Empire

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The Persian empire first became prominent about 550 BC when King Cyrus conquered the Babylonian empire. Daniel was in exile in Babylon when the Persians conquered that city. Cyrus allowed many Jews to return to their homeland. Esther became queen to king Xerxes I. The Jews were allowed to take back many temple treasures and rebuild the temple as described in the stories of Exra and Nehemiah. The Persians controlled lands from Egypt to as far as India and as far north as modern day Turkey. They held their empire for about 200 years. In 333 BC, Alexander the great defeated them.

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Babylon was based in what is now the southern part of the country of Iraq. Babylon was first an important power in about 1850 BC and then later in about 650 BC when they overcame the Assyrian empire. Although the oldest known alphabet comes from the Canaanites, the oldest known writing comes from the Babylonians.

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Assyria was based in what is now the northern part of Iraq. The Assyrian empire became an important empire between 1500 and 1100 BC and lasted until conquered by Babylon in about 600 BC. A few hundred years later the Assyrian empire came and overwhelmed the Israelite nation. The Assyrians liked to take large numbers of the conquered people back to other parts of the empire and then replacing them with people from other countries. That this happened in 2Kings 17:6, 24+ and 2Kings 18:31-32. Tiglath-pileser III conquered Israel and oppressed Judah. Judah was made to pay tribute.