The successor to Daniel in the service of the king, Zerubbabel, enjoyed
equally as much royal consideration and affection. He occupied a higher
position than all the other servants and officials, and he and two
others constituted the body-guard of the king. (23) Once when the king
lay wrapped in deep slumber, his guards resolved to write down what
each of them considered the mightiest thing in the world, and he who
wrote the sagest saying should be given rich presents and rewards by
the king. What they wrote they laid under the pillow on which the head
of the king rested, that he might not delay to make a decision after he
awoke. The first one wrote: "Wine is the mightiest thing there is"; the
second wrote: "The king is the mightiest on earth," and the third,
Zerubbabel, wrote: "Women are the mightiest in the world, but truth
prevails over all else." When the king awoke, and he perused the
document, he summoned the grandees of his realm and the three youths as
well. Each of the three was called upon to justify his saying. In
eloquent words the first described the potency of wine. When it takes
possession of the senses of a man, he forgets grief and sorrow. Still
more beautiful and convincing were the words of the second speaker,
when his turn came to establish the truth of his saying, that the king
was the mightiest on earth. Finally Zerubbabel depicted in glowing
words the power of woman, who rules even over kings. "But," he
continued, "truth is supreme over all; the whole earth asks for truth,
the heavens sing the praises of truth, all creation quakes and trembles
before truth, naught of wrong can be found in truth. Unto truth
belongeth the might, the dominion, the power, and the glory of all
times. Blessed be the God of truth." When Zerubbabel ceased from
speaking, the assembly broke out into the words: "Great is truth, it is
mightier than all else!" The king was so charmed with the wisdom of
Zerubbabel that he said to him: "Ask for aught thou wishest, it shall
be granted thee." Zerubbabel required nothing for himself, he only
sought permission of the king to restore Jerusalem, rebuild the
sanctuary, and return the holy Temple vessels to the place whence they
had been carried off. Not only did Darius grant what Zerubbabel wished
for, not only did he give him letters of safe-conduct, but he also
conferred numerous privileges upon the Jews who accompanied Zerubbabel
to Palestine, and he sent abundant presents to the Temple and its
officers. (24)
As unto his predecessor Daniel, so unto Zerubbabel, God vouchsafed a
knowledge of the secrets of the future. Especially the archangel
Metatron dealt kindly with him. Besides revealing to him the time at
which the Messiah would appear, he brought about an interview between
the Messiah and Zerubbabel. (25)
In reality, Zerubbabel was none other than Nehemiah, who was given this
second name because he was born in Babylon. (26) Richly endowed as
Zerubbabel-Nehemiah was with admirable qualities, he yet did not lack
faults. He was excessively self-complacent, and he did not hesitate to
fasten a stigma publicly upon his predecessors in the office of
governor in the land of Judah, among whom was so excellent a man as
Daniel. To punish him for these transgressions, the Book of Ezra does
not bear the name of its real author Nehemiah. (27)
When Darius felt his end approach, (28) he appointed his son-in-law
Cyrus, (29) who had hitherto reigned only over Persia, to be the ruler
over his kingdom as well. His wish was honored by the princes of Media
and Persia. After Darius had departed this life, Cyrus was proclaimed
king.
In the very first year of his reign, Cyrus summoned the most
distinguished of the Jews to appear before him, and he gave them
permission to return to Palestine and rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem.
More than this, he pledged himself to contribute to the Temple service
in proportion to his means, and pay honor to the God who had invested
him with strength to subdue the Chaldeans. These actions of Cyrus
partly flowed from his own pious inclinations, and partly were due to
his desire to accomplish the dying behests of Darius, who had
admonished him to give the Jews the opportunity of rebuilding the
Temple.
When the first sacrifice was to be brought by the company of Jews who
returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Ezra, and set about
restoring the Temple, they missed the celestial fire which had dropped
from heaven on the altar in the time of Moses, and had not been
extinguished so long as the Temple stood. They turned in supplication
to God to be instructed by Him. The celestial fire had been hidden by
Jeremiah at the time of the destruction of the Holy City, and the law
did not permit them to bring "strange fire" upon the altar of God. An
old man suddenly remembered the spot in which Jeremiah had buried the
holy fire, and he led the elders thither. They rolled away the stone
covering the spot, and from under it appeared a spring flowing not with
water, but with a sort of oil. Ezra ordered this fluid to be sprinkled
upon the altar, and forthwith an all-consuming flame shot up. The
priests themselves scattered in fright. But after the Temple and its
vessels were purified by the flame, it confined itself to the altar
never more to leave it, for the priest guarded it so that it might not
be extinguished. (30)
Among the band of returned exiles were the prophets Haggai, Zechariah,
and Malachi. Each one of them had a place of the greatest importance to
fill in the rebuilding of the Temple. By the first the people were
shown the plan of the altar, which was larger than the one that had
stood in Solomon's Temple. The second informed them of the exact
location of the altar, and the third taught them that the sacrifices
might be brought on the holy place even before the completion of the
Temple. On the authority of one of the prophets, the Jews, on their
return from Babylonia, gave up their original Hebrew characters, and
re-wrote the Torah in the "Assyrian" characters still in use at this
day. (31)
While the Temple work was in progress, the builders found the skull of
Araunah, the owner of the Temple site in the time of David. The
priests, unlearned as they were, could not decide to what extent the
corpse lying there had defiled the holy place. It was for this that
Haggai poured out his reproaches upon them. (32)