NOTES for Ezd2 7:1-2

The first order to restore Jerusalem and the Temple was issued by Cyrus the Great. Such a matter could not be the private initiative of any community, even a fairly numerous one; it could be carried out only with support from the authorities.

It is hard to say exactly what guided Cyrus when he issued his decree. Perhaps it was part of the national policy he pursued in conquered territories, which came down to changing the way and pattern of life of local inhabitants as little as possible. This was a policy directly opposite to that pursued by the rulers of Assyria and Babylonia. Having learned that part of the Jews deported by the previous government had not assimilated, he decided to give them the opportunity to return to the land of their fathers.

Soon he had to regret his decision: the repatriates, filled with messianic expectations that were inseparable for them from the idea of restoring their own independent state, caused the Persian authorities no small amount of trouble, so that construction of the Temple was suspended soon after Cyrus's death and resumed only under Darius.

Apparently Darius did not immediately decide to give permission to complete the Temple and restore the city walls: memories were too fresh of the unrest that had occurred in Cyrus's time, when Zerubbabel ruled Judea. But the general military and political situation, caused by defeat in the war with Greece, required fortifying the coast, and above all the area of Palestine, whose key was Judea, while Jerusalem without fortress walls remained defenseless.

Darius decides to restore the walls of Jerusalem and allow the completion of the Second Temple. This would again make Jerusalem the religious center of Yahwism, return its former significance to it, and in time turn it into a large and populated city. During this period Palestine was part of the Trans-Euphrates satrapy, a province that, besides Palestine, included Phoenicia, and also, in part, Syria and the territory of the former Sabean kingdom, the northern part of modern Yemen.

Naturally, the administration of the Trans-Euphrates satrapy took an active part in the matter, which the Persian authorities regarded as a task of state importance. Thus God used people's plans and designs in order to carry out His own and make Jerusalem the spiritual capital of Yahwism.