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The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were exiled to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The expulsions occurred in multiple waves: After the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BCE, around 7,000 individuals were exiled to Mesopotamia. Further expulsions followed the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple in 587 BCE.
Although the dates, numbers of expulsions, and numbers of exiles vary in the several biblical accounts, (2025). 9780802837110, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 9780802837110 the following is a general outline of what occurred. After the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem, which resulted in tribute being paid by the Judean king Jehoiakim. In , Jehoiakim refused to pay further tribute, which led in 598/597 BCE to another siege of the city by Nebuchadnezzar II and culminated in the death of Jehoiakim and the exile to Babylonia of his successor Jeconiah, Jeconiah's court, and many others. In 587 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed Jerusalem and exiled Jeconiah's successor Zedekiah and others. In 582 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II exiled another group.
The Bible recounts how after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire to the Achaemenid Empire at the Battle of Opis in 539 BCE, exiled Judeans were permitted by the Persians to return to Judah. According to the biblical Book of Ezra, construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem began in the new Persian province of Yehud Medinata. All of these events are considered significant to the developed history and culture of the Jews, and ultimately had a far-reaching impact on the development of Judaism.
Archaeological studies have revealed that, although the city of Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, other parts of Judah continued to be inhabited during the period of the exile. Historical records from Mesopotamia and Jewish sources indicate that a significant portion of the Jewish population chose to remain in Mesopotamia. This decision led to the establishment of a sizable Jewish community in Mesopotamia known as the golah (dispersal), which persisted until modern times. The Iraqi Jewish, Persian Jews, Georgian Jews, Bukharan Jews, and Mountain Jewish communities are believed to derive their ancestry in large part from these exiles; these communities have now largely emigrated to Israel.The Wellspring of Georgian Historiography: The Early Medieval Historical Chronicle The Conversion of Katli and The Life of St. Nino, Constantine B. Lerner, England: Bennett and Bloom, London, 2004, p. 60
After the defeat of Pharaoh Necho II army by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BCE, Jehoiakim began paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. Some of the young nobility of Judah were taken to Babylon.
In the following years, the court of Jerusalem was divided into two parties, one supporting Egypt, the other Babylon. After Nebuchadnezzar was defeated in battle in 601 BCE by Egypt, Judah revolted against Babylon, culminating in a three-month siege of Jerusalem beginning in late 598 BCE.Geoffrey Wigoder, The Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible Pub. by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. (2006) Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, died during the siegeDan Cohn-Sherbok, The Hebrew Bible, Continuum International, 1996, p. x. and was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah) at the age of eighteen. The city fell on 2 Adar (March 16) 597 BCE,Philip J. King, Jeremiah: An Archaeological Companion (Westminster John Knox Press, 1993), p. 23. and Nebuchadnezzar pillaged Jerusalem and its Temple and took Jeconiah, his court and other prominent citizens (including the prophet Ezekiel) back to Babylon.The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed. by Michael D Coogan. Pub. by Oxford University Press, 1999. p. 350 Jehoiakim's uncle Zedekiah was appointed king in his place, but the exiles in Babylon continued to consider Jeconiah as their Exilarch, or rightful ruler.
Despite warnings by Jeremiah and others of the pro-Babylonian party, Zedekiah revolted against Babylon and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Apries. Nebuchadnezzar returned, defeated the Egyptians, and again besieged Jerusalem, resulting in the city's destruction in 587 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city wall and the Temple, together with the houses of the most important citizens. Zedekiah and his sons were captured and the sons were executed in front of Zedekiah, who was then blinded and taken to Babylon with many others (Jer 52:10–11). Judah became a Babylonian province, called Yehud, putting an end to the independent Kingdom of Judah. Because of the missing years in the Jewish calendar, rabbinic sources place the date of the destruction of the First Temple at 3338 Anno mundi (423 BCE)Rashi to Talmud Bavli, avodah zara p. 9a. Josephus, Seder HaDoroth year 3338 or 3358 AM (403 BCE).malbim to Ezekiel 24:1, abarbanel et al.
The first governor appointed by Babylon was Gedaliah, a native Judahite; he encouraged the many Jews who had fled to surrounding countries such as Moab, Ammon and Edom to return, and he took steps to return the country to prosperity. Some time later, a surviving member of the royal family assassinated Gedaliah and his Babylonian advisors, prompting many refugees to seek safety in Egypt. By the end of the second decade of the 6th century BCE, in addition to those who remained in Judah, there were significant Jewish communities in Babylon and in Egypt; this was the beginning of the later numerous Jewish communities living permanently outside Judah in the Jewish Diaspora.
According to the book of Ezra, the Persian Cyrus the Great ended the exile in 538 BCE, the year after he captured Babylon. Harper's Bible Dictionary, ed. by Achtemeier, etc., Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1985, p. 103 The exile ended with the return under Zerubbabel the Prince (so-called because he was a descendant of the royal line of David) and Joshua the Priest (a descendant of the line of the former High Priests of the Temple) and their construction of the Second Temple in the period from 521 to 516 BCE.
In the seventh year, in the month of Kislev, the king of Akkad mustered his troops, marched to the Hatti-land, and encamped against the City of Judah and on the ninth day of the month of Adar he seized the city and captured the king. He appointed there a king of his own choice and taking heavy tribute brought it back to Babylon.
Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets, describing ration orders for a captive King of Judah, identified with King Jeconiah, have been discovered during excavations in Babylon, in the royal archives of Nebuchadnezzar.Cf. , , ; ; , , ; . One of the tablets refers to food rations for "Ya’u-kīnu, king of the land of Yahudu" and five royal princes, his sons.
Archaeologist Avraham Faust suggests that between the deportations and executions caused by the Babylonians, plus the famines and epidemics that occurred during the war, the population of Judah may have been reduced to as little as 10% of what it had been in the time before deportations.
However, there is evidence for hardship. For example, exiled Jewish leaders were suspected of national disloyalty and were reduced to peasantry, where they worked in agriculture and building projects and performed simple tasks such as farming, shepherding and fishing. This ended when the Persians conquered Babylon. Exiled Jewish commoners were nostalgic about Judah and, due to circumstance, were forced to abandon temple-based worship. They mostly worshipped in private homes and kept some religious traditions such as circumcision, Sabbath observance, reading of the Psalms and Mosaic Law.
As part of the Persian Empire, the former Kingdom of Judah became the province of Judah ( Yehud MedinataYehud being the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew Yehuda, or "Judah", and "medinata" the word for province) with different borders, covering a smaller territory. The population of the province was greatly reduced from that of the kingdom; archaeological surveys suggesting a population of around 30,000 people in the 5th to 4th centuries BCE.
A 2017 exhibition in Jerusalem displayed over 100 cuneiform tablets detailing trade in fruits and other commodities, taxes, debts, and credits accumulated between Jews forced or persuaded to move from Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar around 600 BCE. The tablets included details on one exiled Judean family over four generations, all with Hebrew names.
Most Jews who returned were poor Jews and either saw the exile as "spiritual regeneration" or "divine punishment for sins". One reason why wealthy Jews stayed in Mesopotamia includes economic opportunities, which were relatively uncommon in Judah.
This period saw the last high point of Hebrew Bible prophecy in the person of Ezekiel, followed by the emergence of the central role of the Torah in Jewish life. According to many Higher criticism scholars, the Torah was redacted during this time, and began to be Biblical canon for Jews. This period saw their transformation into an ethno-religious group who could survive without a central Temple. A Concise History of the Jewish People. Naomi E. Pasachoff, Robert J. Littma. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. p. 43 Israeli philosopher and Biblical scholar Yehezkel Kaufmann said "The exile is the watershed. With the exile, the religion of Israel comes to an end and Judaism begins."
Notably, the period also saw the theological transition of the ancient Israelite religion among the captives from a monolatrous to a monotheistic faith system.
This process coincided with the emergence of scribes and sages as Jewish leaders (see Ezra). Prior to exile, the people of Israel had been organized according to tribe. Afterwards, they were organized by smaller family groups. Only the Tribe of Levi continued in its temple role after the return. After this time, there were always sizable numbers of Jews living outside the Land of Israel; thus, it also marks the beginning of the "Jewish diaspora", unless this is considered to have begun with the Assyrian captivity.
In Rabbinic literature, Babylon was one of a number of metaphors for the Jewish diaspora. Most frequently the term "Babylon" meant the diaspora prior to the destruction of the Second Temple. The post-destruction term for the Jewish Diaspora was "Roman Empire", or "Edom".
Exilic literature
The exilic period was a rich source for Hebrew literature. Biblical depictions of the exile include Book of Jeremiah 39–43 (which saw the exile as a lost opportunity); the final section of 2 Kings (which portrays it as the temporary end of history); 2 Chronicles (in which the exile is the "Sabbath of the land"); and the opening chapters of Ezra, which records its end. Other works from or about the exile include the stories in Daniel 1–6, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the "Story of the Three Youths" (1 Esdras 3:1–5:6), and the books of Tobit and Judith.Rainer Albertz, Israel in exile: the history and literature of the sixth century BCE (page 15 link) Society for Biblical Literature, 2003, pp. 4–38 The Book of Lamentations arose from the Babylonian captivity. The final redaction of the Pentateuch took place in the Persian period following the exile,and the Priestly source, one of its main sources, is primarily a product of the post-exilic period when the former Kingdom of Judah had become the Persian province of Yehud.
Significance for Jewish culture
In the Hebrew Bible, the captivity in Babylon is presented as a punishment for idolatry and disobedience to Yahweh. The Babylonian captivity had a number of serious effects on Judaism and Jewish culture. For example, the Aramaic alphabet, which eventually evolved into the Hebrew alphabet, was adopted during this period. Eventually the Aramaic-based Hebrew alphabet replaced the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet.
Chronology
The following table is based on Rainer Albertz's work on Israel in exile, itself based mainly on biblical texts.Rainer Albertz, Israel in exile: the history and literature of the sixth century BCE, p.xxi.
(Alternative dates are possible.)
609 BCE Death of Josiah. Jehoahaz reigns three months.
Jehoahaz is deposed and taken captive to Egypt by the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II.
Jehoiakim is made king of Judah by Necho and reigns 11 years.605 BCE Babylonians defeat the Egyptians and besiege Jerusalem. Jehoiakim surrenders and begins giving tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 605 BCE.
First deportation, purportedly including Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.601 BCE Babylonians fail to invade Egypt. Jehoiakim switches his allegiance back to the Egyptians. 598/7 BCE Nebuchadnezzar invades Judea and again lays siege to Jerusalem.
End of Jehoiakim's reign. Jehoiachin reigns three months.597 BCE First fall of Jerusalem. Second deportation, 16 March 597 including Jehoiachin and Ezekiel.
Zedekiah is made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar and reigns 11 years.594 BCE Anti-Babylonian conspiracy. Zedekiah arranges a meeting of the kings of Ammon, Edom, Moab, Sidon and Tyre in Jerusalem to deal with the possibility of throwing off Babylonian control. 587 BCE Second fall of Jerusalem. Solomon's Temple destroyed.
Third deportation July/August 587. Zedekiah is taken captive to Babylon and his sons are killed.583 BCE Gedaliah, the Babylonian-appointed governor of Yehud Province, is assassinated.
Many Jews flee to Egypt and a possible fourth deportation to Babylon.562 BCE Release of Jehoiachin after 37 years in a Babylonian prison following the ascension of Amel-Marduk. Jehoiachin remains in Babylon. 539 BCE Persians conquer Babylon (October). 538 BCE Decree of Cyrus allows Jews to return to Jerusalem. Sheshbazzar leads a wave of Jews back to Yehud. 520–515 BCE Return by many Jews to Yehud under Zerubbabel and Joshua the High Priest.
Foundations of Second Temple laid.457 BCE Third return migration under Ezra who reintroduces the Torah in Jerusalem. 444 BCE Fourth return migration under Nehemiah who rebuilds Jerusalem and its walls.
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