Category:Babylonian Exile (subject)

Second Temple Studies -> (1) Babylonian Exile

The Babylonian Exile goes from the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar to the return and restoration of the Second Temple.

< Second Temple Studies : Hebrew Bible Studies -- (1) Babylonian Exile -- (2) Persian Period -- (3) Greek Period -- (4) Maccabean Period -- (5) Roman Period -- see also Historical Jesus Studies, and Christian Origins Studies >

< People : Babylonian Kings -- Nebuchadnezzar -- Belshazzar -/- Davidic Kings -- Jehoiachin -/- Daniel -- Ezekiel -- Tobit -- Tobiah >

Wikipedia

This page is edited by Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan.

Sources

See Book of Tobit -- Book of Daniel -- Book of Kings

Overview

605-562 BCE -- Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon

605 BCE -- Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, defeated the Egyptians in the Battle of Charchemish. This meant the end of the Egyptian control of the region. Judah was now under Balylonian rule and Jehoiakim became a Babylonian vassal ("his servant for three years," 2 Kings 24:1)

601-597 BCE -- First attempt to rebel against the Babylonians. In the conflict between Egypt and Babylon, each claiming Canaan as their territory, King Jehoiakim sided with Egyptians, in spite of the warnings of Jeremiah (Jer 22:13-19). The Babylonians immediately invades Judah and besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim died before the town was taken (2 Kings 24:2-7).

597 BCE -- Jehoiakim's son, Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah), reigned only 3 months before Jerusalem fell (see the Annals of Nebuchadnezzar).

597 BCE -- Fall of Jerusalem and First Deportation. The Babyloninas took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon and exiled the entire royal court, nobles, priests (including Ezekiel) and skilled workers ("8,000/10,000 people," according to 2 Kings 24:14-16; "3,023 people," according to Jeremiah 52:28).

597-587 BCE -- Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, was installed as the vassal king of Judah by the Babylonians, who changed his name to Zedekiah (see 2 Kings 24:18--25:21, and Jeremiah 52:1-27). Jehoiachin, however, was spared (a table from the Babylonina royal archives gave him on 592 BCE the ambiguous title of "son of the king of Judah").

The pro-Egyptian party in Palestine (led by the prophet Hananiah) continued to conspire for a rebellion against the Bablylonians. The exiles (led by the prophet-priest Ezekiel) remained loyal to king Jehoiachin and claimed that God had also left the temple and now was with his people in Babylon (see Ezekiel 1-24; esp. 8-11, dated 592 BCE). The nationalistic party of Jeremiah maintained that the Jews in Palestine and in Babylon had to accept God's punishment and couseled submission to the rule of Babylon (see Jeremiah 27-29).

587 BCE -- In a second attempt to rebel against the Bablylonians, Zedekiah renounced his fealty to Nebuchadnezzar and concluded a treaty with Egypt, despite the warnings of Jeremiah, who was arrested (Jer 34:37-38). Nebuchadnezzar marched into Judah, captured Jerusalem, demolished the walls of the town, and set the temple on fire (Jer 39:1-10).

According to 2 Kings (25:11-12), the Second Deportation affected "all the rest of population ... [except] some of the poorest of the land," or "832 people" according to Jeremiah (52:29). Zedekiah was imprisoned, blinded, and his sons were killed before him. A new vassal king was not appointed. Now in the Babylonian archives Jehoiachin, although still in captivity, was recognized as the "king of Judah." The public role given to Jehoiachin by the Babylonians caused a split between the king (and his court) and the exile priest led by Ezekiel, who developed anti-monarchic attitudes (Ez 34).

587-582 BCE -- A Jewish scribe and a friend of Jeremiah, Gadaliah, was appointed by the Babylonians as the new governor of theose who remained in Judah (2 Kings 25:22-26).

582 BCE -- Gedaliah was assassinated by members of the pro-Egyptian party. The Babylonians immediately suffocated the revolt ("745 people" were deported, Jer 52:30). The remaining members of the pro-Egyptian party fled to Egypt to escape reprisal (Jer 40:7-41:18); they took the reluctant Jeremiah with them. For some time Judah was ruled by Babylonian governors.

562-560 BCE -- Evil-merodach, king was of Babylon.

561 BCE -- Jehoiachin was released from prison and "a throne was given to him higher than that of the other kings who were with him in Babylon" (2 Kings 25:27-30; Jer 52:31-34). No longer captive, Jehoiachin was now the hostage king of Judah at the court of the king of Babylon and also the governo of Judah according to the centralized structure of the Babylonian administration. At the court of the king of Judah, scribed collected the ancient traditions of Israel in a continuous narrative from creation to king Jehoiachin (the bulk of the biblical books of Genesis thru 2 Kings), as well edited some prophetical books (such as the First Isaiah and Jeremiah). The theology was based on the prominent role of the House of David (2 Samuel 7:4-29) and on the monotheistic principles of the nationalistic movement. The exiled priests developed an alternative view of the future of Israel centered on a new Temple and a new priesthood led by the House of Zadok (Ezekiel 40-48).