The Return from Exile

Year

Number of People Returned

Persian King

Jewish Leader

Main Accomplishment

538 b.c.

50,000

Cyrus

Zerubbabel

They rebuilt the Temple, but only after a 20-year struggle. The work was halted for several years but was finally finished.

458 b.c.

2,000 men and their families

Artaxerxes

Ezra

Ezra confronted the spiritual disobedience of the people, and they repented and established worship at the Temple. But the wall of Jerusalem remained in ruins.

445 b.c.

Small group

Artaxerxes

Nehemiah

The city was rebuilt, and a spiritual awakening followed. But the people still struggled with ongoing disobedience.

Babylon, the once-mighty nation that had destroyed Jerusalem and carried the people of Judah into captivity, had itself become a defeated nation. Persia was the new world power, and under its new foreign policy, captured peoples were allowed to return to their homelands. The people of Judah and Israel returned to their land in three successive waves.