'The people assembled together at Jerusalem as one man.' By direction of Zerubbabel and of the priest Joshua (or Jeshua), the son of Jozadak, they erected a large altar, probably on the spot where the old one had stood in the Court of the destroyed Temple, and there they offered the sacrifices appointed for the Day of Memorial, the first of the seventh month, and for the Feast of Tabernacles; and there they continued regularly to present the daily holocausts every morning and every evening, the offerings for the days of the new-moon, and the freewill gifts of the people.

They were naturally most anxious to rebuild the Temple of the Lord, which was once more to crown the height of Moriah. The great work was commenced, in the second year after the return (536), with intense fervour and earnestness. Money was liberally contributed by the chiefs, and by the common people according to their means. As

in the days of Solomon, well-paid Phoenician workmen were employed, who, by permission of Cyrus, cut cedartrees on Mount Lebanon, and drifted them along the shore down to Joppa, from whence they were brought to Jerusalem. The Levites above twenty years of age had the supervision of the whole work. At last the preparations were sufficiently advanced to allow of the foundation stone being laid. This ceremony was performed with the utmost solemnity. The priests dressed in their holy vestments, the Levites, the numerous singers, and all the people that had assembled from every part, burst forth to the sound of the trumpet and the cymbal, in words of joy. and thanksgiving: 'Praise the Lord, because He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel!' Among this joyous crowd was a group of aged priests and Levites, who had seen the first Temple as it stood in all its splendour and glory, the pride and delight of Judah. Their gaze was riveted upon the past, and they broke out into a loud wail of sorrow. But the shouts of glad rejoicing drowned the sounds of grief, and re-echoed among the hills of Judah.

Yet the noble work was soon to receive a serious check. It will be remembered that, when Shalmaneser made an end of the kingdom of Ephraim, and carried most of its inhabitants away to Assyria, he sent men from Persia and Media to occupy the conquered districts. The heathen settlers mingled with the comparatively few Israelites that had remained in the land; and this mixed race, dwelling chiefly in the province of Samaria, became known under the name of Samaritans or Cutheans. It cannot be surprising that these Samaritans were looked upon with little favour by the Jews who had recently returned from Babylon. For supposing even that the Assyrians who were

1 Men from Cutha were among the colonists sent by Shalmaneser to middle and northern Palestine (2 Kings xvii. 24); see p. 488.

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