The Edict of Cyrus and the End of the Seventy Years
Jeremiah had named the term in advance: seventy years. In the first year of Persian rule Cyrus declared that the House in Jerusalem must be rebuilt and permitted whoever wished to go up.
Before the destruction Jeremiah had said that the land would be a ruin and the nations would serve the king of Babylon seventy years, and added: "When seventy years of Babylon are complete I will remember you and fulfill My good word toward you, to bring you back to this place."
Daniel, an old man by now, "understood from the books the number of the years" spoken to Jeremiah — and instead of waiting, rose in prayer with fasting, sackcloth and ashes, confessing the nation's guilt.
And so the book of Chronicles ends and the book of Ezra begins with the same words: "In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, so that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus, and he issued a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also in writing: all the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me, and He has charged me to build Him a House in Jerusalem which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all His people — may his God be with him, and let him go up."
He returned 5,400 Temple vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar. For the first time in seventy years exile stopped being a sentence and became a choice.
📜Sources
👤People and places
Jeremiah · Ezekiel · Daniel · Esther · Babylon · Shushan (Susa) · Jeremiah · Ezekiel · Esther · Daniel · Ezra–Nehemiah · Chronicles · Shmita and Yovel · Exile and redemption