Notes for Lesson 14

Lesson 14 – Ezra, Nehemiah, the Poetic and Prophetic Overview

I. The Return and Rebuilding of the Temple – Ezra 1-6

· Cyrus is now the king of Persia

· 537 B.C. – the Jews may return to the land and rebuild their Temple

· Isaiah prophesied about this 200 years earlier – Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1-4 – names Cyrus

· Not everyone returned – a slave is a _____captive_____, an ____exile___ is one who chose not to return

· The Story:

II. Rebuilding the Wall of Jerusalem – Nehemiah

· Before going to the King, Nehemiah goes to God – ch. 1

· In Ch. 2, Nehemiah receives permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall

· 2:11-15 – he arrives and inspects the wall at night

· Ch – 3 – assigns portions to specific men and in 4:2,3 their work is ridiculed

· By chapter 6, we see a plot to kill Nehemiah to stop the builders, but in the end, they finish in _____52_______ days

That's it for the blanks...here's the timeline I handed out (sorry the formatting is goofy):

Return from Babylon

Chronology of the Return

605-536 B.C. General period of captivity

605, 597, 586 B.C. Leading Judean citizens deported including Daniel and Ezekiel

538 B.C. Edict of Cyrus permitting the return

536 B.C. Return of 49,897 from Babylon to Jerusalem

536 B.C. Altar rebuilt, sacrifice offered in 7^th month

535 B.C. Temple rebuilding begun, then stopped

535 – 520 B.C. Economic and political struggle

520 B.C. Ministry of Haggai

520 – 515 B.C. Ministry of Zechariah

515 B.C. Temple completed

458 B.C. Return of Ezra

445 B.C. Nehemiah rebuilt the walls

***One more note - the picture timeline at the back of this lesson has the rebuilding of the Temple and the rebuilding of the walls mixed up - Temple first, walls second. Sorry about that!