Babylonian Captivity & Post-Exilic Return

(1 Chronicles 6:14) Jehozadak was high priest (Haggai 1:1) when Judah and Jerusalem were carried away into exile by Nebuchadnezzar (1 Chronicles 6:15).

(Ezra 7:1)Ezra was the priest who returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity and recorded the events in the book of the Bible named Ezra.

Monumental double gate on the northern wall of inner Babylon constructed by King Nebuchadnezzar II around 575 BC during the era of Daniel and the Judean exile, clad in brilliant cobalt-blue glazed bricks embossed with alternating rows of golden lions, bulls (aurochs), and dragons (mušḫuššu).

Architectural scale model of Neo-Babylonian Babylon around 600 BC from the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, showing the Euphrates River dividing the walled city, the Processional Way, the Ishtar Gate, Nebuchadnezzar's Southern Palace, and the Etemenanki ziggurat precinct.

Ezra (Old Testament, 10 chapters). Key figures: Judah, Jacob/Israel, Benjamin, Zerubbabel, Seraiah, Shephatiah. Key places: Persia, Jerusalem, Babylon, Jeshua, Elam, Netophah. Opens with: "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up th..."

Molded polychrome glazed brick relief panel of a striding roaring lion from the facade of King Nebuchadnezzar II's Throne Room and Processional Way in Babylon—symbolizing royal Babylonian power as echoed in Jeremiah 50:17 and Daniel 7:4.

Ancient barrel-shaped baked clay cylinder inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform on behalf of King Cyrus the Great after his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, recording his policy of restoring exiled peoples and sacred temple vessels to their homelands—paralleling the decree in Ezra 1:1–4 and 2 Chronicles 36:22–23.

Zechariah (Old Testament, 14 chapters). Key figures: Zechariah, Berechiah, Iddo, Judah, Jacob/Israel, Joshua. Key places: Jerusalem, Zion, Babylon, Shinar, Hadrach, Damascus. Opens with: "In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the proph..."