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Babylonian Captivity
After the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, the Neo-Babylonian empire forcibly deported the elite of Judah and large numbers of commoners to Babylonia, f…
Timeline
- -586–-581Jerusalem to Babylon · West AsiaNebuchadnezzar ordered the Judahite royal house, priests, artisans, and portions of the common people deported to Babylonia in batches; Judah's population plummeted and its land was reorganized.
- -586–-539Babylonia · BabyloniaThe exiles settled in Babylon and its surroundings, forming self-governing communities; prophets such as Ezekiel were active here, and Jewish religious thought underwent a profound transformation in the absence of the Temple.
- -539–-538Babylon · BabylonAfter the Persian Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, he issued a decree allowing the Jewish exiles to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, ending the Babylonian Captivity and ushering Jewish history into a period of reconstruction under Persian rule.
Sources
- 2 Kings 24-25; Jeremiah 52
- Cyrus Cylinder
- The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. IV: Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean c. 525 to 479 B.C. — Boardman, John; et al. (1988)