A clay cylinder written for Cyrus after he took Babylon describes him returning deported peoples and the images of their gods to their homes. It does not name the Jews, but it shows a policy like the one in Ezra 1. It is in the British Museum.
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In the Bible · 538 BC · Babylon
Cyrus lets the exiles return
Cyrus of Persia, who has conquered Babylon, allows the Jews to return home and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
Ezra 1:1–11
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let every survivor, wherever he lives, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.’” So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings. King Cyrus also brought out the articles belonging to the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his gods. Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. This was the inventory: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 silver utensils, 30 gold bowls, 410 matching silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles. In all, there were 5,400 gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar brought all these along when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.At the same time in the world
In 539 BC Cyrus the Great of Persia took Babylon, and Ezra 1 tells that he let the exiles of Judah go home and rebuild the temple. It was finished in 516 or 515 BC under Darius I. Here is the world of the 6th century BC.
Mesopotamia and the Near EastThe Cyrus Cylinderafter 539 BC
ChinaConfucius551–479 BC
Confucius taught in the state of Lu that good order begins with honest rulers, respect for parents and learning. His sayings, gathered by his students in the Analects, shaped life in China for more than two thousand years.
IndiaThe Buddhac. 563–483 BC by tradition; c. 480–400 BC by many scholars
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, taught in northern India, and his followers founded Buddhism. Tradition dates his life to about 563–483 BC; many scholars now place it later, around 480–400 BC.
Greece and RomeRome becomes a republic509 BC (traditional date)
By Roman tradition, the people of Rome drove out their last king, Tarquin the Proud, in 509 BC and began to elect two consuls every year.
Greece and RomeDemocracy in Athens508/507 BC
Cleisthenes reorganized the citizens of Athens so that the assembly of all free men decided public matters — the beginning of Athenian democracy.
Eastern Europe and the steppeDarius against the Scythiansc. 513 BC
Darius I, the Persian king under whom the temple was finished (Ezra 6:15), led a great army across the Danube against the Scythians. According to Herodotus, they retreated across the steppe, burning the grass, and the Persians turned back.
The AmericasMonte Albánc. 500 BC
In the Oaxaca valley of Mexico, the Zapotecs began building Monte Albán on a leveled mountaintop. It was their capital for more than a thousand years.
