The Babylonian army conquered the Jewish nation in 586 BC, destroying God’s temple in Jerusalem and marching most of the survivors into exile. For nearly fifty years, the Jews languished in captivity, far from home. Then the Persians defeated the Babylonians, and in the first year of his reign, the new monarch, King Cyrus, issued a decree that allowed the captive Jews to return:

“Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.”

Ezra 1:3

A group of about forty thousand exiles decided to make the long journey back to their homeland, led by Zerubbabel, an ancestor of King David. Most people, however, chose to remain behind in their captive lands.

After a long, twenty-year struggle, the returnees finally rebuilt God’s temple, encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah who promised a future restoration for God’s people. Meanwhile, the Jews who remained in captivity discovered that the window of opportunity to emigrate had slammed shut once again. For the next generation, still living among their pagan enemies sixty years after King Cyrus’s decree, all hope for restoration has vanished.