Babylonian captivity

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 Hebrew Bible accounts, 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 c. 601 BCE, 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 Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) 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 Tanakh‘s Book of Ezra, construction of the Israelites’ Second Temple began c. 537 BCE in Jerusalem, with Judea as part of the new Persian province named Yehud Medinata ("the province of Judah") under Cyrus the Great. All of these events are considered significant to the developed history and culture of the Jewish people, and ultimately had a far-reaching impact on the further development of Judaism.

Archaeological studies have revealed that, although the city of Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, Judah continued to be inhabited by a remnant of Judeans during the period of the Judean exile in Babylon. Historical records from Mesopotamia and Jewish sources indicate that, after liberation by Cyrus, a portion of the Jewish population continued to live in Mesopotamia. This sub-group led to the establishment of a sizable Jewish community in Mesopotamia, known in Hebrew as The Golah (exiles), which persisted until modern times. The Iraqi Jewish, Persian Jewish, Georgian Jewish, Bukharian Jewish, and Mountain Jewish communities are believed to derive their ancestry in large part from these exiles; these communities have now largely emigrated to Israel.