According to the biblical narrative, Zerubbabel was a governor of the Achaemenid Empire's province of Yehud and the grandson of Jeconiah, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian captivity in the first year of Cyrus the Great, the king of the Achaemenid Empire. The date is generally thought to have been between 538 and 520 BC. Zerubbabel also laid the foundation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem soon after.
Zerubbabel displays a plan of Jerusalem to Cyrus the Great by Jacob van Loo.
Zerubbabel from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553)
Praise of Truth by Phillips Galle after Gerard Groenning 1638.
Zerubbabel Before Darius by Nikolaus Knüpfer, Hermitage Museum.
Yehud Medinata, also called Yehud Medinta or simply Yehud, was an autonomous administrative division of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It constituted a part of Eber-Nari and was bounded by Arabia to the south, lying along the frontier of the two satrapies. Spanning most of Judea—from the Shephelah in the west to the Dead Sea in the east—it was one of several Persian provinces in Palestine, together with Moab, Ammon, Gilead, Samaria, Ashdod, and Idumea, among others. It existed for just over two centuries before the Greek conquest of Persia resulted in it being incorporated into the Hellenistic empires.
The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest extent, including the province of Yehud.
Silver coin (gerah) minted in the Persian province of Yehud, dated c. 375–332 BCE. Obv: Bearded head wearing crown, possibly representing the Persian Great King. Rev: Falcon facing, head right, with wings spread; Paleo-Hebrew YHD to right.
Coins bearing the inscription YHD, or Yehud. The coin at top shows the god YHWH, the coin at bottom right has an image of the owl of Athena (Athenian coinage was the standard for Mediterranean trade).
Coin of Hezekiah, Satrap of Judaea, Achaemenid period. Circa 375–333 BCE.
