The Babylonian exile is where the waters part in the history of Israel. In a series of military campaigns, the Babylonian armies decimated Judah, burned the city of Jerusalem, and ravaged the economy of the region. The first campaign came in 597 b.c.e. At that time, the Babylonians deported a large number of Judeans (2 Kgs 24:14), including the royal family of Jehoiachin (v. 12). A second campaign resulted in the burning of Jerusalem and the countryside in 586 b.c.e. (2 Kgs 25:8–12). The Babylonians set up a provisional government, and in 581 b.c.e. the Babylonians returned and took another group of Judeans into exile (Jer 52:30). Throughout the exile, however, the Judean royal family lived in comfort in the royal citadel of Babylon. They were supplied generous rations by the Babylonian government, and they maintained their claims as the legitimate rulers of Judah. Although the Babylonian conquests and exiles decimated the Judean people, the scribal infrastructure of the royal family remained intact during the Babylonian exile and into the early Persian period. In the troubled days following the Babylonian invasions writing returned to state control under the exiled royal family in Babylon.

The “exile” divides history. Even the terminology – we speak of pre-exilic and post-exilic periods – reflects this division. Although the Babylonian exile is often thought of as one event, it was a long and devastating process.