Temple, the Second

The Second Temple was built by the Jewish exiles who returned from Babylon under Zerubbabel the governor and Jeshua the high priest, completed in 516 B.C. — seventy years after the first temple's destruction (Ezra 6:15). Cyrus of Persia had decreed its reconstruction (Ezra 1:1–4; 6:3–5), and foundation-laying began in 536 B.C. but was halted by Samaritan opposition (Ezra 4) until the prophets Haggai and Zechariah renewed the community's resolve in 520 B.C. (Hag. 1:1; Zech. 1:1). Haggai encouraged the returned community by promising that the latter glory of this house would surpass the former (Hag. 2:9). The Second Temple stood nearly 500 years before Herod the Great began its wholesale renovation in 20/19 B.C.