In 539 B.C., Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated the Babylonians, and a year later he decreed that the Judeans who had been sent into exile were allowed to return home and rebuild the Temple (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-2). Under the leadership of Zerubbabel a small contingent of Judeans made the long journey and reestablished Judea as a very small district in the much larger Persian province called Beyond the River, which included most of the land along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Persian Empire continued to grow until it ruled virtually the entire Near East-–a domain about eight times the size of Texas. This vast empire was the world of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Queen Esther.
