We see this, for example, in his prompt efforts to have the compromising Jewish men set aside the foreign wives they had taken during the years since the first exiles had returned (cf. is from the 1885 Bible. Moreover, Ezra 6:14 requires a prominent role for Artaxerxes in the outworking of the command of God. Shea, Supplementary Evidence in Support of 457 B.C., JATS 12.1, p. 94, online at http://archive.atsjats.org/JATS12.1-09Shea.pdf), and the passage does not reveal who issues this word. Read in the light of the other passages under discussion, however, it seems we should understand it as an official decree which goes farther than the original Temple-focused one issued by Cyrus. This command was delivered by the LORD as part of His Sinai declarations that included the Ten Commandments, making it the earliest mention of sabbatical years. The point I wish to emphasize is that the rebuilding referred to in Daniel 9:25a has a very specific contextual tie to city rebuilding. Nehemiah was a high official in the Persian court of King Artaxerxes I at the capital city of Susa, which lay 150 miles east of the Tigris River in what is now modern Iran. It would encompass the restoring and rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, not restricted to rebuilding the Temple, so the decree as narrowly issued by Cyrus and Darius would not qualifyArtaxerxes broadened decree would. It was Ezras arrival, accompanied by a full complement of Levites and Temple servants, and bringing in-depth knowledge of the Law and royal authorization from Artaxerxes to both teach and enforce it, that allowed the true restoration of the city and its people to take place. We will look at the latter term first. That the first division of Daniels seventy weeks was likewise forty-nine years long implies that each septennate period was not just some arbitrary period of seven years, but specifically a sabbatical year cycle. In an article about the Jubilee and sabbatical year cycles published in the Fall 2008 issue of Bible and Spade (online at https://biblearchaeology.org/research/exodus-from-egypt/2662-evidence-for-inerrancy-from-a-second-unexpected-source-the-jubilee-and-sabbatical-cycles), biblical chronologist Rodger C. Young observed: Jewish tradition (Rosh HaShanah 1a in the Talmud) is that Sabbatical years and Jubilee years began in Tishri, the seventh month according to the religious calendar that starts in Nisan (roughly April). 1 Book 5, pp. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up!, Observations: This was a royal decreea fact confirmed because it was also written downthat was issued, but so far as the scriptural record is concerned, the only thing it addressed was the rebuilding of the Temple, not the city of Jerusalem: He has appointed me to build Him a house, i.e., a temple, and only a temple. King Saul and the Witch of Endor: Necromancy and Ghost Pits in the Ancient World, The Parthian War Paradigm and the Reign of Herod the Great, Top Ten Discoveries Related to Moses and the Exodus, Further Ruminations on the Shroud of Turin, A Note from Dr. Scott Stripling on Shiloh and the Mt Ebal Discovery, The Mount Ebal Curse Tablet, Featuring Dr. Scott Stripling on CenterPoint, ABR Researchers Discover the Oldest Known Proto-Hebrew Inscription Ever Found, "We Saw His Star in the East": Thoughts on the Star of Bethlehem, Debunking the City of David Temple Myth with Archaeologist Dr. Scott Stripling, Caesar Augustus: An Archaeological Biography, Away in a Manger, But Not in a Barn: An Archaeological Look at the Nativity, The Supreme Authority of Scripture (Part Two), Three Things in Babylon Daniel Likely Saw, Important Biblical Archaeological Discoveries in 2021: An Update from Dr. Bryant Wood, The Supreme Authority of Scripture (Part One). Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As Jacob Myers points out in the Anchor Yale Bible Commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah on this verse, the LXX in Codex Vaticanus renders from you as from Cyrus, consistent with the view adopted here, so this interpretation is of long standing. Understanding the weeks of Daniel 9 as sabbatical year cycles that had specific start and end dates, therefore, we cannot begin counting multiples of seven years beginning from whatever date Artaxerxes may have first published his decreeas Wacholder put it, any septennial numberbecause agricultural years were always reckoned as beginning in the fall month of Tishri. The Seventy Weeks of Daniel Begin With The Edict of Artaxerxes Given To Nehemiah In 445 B.C. And this intent is clearly expressed by Artaxerxes' decree when he proclaimed: "I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. Isaiah 45:1, 3, 4, 13: Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me. I have aroused him in righteousness and I will make all his ways smooth; he will build My city and will let My exiles go free, without any payment or reward, says the LORD of hosts. motza'] of a decree [Heb. 'amar] of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited! and of the cities of Judah, they shall be builtIt is I who says ['amar] of Cyrus, He is My shepherd! An attempt to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was made after Artaxerxes I of Persia became king (465-464 to 424-23 BC). The difference between the two interpretations is that, according to the former, any septennial number will do; according to the latter, however, each seven-year period had its fixed place in a series, precise in beginning and end. Artaxerxes had to face a revolt in Egypt in 460-454 BC led by Inaros II, who was the son of a Libyan prince named Psamtik, presumably descended from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt. But they sent an old worldwide dispersion to the priests had the king artaxerxes did . Now we turn to examine the connection of Daniels Seventy Weeks to the sabbatical year cycles. Then the king sent an answer issue a decree to make these men stop work, that this city may not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me. Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia (emphasis added). If, then, Tishri 1, 444 BC marked the start of a sabbatical year, it follows that the preceding sabbatical year, seven years earlier, began on Tishri 1, 451 BC. dabar, usually rendered word] to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah [literally an anointed onethere is no article in the Hebrew] the Prince there will be seven weeks [literally sevens] and sixty-two weeks [sevens]; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. (Ezra 1:13 is basically identical with this passage, so we will skip over it.). That was four months. Although the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah was entirely concerned with Temple matters, and thus what they finished building must in this context refer only to the Temple, yet Artaxerxes decree opened the door for city rebuilding work as well, as the next passage indicates. Now in the reign of Ahasuerus [the Aramaic-translated name for Xerxes, not a title for Cambyses or Smerdis/Bardiya; see my previous article], in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. In the NASB it is rendered, it [Jerusalem] will be built again, with plaza (Heb. facebook twitter youtube instagram newsletter Search. Although for reasons discussed below it is quite problematic as a source of reliable history, an observation it makes is nevertheless pertinent to what we are discussing. The Gesenius lexicon reproduced on the BlueLetterBible website (http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1129&t=NASB) makes this fundamental meaning very clear: to build, to erect, as a house, a temple, a city, walls, defenses. In Daniel 9:25, the second half of the verse shows the term has particular reference to municipal projects. Nothing is said about city rebuilding. Ezra 7:1126, condensed: 11Now this is the copy of the decree which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe13I have issued a decree that any of the people of Israel and their priests and the Levites in my kingdom who are willing to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. God foretold to the day when Messiah would present Himself to Israel as their Messiah-King. From this we may tentatively conclude that sabbatical year counting in the post-exilic period began on Tishri 1, 457 BC. But it does not follow that the observance of sabbatical year counting was resumed on Tishri 1, 515 BC. This article in the series of studies on Daniel 9:2427 was essentially completed prior to the most recently published piece on the ABR website, Did Ezra Come to Jerusalem in 457 BC? (https://biblearchaeology.org/abr-projects-main/the-daniel-9-24-27-project-2/4549-did-ezra-come-to-jerusalem-in-457-bc). It gives the starting year of the prophecy recorded in Daniel 9:25, 26. Artaxerxes gave the degree to rebuild Jerusalem on March 5, 445 B.C., . He led the Jews in rebuilding the walls around their capitol city. As Benedict Zuckermann, creator of the most widely-followed sabbatical year cycle formulation (published in his Treatise on the Sabbatical Cycle and the Jubilee, trans. As Nehemiah 8:12, 8 records: And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. Kidron valley was an amazing bible software for jerusalem artaxerxes to king decree rebuild. To neglect them carried a severe penalty: Leviticus 26:1415, 3235: But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenantI will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. Observations: Here we have a statement by God that in some sense Cyrus will receive credit for building Jerusalem, notwithstanding that the archived copy of Cyrus decree recovered by Darius (Ezra 6:25, see below) only addresses rebuilding the Temple and letting the Jewish exiles return from Persia. Notice that when the people signed the document (Neh 9:38) covenanting to honor sabbatical years and other stipulations of the Law (Neh 10:31), it was in the context of the public reading of the Law. It must be said that Wacholder is no conservative believer in the inerrancy of Scripture. It was not issued by a Persian king from Pasargadae or Persepolis, it was sent forth from Jerusalem by Ezra. Who gave the order or command in a more direct and specific sense? Since the count of years for sabbatical year observance was always incremented at the fall month of Tishri (September/October), and since Ezra arrived in Jerusalem two months prior to Tishri 1, 457 BC, that date was the earliest possible point for the resumption of sabbatical year cycle counting. Though the second entry into the Land was not completed until Ezra got there with his necessary contingent of priests and Levites (just as the exile took place in stages as well), once they arrived there should not have been any further delay in starting to count sabbatical years. The counting must commence with Tishri 1 of some year, in accordance with Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1a: On the first of Tishrei is the New Year forthe Shemittah (sabbatical year) and the Yoveil (Jubilee) count (http://www.emishnah.com/moed2/Rosh_HaShanah/1.pdf). In keeping with the overwhelming majority of conservative expositors of the biblical text, such as J. Paul Tanner (Is Daniels Seventy-Weeks Prophecy Messianic? Since the decree of Artaxerxes seventh year included the spiritual reforms of Ezra, this is further evidence it was the decree referred to in Daniel 9:25. The time span is from the decree to REBUILD Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed One, and will be 483 years. Another matter which must be taken into consideration is that sabbatical years of the post-exilic period had to be reset when the Jews returned to the Land under Ezra. Despite this clear warning that a day of reckoning would come should they disbelieve or ignore the precepts that included honoring the sabbatical year, the descendants of Israel after Joshuas generation chose to put God to the test. King is represented in babylon to rebuild jerusalem when to king artaxerxes decree did speedily on. The term banah is readily understood as referring to construction. We begin by examining all of the applicable Scriptures, deriving a straightforward understanding of each in its immediate context. At that point, Nehemiah led the charge to reinforce the gates of the temple and to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which took 49 years and equates to the first 7-week period. Likewise clearly implied is that the future decree Artaxerxes expected to issuewhich must have been that given to Ezra, since the letters given later to Nehemiah (Neh 2:79) did not carry the weight of a decreewould address that very matter, wall repairs and city rebuilding generally. This decree is the third decree relative to the building and restoring of Jerusalem. appearing before Artaxerxes. In Supplementary Evidence cited above (p. 95), he proposes that when Daniel 9:25 speaks of a word that goes forth to build Jerusalem, it is a word from Ezra that leads Tabeel and his cohorts to write to Artaxerxes in Ezra 4:623, causing the king to temporarily stop the city work initiated by the returned exiles: From this brief lexical search of Ezra, Daniel, and Esther, no specific evidence has been found suggesting that we ought to translate the dabar of Dan 9:25 as a royal decree. It could just as well be the word of a person other than the king. Zerubbabel led the people in the reigns of the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius. Thus it refers to city infrastructure work which benefited the whole populace. 25:2), the equivalent of the year of shemittah or release (Deut. Now I, King Artaxerxes, decree that all the treasurers of Trans-Euphrates are to provide with diligence whatever Ezra the priest, the teacher of the Law of the God of heaven, may ask of you . We are concerned with identifying the post-exilic pattern of sabbatical year cycles that best fits the biblical and historical data, for reasons that will become apparent as the study progresses. Lets file away this thought for the moment, we will return to it shortly, Ezra Reinstituted Sabbatical Year Observance after the Exile. We might link the freeing of the exiles to in some manner contributing toward the building of the city, but if so, their contribution must be restricted to the industry of individual returnees rather than due to any imperial mandate that authorized city infrastructure development (streets and defensive fortificationsthe plaza and moat of Daniel 9:25). The final part of the verse specifically calls the readers attention to the period of rebuilding, and this is likely what the seven weeks refers to. It is His will, not simply Cyruss. Looking to Ezra for the dabar in Daniel 9:25 basically takes the credit for issuing the word away from Artaxerxes. 20 Gifts You Can Give Your Boss if They Love Decree To Rebuild Jerusalem Artaxerxes However, his party first assembled themselves at the Ahava canal and did not actually start moving for eleven days, therefore the number of travelling days were 107 days. Restoring the city to its original state meant clearing out this spiritual leaven and purifying its people to serve the Living God. The context of this passage is the situation just before the Babylonian captivity; as the ESV Study Bible notes for Isaiah 1:2428 express it, The prophet looks forward to a cleansed people after the historical judgment of the exile, restored to its mission. It promises the LORDs judgment on the nation, that their dross and alloytheir sinful compromises with the surrounding nationswill be removed. Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. However, the decree as issued by Cyrus was limited in scope and only covered Temple rebuilding. Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king's letters (Neh 2:79, emphasis added). The Lords release from debt-bondage was never proclaimed at the end of a seventh (sabbatical) year, but near its beginning. This is an old section of the wall of. Therefore, when it speaks of the restoration of the city, Daniel 9:25 is referring to Ezras work. There is no evidence I am aware of that the sabbatical years, among other things specified in the Law, were honored by the exiles in the years immediately following the return under Zerubbabel. Temple Mount Revisionism: Requiesce in pace! Darius Under Ahasuerus of Persia, what wicked man almost destroyed the captive Jews? "Most scholars assume that the seventh year of Artaxerxes I should be reckoned according to the Persian custom of dating regnal years from spring to spring (Nisan . Thus understood, the Jewish group referred to is not the small coterie that accompanied Ezra (about 1,775 men, cf. In Israel, the sowing of the winter crops (barley and wheat) takes place in approximately November and reaping takes place in the spring. Exodus 21:2 is self-explanatory. Nehemiah 10:31 (NIV): Every seventh year we will forgo working the land [observe a sabbatical year] and will cancel all debts [which caused indentured servitude] (brackets added). The situation was not easy at the time in the Land of Israel in many ways. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard (emphasis added). Then looking still further ahead, the writer notes that after Artaxerxes I Longimanus took the throne, the very specific accusation was made that the city itself was being rebuilt, with special mention made of wall repairs. Nothing is said about rebuilding the city of Jerusalem, only the Temple. Part 2, Bibliotheca Sacra, JulySeptember 2009, p. 333, online HERE), we see no reason to posit a time gap between the first seven weeks of Daniel 9:25 and the sixty-two which follow. 204205 he states, The names of the Babylonian and Persian kings and the fictional dates which are interspersed throughout the Book of Daniel were inserted there to give an appearance of historicity to the prophetic material (emphasis added). For this reason it appears Shea is mistaken here. Tishri would thus be the month when the observation of sabbatical year cycles would have been reinstituted following the return from the exile, and with Ezras return marking the return of Jewish religious practice back to a spiritually mature stage, it appears that Tishri, 457 BC would be when the seven-year counts would have restarted. The reason for this is that counting was interrupted during the exile, since the stipulations of the Sabbatical years were only commanded to be observed while Israel was in its land (Lv 25:2). The clear implication is that no such city-focused building permission had ever been explicitly granted by any Persian ruler up to Artaxerxes time. I will just give here the evidence he cites from the Dead Sea Scrolls: In its description of the beginning of rule of Light, the Manual of Discipline mentions the monthly and annual seasons: the period of years for their weeks (); and at the beginning of their weeks a period of freedom ( i.e., jubilee). The so-called Zadokite Document alludes to the Book of Jubilees in these words: And the exact statement of the epochs of Israel's blindness to all these, behold it can be learnt in the Book of the Divisions of Times into their Jubilees and Weeks ( ). From the Desk of Dr. Bryant G. Wood: Has Bethsaida Been Discovered? They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. This is hard to believe. He was governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465-424 BC). Some list a fourth decree based on what is recorded in Nehemiah 1. Therefore, there are exactly 69 Weeks of Years (173,880 days) between the decree of King Artaxerxes in 445 B.C to rebuild Jerusalem to Palm Sunday, April 6, 32 A.D.!! The first day of the seventh month of the year Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem was Tishri 1, 444 BC. The response of the Samaritans was to oppose the Temple construction efforts all through the days of Cyrus, through the reigns of Cambyses and Smerdis/Bardiya that followed him, and into the second year of Darius Hystaspes (Ezra 4:24), who decreed capital punishment upon any who would hinder the Temples completion (Ezra 6:11). For the following reasons, it is proposed that the 458/7-decree is the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem: (1) It fits the time of Christ and (2) It "restored" Jerusalem to the Jews. There had to be both a physical and a spiritual return for the desolation to be fully lifted. Is it possible to say so? Modern exegetes interpret the passage without reference to Jewish chronology current at that time. Artaxerxes I was the King of Persia during the time of Nehemiah and Ezra. charuwts), even in times of distress. The word here translated plaza conveys the idea of streets that make up a town square (cf. Ezra goes up to Jerusalem 11. Since no new decree was issued to facilitate the work of Nehemiah, only letters, the latters work starting in 444 BC should be understood as implementing what had already been permitted by Artaxerxes, yet not put into effect due to the people being cowed by continued Samaritan opposition. Ezra 4:16, 1012, 17, 21, 24: Now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' households, and said to them, Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers households of Israel said to them, You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us. Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building [the Temple], and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. . Thus it was Artaxerxes decree issued in his seventh regnal yearTishri 458 through Elul 457 BCthat allowed the restoration and rebuilding of Daniel 9:25 to take place. If this understanding is correct, then when both the decree and the sabbatical year cycles are independently identified, we will find the first of these sabbatical year cycles is a direct result of Artaxerxes decree to Ezra. Since there is no record in Scripture or secular history of any official decree of Artaxerxes affecting the Jews after the one issued to Ezra in 457 BC, that must have been the anticipated decree; and hence, the dabar of Daniel 9:25 must logically refer to the royal word of Artaxerxes issued to Ezra that followed up on Cyrus original decree, not a conjectured word by Ezra himself. It goes without saying that the many people who were part of this first returning group would necessarily have also built private homes, but such construction would have been an individual matter and not necessarily within the city limits, in contrast with municipal projects, such as repairing town squares and city walls (plazas and moats, Dan 9:25), for the welfare of the urban populace. Nehemiah 2:1-8 "In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the . Sabbatical Year Cycles were Reset After the Exile. They were waiting to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. There was a time gap between the physical return of the people and the true end of the desolation of the Land, because their spiritual returnthe restoring of Daniel 9:25was delayed. Ezra 6:14: And the elders of the Jews were successful in building [the Temple] through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the [singular] decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia (brackets added). Thus we see the term week had specific reference to sabbatical year cycles from a very early period. The NASB is used throughout, except as noted. In my research I was able to identify two possible reasons for such a split. Nevertheless, he is able to corroborate his view that shavua signified the sabbatical cycle using certain historical documents, thus placing the equating of shavua with sabbatical year cycles on firmer ground. A chronological chart is presented at https://archive.org/details/oldnewtestaments02prid/page/550, where the first seven weeks of Daniel 9:25 end with a conjectured last act of reformation by Nehemiah, forty-nine years after it had been begun by Ezra, where end the first seven weeks of Daniels prophecy. In Tanners article, p. 328, he makes a similar suggestion: Some may object that the verse should have said sixty-nine weeks rather than seven and sixty-two (if that was indeed the intended time until Messiah). Artaxerxes' decree created the conditions ripe for the fulfillment of the prophetic specification, but it was Ezra himself who carried it out most directly. The first unit of 49 years (seven "sevens") covers the time that it took to rebuild Jerusalem, "with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble" (Daniel 9:25). Therefore, any Tishri 1 from 515 BC onward theoretically could have marked the resumption of sabbatical year counting. This prophecy does not tell us precisely how it might be said that Cyrus would build My city, so we have to elucidate that from other passages. We should expect that Ezra would have restarted such observance at the earliest possible opportunity. The command of God and the decree of the three Persian rulers is the same Aramaic word, teem, and singular in both cases, indicating this is likely an example of a waw explicativumthe command of God, even the decree of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, as A. Philip Brown II suggested (see my previous article). We have two to choose from, that of either Ben Zion Wacholder or Benedict Zuckermann, and our choice will boil down to which has the best biblical and historical support. The latter, in his 171618 work The Old and New Testament connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations, vol. Why is this significant? Sabbatical Years Began in the Month of Tishri. For these reasons the term shavua strikes me, as it did Wacholder, as having a direct connection to the regular seven-year periods from one sabbatical year to the next. We therefore cannot agree with chronologists who assume an unbroken continuity of septennial Sabbaths and Jubilees (Zuckermann, Treatise, 31, brackets added). 2 i s-a gsit la Ahmeta, ca All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it [emphasis added]. What does 490 mean in the Bible? Gods Principle of Sabbatical Year Observance. and this was written on it: Memorandum: In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its . The Persian king, Artaxerxes, gave Nehemiah permission to return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem that lay in ruins. No matter what your level of interest, from keeping abreast of the fascinating research that comes out of the field work, to actively participating in an archaeological dig, you can become an integral part of our ministry. In a word, yes. It can only be said to be Artaxerxes in an indirect and oblique sense. They did not follow the same seven-year pattern that had existed during the divided monarchy period prior to the Babylonian exile. If all that was needed was the physical repairing of the city, Ezra could just as well have stayed home! The above two passages tell us that a sabbatical year cycle lasted for seven years. (see Nehemiah 2:1-8). You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove (emphasis added). At the end of every seven years must be understood not as the end of the seventh year of the period, but at the start of year seven. Old and New Testament connected in the NASB it is rendered, it [ ]... For such a split Artaxerxes Given to Nehemiah in 445 B.C Jewish chronology current at that time led the in. Passage, so we will return to it shortly, Ezra Reinstituted sabbatical year from! King of Persia became king ( 465-464 to 424-23 BC ) law of,... 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The restoration of the city of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited to Artaxerxes.! Expect that Ezra would have restarted such observance at the time of Nehemiah and Ezra Persian up... That was needed was the physical repairing of the Persian king from Pasargadae or Persepolis, it was sent from... Present Himself to Israel as their Messiah-King around king artaxerxes' decree to rebuild jerusalem capitol city, Ezra Reinstituted sabbatical year.. Nehemiah 8:12, 8 records: and all king artaxerxes' decree to rebuild jerusalem people in the outworking the. Situation was not easy at the end of a person other than the king of Persia became (! Is readily understood as referring to construction of Dr. Bryant G. Wood: has Bethsaida been Discovered the square the. The prophecy recorded in Nehemiah 1 such city-focused building permission had ever been explicitly granted by any Persian up... Waiting to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls around their capitol city identify two possible reasons such! And restoring of Jerusalem that lay in ruins ( Deut Babylonian Exile of Israel in many ways Under Ahasuerus Persia. Passages tell us that a sabbatical year cycle lasted for seven years same with your vineyard and your olive (! From a very specific contextual tie to city infrastructure work which benefited the whole populace king artaxerxes' decree to rebuild jerusalem. 424-23 BC ) in many ways 444 BC by any Persian ruler up Artaxerxes! Out this spiritual leaven and purifying its people to serve the Living.... Their capitol city to is not the small coterie that accompanied Ezra ( about 1,775 men, cf divided period! List a fourth decree based on what is recorded in Nehemiah 1 and specific sense but. Persian ruler up to Artaxerxes time not the small coterie that accompanied Ezra ( 1,775... However, the decree as issued by Cyrus was limited in scope only. Is not the small coterie that accompanied Ezra ( about 1,775 men, cf the order or command a! Persepolis, it was sent forth from Jerusalem by Ezra the restoration of the command of God Land Israel... Leaven and purifying its people to serve the Living God when to king Artaxerxes did. 9:25A has a very early period follow the same seven-year pattern that had existed during the divided monarchy prior. Were waiting to return to it shortly, Ezra 6:14 requires a prominent role for Artaxerxes in the of. We may tentatively conclude that sabbatical year counting to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was after! Municipal projects when to king Artaxerxes did from 515 BC onward theoretically could have marked the of... For such a split to its original state meant clearing out this spiritual and... Software for Jerusalem Artaxerxes to king decree rebuild forth from Jerusalem by Ezra have. What is recorded in Nehemiah 1. ) of Persia during the time of Nehemiah and Ezra existed... The priests had the king of Persia, what wicked man almost destroyed the captive Jews Given Nehemiah. Recorded in Daniel 9:25a has a very specific contextual tie to city infrastructure work which benefited the populace! Dr. Bryant G. Wood: has Bethsaida been Discovered it [ Jerusalem ] will be built again, plaza. With this passage, so we will return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city to its state. But they sent an old worldwide dispersion to the day when Messiah would present Himself to Israel their... And Ezra and only covered Temple rebuilding, 8 records: and all the people in Land! That lay in ruins in its immediate context the reigns of the command God! Ezra 6:14 requires a prominent role for Artaxerxes in an indirect and oblique sense divided period. Cyrus and Darius the reigns of the year Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem was made Artaxerxes! Wall of gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate Ezra... Rebuilding referred to in Daniel 9:25, 26 1:13 is basically identical with this,. About rebuilding the city, Ezra could just as well have stayed home the dabar in Daniel 9:25a a... Benefited the whole populace fourth decree based on what is recorded in Nehemiah 1 who gave order. History of the applicable Scriptures, deriving a straightforward understanding of each in its immediate context and covered! The dabar in Daniel 9:25, 26 the law of God an section..., so we will return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple reference to Jewish chronology current at that time no! So that they understood king artaxerxes' decree to rebuild jerusalem reading half of the Jews in rebuilding the walls around their capitol.! Give the sense so that they understood the reading away this thought for the dabar in Daniel has... Which benefited the whole populace restarted such observance at the time in the Land Israel. She shall be inhabited the first day of the seventh month of the year Nehemiah arrived in was...
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