Seder Olam: C27c- Cyrus
- Albert Benhamou
- Mar 17
- 28 min read
Updated: Mar 20
BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
Generation 27: Hebrew years 3120 to 3240 (640-520 BCE)
Year 3220 – 540 BCE – Cyrus king of Persia conquers Babylon
About 20 years after the end of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and 64 years after Daniel interpreted the dream of the colossus which had puzzled the great king, the Babylonian Empire came to an end at the hand of the Medes people who had founded the Persian Empire. The ruler who waged war against Babylon was Cyrus the Great, who took the city and the empire in the year 540 BCE. Cyrus’s name in Old Persian is kûr-uš, which means “Sun-like”.
Unlike many rulers of the time, Cyrus was very close to monotheism because he followed the religion that was established by Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra). This religion is generally considered to have started in the late second millennium BCE so its beginning was contemporary to King Solomon. This old religion was built upon duality, with one God and one Evil. The theme of evil is widely used in the Israelite literature but not as an evil "god", but more as a lack of good, or as the bad sides to which man can be attracted.
The Zoroaster religion has borrowed other concepts from the Bible, for example in the theme of the Creation:
Thus, therefore do we worship Ahura Mazda, who made the Kine, and the Righteousness, and the waters, and the wholesome plants, the stars, and the earth, and all (existing) objects that are good. (Yasna 37:1) (to read the text online, click here)
The Kine is the Living Creation, which is opposite to the Void and Chaos, the Tohu and Bohu of Genesis 1:2.
It is possible that, in the time of Solomon, who was known in the antique world for his wisdom and was the source for the Book of the Proverbs and for the poem the Song of Songs. According to Jewish tradition, these books were later compiled at the time of King Hezekiah. So, men of importance would come to visit Solomon and benefit from his wise teaching as depicted by the case of the Queen of Sheba who came from Africa or the Arabic Peninsula. They would go back to their abode and, maybe like Zoroaster, would create a new school of thought. Then some details being added to other local legends, a new religion would be established.
Year 3221 – 539 BCE – The Cylinder of Cyrus
Isaiah the Prophet had predicted the rise of Cyrus, under God’s will:
That says of Cyrus: 'He is My shepherd and shall perform all My pleasure'; even saying of Jerusalem: 'She shall be built'; and to the temple: 'My foundation shall be laid’.' (Isaiah 44:28)
The Book of Ezra also opens with the following mention:
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying. (Ezra 1:1)
This proclamation does exist in historical records. It was found written on a clay cylinder discovered in the ruins of Babylon in 1878 and is now at the British Museum. The text is a praise of Cyrus for his conquest of the Chaldean empire and of the great city of Babylon. In this text, Cyrus proclaimed himself king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world. Since then, Cyrus was represented as a four-winged ruler, which was an expression borrowed from the defeated Babylon ruler (the text of the Nabonidus cylinder bears some similarities).
But, more importantly, the cylinder also details how the conqueror restored peace and justice in the empire, and abolished forced labor. In other words, Cyrus was presented more as a liberator of people than a conqueror of kingdoms. The cylinder is also considered as the first declaration of human rights, some 2000 years before the French Revolution. In 1971, its text has been translated into all the official languages of the United Nations.
So, for the Israelite captives as well, this change of ruler meant freedom because the cylinder mentions Cyrus’ decree of allowing the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple. This text is corroborated by the Biblical text in the Book of Ezra:
'Thus, says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth have the Lord, the God of heaven, given me; and He has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all His people -- his God be with him -- let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourns, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.' (Ezra 1:2-4)
The question may be asked: why were they allowed to rebuild their temple? The reason is that Cyrus, unlike the Assyrians and the Chaldeans before him, wanted to allow every nation to follow their own religion, so that they would be happy to live under his empire, as long as they paid annual duty. For the pagan people who were liberated, the return to their religion was easy enough: they could use again the statues of their deities (Bel, Baal, etc.) and exercise their cult. But what to allow the Jews to do? They had no statue of any (pagan) god. The only way for them to return to their religion in the empire was to allow them to rebuild their temple in Sion, and to restore the priesthood and its divine service with sacrifices.
Year 3223 – 537 BCE – Return to Sion
Cyrus authorized the exiled Israelites to return to their ancestors’ land, to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem and he gave to them all the sacred vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from there. But only 42,360 people returned to Sion (Ezra 2:64) (Sion is another name for Jerusalem in the Bible). They were led by a few leaders of the exiled community of Babylon, of which Zerubbabel, the grand grandson of King Jehoiakim of Judah, as well as many Levites.
This return to Sion was not exclusively composed of former Judeans (meaning people from the ancient tribes of Judah and Benjamin) because about a quarter of those who returned came from other Israelites tribes, exiled to Judea since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Assyria, and who had found refuge and resettlement in Jerusalem. In addition, some people of these tribes who were exiled in Assyria later happened to dwell in Babylon before the arrival of the exiled Judeans. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, and the change of regional power to the city of Babylon, several people moved to Babylon from the places in Assyria where they had dwelled.
A certain Mordechai, who will be discussed at the time of Queen Esther, joined the people who returned to Sion at that time. Once they arrived in the ruins of Jerusalem, they restored the divine service at the place of the destroyed Temple. A year later, they laid the foundations of the Temple for its reconstruction (Ezra 3:8).
But they soon faced the opposition of the local Samaritans who were established in their land since the time of the Assyrian conquest and had adopted some of the practices of the Israelites, but with pagan customs. They continuously complained to all Persian rulers, from the time of Cyrus until the reign of Darius, about the Jews' reconstructions of the city and its Temple (the word Jew became the name for Judean at the time of the Persian Empire. See next paragraph):
Be it known unto the king, that the Jews that came up from you are come to us unto Jerusalem; they are building the rebellious and the bad city, and have finished the walls, and are digging out the foundations. Be it known now unto the king, that, if this city is built, and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, impost, or toll, and so thou wilt endamage the revenue of the kings. […] We announce to the king that, if this city is built, and the walls finished, by this means you shall have no portion beyond the River. (Ezra 4:12-16)
The Jews return to the ruins of Jerusalem (Gustave Doré, 1868)
The works ultimately came to a halt at the time of Cambyses, king of Persia, and would not resume until the second year of the reign of Darius. By disappointment, several Jews who had come to Sion returned to Persia: they thought God was not supportive of their reconstruction because of all the difficulties that arose. Among those who returned to Persia was Mordechai. The Israelites who remained in Judea lived in despair and were waiting for better days.
Year 3224 – 536 BCE – The Yehud province
At its peak, this vast empire of Persia was divided into 12 satrapies. The list of satrapies has been detailed by Herodotus in his Histories (Book 3, Chapters 90-94; to read it online, click here).
Each satrapy was fragmented into provinces or 'nations'. The provinces were ruled by governors who had to collect taxes and pay tribute to the satraps above them. For example, Egypt, which was the 6th satrapy, was divided into two provinces only but had to pay tribute of 700 talents in the time of Darius. Whereas the 5th satrapy, which was much more fragmented into many nations, was called "beyond the river" and included the Levant and Cyprus, was due to pay tribute of 350 talents.
One of the provinces of the 5th satrapy was “Yehud” or "Yahud", a name which was given by Persia to the new province of their empire where the Jews were allowed to resettle.
Yehud was neighbored by Idumea in the south (the old Judean city of Lachish became part of it), Samaria in the north, the Ashdod province in the west, as well as the Sharon province given to the Sidonians (Phoenicians) to build harbors in defense against the Greeks and, on the east, the provinces of Ammon and Moab. The province of Yehud was thus very shrunk compared to what used to be the kingdom of Judea.
It is interesting to note that Idumea was formed for the Edomites, a people who used to leave on the other side of the Dead Sea, south from Moab. The reason for this new situation is that, when the Jews left their land after the assassination of Gedaliah at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the Edomites moved west and north and established themselves in the land vacated by the Jews. And, reciprocally, a new nation of Arab nomads established themselves in what used to be Edom and became known as the Nabataeans. Their name is derived from their ancestor Nebaioth, son of Ishmael (see document C19). Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth, was given as wife to Esau/Edom (Genesis 28:8-9).
So during the Persian empire, there were three locations where Jews had settled: Babylon (over time many of them moved to major Persian cities such as Susa), Egypt (such as in Elephantine island and in the Delta region), and the new province of Yehud.
Yehud was treated with some exceptions by the Persian rulers. For example, Yehud was allowed to mint their own coins and not use the coins newly created for use in the empire at the time of Darius, near 520 BCE, because of their pagan figures on them. This was against their faith. Such Jewish drachm-type coin had been found in a hill near Hebron. It displays a lion (symbol of Judea) slaying a cow and three letters in Aramaic (yod-heh-dalet י-ה-ד) forming the word “Yehud”. Apparently, the Persians adopted the concept of coinage after discovering them during their conquest of the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor. This kingdom is credited by Herodotus to have been the first nation to introduce coinage.
To read more about the Yehud coinage, click here.
About Year 3225 – 535 BCE – Pythagoras of Samos
The Greek philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras, from the island of Samos, travelled to Egypt in his youth to acquire knowledge. He went across the Levant region where he became acquainted with Jews and learned about their faith and customs:
Now it is plain that he [Pythagoras] not only knew our doctrines but was in very great measure a follower and admirer of them. There is not indeed extant any writing that is owned for his but many there are who have written his history, of whom Hermippus is the most celebrated, who was a person very inquisitive into all sorts of history. Now this Hermippus, in his first book concerning Pythagoras, speaks thus: "That Pythagoras, upon the death of one of his associates, whose name was Calliphon, a Crotonlate by birth, affirmed that this man's soul conversed with him both night and day, and enjoined him not to pass over a place where an ass had fallen down; as also not to drink of such waters as caused thirst again; and to abstain from all sorts of reproaches." After which he adds thus: "This he did and said in imitation of the doctrines of the Jews and Thracians, which he transferred into his own philosophy." For it is very truly affirmed of this Pythagoras, that he took a great many of the laws of the Jews into his own philosophy. (Josephus, Against Apion, 1,22)
After his voyage in the region, Pythagoras went on to Croton, in Southern Italy, where he established a secret school of teaching mathematics and also a sect bound by a vow to follow religious rites and practices that he had learned. The influence of Pythagoras on many of the philosophic schools in Greece, of which Socrates and Plato, and subsequently on Aristotle, is well known, but the origin of his knowledge is not.
Year 3230 – 530 BCE – Death of Cyrus
Cyrus had divided his huge empire into four parts, each of them with a capital governed by a general satrap, equivalent to a regional king. Babylon and Suse were two of them. In Suse, the satrap was Hystaspes who controlled Persia and other parts of the empire. One night, during a military campaign, Cyrus had a dream that he immediately understood it to be a message from God. He called Hystaspes and told him:
“The gods, whose favor I enjoy, disclose to me all those events which menace my security. In the night just passed I beheld your eldest son having wings on his shoulders, one of which overshadowed Asia, the other Europe; from which I draw certain conclusions that he is engaged in acts of treachery against me.” (Herodotus, The History, book I, Clio, section 209)
Hystaspes was sent back to Persia to check the matter which, in fact, was not a conspiracy led by his eldest son Darius, who was less than 20 years old at the time. But the dream foretold that Cyrus was going to die soon and that Darius would eventually reign over the empire. And Cyrus died soon after, in 530 BCE and was buried in his palace of Pasargadae, one of his capitals.
Nobody actually knows how Cyrus died. Herodotus assumed it happened during that fateful campaign but admitted that there were other opinions. Although Herodotus wrote his History less than 100 years after these events, the facts were not firmly established, which demonstrates somehow the hard task of historians to gather witness accounts even a relatively short period after events.
Year 3235 – 525 BCE – The end of the Egyptian dynasties
Cyrus was succeeded by his son Cambyses II. In the 5th year of his reign, this new ruler led a campaign against Egypt to extend the vast empire that his father had left him. He succeeded in defeating the Pharaoh Psamtik in the battle of Pelusium (modern-day Port-Said) in 525 BCE and then captured the capital Memphis. This campaign effectively put an end to the 26th Dynasty of Egypt, which was the last dynasty composed of native rulers. From that conquest, all subsequent pharaohs of Egypt came from foreign extract, first Persian then Hellenistic.
When the Persians conquered Egypt, they destroyed many temples of the Egyptian cult. But they also found a community of Jews far south in the island of Elephantine who had established themselves there after Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. This community had their own temple which the Persians did not destroy. We know this from a petition that the Jews of Elephantine wrote to a later Persian ruler in 407 BCE to protest against their Egyptian neighbors who damaged it and to ask permission to carry out its reconstruction:
Now our forefathers built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine back in the days of the kingdom of Egypt, and when Cambyses came to Egypt he found it built. They [the Persians] knocked down all the temples of the gods of Egypt, but no one did any damage to this temple. (Petition to Bagoas, Persian governor of Judea, from Elephantine Papyri, dated 407 BCE, cited in Wikipedia)
Cambyses declared himself Pharaoh of a new dynasty, which is known to historians as the 27th Dynasty. The conquest on the eastern borders of the Persian Empire, until the Hindus, was done by his father Cyrus and predecessors. But the conquest on the western side, until the border of Ethiopia, was done by Cambyses.
But Cambyses did not have any sons, so the next ruler of Persia became the husband of his elder sister, called Atossa, who was married to Darius son of Hystaspes. The Achaemenian family tree is as follows:
The Bible concurs when it mentions:
And Darius the Mede received the kingdom -- already about threescore and two years. (Daniel 6:1)
It is a fact that Darius received the kingdom. This avoided a problem of succession. Under Persian law, when an Achaemenian king would engage into a military campaign, he used to name an heir before leaving. Darius was the one chosen before Cambyses’ campaign to Egypt. But then Cambyses was victorious and even created a new dynasty of Egypt, so the next Achaemenid ruler would de facto become Pharaoh as well.
The next part of the above sentence, already about threescore and two years, has been wrongly translated from Hebrew to Greek and to other languages, so it misled most of Biblical scholars. The translations usually give about threescore and two years “old”, referring to Darius’ age, but the Hebrew text does not specifically mention that it is about his age at the time he came to power. And indeed, assuming such an old age of 62 years old at the start of his reign would make it nearly impossible to reconcile with the fact that he reigned for 36 years, as this would have made him over 100 years old when he died.
History records that Darius reigned from 522 BCE and that he was about 25 years old at the time he came to power. It is accepted that he died in 485 BCE which is a sure date because this is when his son Xerxes became king. If we assume that Darius reigned from the age of 25 years old until the year 485 BCE, this means that he died at the age of 62 years old, as indicated in the Bible text. So, the mention already about threescore and two years could be read as Darius received the kingdom “until” about the age of 62 years old.
But there is another explanation which is more appropriate. Before Darius would become king over the entire Persian Empire, he was already given the throne of Babylon at the time of Cambyses’ new dynasty. The Biblical text indeed mentions Darius as ruler of Babylon:
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. (Daniel 6:9)
The text mentions Darius as being made king and adds over the realm of the Chaldeans (the Babylonians) because it applies at the time when he became king of Babylon, during Cambyses’ reign, before “receiving” the rule over the entire Persian empire. So, the mention of already about threescore and two years would refer to another event: in the Bible, the start of a reign is sometimes given in relation to another event that preceded it, such as the reign of monarch from another kingdom. In the case of the Persian Empire, there is no other monarch to mention as all the kingdoms were absorbed into one single empire. But the one event that is recorded in History and in the Bible is the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. This was precisely 62 years before Cambyses conquered Egypt and just made Darius king of Babylon before his campaign and de facto heir of Persia. So, the Biblical text from Daniel refers to the time, 62 years after the fall of Jerusalem, when Darius received the kingdom of the Chaldeans. This was the time when Darius started to rule as a king.
In the same sentence, the Biblical text refers to Darius as son of Ahasuerus, while Darius was the son of Hystaspes. As we will see in the story of Esther, the name Ahasuerus is used as a title, similarly to Pharaoh, to mean head of a satrapy. Indeed, the word Ahasuerus is formed of the same word as satrap in the Aramaic text of the Book of Daniel. It is derived from the same Persian word for Achaemenid, so the Aramaic prefix Aha- would be the Persian Achae- or Axa-. The name Ahasuerus is written אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ in Daniel 9:1 whereas the word satrap, or rather the function “satrapy”, is written אֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנַיָּא in Daniel 6:2, and elsewhere (in Old Persian, the term is khshathrapavan). It can be understood that the name Ahasuerus אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ is formed of the two parts אֲחַשְׁ and וֵרוֹשׁ, and therefore simply means “satrap and head”.
In Babylon, Darius came to know Daniel the Prophet who was still alive and lived in the city.
Year 3238 – 522 BCE – Succession crisis in Persia
When Cambyses died, of undetermined circumstances, the empire of Persia went through some political turmoil because a usurper, who claimed to have rights over the throne as being the brother of Cambyses, seized power. He was killed a few months later by a conspiracy led by a group of 7 dignitaries of the empire, one of them being Darius who had previously been chosen heir of the empire by Cambyses.
Year 3238 – 522 BCE – Daniel recalls Jeremiah’s prophecy
With the political changes that brought Darius to power over Persia, after having ruled over Babylon, Daniel reflected upon the prophecy of Jeremiah that he read from the manuscripts that were taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the Temple of Jerusalem to Babylon. The presence of such ancient Hebrew documents is confirmed by the Greek historian Berossus who lived at the time of Alexander the Great:
And he [Berossus] mentions [in the first book of his history of Babylonia] that there were written accounts, preserved at Babylon with the greatest care, comprehending a period of above fifteen myriads of years, and that these writings contained histories of the heaven and of the sea, of the birth of mankind, and of the kings, and of the memorable actions which they had achieved. (Isaac Preston Cory, Ancient Fragments, London, 1832, chapter Berossus)
There is little doubt that the written accounts mentioned by Berossus referred to the books of Torah written by Moses himself of which the book of Genesis that gives account of the Creation.
The Chaldeans borrowed some of the concepts of the Creation from the Biblical narrative and built their own stories more suited to their own pantheon and legends. But some fragments of the tale of the Creation have remained intact:
This Belus [the main god of Babylon], by whom they signify Jupiter, divided the darkness and separated the heavens and the earth, and reduced the universe to order. (ibid.)
The tale of the Flood is also strikingly similar to the Biblical account in the book of Genesis, with the ark, the animals to preserve, the birds sent to check the levels of the water after the rain had stopped, and the fact that the bird did not return to the ark the third time it was sent. Berossus also indicated that the landing place of the ark was on the side of a mountain in the land of Armenia. Berossus also told the story of the Tower of Babel, as found in the book of Genesis, but this time with a direct reference to the Hebrew sources in the following extract:
And the gods introduced a diversity of tongues among men, who till that time had all spoken the same language; […]. The place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon, on account of the confusion of the tongues; for confusion is by the Hebrews called Babel. (ibid.)
The prophecy that Daniel referred to was recorded in the Hebrew writings kept in Babylon:
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign, I Daniel meditated in the books, over the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish for the desolations of Jerusalem seventy years. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. (Daniel 9:1-2)
What Daniel read from Jeremiah's prophecy was that God will remember the Israelites after 70 years of Babylonian exile:
For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will remember you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. (Jeremiah 29:10)
When Darius was made king over Babylon, this period of Babylonian exile had already come to an end because the captivity of Babylon is counted from the time when King Jehoiachin and the High Priest were taken captive. Jerusalem was then desolated, first spiritually before falling (materialistically) a few years later. This explains the meditation, and calculation, made by Daniel who realized the time had passed and, yet, the "exile of Babylon" was still endured, although at the time Cyrus has already cancelled all the decrees that had given the Israelites of the Babylonian realm the status of captives. But the facts were that the Land of Israel was devastated, that most of the Israelites remained in exile instead of returning to Sion, and even started the process of assimilation in the new ruling power, of Persia, which had shown much more tolerance for them and freed them from their captivity. So, Jeremiah’s prophecy mentioning the 70 years was not accomplished yet, except that the Israelites were not captive but remained exiled. The time for the end of their exile was still uncertain.What was causing this delay of redemption? The Israelites were spread over the Chaldean and Persian empires, in which they assimilated and embraced the new status of citizen of the most powerful empire of all times. For them the captivity was finished but for Daniel the exile was not. The problem was that, after 70 years, there was already a lack of faith to eventually decide to return to Sion, even though Cyrus’ decree authorized it. The region of Judea still had the stigma of the ravage caused by preceding wars and was known to be utterly desolated. To push more Israelites out of exile, spiritually and physically, and make them rebuild the destroyed city and Temple, God needed to inspire faith into His people. This came with a succession of ordeals, designed to put the Israelites in danger and to awaken their dormant spirituality. The same had already occurred for their ancestors in Egypt: they went down on self-exile due to a famine in their land, but then they received honors and property and decided to remain; they ended up in assimilation and were about to forget all their roots until God caused a new king to rule over Egypt who decided to enslave the Hebrews. They then missed the opportunity to return to Sion by their own choice during the reign of monotheist Akhenaten, and the same scenario repeated itself with the semi-monotheist Cyrus who freed them from captivity, authorized them to rebuild their Temple and gave them back the sacred vessels for their divine service, and yet, they preferred to remain in the Persian Empire. Assimilation was threatening their existence once more...
Other considerations of these 70 years calculation are:
the prophecy of Jeremiah only mentioned that God will "cause" the return to Sion, so the 70 years do not apply to the return itself but rather to event(s) that would lead to their return,
if we consider that Jeremiah actually was taken to Egypt, and not Babylon, the 70 years may also apply to the exiles in Egypt and the event that would cause their return to Sion would be the collapse of the Egyptian monarchy after Cambyses’ campaign,
the 70 years apply to the total exile from Judea; and this only happened in the year of the destruction of the Temple, so 586 BCE; at that time, Gedaliah was assassinated, and Judea was depopulated of its Jewish people; 70 years later, in 516 BCE, the Second Temple will be dedicated.
Daniel was more affected, personally, by this situation because he would soon need to move out of Babylon, not to return to Sion but to get himself even further away, to the city of Susa. The exile seemed more and more deepening, and this explains why Daniel felt the urge to seek [the Lord God] by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
Year 3238 – 522 BCE – Daniel in the lions’ den
Darius set 120 satraps over his empire (Daniel 6:2), which meant that he governed over 120 provinces. And he named 3 general satraps to supervise them, headquartered in Persepolis, Susa and Babylon. One of them was Daniel. This nomination was quite extraordinary because Daniel was not from the high dignitaries of the Persian aristocracy. The special relationship that bonded the old and wise Daniel and the young Darius when he ruled in Babylon was the only reason for such an unusual choice. Daniel then moved from Babylon to Susa, where his new function was calling him. He however felt it as a second exile because he had been taken from Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar to serve as an advisor in his palace, and now history repeated again, only this time to move to Susa and serve in Darius’ palace.This foreign newcomer caused jealousy among the other Persian officials who were firmly established in Susa, and they conspired to bring him down. They convinced Darius to sign a decree that would condemn to the den of lions any person who would not show enough respect to the king.
Cunningly, they then came to Daniel and found him praying towards Jerusalem, a practice that had been adopted by Jews since the exile of Babylon:
And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house -- now his windows were open in his upper chamber toward Jerusalem -- and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. (Daniel 6:11)
Reluctantly, Darius was obliged to bind by his own decree:
Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spoke and said unto Daniel: 'Your God whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.' And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.
Then the king went to his palace and passed the night fasting; neither were diversions brought before him; and his sleep fled from him.
Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste unto the den of lions. And when he came near unto the den to Daniel, he cried with a pained voice; the king spoke and said to Daniel: 'O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whom you serve continually, able to deliver you from the lions?’
Then said Daniel unto the king: 'O king, live forever! My God has sent His angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me; forasmuch as before Him innocence was found in me; and also, before you, O king, have I done no hurt.' (Daniel 6:17-23)
The fasting of the king was surely borrowed from the common practice he had seen Daniel doing in Babylon in times of fear and prayers to God.
Darius ordered to take Daniel out of the lions’ den and to throw the conspirers in it. He then decreed:
Then Darius wrote unto all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: ‘I make a decree, that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for He is the living God, and steadfast forever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end; He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and in earth; who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.' (Daniel 6:26-29)
Year 3238 – 522 BCE – Darius introduces an alphabet
The mention of the above Biblical text that Darius wrote unto all… languages is not an insignificant detail. It is historically known that it was Darius who introduced an alphabet in Persia: it was later called the Aryan script and was used by Darius for royal inscriptions such as the famous Behistun. The use of alphabet was already known to Jews for hundreds of years, so it was before his death that Daniel instructed Darius about the concept, as Solomon did before with his ally Hiram king of the Phoenicians (see document C23). The Behistun inscription is as important to the knowledge of the Old Persian language as the Rosetta stone has been to decipher the hieroglyphs.
Year 3239 – 521 BCE – Death of Daniel
There is no mention in the Bible about the death of Daniel. But we can assume that it was around Hebrew year 3239 (521 BCE) because Darius started to communicate with another Israelite prophet, Haggai, as a spokesperson for the Israelite people. Surely if Daniel was still alive, Darius would have conferred with him about several matters that concerned the Jewish nation.
Towards the end of his life, after having served the greatest kings of these times, from Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean to Darius the Mede, Daniel had a last vision about the end of the world. But he could not understand it because God did not reveal to him its significance:
And I heard, but I understood not; then said I: “O my Lord, what shall be the latter end of these things?” And he said: “Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end.” (Daniel 12:8-9)
With the words Go your way, Daniel, the Prophet knew at this point that the term of his life was near. He was still living in Susa so knew he would die in Susa, the place where one of his earliest visions had taken him long ago, even before Persia came to overpower the known world:
In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. And I saw in the vision; now it was so, that when I saw, I was in Shushan [Susa] the castle, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the stream Ulai. (Daniel 8:1-2)
He must have been 100 years old when he died, because he was taken to Babylon when he was a young person, probably no older than 20 years old, and had been educated and raised in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar. This was in Hebrew year 3155, and Daniel must have died in Hebrew year 3239, so 84 years later. If he had come to Babylon at the age of 16, he would have died at the age of 100.
But, according to Seder Olam, following an opinion from the Talmudists, Daniel was still alive in the time of Queen Esther, which took place some 45 years later than now, and making Daniel someone who lived over 140 years of age.
Daniel was buried near the stream and castle of his vision and his tomb still stands there:
Year 3239 – 521 BCE – God orders the reconstruction of the Temple
In the second year of Darius’s reign, God addressed Himself to the Israelites through Haggai the Prophet to appeal to them to rebuild the Temple:
Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying: “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your sealed houses, while this house lays waste? Now therefore thus”, says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways. You have sown much, and brought in little, you eat, but you have not enough, you drink, but you are not filled with drink, you clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earns wages earns wages for a bag with holes.
“Thus” says the Lord of hosts, “consider your ways. Go up to the hill-country, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says the Lord. “You looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that lays waste, while you run every man for his own house. Therefore, over you the heaven has kept back, so that there is no dew, and the earth has kept back her produce. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.” (Haggai 1:3-11)
Through the mouth of Haggai, God chose Zerubbabel as leader of the Jewish people at this time:
“In that day,” says the Lord of hosts, “will I take you, O Zerubbabel, My servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and will make you as a signet; for I have chosen you,” says the Lord of hosts. (Haggai 2:23)
God addressed Himself to Zechariah the Prophet as well:
“The Lord has been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore, say you unto them, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return unto Me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return unto you, says the Lord of hosts. Be you not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return you now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings; but they did not hear, nor attend unto Me, says the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? so that they turned and said: Like as the Lord of hosts purposed to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so has He dealt with us.” (Zechariah 1:2-6)
And in:
The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. The saying of the Lord, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him: Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of staggering unto all the peoples round about, and upon Judah also shall it fall to be in the siege against Jerusalem.
And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden for all the peoples; all that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded; and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it. In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with bewilderment, and his rider with madness; and I will open Mine eyes upon the house of Judah and will smite every horse of the peoples with blindness. And the chiefs of Judah shall say in their heart: 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength through the Lord of hosts their God.' In that day will I make the chiefs of Judah like a pan of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire among sheaves; and they shall devour all the peoples round about, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magnified above Judah. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that stumbled among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as a godlike being, as the angel of the Lord before them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me because they have thrust him through; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourned for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. (Zechariah 12)
The work of reconstruction of the Temple resumed in the 2nd year of the reign of Darius, when he had the authority as king of the Persian empire (Ezra 4:24), and not just when he was a young king in Babylon over the sole realm of the Chaldeans.
The Israelites started the work under the guidance of their prophets. When Persian officials asked them who gave them authorization to resume the work, they replied:
“We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and build the house that was built these many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.” (Ezra 5:11)
They also mentioned that Cyrus the Great had authorized such work as he had returned the vessels of the Temple to restore its divine service. The officials referred the case to Darius. The old decree of Cyrus, mentioned by the Israelites, was found in a scroll (Ezra 6:2), which was surely a copy from the so-called Cyrus cylinder.
So, Darius gave his full approval for the works to resume and even granted support:
And that which they [the Jews] have need of, both young bullocks, and rams, and lambs, for burnt-offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests that are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail; that they may offer sacrifices of sweet savor unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons.
Also I have made a decree, that whosoever shall alter this word, let a beam be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this; and may the God that has caused His name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples, that shall put forth their hand to alter the same, to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with all diligence. (Ezra 6:9-12)
To return to the beginning of this generation 27, click here.
To return to the list of chronological generations from Seder Olam Revisited, click here.
Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Adar 5785 - March 2025