Ezra 1

The writer may be referring to October 539 BC, when Cyrus first entered Babylon’s capital as conqueror of the previous world superpower, the Babylonian Empire. Or the writer may have had in mind the following year, 538 BC, when Cyrus was formally recognized as king of a Persian Empire that included the former Babylonian Empire. But by that time, Cyrus had already ruled a smaller version of Persia for a decade or more.

Jeremiah was in Jerusalem when Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar captured the city in 586 BC and leveled it along with the Jewish Temple. There doesn’t seem to be anything in the surviving prophecies of Jeremiah that predict Cyrus would free the people Babylon had held as captives. Some scholars suggest Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10. But those talk about a different topic, the fall of Babylon. Isaiah, however, does have some passages that might track with what the writer is describing: Isaiah 41:2, 25, 28; 45:1, 13. Especially 45:13.

A nine-inch-long clay cylinder from Cyrus’ time, about 538 BC, confirms that he freed Babylonian captives after he took control of the former Babylonian Empire. He didn’t simply free the Jewish captives. He freed them all. The cylinder reports that he told them all to go home, rebuild their worship centers, and to say a prayer for him every day.

The tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with Levite priests and associates who operated the Jerusalem Temple, were the main Jewish groups the Babylonian invaders had exiled in 586 BC. These tribes made up the southern Jewish nation of Judah. The northern Jewish nation of Israel, with the other tribes, were exiled long before that, in 722 BC, by Assyrian invaders. They became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. They never seemed to come back in large groups. They apparently became assimilated into other cultures. Many southern Jews, however, returned home after one generation in exile. They had still maintained a sense of distinction as God’s people, though living in shameful punishment.

“Pans” is a guess. The meaning of the Hebrew word mahlap is uncertain. That’s why Bible versions offer a variety of educated guesses.