Babylonian Exile Rebuilding the Wall

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah (which are really one book, taken together) are the story of this period of return and rebuilding from the 6th to the 5th century BCE. They appeared in their earliest form around 400 BCE and were gradually added to and revised in the following few centuries. We don't really know who wrote these accounts; they're apparently a composite, but a historical Ezra and Nehemiah may have both been involved.

After being sacked and carried off by a series of Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors, the Judeans are elated to be allowed to return home to salvage Jerusalem and what's left (not much) of the temple. At any rate, Ezra the Scribe and Nehemiah, the Jewish butler of the Persian king, show up and have to deal with a world of problems. These dudes are downing Red Bull all day trying to get things in order. The place is an absolute mess and their neighbors aren't exactly thrilled to have the exiles back. The book demonstrates the obstacles Israel was facing in trying to keep its culture and religion intact: intermarriage, hostile locals, corrupt officials, ignorance of Jewish law, and the impossibility of finding a decent bowl of baba gannoush.

Intermarriage is the real enemy in these books. We guess Ezra and Nehemiah didn't think you could keep worshipping the God of Israel if you had a bunch of kids who were all sacrificing to Baal and dancing on hilltop shrines and couldn't even speak Hebrew. Of course, he could've stipulated that all children with at least one Israelite parent should be raised as Jews, regardless of parentage—but maybe people weren't innovative enough to think of that back then. Desperate times may have called for desperate measures.

So, in a nutshell, that's Ezra and Nehemiah: the long-prophesied return to the promised land, getting the temple back up and running, purifying the population, and putting together a mandatory crash course in Jewish law. Everything old is new again.