CHAPTER III. THE CAPTIVITY ENDED. =1. In the first year of his reign=, B. C. 536, Cyrus issued a decree of liberty to the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, Ezra 1:2‒4. =2. No more than 42,360=, including children, could be persuaded to return. But in addition there were over 7,000 male and female servants. Of the priestly clans, only four out of twenty-four were ready to go out, but these added 4,000. Of the Levites, only seventy-four cared to leave Babylon. This multitude, of about 50,000, set out as a caravan to reach Palestine, many of them having to travel the whole distance on foot, as only 8,136 animals, for carriage, accompanied them. The journey occupied about four months and when they arrived they found much of the land preoccupied by the surrounding nations. But, after much labor and considerable opposition, the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt and, after longer delay, the walls arose from the ruins. B. C. 516 is the date of the second Temple, and B. C. 445 of the rebuilt walls. THE NUMBER OF THE JEWS AS A RACE. =3. The number of those= who returned to Palestine was small compared with the number of the Jews as a race at this time. During the reign of David a census of the nation was taken. Of this census there are two accounts, one in 2 Sam. 24:9, the other in 1 Chron. 21:5. The first gives 800,000 as the number in Israel, and 500,000 in Judah, of those “who drew the sword.” In these statements the tribes of both Levi and Benjamin were omitted, the former because they were not subject to military duty, and the latter for the reason stated in the text, 1 Chron. 21:6. =4. This census= made the number of men capable of bearing arms 1,300,000. It seems from 1 Chron. 27:1 that there was a standing army of 24,000, renewed every month from Israel, and drawn from an established organization of twelve times that number, which Joab, who took the census, may not have included in the number of the census of Israel, 2 Sam. 24:9, but which has been added by the writer of 1 Chron. 21:5. This increases the number by about 300,000, so that the total would be about 1,600,000 of both Israel and Judah, with the exception of the number lost by a pestilence which immediately followed upon the census. But the tribes of Levi and Benjamin, which were not numbered, as we have shown above, would fully replace the number lost by the pestilence. Hence at the time of David the able-bodied men of the entire nation were about 1,600,000, and this number could not have been materially lessened at the beginning of the captivities. =5. An important fact= connected with the captivities was that the members of the ablest families, the wealthiest and most influential, were chiefly included among the captives, and, in the case of Judah, not only the most learned, but the most devoutly attached to the Mosaic law of all the tribes, went into captivity.