https://biblehub.com/nkjv/ezra/1.htm

I’ve never tried to track the changing of kings of Babylon, therefore I’m not even sure if the Bible provides scripture to do it. We started with Nebby, this his son Belly took over (he’s the one who saw the writing on the wall), then Darius, and now Cyrus. I don’t know if there were any others or not.

But we now read about King Cyrus of Persia, what we read if very refreshing. Whether or not he worships God, he at least acknowledges God, has respect for Him, and desires to obey Him. What a shame, all the Kings of Israel and Judah who were idolaters, and now we have a king from a foreign land who does a better job of following God than the Israelites did.

And as you read, you’ll see that Israel’s captivity in Babylon has come to an end. Seventy years have passed, and God is building a new Jerusalem and bringing His people home.

Both Ezra and Nehemiah have a big role in this.

And not only is Cyrus organizing the whole thing, he’s helping pay for it. Not only is he freeing the Israelites that are in captivity, he’s returning the treasured belongings that were taken as spoil by Nebby.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Israelites have been captive for 70 years. Many of them were born in Babylon and have no knowledge of Israel or Jerusalem. While they lived longer than we do, they still didn’t live the hundreds of years that Adam, and Noah lived.

I would render guess that perhaps half of the population, or maybe more, have never been to Israel. In a way, God is starting over fresh.

We’ll read about the return in both books of Ezra and Nehemiah.