How many jews exiled to babylon

The exile ended when Cyrus of Persia defeated Babylon and allowed the Judeans to return home. Residents of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon, also used to refer to the population of the larger geographical designation of lower Mesopotamia.

Hebrew is regarded as the spoken language of ancient Israel but is largely replaced by Aramaic in the Persian period. The set of Biblical books shared by Jews and Christians. A more neutral alternative to "Old Testament. The name of Israel's god, but with only the consonants of the name, as spelled in the Hebrew Bible.

In antiquity, Jews stopped saying the name as a sign of reverence. Some scholars today use only the consonants to recognize the lost original pronunciation or to respect religious tradition. Reign and Captivity of Jehoiachin 8Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehusht Short written texts, generally inscribed on stone or clay and frequently recording an event or dedicating an object.

The Persian name for the province including the territory of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem. The last ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruled from — B. Nabonidus promoted worship of the moon god Sin over the national god of Babylon, Marduk. Nabonidus spent much of his reign at the oasis of Tayma in the Arabian desert, leaving his son Belshazzar in charge of the empire.

Nabonidus was defeated by the Persians under Cyrus in B. Relating to the period in Judean history following the Babylonian exile — B. End of the Babylonian Captivity 1In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, t Site HarperCollins Dictionary.

Places Home Babylonian Exile. Add this:. Is that a correct image? The Babylonian exile was a period in the history of ancient Israel. One exile in BC saw around 1, people make the perilous journey via modern-day Lebanon and Syria to the fertile crescent of southern Iraq, where the Judeans traded, ran businesses and helped the administration of the kingdom.

He knew he needed the Judeans to help revive the struggling Babylonian economy. The tablets, each inscribed in minute Akkadian script, detail trade in fruits and other commodities, taxes paid, debts owed and credits accumulated.

The places where they dwelt were known by various names; thus, "Tel Abib," according to the Hebrew etymology, signified "hill of corn-ears," whereas its Babylonian signification was "the deluge," or "hill of the stream"—the valley of the rivers Chebar one of the numerous canals of the Euphrates , Casiphia, and Ahava Ezek.

A number of western Semitic proper names, discovered upon inscriptions found in Nippur, have led Hilprecht to believe that many of the exiles were settled in that place see, for example, "Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement," Jan. They not only preserved their old tribal distinction, but kept special genealogicalrecords Ezra viii.

Their outward condition was also by no means unsatisfactory. Jeremiah, in his exhortations xxix. Perhaps, being permitted to administer their internal affairs through their elders, they were allowed the undisturbed exercise of their religion; and nowhere are bloody persecutions heard of, designed to alienate forcibly the people from their ancestral religion, and to coerce them into accepting that of the conquerors.

All the misery, want, imprisonment, and ill-treatment, frequently described as suffered in Babylonia, must be explained by the fact that the Prophets, whenever they gazed back upon the national catastrophe, felt anew all the pangs of homelessness and servitude. Consequently, the description of the people as a helpless worm Isa. The chains and bonds are not such as have been forged for them in the land of their exile: they are figurative of the condition of homelessness and servitude into which the exiled Israelites have fallen; and they have lost their home, they have been despoiled, and the fetters of the foreign rule weigh heavily upon them.

The Prophets also deplore the deep humiliation to which God has subjected His people by consigning them to ruin, and they bewail the circumstance that even the religious leaders, the priests and the Prophets themselves, have been delivered up to the profanation of a pagan people, instead of being permitted to serve the Lord in His holy Temple according to the divine mission appointed to them Isa.

The source of the most poignant grief on the part of the pious devotees of Yhwh was the ridicule cast by the idolaters upon their religion, their God, and His power; for, as the pagans could not trace the downfall of the people to its true cause—the sins of the people themselves—they beheld in the fall of Jerusalem and its Temple a proof of the weakness of Israel's God Isa.

In consequence of the favorable external circumstances of the exiles, and particularly of such of them as were engaged in the diversified commerce in the Babylonian metropolis, the longing for home gradually disappeared, and they learned to content themselves with material prosperity. Most of these indifferent persons were lost to their people; for, in their anxiety to retain the wealth they had acquired, they learned to conform to the manners and customs of the country, thus sacrificing not only their national but also their religious independence and individuality.

Hence the denunciation by the Prophets of the various forms of idolatry practised among the people. Even if the description of the idolatry mentioned in Isa. Despite all this indifference and impiety on the part of the masses, there was nevertheless an element that remained true to the service of Yhwh.

These "servants of Yhwh ," who humbly submitted , "the meek" to His will, gathered about the few Prophets who remained faithful to the Lord, but whose voice and influence were lost amid the general depravity, and who, in addition to the pain caused by base ingratitude and faithlessness toward the God of their fathers, were also compelled to endure all the shafts of scorn and ridicule.

While some, though without obeying the prophet's exhortations Ezek. Indeed, in their delusion they proceeded even to open hostility and oppression; and a reference to a species of excommunication or, at least, an open declaration of ostracism, is contained in the above-mentioned passage. These sad experiences of all true Israelites tended to separate them more and more from their recreant brethren. The more the pious exiles felt themselves repelled by their pagan environment and their disloyal fellow-Israelites Ps.

What they had re-established almost immediately of the religion of their fathers was the sacred observances. True, a festive celebration of the high festivals was out of the question, in view of the unfavorable conditions and of the mood of the people. Such a celebration was, therefore, supplanted by solemn days of penance and prayer to commemorate the catastrophe which had befallen the people Zech.

The fasts of the fathers were also observed, although in so superficial and thoughtless a manner that the prophet was compelledto condemn the mode of observance, and to censure fasting when accompanied by the ordinary business pursuits of every-day Isa. As the faithful could not honor Yhwh by sacrifices in a foreign land, nothing remained to them of all their ceremonial but the observance of the Sabbath Hosea ix. Such, for example, were the act of circumcision, which, together with the observance of the Sabbath, constituted a distinguishing mark of Israel; regular prayer, performed with the face turned toward Jerusalem I Kings viii.

When the Prophets of the Exile spoke of the conditions under which the divine prophecies would be fulfilled, they always emphasized the observance of the Sabbath as the foremost obligation, as the force which should unite and preserve the Jewish community Isa.

On the other hand, it is evident from the demands and exhortations of the Prophets that they were now willing to dispense with the ceremonial, as the more external form of religious observance, in order to emphasize the exemplification of the essential religious spirit in works of morality and charity.

At the same time the idea found acceptance that the submission of the personal will to that of the Lord would prove the most acceptable sacrifice in His sight Ezek. Ezekiel also establishes the new principle that the essence of religion must be sought in individual morality: "The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him" Ezek.

The new religious conviction was confirmed by the contemplation of the pagan idols with the attendant immoral cult, which reacted to strengthen and to purify the conception of the monotheistic idea, so that in the Deutero-Isaiah the certain conviction is already expressed of the ultimate recognition of Yhwh by all pagan peoples. Particular attention was now paid to the ancestral literature; and thus there arose during the Babylonian Exile the profession of the "scribes," those learned in the Law who set the standard of piety and devotion, and who transmitted their precepts both to their successors and to the people at large, while at the same time extending the body of the laws by means of revision and amplification see Pentateuch.

Historical writings also were now revised in accordance with the standard of the Law, establishing as a basis the historical conception of Deuteronomy. All the calamities which had befallen Israel were accepted by these exiles as a punishment for transgressions, and particularly for idol-worship. The sin of Jeroboam had ruined Israel, and the transgressions of Manasseh, despite his subsequent thorough reformation, were only atoned for by the downfall of Judah.

Therefore the history of the past was to serve both as a warning and as a guide for the future. This explains the purpose of the compilation of the various older historical works into a historical entity: the new Israel, risen from the grave of exile, must avoid the sins and errors which caused the ruin of its fathers.

And indeed the Psalms which were composed after the Exile reveal a keener introspection, a deeper sense of contrition, and a more frank avowal of sin than the earlier ones. The first indication of a change for the better was the liberation of King Jehoiachin from his captivity, with regal honors which distinguished him above all other kings at the court of Babylon.

And this whole land shall be a ruin, and a waste; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Jeremiah , He appointed in it a king of his liking [Zedekiah], took heavy booty from it and sent it to Babylon.

Jewish history was permanently altered by the destruction of the First Temple, and the exile that came afterwards. We use cookies to improve your experience on our site and bring you ads that might interest you.