In 539 BCE the Persian period began after the Babylonian Empire was defeated by King Cyrus of Persia. One year later, Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their land. They were led by Zerubabel son of Shealtiel – who was a descendent of the kings of Judah – Sheshbazzar the Prince and Jeshua son of Jehozadak the High Priest. Thus began the period of the Return to Zion, and in 516 BCE the Temple was dedicated.

In the mid-fifth century BCE, decades after the Return to Zion had begun, Ezra the scribe came to the land, and after him, Nehemiah, who was a high-level official in the Persian kingdom. With them came many more Jews. During the time of Ezra and Nehemiah a wall was built around Jerusalem, which at that time encompassed only the City of David hill and Mount Moriah.

The Hellenistic period began with the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Immediately after Alexander’s death wars began among his successors. Between 300 and 200 BCE the country was ruled by the Ptolomaic dynasty of Egypt, and in the second century BCE control passed to the Seleucid dynasty of Syria.

Religious persecution of the Jews led to the Hasmonean (Maccabean) revolt in 167 BCE, following which the Hasmonean kingdom was gradually established. The success of the Hasmonean rebellion is commemorated to this day by the festival of Hanukkah. When the land was conquered by the Romans in 63 BCE, the Hasmonean kingdom came under the aegis of Rome.

With the outbreak of the Great Revolt against the Romans in 66 CE, a huge Roman army reached the country (at its height, it numbered some 60,000 warriors), bent on cruelly crushing the revolt. In the following years the entire country was conquered by the Romans and in the Hebrew month of Nissan, 70 CE, the siege of Jerusalem began.
In the month of Av, the Romans under the command of Titus set fire to the Temple and a month later they destroyed Jerusalem’s upper city, which faced the Temple Mount. Thus the Second Temple period, which had lasted for almost 600 years, came to an end.

In 63 BCE, when the Hasmoneans were fighting with each other to rule, the land was conquered by the Roman general Pompey, who was invited by the warring parties to judge between them. Thus began the Early Roman period in this country; from then on the Hasmoneans were under Roman authority.

In 37 BCE Herod the Great began to rule under the aegis of Rome, and he beautified Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. When he died, his son Archelaeus was made king of Judea, but then the Romans removed him from power. From 6 BCE to 41 CE, Roman governors ruled Judea.

In 41 BCE, Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great was granted rule over Judea and reigned until 44 CE. When he died, Rome once again took over through its governors. Roman oppression and Jewish anticipation of redemption led to the outbreak of the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans, which ended with the destruction of the Temple in the Hebrew month of Av, 70 CE.