Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CAMBYSES

(Pers. Kanbujia, Kambujet)

1. Cambyses I, Persian king of Anshan (ca. 600-559 b.c.e.) and a vassal of Astyages, king of the Median Empire. He married a daughter of Astyages named Mandane, by whom he fathered Cyrus II (“the Great”), founder of the Achaemenid Empire.

2. Cambyses II, successor to his father Cyrus II as king of the Achaemenid Empire (529-522). Babylonian sources depict him as overseeing affairs in Babylonia during Cyrus’ administration, but he made a name for himself by carrying out his father’s unfulfilled ambition to add Egypt to the empire when he conquered Memphis in 525 and founded the 27th Dynasty of Egypt. His military and administrative exploits there were quite successful (reaching south at least beyond the first cataract of the Nile and west past Cyrene), though it appears that his even grander plans for conquests to the south and west in Africa were foiled by difficulties in sustaining the lengthy supply lines necessary to sustain his armies. According to an Aramaic papyrus from Elephantine in southern Egypt, the Jewish temple there avoided destruction during Cambyses’ campaign, although many Egyptian temples apparently were not as fortunate.

The circumstances of the end of Cambyses’ life in Syria in 522 are uncertain. Persian sources suggest either suicide or an accident (so also Herodotus). With no clear heir to the throne (and a rebellion already under way, led either by Cambyses’ brother Bardiya or an imposter, Gaumata [“Pseudo-Smerdis”], posing as him), Persian government was thrown into a state of disarray that was only eventually quelled by Darius, who seized the Persian throne in 521 and set about quelling rebellions in many places throughout the empire. In this context of dissension and instability following the death of Cambyses, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah raised expectations in Jerusalem of a return of royal power to the descendants of David, in particular to Zerubbabel who at the time was serving as governor of Judah under Persian oversight (Hag. 2:20-23; Zech. 4:6-10; 6:11-13). However, Darius and his army passed through Palestine in 519 en route to Egypt, and the renascent Judean nationalism appears to have subsided quickly.

Bibliography. J. L. Berquist, Judaism in Persia’s Shadow (Minneapolis, 1996); J. Boardman et al., eds., CAH2, 4: Persia, Greece, and the Western Mediterranean c. 525 to 479 b.c. (Cambridge, 1988).

Jeffrey S. Rogers

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CAMBYSES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)