Persian Jerusalem

     The Persian Period in Jerusalem was from 539 - 333BCE. While in exile, the prophet Ezekiel get's a vision where he sees that the God in a mobile ark. It's interesting to see that his prophecy comes when the Jewish people are at the lowest point in their faith. Perhaps the vision did come at the perfect time, because it help establish that God was still around, and he was once again mobile, he was not stationary as in the temple. King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and he gave them money to construct their temple. But everything was not easy when the exiled Jews came back because some Jews had still remained in Jerusalem and conflicts arose between the 2 groups. 
     During this time Jerusalem is still recovering, with their population being very small. In addition they are heavily taxed by the Persians, but they are still allowed some more freedom than before because they were allowed to return to Jerusalem, and rebuild their temple. Conflicts arose over people that wanted the temple rebuilt, while others who did not want it to be built because they liked the way things were. We also see that during this time, since there was no Davidic king, the rise of the High Priest and his increasing role over the people. This made sense, since both King and Priest were the main leaders of the people, but now with no official King, the High Priest at the time could have seen it as a perfect chance to rise in power and lead the people.