Era 10 of 13

Return and rebuilding

536–410 BC126 years

Ezra – Nehemiah; Esther; Haggai – Malachi

The exiles return, rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem’s walls; the Old Testament closes.

How the dates are set: From the first return (536 BC) to about 410 BC, shortly after Ussher’s date for Malachi (about 416 BC). The end date is approximate.

Events 13

• The first exiles return under Zerubbabel 536 BC
  About 50,000 people, led by Zerubbabel of David's line and the high priest Jeshua, returned to Judah and rebuilt the altar in Jerusalem.
• The temple foundation laid 535 BC
  In the second year of the return the foundation of the new temple was laid; the young shouted for joy while old men who remembered Solomon's temple wept aloud.
• Daniel's final vision 535 BC
  In Cyrus's third year, after three weeks of mourning and fasting, Daniel saw a glorious heavenly messenger and received a detailed prophecy ending with the resurrection of the dead.
• Enemies halt the rebuilding 523 BC
  Neighbors who had been refused a share in the building discouraged the workers, hired counselors against them, and finally got a Persian king to order the work stopped.
• Haggai and Zechariah stir the people to build 520 BC
  The prophets Haggai and Zechariah challenged the people for living in paneled houses while God's house lay in ruins, and the work began again.
• The second temple is completed 515 BC
  With Darius's backing, the temple was finished and dedicated with joy, seventy years after the first temple was destroyed, and the returnees kept Passover.
• Esther becomes queen of Persia 514 BC
  After Queen Vashti refused to appear at his banquet, King Ahasuerus chose a young Jewish orphan, Esther, raised by her cousin Mordecai, as his new queen.
• Haman's plot defeated; the first Purim 510 BC
  Haman won the king's decree to destroy every Jew in the empire; Esther risked her life to plead for her people, Haman was hanged, and the Jews were delivered.
• Ezra comes to Jerusalem to teach the Law 467 BC
  Ezra, a priest and skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, led a second group back to Jerusalem with the king's authority to teach and enforce God's law.
• Nehemiah rebuilds Jerusalem's walls 454 BC
  Nehemiah, the Persian king's cupbearer, heard that Jerusalem's walls lay in ruins, won permission to rebuild them, and completed the work in 52 days despite threats and ridicule.
• Ezra reads the Law to the people 454 BC
  Standing on a wooden platform, Ezra read the Law from dawn until noon while Levites explained it; the people wept, then celebrated the Feast of Booths and renewed the covenant.
• Nehemiah's second term and reforms 441 BC
  Returning after a visit to the Persian court, Nehemiah found the people breaking the Sabbath, neglecting the Levites, and marrying foreigners, and he acted forcefully to set things right.
• Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet 416 BC
  Malachi rebuked priests and people for careless worship, broken marriages, and withheld tithes, and promised that God would send his messenger and Elijah before the day of Yahweh.

Open the interactive timelineStart with The first exiles return under Zerubbabel