The exile was God's punishment, that is true. But God had made a promise, and he is going to keep his promise. What would the people go back to? Well, who knows what they would go back to?...Where would they live when they went back? It would take them perhaps weeks, maybe months, to get back…Did they have jobs? Did they have promise of support and income? No, they had nothing. Absolutely nothing. All they had was the promise of God. The promise alluded to here [Ezra 1:1] is a reflection, an indication of the God who makes promises, the God who makes covenant, the God who says and keeps his word.1
Derek W. H. Thomas
5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.