Exile
Following
Zedekiah’s rebellion in 598BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon turned his wrath against Jerusalem, finally
capturing the city in July 587BC after a long seige lasting a year and a half.
Zedekiah escaped by night and fled towards the River Jordan, but the
Babylonians set out in pursuit and captured him near Jericho. Zedekiah was
taken before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, near Hamath, blinded and
led to Babylon in chains (see Jeremiah 39:1-7).
Over
the next few months, the Temple and the royal palace in Jerusalem were destroyed by fire and the city
walls were torn down by Nebuzaradan, the commander of the Babylonian imperial
guard. All the silver censers and the bronze furnishings from the Temple were confiscated and sent to Babylon. The huge
bronze pillars and the bronze ceremonial washing bowl (the ‘Bronze Sea’) were
removed and melted down to be re-used (see 2 Kings 25:8-21). The same fate
probably met the valuable gold articles and treasures from the Temple that had
already been taken to Babylon eleven years earlier (see 2 Kings
24:13).
The
prophet Jeremiah - who had foretold the downfall of Jerusalem and had tried in vain to persude
Zedekiah to surrender - was rescued by Nebuzaradan from amongst the captives
who were being marshalled for exile in the holding camp at Ramah, just north of Jerusalem. Jeremiah was offered the reward
of luxurious living in Babylon,
but he chose to stay behind at Mizpah under the protection of Gedeliah, the
new Babylonian governor (see Jeremiah 40:1-6).
Meanwhile,
the high priest and the royal advisors were arrested and executed, and the
people of Judah were led into exile in Babylonia. Only a few
of the poorest agricultural labourers were left behind to tend the vineyards
and the surrounding fields.
B.
Babylonian Exile, also called Babylonian Captivity, the forced detention of Jews
in Babylonia following the latter’s conquest of the kingdom of Judah in
598/7 and 587/6 BCE. The exile formally ended in 538 BCE, when the
Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, gave the Jews permission to return to Palestine. Historians agree that several deportations took place (each
the result of uprisings in Palestine), that not all Jews were forced to leave
their homeland, that returning Jews left Babylonia at various times, and that
some Jews chose to remain in Babylonia—thus constituting the first of numerous Jewish communities living permanently in the Diaspora.
Although the Jews suffered greatly and faced powerful cultural pressures in a
foreign land, they maintained their national spirit and religious identity.
Elders supervised the Jewish communities, and Ezekiel was
one of several prophets who kept alive the hope of one day returning home. This
was possibly also the period when synagogues were first established, for the
Jews observed the Sabbath and religious holidays, practiced circumcision, and substituted prayers for former ritual sacrifices in the
Temple. The degree to which the Jews looked upon Cyrus the Great as their benefactor and a servant of their God is reflected at several points in
the Hebrew Bible—e.g., at Isaiah 45:1–3, where he is actually called God’s
anointed.
C. Life
under Exile
It was in the exile
period that Judaism as a religion was born and the people of Israel were
identified as Jews. The exile period was from 587 – 539 B.C.E. Many Jews were
deported to Babylon, some fled to Egypt and other places and the weakest and
lowest of them remained in Judah itself.
1. Exiles
in Babylon:
a) Population:
These Jews
represented the cream of the nation’s political, ecclesiastical and
intellectual leadership. All 3 deportations taken together, approximately 4600
Jewish men were deported to Babylon.
b) Social
Condition:
The Jews may not have faced severe
hardships and humiliation. They were no dispersed with the local people rather
confined to their own settlements. They were allowed to build houses and they
lived together as a community.
c) Economic
condition:
They engaged in agriculture as well
as other means of employment. At a later stage some even ventured into trade
and became rich.
2. Jews
in Egypt and other places:
A significant number of Jews fled
to Egypt, one group with Jeremiah in their company. Some found refuge in Egypt
while some others worked there as mercenaries. Many continued to remain there
until the end of the Persian period.
3. Jews
in Judah:
All the fortified towns in Judah
including the temple were completely destroyed by the Babylonian army. Apart
from the ones who were deported and others who fled to different places, many
others were either executed or died of starvation and disease. There was a tiny
population that were left in Judah. They were completely weak, leaderless and
not capable to rise up against the Babylonian empire. In fact they were barely
able to make their ends meet.
D. Important
Developments in Judah’s History
a) Identity
as Jews:
They strictly adhered to the law
and tradition. As a result Sabbath and circumcision received more stress. This
became the mark or identity of the Jew. Emphasis was also given to ritual
purity including ritual bathing and strict dietary laws.
b) Development
of Scripture:
Records and traditions of the past
were carefully preserved. Previous documents including royal annals, primordial
stories, ancestral narratives and legal documents were compiled, edited and
arranged. The sayings of the prophets, the cultic laws and the priestly
narrative of the Pentateuch were carefully recorded in oral and written form
c) Use
of Hebrew as a liturgical language:
Even though Hebrew ceased to be
spoken in common life, it was used primarily in the liturgy and worship.
d) Rise
of Judaism:
The exile did not produce a single
monolithic Judaism rather several streams of it. The primary among them were:
·
Normative group -
required strict adherence to law,
·
Wisdom group –
advocated a life of moderation and rational thought
·
Apocalyptic movement –
advocated eschatological vision of battles
·
Universalisam movement
– observed sharing of the Law and Yahweh as Jews’ true mission.
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