But, after much labor and considerable opposition, the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt and, after longer delay, the walls arose from the ruins. B. C. 516 is the date of the second Temple, and B. C. 445 of the rebuilt walls.
THE NUMBER OF THE JEWS AS A RACE.
3. The number of those who returned to Palestine was small compared with the number of theJews as a race at this time. During the reign of David a census of the nation was taken. Of this census there are two accounts, one in 2 Sam. 24:9, the other in 1 Chron. 21:5. The first gives 800,000 as the number in Israel, and 500,000 in Judah, of those “who drew the sword.” In these statements the tribes of both Levi and Benjamin were omitted, the former because they were not subject to military duty, and the latter for the reason stated in the text, 1 Chron. 21:6.
4. This census made the number of men capable of bearing arms 1,300,000. It seems from 1 Chron. 27:1 that there was a standing army of 24,000, renewed every month from Israel, and drawn from an established organization of twelve times that number, which Joab, who took the census, may not have included in the number of the census of Israel, 2 Sam. 24:9, but which has been added by the writer of 1 Chron. 21:5. This increases the number by about 300,000, so that the total would be about 1,600,000 of both Israel and Judah, with the exception of the number lost by a pestilence which immediately followed upon the census. But the tribes of Levi and Benjamin, which were not numbered, as we have shown above, would fully replace the number lost by the pestilence. Hence at the time of David the able-bodied men of the entire nation were about 1,600,000, and this number could not have been materially lessened at the beginning of the captivities.
5. An important fact connected with the captivities was that the members of the ablest families, the wealthiest and most influential, were chiefly included among the captives, and, in the case of Judah, not only the most learned, but the most devoutly attached to the Mosaic law of all the tribes, went into captivity.
6. What became of a large part of the Jewish people just before these times is plain from the references to those who had fled during the various wars of the captivities, or who might have been taken captive or retired to other nations than the Assyrian, 2 Kings 25:4, 22, 26; 2 Chron. 28:17, 18; Jer. 29:4; 41:10. So that we may reasonably suppose that large numbers, especially from the ten tribes of Israel, either remained in Palestine after the captivity, or departed to the east of the Jordan or to Egypt, and perhaps to other countries. A considerable number of the people of Judah who were left after the beginning of the captivity went down as we have said, page 166, into Egypt,taking the prophet Jeremiah with them;[107] but all probably perished there, as foretold by that prophet, Jer. 42:19–22.
CONDITION OF JERUSALEM AT THE RETURN.
7. Jerusalem was in ruins. Its walls were broken down, and its palaces and Temple and all the chief houses and monuments of every description were levelled and burned so far as was possible.Judging from the allusions to the destroyed city which are occasionally found in Jewish writers, and from the accounts of similar destructions by Assyrian and Babylonish kings, it is probable that the city was more utterly ruined and made more uninhabitable than ever before or since.
In the time of Amaziah, king of Judah, B. C. 826, the wall for about 600 feet was broken down by Jehoash, king of Israel, 2 Kings 14:13, but the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar’s “captain of the guard” was far more terrible, since it extended to the entire city, as well as to the walls, and probably to the smallest dwellings.