The Cyrus Cylinder
The Persian repatriation policy behind the return from exile is documented in Cyrus's own words — the general policy, independently attested; the specific decree for Judah, only in the Bible.
Confirmed by the groundInscriptionc. 539 BC
A clay barrel inscribed after Cyrus took Babylon, announcing his policy: restore the sanctuaries, and send displaced peoples home with their gods. Judah is not named on it — but the policy it states is precisely the one Ezra credits Cyrus with applying to the exiles from Jerusalem.
I returned the images of the gods to their sanctuaries… and I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings.
- Found
- Babylon, Iraq, 1879 — Hormuzd Rassam
- Now held at
- British Museum, London (BM 90920)
- Language
- Akkadian
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
The cylinder does not mention Jews, Judah or Jerusalem. It corroborates the policy and the king, not the specific decree — and saying otherwise is a common overreach.
How historians use it
A major primary source for Achaemenid imperial policy, studied entirely apart from biblical questions.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.