(4) The Return. Details concerning the Re turn from the captivity are preserved in the books denominated after Ezra and Nehemiah ; and in the prophecies of two contemporaries, Haggai and Zechariah. The first great event is the de cree of Cyrus. B. C. 536, in consequence of which 42,36o Jews of Babylon returned under Sheshbaz zar, with 7,337 slaves, besides cattle. This ended in their building the altar, and laying the fouhda tion of the second temple, 53 years after the de struction of the first. The progress of the work was, however, almost immediately stopped ; for Zerubbabel. Jeshua and the rest abruptly refused all help from the half-heathen inhabitants of Sa maria, and soon felt the effects of the enmity thus induced. That the mind of Cyrus was changed by their intrigties, we are not informed; but lie was probably absent in distant parts, through continual war.
When Darius (llystaspis), an able and gen erous monarch, ascended the throne, the Jews soon obtained his favor. At this crisis, Zerub babel was in chief authority (Sheshbazzar per haps being dead), and under him the temple was begun in the second and ended in the sixth year of Darius, B. C. 52o-5t6. Although this must be reckoned an era in the history, it is not said to have been accompanied with any new immigra tion of Jews. We pass on to the seventh year of king Artaxerxes' (Longimanus), Ezra v11:7, that is, B. C. 458. when Ezra comes up from Babylon to Jerusalem, with the king's conunenda tory letters, accompanied by a large body of his nation. The enumeration in Ezra yin. makes them under t.800 males, with their families; per haps amounting to 5,00o persons, young and old; of whom 1 t3 are recounted as having heathen wives (Ezra x:18-43). In the twentieth year of the same king, or B. C. 445, Nehemiah, his cup bearer, gains his permission to restore 'his fathers' sepulchres,' and the walls of his native city ; and is sent to Jerusalem with large powers. This is the crisis which decided the national restoration of the Jewish people ; for before their city was fortified, they had no defense against the now confirmed enmity of their Samaritan neighbors; and, in fact, before the walls could be built, sev eral princes around were able to offer great oppo sition. (See SA NBALLAT.) The Jewish popula tion was overwhelmed with debt, and had gen erally mortgaged their little estates to the rich, but Nehemiah's influence succeeded in bringing about a general forfeiture of debts, or at least of the interest ; after which we may regard the new order of things to have been finally established in Judxa (see Nen EM tA11). From this time forth it is probable that numerous families returned in small parties, as to a secure home, until all the waste land in the neighborhood was reoccu pied (5) Remaining in Dispersion. The great mass of the israelitish race nevertheless remained in dispersion. Previous to the captivity, many Is raelites had settled in Egypt (Zech x:t i ; I s. xis
t8), and many Jews afterwards fled thither from Nebuzaradan (Jer. xli :17). Others appear to have established themselves in Sheba (see Jost's Geschiehte, etc.), where Jewish influence became very powerful (see SHEBA).
(6) The Ten Tribes. It is maintained by Von Bohlen (Genesis. p. cxvi) that the ten tribes in termarried so freely with the surrounding popu lation as to have become completely absorbed ; and it appears to be a universal opinion that no one now knows where their descendants arc. But it is a harsh assumption that such intermarriages were commoner with the ten tribes than with the two; and certainly, in the apostolic days. the twelve tribes are referred to as a well-known peo ple, sharply defined from the heathen (James i:t ; Acts xxiv :7). Not a trace appears that any re pulsive principle existed at that time bet ween the Ten and the Two. 'Ephraim no longer envied Judah, nor Judah vexed Ephraim but they had become 'one nation though only partially 'on the mountains of Israel' (Is. xi it3 Fick. xxxvii :22). It would seem, therefore, that the result of the captivity was to blend all the tribes together and produce a national union which had never hcen effected in their own land. If ever there was a difference between them as to the books counted sacred, that difference entirely vanished ; at least no evidence appears of the contrary fact When, moreover, the laws of landed inheritance no longer enforced the maintenance of separate tribes and put a difficulty in the way of their intermar riage, an almost inevitable result in course f time was the entire obliteration of this distinc tion.
(7) Under Cyrus. When Cyrus gave permis sion to the Israelites to return to their own coun try, and restored their sacred vessels, it is not wonderful that few persons of the ten tribes were eager to take advantage of it. In two centuries they had become thoroughly naturalized in their eastern settlements; nor had Jerusalem ever been the centre of proud aspirations to them. It is perhaps remarkable that in Ezra ii :2, 30 (see also x 25), the word Israel is used to signify what we might call the laity as opposed to the priests and Levites, which might seem as though the writer were anxious to avoid asserting that all the families belonged to the two tribes. (If this is not the meaning, it at least shows that all dis criminating force in the words Israel and Judah was already lost. So, too, in the book of Esther, the twelve tribes through all parts of the Persian empire are called Jews.) Nevertheless, it was to be expected that only those would return to Jerusalem whose expatriation was very recent ; and principally those whose parents had dwelt in the Holy City or its immediate neighborhood. The re-migrants doubtless consisted chiefly of the pious and the poor, and as the latter proved do cile to their teachers, a totally new spirit reigned in the restored nation.