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what was known from ancient Egyptian accounts and excavations in Palestine itself. We cannot give a detailed history of the Jews here, but we may say that Palestine before the fifth century BCE - before Ezra and Nehemiah established the Jews' fundamental legislation - possessed no unity as a people. Although the foundations of Hebrew sovereignty were established there, they were insufficient to give the country a Hebrew stamp, since it is known that different peoples inhabited Palestine even in the time of the prophet Joshua.

Palestine began to acquire a Jewish stamp from the time of the Babylonian exile, 586-536 BCE, although most of the prevailing element at that time was from the north.

In Babylon the Jews formed a group whose wealth gave it great influence. They knew how to benefit from the rising star of the Medes and from King Qārūn (Cyrus), who demonstrated his love and sympathy for them through the services he granted them. In 538 BCE he permitted a considerable number of Jews to return to Palestine and rebuild their temple. In 445 BCE they were permitted to rebuild Jerusalem, which they did under the supervision of Nehemiah, whom the Persian king Artaxerxes I sent as governor of Jerusalem. In 430 BCE six thousand Jews, including eighteen hundred