Previous Section: Judgement on the South
While there is judgement on the south, God will preserve them to fulfill prophecy.
In Hosea, we read that the southern House of Judah will be shown mercy, while the north will not. Despite being scattered to Babylon, mercy is shown to them, but as the prophecy foretells, their fortune is not through their own might, such as a victory in battle, but through a merciful act of God. For as stated previously, the House of Judah, despite her sins, must fulfill their calling to bring in the Messiah. Recall Hosea 1:7:
7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
Hosea 1:7 ESV
In 586BC, Babylon becomes the 3rd Kingdom to control Israel and Jerusalem. Egypt is 1st to sack Jerusalem (Finkelstein, Israel (2006). “The Last Labayu: King Saul and the Expansion of the First North Israelite Territorial Entity”. In Amit, Yairah; Ben Zvi, Ehud; Finkelstein, Israel; et al. (eds.). Essays on Ancient Israel in Its Near Eastern Context: A Tribute to Nadav Naʼaman. Eisenbrauns. pp. 171 ff.), Assyria is 2nd in 722BC, and Babylon is 3rd in 586BC.
46 years later, in 540BC, the Kingdom of Medo-Persia conquers Babylon, and takes control of Jerusalem as the 4th Kingdom. Medo-Persia then reigns for the next 100 years and grants mercy to the displaced southern House of Judah.
From 538BC to 445BC, various decrees are granted for the southern Israelites to return and rebuild Jerusalem, but they are not fully enacted until the final decree by King Artaxerxes in 445BC.
The first decree is given in 538BC by King Cyrus of Medo-Persia, who grants a decree to the exiled southern Israelites to go and rebuild the Temple. This decree is largely unfulfilled until it was later found and ratified by King Darius near 520-515BC, roughly 66-71yrs later. Many claim the Temple was completed in 516BC, some 70 years after exile, which is a fulfillment of Jeremiah 29:1,10-14:
1These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
Jeremiah 29:1,10-14 ESV
King Darius (550-486BC) is succeeded by King Xerxes, who is then succeeded by King Artaxerxes in 465BCE after Xerxes was killed. Under King Artaxerxes, we see the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls fulfilled, which will be important to Daniel 9’s messianic prophecy as we will discuss in the next section (The Messiah Foretold). We read of Jeremiah’s prophetic fulfillment for the south to rebuild Jerusalem at 70 years in Nehemiah 2:1-8. We see the walls rebuilt at 445BC, 20 years into King Artaxerxes reign:
1In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
Nehemiah 2:1,5,8 ESV
So under King Artaxerxes, the southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah return from Babylonian exile to rebuild after being shown mercy by the Medo-Persian empire. They return to rebuild the wall and they begin to create local leadership. This is fulfillment of Hosea 1:7 where God will show mercy to Judah, not through war, but decree. We read in Ezra that those who return from exile are of the two tribes of the south, Benjamin and Judah. We do not see the other 10 tribes mentioned. In other words, this is not the return of all of Israel, only the southern house. Again, the south is shown mercy as prophesied.
“7 And a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem, 8 and that if anyone did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all his property should be forfeited, and he himself banned from the congregation of the exiles. 9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. 16 Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of fathers’ houses, according to their fathers’ houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter; 17 and by the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.
Ezra 10:7-9,16-17 ESV
Some scripture may reference Israel sacrificing for the 12 tribes, like in Ezra 6:17 and Ezra 8:35. Here we see that the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were sacrificing 12 bulls/goats for the 12 tribes at their temple dedication.
17 They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
Ezra 6:17 ESV
35 At that time those who had come from captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and as a sin offering twelve male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.
Ezra 8:35 ESV
Some have argued that this is because the scattered north, driven away over 270 years prior, had returned. But these sacrifices were not made by these 2 tribes because the other tribes had returned in full, but rather because it was the customary practice when dedicating the temple according to the Torah—Numbers 7:84-89. It has nothing to do with which tribes they believed were represented at the current place/time, but rather obedience to scripture. After all, it would seem quite ridiculous to sacrifice 2 bulls instead of 12, and run contrary to God’s commands for Temple dedication. To reiterate, it was only the 2 southern tribes that return from Babylonia exile in 445BC, NOT the 12 tribes.
In addition, having previously established the identity of the gentiles as the scattered northern tribes, we read in Romans 11:25 that at the time of Paul, some 500 years later, the fullness of Israel had not yet occurred, for not all those scattered in the nations (gentiles) had returned:
25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
Romans 11:25-27 ESV
So we see that the south was shown mercy after Babylonian exile through the Medo-Persian Empire (the 4th nation to rule the land of Israel), but this mercy was only directed at the Southern House of Judah in fulfillment of Hosea 1:7. The Southern House was to bring in the Messiah, who would call out Israel from among the nations from where they were scattered, and through Him, all Israel (spiritual Israel) would be saved.
Next Section: The Messiah Foretold