Bible & Christianity › Exile & the Second Temple › Babylonian exile
Return from exile
538 BC onward· Event· Bible story & events
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
After Persia's Cyrus took Babylon, exiled Jews were allowed home to Judah, going back in waves from 538 BC.
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
Ezra 1 tells how Cyrus, in his first year (538 BC), let the Jews return to rebuild the Temple and sent back the vessels Nebuchadnezzar had looted. Groups led by Sheshbazzar, then Zerubbabel and the priest Joshua, made the roughly 1,400 km trip; Ezra 2 lists 42,360 people. Many Jews chose to stay in Babylon. Returnees found a small, poor Persian province called Yehud, ruined towns and friction with neighbors and with Judeans who had never left.
Why it matters
It restored a Jewish community and Temple in Judah, the setting for the rest of the Old Testament and for Jesus' world. The many who stayed abroad made the diaspora permanent.
Sources and history
The Cyrus Cylinder (found 1879, British Museum) records Cyrus sending deported peoples and their gods home, though it never names the Jews. Small silver coins stamped 'Yehud' show the province existed.
Questions and debates
How many actually returned is unknown. Archaeologists estimate Yehud held perhaps 10,000 to 30,000 people, well below Ezra's 42,360, which may combine several waves.
Inside this (1)
Connections (3)
▸Babylonian exile ended with Return from exileHistorical record
The connection
In 539 BC Persia's Cyrus captured Babylon, and the next year he let deported peoples go home. The Jews of Babylon began returning to Judah. The forced exile of about 50 years became a voluntary diaspora: many stayed, and Babylon remained a major Jewish center for centuries, later producing the Babylonian Talmud.
When and where
Babylon fell in October 539 BC; Ezra 1 dates Cyrus' decree to his first year, 538 BC.
Historical evidence
The Nabonidus Chronicle, a Babylonian tablet, records Babylon's fall to Cyrus; the Cyrus Cylinder records his policy of returning peoples and gods.
Questions and debates
Jeremiah's 'seventy years' of exile (Jeremiah 25:11) does not match the roughly 50 years from 586 to 538 BC; interpreters count from different starting points.
▸Cyrus the Great of Persia allowed Return from exileHistorical record
The connection
Ezra 1:2–4 quotes Cyrus declaring that 'the Lord, the God of heaven' charged him to build God a house in Jerusalem, and that Jews may go up and rebuild it. He returned the Temple vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken. Isaiah 45:1 even calls Cyrus God's 'anointed', the only non-Israelite so named.
When and where
Babylon, 538 BC, Cyrus' first year as its ruler; the first returnees were led by Sheshbazzar.
Historical evidence
The Cyrus Cylinder (found 1879) describes his returning displaced peoples and gods to their sanctuaries. It does not mention Jews, but fits the biblical account.
Questions and debates
The decree's wording in Ezra may be a Jewish version of a general Persian policy; scholars debate how much Persia actually funded the Temple.
▸Return from exile led to the building of The Second TempleHistorical record
The connection
Rebuilding the Temple was the returnees' first goal. They set up the altar and laid foundations, but local opposition halted work for years. Spurred by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah in 520 BC, under governor Zerubbabel, they finished in the sixth year of Darius I (Ezra 6:15).
When and where
Jerusalem, 538 to about 516 BC; Zerubbabel, the high priest Joshua, and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah.
Historical evidence
Ezra, Haggai and Zechariah give precise dates tied to Persian kings' reigns. Persian records confirm the kings but not the building work.
Questions and debates
Who opposed the rebuilding (Samaritans, or Judeans who had never left) and how much Sheshbazzar versus Zerubbabel achieved are unclear.