Forty-eight years after Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of the first Temple, the Babylonian empire came to an end (538 BCE), and Persia became dominant under Cyrus. The following year Cyrus made a decree sanctioning the return of the Jews, and ordering the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:23; Ezra 1:1-4). This decree also included the return of the Temple’s sacred vessels and furnishings as well as the levying of a tax upon his western provinces to provide building materials, in addition to what was offered willingly (Ezra 1:6-11, 6:3). The relatively small number of exiles who chose to return for this work (40,000) were led by Sheshbazzar, “the prince of Judah” (Ezra 1:11), whom some identify with Zerubbabel, likewise named “governor of Judah” ( Haggai 1:1).