The Exiles Are Permitted to Return
Babylon had fallen in 539 B.C. One year later, the change of empire produced a decisive consequence for the Judean exiles: Cyrus issued a decree permitting them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.
The decree did not force everyone to leave Babylon. Those who wished to return were allowed to go, while the people among whom they had lived were instructed to support them with silver, gold, goods, and animals. Cyrus also ordered that the sacred vessels taken from the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar be returned.
The objects that had once represented Babylon’s victory over Jerusalem were now being released from Babylonian possession.
This moment marked a clear reversal. In 605 B.C., young Judeans such as Daniel had been taken from Jerusalem into captivity. In 586 B.C., Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed. In 539 B.C., the empire responsible for that destruction had fallen. Now, in 538 B.C., the way back was opened.
But restoration did not mean that everything was immediately repaired.
Jerusalem was still devastated. The Temple had to be rebuilt. The returning community would face opposition, internal weakness, delays, and the difficult task of rebuilding its identity after decades of exile. The decree created the possibility of restoration, but the people still had to act upon it.
This is an important distinction. A door can be opened without everyone walking through it.
Many Judeans had been born in Babylon and had never seen Jerusalem. Others had established homes, families, and livelihoods there. Returning meant leaving behind the only world they knew in order to rebuild a ruined city. The decree therefore tested not only their freedom, but also their desire to return.
Daniel himself appears to have remained in the region of Babylon. By this time, he was already an elderly man who had lived in exile for almost seventy years. He had survived the Babylonian Empire and witnessed the rise of the Medo-Persian power foretold in the visions he had interpreted. His own role was no longer to rebuild Jerusalem physically, but to continue receiving and preserving the revelation connected with the future.
The decree of Cyrus therefore stands between two stages of the timeline.
Behind it lies captivity, destruction, and the fall of Babylon. Ahead lies the return, the rebuilding of the Temple, and Daniel’s final vision.
538 B.C. marks the moment when exile ceased to be an irreversible condition. The empire that had carried the people away no longer held them, and the road to Jerusalem was open again.
The restoration had not yet been completed—but it had begun.