How did Cyrus treat the Hebrew people in the lands he captured?

Answer 1

He allowed the Judean aristocracy, which had been deported to Babylon by the Babylonians, to return to Judea to try to reclaim their estates if they wished. Half declined because they were well established in Babylon and stayed. The returnees had mixed success - many could not provide credible evidence to their claim. The successful ones became the new aristocracy in Judea.

The reason they had been deported in the first place was that the Babylonians followed the practice of their predecessors the Assyrians, by exchanging aristocracies of conquered territories so that peoples were ruled by foreigners who were not sympathetic to them and so avoid uprisings. The aristocracies of the 10 northern tribes of Hebrews had been sent by the Assyrians to rule peoples there, and aristocracies from Assyria sent to rule the 10 tribes. The Babylonians did the same thing with the two southern tribes - Judah and Benjamin a century later, and thn incoming Persian Cyrus gave them their chance and came back to take over the two southern tribes. This didn't happen to the northern 10 tribes, giving rise to the fable that the people had disappeared. The common people remained in Israel under foreign rulers in the north. And the common people of the two southern tribes remained in the south.

Answer 2

He allowed the Judean aristocracy, which had been deported to Babylon by the Babylonians, to return to Judea to try to reclaim their estates if they wished. Half declined because they were well established in Babylon and stayed. The returnees had mixed success - many could not provide credible evidence to their claim. The successful ones became the new aristocracy in Judea.

The reason they had been deported in the first place was that the Babylonians followed the practice of their predecessors the Assyrians, by exchanging aristocracies of conquered territories so that peoples were ruled by foreigners who were not sympathetic to them and so avoid uprisings. The aristocracies of the 10 northern tribes of Hebrews had been sent by the Assyrians to rule peoples there, and aristocracies from Assyria sent to rule the 10 tribes. The Babylonians did the same thing with the two southern tribes - Judah and Benjamin a century later, and thn incoming Persian Cyrus gave them their chance and came back to take over the two southern tribes. This didn't happen to the northern 10 tribes, giving rise to the fable that the people had disappeared. The common people remained in Israel under foreign rulers in the north. And the common people of the two southern tribes remained in the south.