sourced story
586 BCEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Nebuchadnezzar Destroys Jerusalem and the First Temple

Babylon burns Solomon's Temple and marches the kingdom of Judah into exile

On the timeline · around 586 BCE · Second Temple and ExileAncient IsraelSecond Temple and ExileNebuchadnezzar Destroys Jerusalem and the First Temple800 BCE750 BCE700 BCE650 BCE600 BCE550 BCE500 BCE450 BCE400 BCE

Quick facts

First deportation
598/597 BCE
Jerusalem and Temple destroyed
586 BCE (some sources: 587 BCE)
Conqueror
Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon
Aftermath
End of the Kingdom of Judah; deportation to Babylonia

What happened

The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II first besieged Jerusalem in 598/597 BCE, deporting the city's elite back to Babylon in what became known as the Babylonian Captivity. When King Zedekiah, installed as a Babylonian client, rebelled again, Nebuchadnezzar's forces returned and this time destroyed the city outright: in 586 BCE they burned the First Temple and razed Jerusalem's walls. World History Encyclopedia describes the destruction bluntly, as the literal demolition of the house the Israelites believed their god inhabited. Large portions of Judah's population, though not the whole of it, were deported to Babylonia, ending the kingdom of Judah as an independent state.

Why it matters

The loss of the Temple and the land promised to Israel forced a religious crisis: without a king, a Temple, or a homeland, Jewish leaders and prophets had to explain how their god's promises still held, work that reshaped Israelite religion into something that could survive exile and eventually made possible its later transformation into a text-and-practice-centered faith rather than one built entirely around a single sanctuary.

How we know

The Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and Judah's deportations are recorded in the Hebrew Bible's historical books and corroborated independently by Babylonian court records and archaeological destruction layers at Jerusalem dated to this period.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Judaism26 events · A small highland people, a book that outlasted every empire that tried to erase it, and a faith that survived exile twice and built a state a third timeView all →