Bible history

Period of the Captivity and of the Restoration

Blackwood’s Comprehensive Aids to the Study of the Bible · Vol. I, p. 38

Begins on Vol. I, p. 38

(206 Years).

Before Christ	Events in the History of the Israelites		Before Christ	Contemporaneous Events in Heathen Countries
606	Prophet Habakkuk.		606	Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
599-8	Jehoiachin (3 months). Jerusalem taken by the Chaldeans. Jehoiachin in exile.		600	Psammis, king of Egypt.
	Zedekiah (Mattaniah) reigns, under the Chaldeans (11 years).		595	Hophra (Apries), king of Egypt.
594	Ezekiel appears as prophet, thirty years after Josiah's reformation, at the river Chebar in Babylonia.		594	Solon at Athens.
589	Zedekiah applies to			Hophra.
	Commencement of the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans.
588	Jeremiah in prison.
587	Destruction of Jerusalem; Zedekiah taken prisoner; transportation of the people to Babylon.
	Gedaliah is appointed governor by Nebuchadnezzar, and is killed by Ishmael; the people flee into Egypt.			Nebuchadnezzar captures Tyre under Ethbaal II.
	Prophet Obadiah (?).
574	Ezekiel's visions, fifty years after Josiah's reformation.		570	Birth of Pythagoras.
			569	Amasis, king of Egypt.
561	Jehoiachin's captivity at Babylon relieved by			Evil-Merodach.
			560	Pisistratus at Athens.
				Neriglissar at Babylon.
	Daniel's prophetic visions.		555	Belshazzar.
			538	Capture of Babylon by Cyrus.
	Palestine becomes a province of	Persia.		Darius rules in Babylon.
536	Return of exiles to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel in the	First year of Cyrus.
	Rebuilding of the temple begun.		534	Tarquin at Rome.
		Cambyses (Ahasuerus of Ezra iv.).	529
521	Building of temple stopped by	Smerdis (Artaxerxes of Ezra iv.).	525	Cambyses conquers Egypt.
		Darius Hystaspes (Darius of Ezra iv. 24; v.; vi.).
520	Temple recommenced in the	Second year of Darius.	510	Tarquin expelled from Rome.
	Prophets Haggai and Zechariah.		509	Rome's first treaty with Carthage.
517	Temple completed.		498	Battle of Lake Regillus.
			494	Roman tribunes appointed.
		Invasion of Greece.	490	Battle of Marathon.
			486	Egypt revolts from Persia.
		Xerxes I. (Ahasuerus of the book of Esther).	485
			484	Egypt is reconquered.
		Third year, great feast	482
		Invasion of Greece	480	Battle of Thermopylæ and Salamis.
		Seventh year, return.	479	Battle of Platea; sea-fight of Mycale.
		Esther made queen	478
		Twelfth year, Haman's plot and death	473
		Artaxerxes I. (Artaxerxes of Ezra vii.).	464
457	Ezra's journey to Jerusalem with a large company, and a commission from Artaxerxes.		461	Pericles at Athens.
444	Nehemiah, at Jerusalem, governor for twelve years, till the year 432.		453	Roman Decemvirs.
				Herodotus the historian.
			443	Censors at Rome.
			431	Peloponnesian war begins.
			430	Plague at Athens.
			429	Pericles dies.
		Xerxes II.	425
		Sogdianus	424
420	The Prophet Malachi concludes the Old Testament Scriptures.	Darius II. (Nothus)	423	Socrates, Xenophon and Thucydides at Athens.
409	Manasseh builds a temple on Mount Gerizim.	Artaxerxes Mnemon.	405	Dionysius in Sicily.
			404	Athens taken by Lysander.
			401	Retreat of the ten thousand.
			400	Death of Socrates.

Note.—The captivity of the Jews in Babylon tended greatly to cure them of the sin of idolatry, to which they had been addicted for so many years; a result which all their previous warnings, corrections and judgments had failed to produce. It diffused the fear of Jehovah among the heathen, and elicited from Cyrus, from Nebuchadnezzar, from Darius, acknowledgments of his perfections and claims. It also prepared the way for the coming of Christ and the dispensation of the Gospel, by taking away many of those things wherein consisted the glory of the Jewish dispensation, and by causing the dispersion of the Jews throughout a great part of the known world. These dispersed Jews, carrying with them the Holy Scriptures containing the prophecies of the Messiah, became the means of diffusing some knowledge of the true religion and of raising, to some extent, a general expectation of the coming of the Saviour. These events were also of great importance, as presenting a striking fulfillment of prophecy.

Babylon having fallen, as had been foretold, Cyrus the conqueror had among his chief men Daniel, the servant of Jehovah. Daniel doubtless brought to the monarch's notice the predictions of Isaiah, and now that at the end of seventy years' captivity Cyrus found the sovereign power in his own hands, he issued a decree, in which, after acknowledging the supremacy of Jehovah, he gave permission to the Jews in any part of his dominions to return to their own land and to rebuild the city and temple of Jerusalem.

The restoration of the Jewish church, temple and worship was an event of the highest consequence, as tending to preserve true religion in the world and preparing the way for the appearance of the Great Deliverer.