What decree did Cyrus of Persia make concerning the Jews?
Cyrus, king of Persia, issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem after seventy years of captivity. They were allowed to rebuild the temple, restore temple worship, and reestablish their national entity, though they would remain under his sovereignty.
Les explains that the southern kingdom of Judah had been overrun by Nebuchadnezzar coming out from Babylon, the land was emptied of the Jews, and they ended up in captivity for 70 years. At the end of those 70 years, as previously mentioned from Chronicles, Cyrus, the king of Persia, made a decree that the Jews could go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and reestablish temple worship and reestablish their national entity, of course, under his sovereignty. In Ezra chapter 1, verse 1, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah was to be fulfilled, and Les notes that this was spoken years before it happened.