The words of Haggai, uttered in September of 520, met with an immediate response.  Work was begun on the temple in October of the same year.  When the energy and enthusiasm of the builders began to wane, the prophet appeared before them again in November of 520 with the declaration that Jehovah was about to overthrow the great world powers and to destroy the chariots, horses, and riders of their Persian masters, “each by the sword of his brother.”  He also voiced the popular expectations that centred in Zerubbabel, who had already been appointed governor of Judah.  The prophet declared boldly that this scion of the house of David would be Jehovah’s seal-ring, the earthly representative of that divine power which was about to work great revolutions in the history of the world.  During the same period Zechariah also uttered his messages of encouragement and spurred the people on to continued efforts (Section XCV).

V. The Attempt to Stop the Rebuilding of the Temple.  The Aramaic document preserved in Ezra 5 and 6 describes in detail an attempt of the Persian governor, who ruled over the province west of the Euphrates, to put a stop to the temple building.  The narrative, the letter, and decrees which it contains reveal at many points their Jewish origin.  While the tradition may be comparatively late, its circumstantial character favors the conclusion that it preserves the memory of a definite historical event.  The action of the Jews in rebuilding their temple was in perfect accord with the policy of Cyrus and also of Darius, as is shown by contemporary inscriptions.  The attempt, therefore, to stop the building of the temple failed; and in 516 B.C., four years after the work was begun, it was completed.

VI.  The Significance of the Restoration of the Temple.  The rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple appears to have been of immediate significance chiefly to the Jews of Palestine.  The Jews of Egypt, or at least those of Elephantine, had their own temple.  From Zechariah 6:9-11 it is evident that the Jewish exiles in Babylon sent certain gifts to the Jerusalem temple; but the hundreds of miles of desert that intervened made communication exceedingly difficult, so that except at rare intervals there was apparently little interchange between Babylonia and Palestine.  For all Jews, however, the rebuilding of the temple meant that at last they had a common rallying-place, and that Jehovah was again being worshipped by his own people at his traditional place of abode.  In a sense it bridged the seventy years that had intervened since the destruction of the pre-exilic Hebrew state, and made it possible to revive the ancient religious customs.  In time it attracted from the lands of the dispersion patriotic Jews whose interest was fixed upon the ceremonial side of their religious life.  It also furnished a centre about which gradually grew up a hierarchy with an increasingly elaborate ritual, and a body of laws which ultimately became the characteristic features of Judaism.