In 539 BC, the Persians advanced toward Babylon. After forty-seven years on the banks of the Babylonian River, the Judeans ushered in the most dramatic deliverance in Jewish history.
The Median king of Western Persia, Astyages, married his daughter to a weak, non-threatening neighbor, the king of Anshan, and this marriage produced an Anshan heir named Kurosh, who would later become Cyrus the Great. Astyages had a dream in which his daughter urinated on a golden stream that was running towards his kingdom. His Persian priests explained that this meant that his grandson would threaten his rule. King Astyages ordered his officer, Harpag, but the boy escaped by hiding with a shepherd. When Astyages found out that Cyrus was not dead, he killed Halpag's son and made him into a stew for his father to eat, a meal that Halpag would never forgive.
Around 559 BCE, Cyrus' father died, and Cyrus returned to take charge of the kingdom. With the support of Halpag, Cyrus defeated his grandfather and united the Medes and Persia. Ignoring the decaying Babylon, Cyrus set his sights on Croes, the wealthy Lydian king of Western Turkey. Cyrus led an army disguised as a camel glow into the capital of Croes, taking him by surprise. Cyrus then began to march on Babylon, at this time Babylon was spurned because King Nabonid no longer accepted the Babylonian god Bel-Marduk, but instead revered the moon god, and Nebuchadnezzar's glittering blue capital opened the gates for Cyrus, who wisely paid homage to the neglected Babylonian god Bel-Marduk. The fall of Babylon rejoiced in the Jewish exiles, who believed that Jehovah had redeemed Jacob and wanted to glorify himself through Israel.
Cyrus inherited the Babylonian Empire, which included Jerusalem, and when the Assyrians and Babylonians established their empires on the basis of ** and exile, Cyrus united the peoples in one empire with a tolerant religious policy. Shortly thereafter, the king of Persia issued a decree that shocked the Jews: "The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has commanded me to build a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah." Let all of you who are his people go to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD God of Israel in Jerusalem. ”
Not only did Cyrus send the exiles of Judea home and guarantee their rights and laws, he also returned Jerusalem to them and offered to rebuild the temple, the first ruler ever to do so. Cyrus appointed Shebazar, the son of the last king, to rule over Jerusalem and returned the temple vessels to him. Shebazar led 42,360 exiles back to Jerusalem in the province of Judah, a desert compared to the prosperity of Babylon. Then, the plans of Cyrus and the returning exiles to rebuild the temple were prevented from being carried out due to the obstruction of the natives who remained in Judah, especially Samaria.
In the ninth year of the exile's return to Judah, Cyrus was killed in battle in Central Asia, and Jerusalem lost his protector. Although Jehovah's palace had not yet been built, the exiled Judeans had finally returned to their homeland, ending their miserable life in exile.