The Jews alone had no images to take; the sacred vessels of the temple of Jerusalem were accordingly given to them.

It was a faithful remnant that returned to the land of their fathers, consisting mostly of priests and Levites, determined henceforward to obey strictly the laws of their God, and full of gratitude to their deliverer.

In Jerusalem Cyrus thus had a colony whose loyalty to himself and his successors could be trusted, and who would form, as it were, an outpost against attacks on the side of Egypt.
As long as Cyrus and his son Kambyses lived Babylonia also was tranquil.
They flattered the religious and political prejudices of their Babylonian subjects, and the priesthood saw in them the successors of a Sargon of Akkad.

But with the death of Kambyses came a change.

The new rulers of the empire of Cyrus were Persians, proud of their nationality and zealous for their Zoroastrian faith.