[Sidenote:  Isa. 44:3c-5]
I will pour out my spirit upon thy children,
And my blessing upon thy descendants,
So that they shall spring up as grass in the midst of waters,
As willows by water-courses. 
One shall say, “I am Jehovah’s,”
And another shall call himself, “Jacob,”
And another will inscribe on his hand, “Jehovah’s,”
And receive the surname, “Israel."’

I. The Seventy Years Following the Rebuilding of the Temple.  Regarding the seventy years which intervened between the rebuilding of the temple in 516 B.C. and the appearance of Nehemiah in 445 the biblical historians are silent.  This silence is probably because there were no important political events in the life of the Judean community to be recorded.  During the latter part of his reign Darius bridged the Hellespont and undertook the conquest of the western world.  Later, under the reign of his son Xerxes, the mighty hordes of eastern warriors were turned back, and the growing weakness of the great Persian Empire was revealed.  In 486 Egypt rebelled, and Persian armies marched along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, probably levying heavy taxes for their support upon the Jews as well as upon the other peoples of Palestine.  The suppression of the rebellion in Egypt illustrated how impossible it was for any of the eastern peoples to withstand even the decadent power of the Persian Empire.

In Palestine the Jews were still the prey of their hostile neighbors.  No walls protected the temple and city of Jerusalem.  The Jews were probably ground down under their greedy Persian governors.  With the disappearance of Zerubbabel the local control fell naturally into the hands of the high priest and his followers, whose civil authority from this time on constantly increased.  The words of ii Isaiah well describe the lot of the Jews of Palestine during this period: 

It is a people spoiled and plundered,
They are all snared in holes,
And hidden in prison houses. 
They have become a spoil,
With none to rescue,
An object of plunder,
With none to say, Restore.

II.  Spiritual Forces in Judaism.  The political horizon furnished little to inspire the disappointed and persecuted Jews.  Their eyes were still blinded by the brilliant hopes that had stirred them at the time when the temple was rebuilt.  The quenching of these hopes had left them in deeper darkness than before.  There seemed no rift in the clouds that overshadowed them.  Even their priestly rulers were selfish and inconsiderate.  For the faithful few who rose above the discouragements and obstacles that confronted them, however, this period of deepest gloom was lighted by a faith that shines through and glorifies most of the later books of the Old Testament.  From the psalms and prophecies of the period it is evident that there were a few who in the midst of these discouraging circumstances found peace and joy.  As they meditated upon the experiences of their race, and read and pondered the writings of the earlier prophets, they began to appreciate not only the real significance of their past history but the meaning of the present affliction.  The chief spokesman of these immortal heroes of the faith was the prophetic author of Isaiah 40-66.