Exiles return to Jerusalem

When the exiled community of Jews was given the opportunity to return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity, only a few attempted the journey. The trip would have taken weeks of walking, or riding pack animals. While we don’t know every location where the exiles of Judah were in the Babylonian and Persian empires, it’s easy to follow most of their routes home. They had to have water, and only the Euphrates River cut through the barren lands of modern-day Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Some estimate the total journey was about 900 miles (1,450 km). Logic and Jewish tradition say Ezra and Nehemiah (key leaders in the exiles’ return) were both born in Babylon. Assuming this is true, then both men grew up with a passion for a city and a land they had never seen. They had been told the great stories of Scripture and of Solomon’s Temple by their parents, grandparents, and other older adults who had survived the destruction of Jerusalem.