{N}THE CAPTIVITY AND THE RETURN{/}

{K}CAPTURE AND BURNING OF JERUSALEM{/}

The intrigues of the princes of Jerusalem only contributed to attract 
twice in ten years the chaldean armies: in the years 596 and in 587. The 
second time the city was captured, its palaces demolished and the Temple 
burned down.
The{N} Babylonians{/} proceeded with the assyrian politics with respect to 
defeated countries: they transferred the nation's elite to other 
provinces and replaced them with foreigners in order to make revolt 
impossible. They incorporated the metal work artisans with the leaders 
for the deportation. The incessant campaigns of the kings of Babylon to 
maintain Egypt in line, to subdue the Phoenicians of Tyre, to control the 
route between Syria and Palestine, to contain the {N}Medes{/} and the 
{N}Persians{/} inside the iranian plateau, and to punish any and all 
intentions of rebellion, needed a continuous renovation of armament, 
whose fabrication these same artisans who had been deported participated 
in.
Therefrom the peasant population and the small town people of the cities 
remained free, and the elimination of the jewish elite class allowed the 
canaanite fraction of the country to lift up their heads.
{K}BABYLON THE GREAT{/}

Recuperating the project that his father Nabopolasar had started, 
{N}Nabuchodonosor{/} wanted to make Babylon the queen of cities. The 
technical progress, the economic development, fruit of a rigorous and 
creative administration, the contribution of the riches from the 
conquered territories, all doted Nabuchodonosor with the necessary 
recourses to realize his plan. He ordered that cedar be brought from the 
forests of Lebanon for the construction of the new royal palace and 
proceeded with the repair and decoration of the Sacred Avenue. The 
restored temples were adorned with varnished bricks and their furniture 
was made of gold and precious stones. One of the Seven Wonders of the 
World registered by Strabo, the famous hanging gardens, were designed and 
executed for love to the queen. In a word, all talents were utilized for 
the glory of Babylon, and many of the children of Israel contributed 
without a doubt, with better or worse will, to the making of this 
enormous enterprise.
Many of them had emigrated to foreign lands before the Exile. They stayed 
in the countries where they had arrived: Egypt or Persia. Some of the 
others who had been deported, succeeded in helping each other among 
themselves, to get out of their miserable situation: some even came to 
occupy the most important positions of the royal administration; while 
others, such as the family of the Egibi, contributed to the development 
of the banking system from the reign of Nabonida. The books fictitiously 
attributed to {N}Daniel{/}, {N}Tobias{/} and {N}Esther{/}, though actually written 
some centuries later, did not fool us when telling of this ascension.
{K}A TEST AND A CHALLENGE{/}

The captivity must have lasted officially around fifty-six years. It was 
a privileged time towards the maturity of the faith of Israel. Among the 
deported peoples in Babylon, the prophet {N}Ezekiel{/} is found, who 
announced that the captives who had been converted by the test would 
return to their country and reconstruct the nation in justice. A letter 
addressed by Jeremiah to the deported Jews in {N}Chaldea{/} indicates both 
the duration of the test and the leaving or escape that God was going to 
give it.
{C}Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all exiles whom I 
exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses to dwell in; plant 
gardens and eat their fruits; ... find wives for your sons and give your 
daughters husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters.. Then you 
must increase in number, not decrease. Promote the welfare of the city to 
which I have exiled you; pray for it to the Lord, for upon its welfare 
depends your own" (Jer 29,4-9).{/}

{K}THE JEWISH COMMUNITY GETS ORGANIZED{/}

Contrary to those who had been deported by the Assyrians after the fall 
of Samaria in the year 721, or to those who had taken refuge in Egypt 
before the chaldean threat, the Israelites that had gone as captives to 
Babylon knew how to conserve and deepen their spiritual patrimony and 
their uniqueness in the middle of the pagan nations. Several reasons can 
explain this faithfulness. Nowadays it seems evident that when they left 
for Babylon, the first draft of the Torah and prophetic oracles had been 
received; so therefore the exiled did not leave with empty hands and the 
writings they took with them served to help them recuperate their faith. 
Besides, those who headed the deported were the nation's elite, who were 
more learned and better prepared to get organized among themselves; those 
Jews, deprived of their temple and their worship, knew how to close ranks 
around the Law and the prophetic writings, and in this way gave the start 
to a movement that was going to expand itself after the return when the 
synagogue becomes the basic cell of the jewish society.
Finally, it motivated them towards a deep conviction: were they not the 
Small Remainder who had survived the disaster and to whom God had now 
entrusted the responsibility to maintain against wind and tide, the hope 
of Israel? Could they then, forget about God's promises?
{K}THE SALVATION COMES FROM THE PERSIANS{/}

In Babylon the king {N}Nabonida{/}, son of Nabuchodonosor, was lead by his 
desire to accumulate, even went so far as to loot the temples of Marduk, 
the great god of the Chaldeans. In this way he alienated himself against 
his own people and its clergy. He did however have sufficient lucidity to 
capture the danger that the empire of the {N}Medes{/} represented at his 
backside. He did not hesitate to then favor in the rebellion, {N}Cyrus{/}, 
king of the {N}Persians {/}and the vassal of the Medes. At the end of several 
years of rebellion (556-550) the young prince finally defeated Astyages, 
the king of the Medes. Preoccupied with his success, Croesus, king of 
Lydia, famous for his fabulous riches, committed the mistake of attacking 
Cyrus. He suffered a great loss and had to deliver his kingdom to Persia. 
With some other new victories in the east of his kingdom, Cyrus had the 
whole of Asia Minor in his hands as well as the iranian plateau. The 
deported Jews in Babylon perceived that these political troubles were an 
early sign of their liberation: the end of the babylonian empire was 
near.
One of Cyrus' generals defeated Nabonida's armies in the year 539 (the 
king himself perished in the battle) and the new owner of the Near East 
made his victorious entrance into Babylon. There he was acclaimed by the 
clergy of Marduk and the Babylonians who had borne the yoke of the 
conquered until then.
{K}CYRUS' NEW POLICY{/}

Cyrus refused to continue Assyria's and Babylonia' practice of exiling 
conquered peoples. Instead, his policy for maintaining peace in his vast 
empire was to respect the language, religion, and traditions of those he 
conquered. In keeping with that policy, he sent out all official decrees 
in three languages, one of which was the language spoken in the province 
to which the decree was directed. He chose Aramaic as the official 
language of administration for the ancient kingdoms of Syria-Palestine. 
For Aramaic to fulfill this new role, its grammatical forms and 
orthography had to be clarified and standardized, thus giving birth to 
what later would be called, "Aramaic of the Empire."
{K}RECONSTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE{/}

In the area of religion, Cyrus' policy was also directly opposite to that 
of the Babylonians. The latter's practice of destroying temples and 
religious profanations had awakened great indignation among conquered 
peoples. In contrast King Cyrus, in the first year of his reign, issued 
the following decree of Ecbatana concerning the House of God in 
Jerusalem: Let the Temple be reconstructed as a place for offering 
sacrifice. The cost of the reconstruction shall be paid from the royal 
treasury. Moreover, all golden and silver objects taken from the Temple 
of God shall be returned [Ezra_6,3].
