164 | Nehemiah's prayer and commission (Nehemiah 1-2)

It's 445 BCE. The Persian Empire controls everything from India to Egypt. King Artaxerxes I is on the throne. About ninety years earlier, the first Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. The Persians had a different approach than the Babylonians—they let conquered peoples go home and rebuild. This wasn't generosity. It was strategy. Loyal subjects managing their own territories meant a more stable empire.Source:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rGW2cvDOAnvaWfMWxDOgCQxYsOs-L-Wh/view?usp=sharing