The History of the Jews
9781465681898
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Palestine, the buffer state between Egypt and Mesopotamia, the two rival powers of the ancient world, was an important base of operations for all conquerors, and its possession was eagerly sought. In 722 B.C., King Sargon of Assyria conquered the northern part, the kingdom of Israel. The southern part, the kingdom of Judah, was at that time protected by Assyria’s rising and already powerful rival, the Babylonian empire. When Babylonia had become the master of Mesopotamia, Judæa’s doom was sealed, and in 586 Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and made all of Palestine a province of his large empire. With the death of Nebuchadnezzar, the great Babylonian empire declined rapidly, and in 539, Cyrus, the King of Persia, captured the city of Babylon, and became the master of the whole of the Babylonian empire, and so of Palestine. He was favorably inclined to the Jews, and gave permission to the descendants of the exiles from Palestine to return to the land of their fathers. Only a few thousand made use of this, and returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a descendant of the House of David, and of Joshua ben Jehozadak, the high priest. Of the right to build the Temple they made no use for the time, but erected instead an altar on the site of the former edifice. The development of the new commonwealth, however, was slow, until Ezra, a man learned in the law, and, therefore, called the Scribe, returned from Babylonia in 458 B.C. and taught the people the law of God. He was joined in 445 B.C. by Nehemiah, the cupbearer of the Persian King Artaxerxes, who received permission from his ruler to go to Palestine and assist Ezra in his work. He succeeded, after many difficulties, in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and giving the new community a firm organization. In 432 B.C. he returned to his post at the King’s Court, but upon learning that the new community was suffering from many difficulties, he returned again to Palestine to finish his work there. It seems that the Jews lived in peace, for during the following century, while they were under Persian rule, only two incidents are recorded. In the reign of Artaxerxes III, Ochus (358-337 B.C.), the Jews rebelled; but the king defeated them near Jericho and sent the rebels to Hyrcania into exile. About the same time the high priest, Johanan, killed his brother, Joshua, in the Temple, and the Persian governor fined the Jews very heavily.
