Another outstanding act of Cyrus was his order to pay restitutions to the Jews. It seems that Cyrus, by accepting the title "King of Babel" besides his original title "King of Persia", acknowledged responsibility resulting from successorship6. It was apparently in this capacity that he felt obliged to restitute the Temple vessels robbed by the Babylonians, and ordered them being returned to the Jews as far as they could be recovered7.
Going one step further, he ordered that the expenses for the building material be given by the Persian treasury:
"...and let the expenses be given out of the king's house. And also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezar took forth out of the Temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the Temple which is at Jerusalem, every one to its place, and place them in the house of God"8
No comments:
Post a Comment