 A second group of 5,000, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to Judah in 456 BCE.Yet it was probably only in the middle of the next century, at the earliest, that Jerusalem again became the capital of Judah.The Persians may have experimented initially with ruling Judah as a Davidic client-kingdom under descendants of Jehoiachin, but by the mid–5th century BCE Judah had become in practice a theocracy, ruled by hereditary High Priests and a Persian-appointed governor, frequently Jewish, charged with keeping order and seeing that tribute was paid.