BSN: The Babylonian Exile

• Also called “the Babylonian Captivity.” It lasted seventy years.
• Matthew calls it “the deportation to Babylon” (Mt 1:11, 12, 17)
• People were exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon in stages; it didn’t happen all at once. The exile began in 597 BC (2 Kings 24:10-14) – 11 years before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
• Among the Jews in Jerusalem subject to the exile were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Some of the exiles made it back to Jerusalem, such as Ezra and Nehemiah. Others, like Mordecai and Esther, continued living away from Jerusalem even after the seventy years were up.

When Nebuchadnezzar exiled Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon (2 Kgs 24-25), Jeremiah told the people this on behalf of the Lord:

Jer 29:10 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.

In other words, this exile would only last 70 years. Other prophets – like Daniel – reinforced that message.

Dan 9:1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans–
Dan 9:2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

Like Daniel, Ezekiel himself was an exile. That the prophets stayed with the people and endured the exile with them, giving them hope along the way, made the trial bearable. Even though they had disobeyed God as a people, they had hope in His forgiveness – that He could and would restore them to the land as He promised.

Ezek 1:1 Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
Ezek 1:2 (On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile,
Ezek 1:3 the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the LORD came upon him.)

• Ussher’s Chronology dates the exile from 607 BC (when exiles were first hauled to Babylon in 2 Kgs 24) to 537 BC (when King Cyrus of Persia decreed that any Jews living in his domain could return).
• Though Jews were allowed to return to Israel after 537 BC, many of them never did. That is, they and their descendants remained part of the Diaspora along with the ten tribes that had been vanquished from northern Israel in 722 BC. That worldwide dispersion remains the case to this day even though Israel was reconstituted as a nation in 1948. Estimates are that Jews are currently 0.2% of the world population, and that the highest that percentage reached in ancient times was 2%.

Comparatively speaking, America at its founding was like a Jerusalem on earth, reflecting the one above, but in our day is like a Babylon. Therefore, Israel’s time in exile is a teaching vehicle for Jesus to use in order to help us know how to survive in our current environment.

• Jer 29:7 ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’