Day 37a ~ Cliff Notes Revisited

As I was sitting eating my breakfast this morning and getting a start on my reading for today, I was using the NKJV Bible with the study helps that I normally use, but did not use yesterday, nor for Ezra or Nehemiah. I reviewed the study helps and have the following to add to my comments about the empires that oppressed Judah and Israel.

• King Josiah of Judah fought against King Necho of Egypt back in II Chronicles 35. Apparently King Necho was on his way north not to fight Judah, but to help the Assyrians in an attack against the Babylonians. The delay of Necho to battle King Josiah resulted in the the fall of the Assyrian city of Haran in 609BC.
• Ezra wasn't in the first round of Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. There were three major waves of Jews who returned to Jerusalem after King Cyrus gave the green light. Cyrus, if you remember, was one of the first kings of Persia after they defeated the Babylonians bringing that empire to an end. The study helps say that Ezra returned in the second wave, about 458BC, and that Nehemiah was in the third wave, about 444BC. I don't have my handy Old Testament Chronology CD to check that against.
• Apparently the Cyrus of Ezra was not the first Cyrus in the Persian empire. The Chart that I referred to only starts with the line of empire where they overtook the previous empire who ruled over the Jews.
• The study helps in this Bible place the chronology of Esther before Ezra and Nehemiah. It attributes Xerxes I as king Ahasuerus in Esther 1:1, with his reign from 486BC to 465BC.
• The study helps in this Bible place both Ezra and Nehemiah under the rule of Artaxerxes I Longimanus (464-424BC). So Ezra wouldn't have been an old man when Nehemiah came, because I was assuming that Ezra was in the first wave of Jews who started the temple reconstruction before it was halted, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

No, I didn't read any new material yet!