The Proclamation of Cyrus (538 BCE) and the Dedication of the Second Temple (515 BCE)

The return home: King Cyrus of Persia clearly understood the complexity of controlling the many people who came under his rule, and realized that a tolerant policy would benefit him more than the harsh policies of his Babylonian predecessors. The Bible relates that Cyrus issued a proclamation that allowed the Jews to return from Babylonia to Jerusalem and rebuild the ruined Temple.

In the picture: In the nineteenth century, a cylinder  was found with an inscription in Akkadian in the ruins of Babylon. On the cylinder, Cyrus tells of the rebuilding of the cities of Babylonia, the return of its exiled inhabitants to their homes and the rebuilding of their shrines. This description very closely recalls the proclamation quoted in the Bible, although the Jews are not mentioned in it. Proclamations similar to the one quoted in the Bible were probably issued by the Persian government to each people in their own language.

With the Return to Zion, the Jews began to rebuild the Temple, which was rededicated in 515 BCE. It was not nearly as magnificent as the First Temple, and the elders of the people who remembered its beauty wept when they saw the Second Temple.