ey include passages by Ezra, Nehemiah, and Isaiah. The most famous one is by Ezra in his Chapter 1 of the Hebrew Bible. Here, Ezra praises Cyrus as God's anointed king, and urges people to go back to Judea and rebuild the temple.
             "...Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, The God of heaven, has given me all he kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah...his people are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel..."
             Why was Cyrus so generous to the Jews, who did not believe in the Persian Zoroastrian dualistic religion? Some argue that the Jews assisted Cyrus during his siege of Babylon, and Cyrus sought to compensate them (ibid, Pg. 54). Another argument is that Judea's location, next to the Mediterranean, was essential to Cyrus kindness to the Jews. Cyrus loved to fight, conquer, and increase the size of the Persian Empire (ibid, Pg. 54). Having a friendly Judea, a western front against the Greeks, would be in his best interest. As a result, he respected the Jews who stayed in Persia. Thus, this shows that the Jews during Cyrus the Great's era really did not prosper due to their beliefs, but because their Jewish relatives in Judea were a huge asset to the king.
             After his death, his son, Cambyses I, came to power (Olmstead, Pg. 51). Cambyses was not an astute political thinker and had mental problems (ibid, Pg. 51). Cambyses was influenced by rumors of overthrow from Jerusalem and halted the construction of the temple (Levy, Pg. 54). The rumors portrayed Jews as ignorant and selfish people, who did not care about the Persian Empire. Cambyses conquered Egypt, Sudan, and Tunis but rumor says he committed suicide (ibid, Pg. 54).
             Darius I, the next king, was Cyrus' son-in-law and military leader (Olmstead, Pg. 93). He established a stable government, fair legislation, and thirty different state-like regions (Levy, P...