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When Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, died in 562 BCE, most of the continuing Jewish exiles were too young even to remember having lived in Jerusalem.

Babylon's fortunes swiftly diminished after Nebuchadrezzar's death. His vast building programme had created economic inflation, and now the economy collapsed; neighbouring powers were asserting themselves and disrupting all the long-distance trade routes to Babylon, and there was a sudden, and disastrous, weakening of leadership, with three short reigns in 7 years, before an army officer, Nabonidus, seized the throne in 555 BCE.

Nabonidus originated in Haran, son of a nobleman and a high priestess of the moon-god, Sin, a god he favoured more than Marduk, god of Babylon. Nabonidus endeavoured to unify his empire which stretched all round the fertile crescent, under Sin, the popular god of the wandering Arabs and Aramaeans. He even restored the old moon-god temple at Ur, and built one at Jatriba, (modern Medina!). This had a very weakening effect on Babylon, when Nabonidus did not take his appointed part in the New Year celebrations, year after year. His heir, Prince Balshazzar, ruled as his regent in Babylon. When news began to arrive in the city of a new, dynamic young man, Cyrus, Prince of Anshan, who had gained control over Persia, and the Medes, and was expanding westwards towards Lydia, (Asia Minor/Turkey), the people of Babylon were alarmed, but the various groups of exiled peoples there began to think that defeat of Babylon might be the catalyst for change in their own situation. Another 20 years were to go by before this happened, for Cyrus went into N.W. India before turning his attention to Babylon. By then the citizens of Babylon were even more demoralised, for Nabonidus had not lived in Babylon for ten long years, nor had he played his part in the important New Year ceremonies at Marduk's temple, to the dismay of the priests there.

By this time yet another generation of Jewish exiles, who had heard Ezekiel's hopes that their God, YHWH, would restore them to Jerusalem, were wondering if these hopes would ever materialise. During the years 550 - 540 BCE, one of them, possibly born and bred into the 'Isaiah Community' in Babylon, began to prophesy in the name of YHWH, and produced prophetic poetry which excels all other in the OT. His name is unknown, but as his poetry was added to the 'Isaiah scroll', in chs. 40 -55, he is now known to us as 'Second', or 'Deutero-Isaiah'.

Four poems are known as the 'Servant songs' (42.1-4, 49.1-6, 50.4-9, and 52.13 - 53.12). If they are autobiographical, they give us a clue to his personality; God's Spirit was upon him; his message concerned not only the Jews but all nations as well; he was a teacher, but suffered insults from his listeners, and final humiliation. Otherwise, we know nothing of him, except his glorious poetry, putting into words the theological debates of the prophetic school in exile, and declaring , very differently from any other prophet before , that YHWH has punished Israel, and soon the punishment of exile will be brought to an end, - by YHWH.

The first poem, in 40.1-11, sets the scene. With a hint of the apocalyptic style, of describing the conversation of heaven, the main 'speaker' in all the poems is YHWH, Himself. YHWH is sending a messenger from heaven to Jerusalem, to announce that her punishment is over, and that YHWH will bring his people home in gentleness and triumph. Even though human life is transient, God's promises are constant. He is 'above' the world, but reveals Himself there 'in time'. The background is the imminence of Cyrus, but the theological insight is profound, - it is YHWH who is the real conquering King, who will set His people free!

The two great themes of the whole Bible are brought together in these poems, - That YHWH is the CREATOR of the whole world, not just the Jews, and that He is also its SAVIOUR. The two themes are the two sides of the same coin, and neither is 'new', but here they are developed and deepened in conjunction with each other. Both are part of YHWH's grand plan at creation, not only for Israel, but for all the other nations as well.

The creation poems are unlike either the old J-Code story of Adam and Eve, or the liturgical hymn of Gen.1. They are in the style of the Wisdom thinkers, visualising YHWH as the Master-designer, working at His drawing board, with no-one at his side to help - He did it all by Himself! The only passage of prose in this prophecy is in 44.9-20, which draws the comparison between YHWH who made everything, and the man-made idols that are worshipped 'as' gods.

The creator- theme continues in the poetic imagery of a law-court in the heavens, with YHWH challenging any other gods to prove their equality with Him, certain that they cannot, for He is the only God who can tell His people in advance what is soon to happen. In ch 43.10-14, YHWH declares His supremacy, 'before me no god was formed .....I am, YHWH, and beside me there is no saviour .....for your sake I will send to Babylon and break down all the bars ...' and in 44.28, 'Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd' and will carry out YHWH's purposes in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Although the older traditions have reflected the myths and ideas of creation, as found in many ancient cultures, Second-Isaiah's confidence in 'no other God at all' brings OT theology to its climax of MONOTHEISM. Future thinking had to work through the profound implications of all this, particularly with regard to the peoples of all other nations, and then, to Israel's special place in YHWH's grand plan. This was much harder, for it meant that the choice of Israel implied a place of responsibility towards others in this plan, and not just a comfortable place of privilege over all of them. This will be the main question for Jewish debate in the future - How do they relate - or not - to other people in the world?

The climax of these poems is in the four 'Servant Songs' which stand out supremely from all the other poems. Because of their tentative and speculative ideas they describe a mysterious figure, - 'The Servant' - who may be an individual, or even the collective people, 'Israel', without defining or identifying him. The poems concentrate of the Servant's 'task', the difficult responsibility of being YHWH's 'chosen', to tell all the other nations that YHWH created all of them, and that they should all join together, in worshipping the One and Only God of all.

1. 42.1-4 The Servant has received YHWH's Spirit for the task.

2. 49.1-6 The Servant, like all the prophets, had a mission to all of Israel, but now, this is 'too light a task', and the Servant must become 'as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth'.

3. 50.4-9 The Servant will find this no easy task, for such a religious mission is likely to evoke violence against him/them.

4. 52.13 - 53.12 The violence will lead to the Servant's utter humiliation, and violent, undeserved, (vicarious), death on behalf of all the others, but he will be redeemed and justified by YHWH, because of the Servant's innocence. (This is the seed which later developed into belief that YHWH was also LORD of the dead!).

Such profound ideas were the prerogative of the few. The vast majority of the Jews were unaffected by them. Their lives were continuing as usual, except that talk of the new King of Persia was on everyone's lips.

King Nabonidus could do little. He did return to Babylon, and the Marduk ceremonies were performed correctly for the first time in ten years, but after such a long lapse they had lost their impact on the people who were all too scared of the impending doom for their city. Many citizens defected to Cyrus for their own safety, while the demoralised army surrendered the great city of Babylon to Cyrus without any resistance, in 538 BCE. In one stroke Cyrus became master of the whole fertile crescent, as well as many of its peoples living as exiles around Babylon.

The Cyrus Cylinder, now in the British Museum, records that Cyrus gained the allegiance of the Babylonians by immediately restoring the religion of Marduk, and considered himself the enlightened patron of all the gods and their peoples in his new territories. This included the Jews. Like all the others they were given permission to go home!

Given the opportunity, the question was raised, Who really wanted to go? It would mean leaving everything that was now familiar - for a long expensive journey into the unknown. They had truly learnt that they were still YHWH's people, even without a Temple, so the sense of urgency was felt by only a few. These were mainly the priestly families, and the most ardent devoted YHWH-worshippers whose total concern was to rebuild YHWH's holy city in its former, (imagined), glory. Most Jews stayed in Babylon, but gave money to the travellers for the new Temple-to-be.

The travellers set off in 536 BCE.