Eventually Solomon’s misdeeds caused the kingdom to split up into two factions, Israel and Judah.
Israel was ruled mostly by wicked kings, and thus God eventually punished them by sending the nation into slavery. Judah was ruled by a mixture of bad and good kings. The godly kings were frequently able to lead many reforms, and therefore Judah remained free of foreign oppression for a longer time. Eventually even Judah degenerated to such levels that God sent them into slavery and dispersion. This took place in 585BC under Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
Eventually Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian kingdom. In that kingdom arose king Cyrus the Great, whom the Lord motivated to grant freedom to the Jews. Many Jews returned to their homeland under the edict of Cyrus, a history that comes to conclusion under the leadership of Nehemiah. This is where Nehemiah recognized his call to get involved and dirty his hand building up the city [and people] of God.
Two group of people had returned to Jerusalem after this edict, but they were not able to fulfill their ultimate goal, which was to rebuild the temple as well as the walls that protected the city. Of these, the first group went under the leadership of Zerubbabel. The Lord greatly encouraged him, as recorded in the books of Haggai and Zachariah. However, the opposition was so great that the people became discouraged and they could not complete the work. A life of ‘compromise’ with the ground realities seemed better, and they all settled into the land without any more rebuilding. Gradually everyone fell into “doing what pleased each individual”. The correspondence with the present-day ‘if you like it, then do it’ should not be overlooked. Since this is not what the