They were conducted by Zerubbabel the grandson of Jeconias, and Joshua the son of Josedec the high priest. The second temple was finished in the reign of king Darius of Persia.
The settlement of the people "after their old estate," together with the arrangement of all civil and ecclesiastical matters, were completed by Ezra and Nehemiah.
At the period, about 430 years B. C. the Scripture history closes, and for the remaining particulars of the Jewish history recourse must be had to uninspired writers, particularly to the books of the Maccabees and to Josephus.
Judea continued subject to Persia until Alexander conquered that country; it then fell under his dominion and he treated the Jews with great lenity. After the conqueror's death, Judea became subject to his successors, till Mattathias, a priest eminent for his piety and resolution, encouraged the people to shake off the Syrian yoke. Mattathias died before this was effected, but his son Judas Maccabeus completed the deliverance of his country, and the government of Judea remained in his family till the time of Herod the great, who put an end to the administration of the Maccabees or Armenians, and prevailed upon the Roman senate to appoint him king of Judea.
It was in the thirty sixth year of the reign of Herod, and while Augustus was Emperor of Rome that our Saviour Jesus Christ was born, four years before the common æra.
Herod was a cruel tyrant to his people, and even to his own children: but to keep the Jews in subjection, and to erect a lasting monument to his own name, he repaired the temple at Jerusalem, and considerably enlarged the kingdom of Judea.
At his death, the countries over which he had reigned were divided among his three sons, but they were not allowed to take the title of kings; they were called ethnarchs or tetrarchs. Archelaus one of Herod's sons, acting with great cruelty and injustice, was, by order of Augustus, banished to Vienne in Gaul, where he died. His dominions were then reduced to a Roman province, and from this time the Jews possessed but little civil authority. Justice was administered in the name and by the laws of Rome, and taxes were paid immediately to the emperor. Several of the Roman governors severely oppressed and persecuted the Jews, and at length, in the reign of Nero they openly revolted from the Romans. Then began the Jewish war, which was terminated after an obstinate defence and unparalleled suffering, on the part of the Jews, by the total destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, by Titus son of Vespasian the Roman emperor. Since that time the Jews have no where subsisted as a nation.