Synopsis of Jewish History

vity of Babylon, and the Rebuilding of t

ed into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the days of Zedekiah, the last king of

and impiety towards the Gracious God, and for their direct opposition to the constant exhortati

fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, which was pronounced by him above one hundred years previously. Accordingly Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem

ory informs us, it appears that the majority of those who returned to Jerusalem, consisted chiefly of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, t

Judah, who became the governor of the land by a commission granted at the hands of king Cyrus;

purpose they set about making collections, both of money and materials, and gathering themselves together at Jerusalem, they set up the

n old in the captivity, and who still had the recollection of the glory and magnificence of the first temple, mourned and gri

ested great enmity toward the Jews, and evinced much jealous feeling, when they saw them restore

ith great assistance from the court of Persia, in order to complete their noble undertaking. And then it was, that after a period of twenty years interrupte

an inquiry, and it being found on record at Babylon that permission had been granted to the Jews by Cyrus to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, Darius immediately gave orders that the work should be continued undisturbed. And in the sixth year of the reign of Darius, the second temple was

and saw the deficiency in the one, when compared with the other; for it must be observed, that in the second temple but few of the glorie

le erected in the wilderness. This superb edifice was completed in about seven years. Its

uriously and exquisitely wrought by the most expert workmen of the day. But still more admirable in this majestic building, were those extraordinary works of divine favor with which i

were five in number, which formed the principal a

t is the generally received opinion among the learned men of the Jewish nation, that there was such an ark made, and that the copy of the five books of Moses, called the Pentateuch-as corrected and revised by the scribe Ezra-was deposited therein. Henc

nce manifested by a visible cloud o

igns to consult the will of God, and to ask counsel of him on such momentous occasions touching the public interest of the nation at large. The f

pon the altar, to consume the daily sacrifices and bur

ariah, and Malachi, lived during the time of the second temple, yet, after thei