The Hebrew Exiles In Babylon Essay

were here before us. We must build again." They will learn the ways of the old

Cyrus had set himself apart from other rulers by compromising with his empire rather than forcing his entire will on them. He accomplished this by allowing people that had been moved from their homeland to return, most notably allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem after Nebuchadnezzar had them exiled and held captive in Babylon.⁴ On top of them returning, Cyrus also encouraged them to rebuild their temple, which was also one of his finer qualities.

After the Assyrian Empire fell to the Chaldeans, later, the Chaldeans then surrendered to the Persian Empire. The Persians were a nomadic people that obtained the Indo-European tongue. Cyrus the Great was a Persian ruler that created the Persian state even more powerful with the introduction of satrapies, provinces when they continued to expand their nation. Je was a ruler with great wisdom and restraint that Babylonians experienced when Cyrus took them over. Cyrus, a merciful leader, allowed the Jews to return to their home city, Jerusalem, with all their sacred objects and could rebuild their Temple. He was a respected king for he allowed the practices of Assyria, Babylonia, Egyptian, and Lydia to occur in his palace. Even after he died,

Mesopotamia and Egypt are known as the “place of the first civilization” followed by the Hebrews. These three societies traded extensively, but there was a difference in economic area. Mesopotamia was more productive of technological improvements, because their environment was more difficult to manage than the Nile valley. Trade contacts were more extensive, and the Mesopotamians gave attention to a merchant class and commercial law. Priests were part of the trades because they possessed surplus produce collected as rents from the farmers using temple land. Before merchants gained power as independent entrepreneurs; they used to serve the king and the temple priest.

After their exile, around fifty-thousand Jews returned to Jerusalem which was now called Judaea. The leader of Judea, the Persian King Cyrus, allowed the Jews to return and to build another place of worship (Fisher 251). The second temple was built in 515 BCE and according to the text Living Religions, became “the central symbol to a scattered Jewish nation” (Fisher). The temple became a place where the Torah was formed and where the religion prospered. However, Jewish prosperity was not going to last. After four centuries of Roman rule, that was domineering and dreadful, a group of Jews decided to rebel against their oppressors. This led to Jews being slaughtered by the Romans and to the second Temple being destroyed. All that is left of the Temple are foundation stones which are referred to as the Western Wall. The temple has never been rebuilt and the Western Wall has become a place for prayer and remembrance for Jews all over the world. Jewish people look at the Western Wall as a representation of the hardships and oppression that their religion and people have endured. According to the article, Mystical Secret of the Western Wall:

When drastic times occur and sweep one of everything they own, do they have a plan of action? Will they be prepared for a life without power, resources, and stability? Many times when people are faced with this situation they find themselves unprepared and unable to live in such conditions. They lose the connections with the world, the water they drink is likely to get contaminated, and the scarcity of goods is a threat to themselves and anyone left alive. Everywhere around them there is death and destruction leaving them isolated in their own dystopia. Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon illustrates a nuclear bomb simulation. In such a way, he gives the readers a taste of isolation and survival needs when facing such drastic times.

Babylon especially benefitted in this regard. Aramaic, which was the language of Babylon, became the language used for business and government.14 Babylon also saw itself flourish culturally as it became known as a center for art, mathematics, and astronomy.15 Additionally, religious practices were allowed to continue, including such events as the Jews being allowed to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.16 Cyrus left behind evidence of this religious tolerance in the form of the Cyrus Cylinder. On this cylinder, written in Babylonian cuneiform between 539-538 B.C., Cyrus had written “the gods who dwelt there I returned to their home and let them move into an eternal dwelling. All their people I collected and brought them back to their homes” on line 32 of the cylinder. Many scholars have taken as evidence of Cyrus allowance of other religion practices and of peoples to return.17 Furthermore, others believe this is an historical reference to Cyrus allowing the Jews to rebuild the temple and that this was during the same period that they returned to Jerusalem, as the text also references the return of people to their homes.18 There are additional references of Cyrus making offerings to the multiple gods that were worshipped at the time and restoring shrines that had previously been destroyed.19 This tolerance of

An example of Cyrus' actions as a liberator include the exile of the Jewish people in Babylon. The Jews welcomed Cyrus and his people as liberators and helped them in overthrowing the Babylonians. Several years later, Cyrus permitted about 40,000 Jewish exiles to return to their homes. This marked the end of the Babylonian Captivity. After they had all returned to their homeland, Cyrus used the money he had gotten in

Cyrus let them return to their countries recover the gods, the statues, the temple vessels that had been confiscated. The story shares that all the peoples that the Babylonians had repressed and removed will go home, restore alters, worship their gods in their own way, in their own place. The importance of what occurred is that Cyrus recognized the rights of communities and people. This was grand for the Jew exiles.

The prophets Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah believed that Yahweh had used the Babylonian Empire to punish the Israelites for their sins, and he therefore had the power to redeem them from captivity if they repented. The Babylonian exiles' messianic hope for a restored Judean kingdom under the leadership of a scion of the royal house of David seemed to have been justified when Cyrus the Great, after conquering Babylon in 539 BC, permitted a repatriation of subject populations and a restoration of local temples. The restored Judean commonwealth did not fully realize this hope, however, because the Persians did not allow the reestablishment of a Judean monarchy, but only a temple-state with the high priest as its chief administrator. A truly monotheistic religion developed as the God of Israel came to be seen as the God ruling universal history and the destiny of all nations (Rich 2).

The book of Lamentations is deconstructed by characteristics and contents. The two main characteristics of the book are the dirge rhythm and placement of certain stresses. The contents of Lamentations include Jerusalem (the abandoned widow), the punishment of Jerusalem, a personal lament, advice about God’s righteousness and mercy, a prayer for help, siege conditions, and the request of restoration. The next section in chapter nine is about the lives of the survivors. Some of the survivors remained in Judah, moved to egypt, and were held in captivity in Babylon. Those in Babylon began to use Aramaic, instead of Hebrew. The fear of losing the traditions and stories of the Israelites inspired writers to record documentation of the Israelites traditions and stories. Once Nebuchadnezzar passed on, Babylon slowly perished. Nabonidus fled Babylon, thus allowing Cyrus to move in without any resistance. Cyrus allowed those in exile to return to their former homes, and authorized the reconstruction of the Temple. Tullock then discusses Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra was a priest that was known for bringing people back to Jerusalem and reforming some of the old practices. These include the problem with foreign wives and renewing of the covenant. Nehemiah , a builder, was chosen as a governor for the province of Yehud. He strove to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, free any slaves, and to

When the Hebrew peoples lost everything and entered into captivity to Babylon, they were a lost and floundering nation. “After the days of Solomon, the history of Israel was a story of increasing apostasy and judgement” (Clowney, 2013, p. 185). Despite their breaking of the covenants, and sinning against God in the worst ways, God did not abandoned them. He was very unhappy, and sent many prophets to speak His words to try to bring them back into relationship with Him, then God sent judgements down upon them. However, through these judgements, He kept to His promise to Abraham to ultimately bless the nations of Israel. (Clowney, 2013, p. 193) When they were allowed by Cyrus to return to Jerusalem (Arnold & Beyer, 2008, p. 58), with permission

The culture however was not dead but thriving. Prophesized by Nebuchadnezzar that Babylon would be seceded by the exact countries that did and that a second Babylon would be built again, the Strasburg site directly shows the prophecy come eerily true. With this building along with the restoration of artifacts from the original Babylon, the culture was coming back in the ignorance of man and false worship.

Throughout Jewish history it has encompassed numerous extents of social and cultural patterns that have continually been evolving and growing in relation to the time period, location, authority of current empire and influential individuals. The patterns during this particular time period under Muslim rule explored such themes on Jewish life and social order, Judaism and Jewish courts, and the fresh factors emerging within the Jewish identity. The geographical areas where these social and cultural changes are taking place are located within the Islamic Empire mostly organized in Babylonia of Mesopotamia. Specific modifications I will be investigating in greater detail will consist of: self-governance, material culture, religious practice, and

Babylonian civilization is considered as one of the most important civilizations in the ancient world. The Babylonians took and developed everything after the Sumerians civilization especially in the spiritual realm and in the field of building an integrated civilization. The earlier civilizations had big role in the Babylonians civilization period when Babylonians took all the cuneiform writing, mathematical and astronomical knowledge, in addition to that the method of building cities, dams and etc. they improved all of them. The development of knowledge continued by Babylonian where the Sumerians stop, and the Babylonian built an empire for themselves on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the southern part of Sumer (Iraq). "The first Amuriyahian family has ruled over Babylon in the period (1830- 1530 BC), when Babylon was a mini-states at the time." Then the greatest king of Babylonian Hammurabi appeared in the seventeenth century BC. He established a famous group of laws known by (Hammurabi code).Also he was the king who united this petty States and achieved an important architectural movement in the city of Babylon.