Hezekiah’s reign was followed by two very wicked kings, Manasseh and Amon. It was because of the wickedness of Manasseh that God told them that their nation would be taken into captivity for a period of seventy years.

The seventy years captivity was foretold by Jeremiah:

Read Jeremiah 29 v 10

The next king, Josiah, was a good king. When Josiah became king at a very young age, he removed the idols which past kings had established.

While clearing out the temple, the priests found a book of the law.

Josiah had the book read and was concerned because clearly the nation had strayed away from God. And so Josiah made further efforts to remove idol worship.

Unfortunately, these efforts were short lived as Josiah died prematurely in a battle against Egypt.

2 Kings 23 v 31
to 2 Kings 24 v 20

As a result of Josiah’s death, his sons came to power and the next four kings are wicked. These are Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. Zedekiah was the last king.

2 Kings 25

During Zedekiah’s reign, the Babylonians invaded. Jerusalem was ransacked and the Temple was destroyed.

The southern kingdom was then taken captive to Babylon for seventy years.

Ezra and Nehemiah

Zerubbabel, Joshua, Ezra and Nehemiah were leaders at various times. There were several interruptions to the rebuilding as the surrounding nations interfered, but eventually, through a series of decrees, the Temple and the city walls were constructed.

Haggai and Zechariah

Haggai and Zechariah were prophets who encouraged the people in their job of building the Temple.

Esther

The book of Esther also enters into this time period. Esther was married to a king of Persia and she interceded when there was a plot to destroy the Jews. The Feast of Purim, still kept by orthodox Jews today, is a celebration of this event.

Leading up to Christ

There is a period of silence from God for 400 years.

The Persian kingdom was conquered by the Greek empire.

The region of Israel was now ruled by the Greeks, who encouraged harmony and practised religious tolerance for a time.

The Greek empire was divided and Israel became a place of dispute between two sections of the Greek empire.

Antiochus Epiphanes was a particularly cruel Greek ruler over the land of Israel. He imposed terrible evil on the Jews and humiliated them in their worship. As a result of this, a Jewish family known as the Maccabees rose in revolt, reclaimed Jerusalem and purified the Temple.

The Jews ruled their land for a short time until the Roman empire swallowed up the Greek empire and asserted control over the area then known as Palestine, which included the land of Israel.

.......... And so this sets the scene for the New Testament period.