James D. Purvis and Eric Meyers. “Exile and Return: From the Babylonian Destruction to the Reconstruction of the Jewish State.” Part IV

Excerpted from Ancient Israel From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple. Ed. Hershal Shanks. Washington, D.C.- Biblical Archaeology Society, 1999.

The Exile to Babylonia

The rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, were carried into exile by Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
(2 Kings 25-11–12)

The calamities that befell Judah when king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon crushed Zedekiah’s rebellion and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. are stated concisely but poignantly in the narrative prose accounts in the books of Kings and Jeremiah. The king’s sons were executed before his eyes; then Zedekiah himself was blinded and imprisoned. The Temple was burned; the Temple officials, military commanders and noblemen were executed; and, finally, the survivors were exiled (2 Kings 25-7–21; Jeremiah 39-1–10 and 52-1–16).

Following this, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah as governor. Gedaliah established his administrative center at Mizpah. Although the biblical account does not indicate the extent of Gedaliah’s authority, there was apparently some hope for peace and economic recovery under his leadership. 1

This hope was thwarted, however, by the assassination of Gedaliah and the flight of his supporters and others to Egypt. Thus, in addition to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its leaders to Babylonia, this dispersion to Egypt further weakened the nation (2 Kings 25-22–26; Jeremiah 40-1–44-30). All these developments profoundly affected the course of Jewish life in Palestine and abroad, that is, in the Diaspora.

How Many Exiles?

In reprisal for Gedaliah’s assassination, the Babylonians deported still more Jews to Babylon. According to Jeremiah, 745 people were deported in 582 B.C.E. (Jeremiah tells us that, previously, 832 people had been deported in 586 B.C.E. and 3,023 in 597 B.C.E., when King Jehoiachin was defeated [Jeremiah 52-28–30]).

There are several surprises in Jeremiah’s figures. First, the number of deportees to Babylonia at the time of Gedaliah’s assassination was not much smaller than the number of those taken into exile at the destruction of Jerusalem (only 87 fewer). Second, the number deported in the exile of 586 B.C.E. is itself not very large (832). And third, neither of these deportations was as large as the exile of 597 B.C.E.- Of the total number of deportees (4,600), virtually two-thirds (3,023) went into exile with the captivity of King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C.E.

No figures are given in 2 Kings for the number of deportees in 586 B.C.E. (when Jerusalem was destroyed), and no reference is made to a deportation following Gedaliah’s assassination. Numbers are given, however, for the first deportation under Jehoiachin. According to 2 Kings 24-14, 10,000 people were exiled at that time (including 7,000 soldiers and 1,000 craftsmen and smiths). This number greatly exceeds the figure given in Jeremiah. Whatever the true figures, it is clear enough that it was the leadership of society that was removed and that about 90 percent of the population remained in Palestine. 2

The lack of specific figures in 2 Kings for the exile of 586 B.C.E. is not surprising; the writer wished to stress the destruction of the city and its Temple and the fate of the survivors. But one thing is clear- For the writer of 2 Kings, as for the editor of Jeremiah, the Babylonian Exile began in 597 B.C.E., when Nebuchadnezzar removed and imprisoned King Jehoiachin and appointed Zedekiah as a puppet-king to reign in his stead.

Neither is it surprising then that the concluding words of 2 Kings concern King Jehoiachin. There we learn that in the 37th year of his exile (561 B.C.E.), the king was released from prison and granted a position of status by the Babylonian king Evil-merodach (Amel-Marduk in Babylonian records) (2 Kings 25-27–30; see also Jeremiah 52-31–34). Why was this important to the biblical writers? Because their hope for the restoration of the Davidic dynasty (the divine election of which played such an important role in their theology of history) lay with Jehoiachin, not with Zedekiah. Zedekiah had been appointed king by the Babylonians only after Jehoiachin had been taken hostage;
Zedekiah’s reign was viewed by many as only temporary. 3

In Babylonia, Jehoiachin was regarded as the exiled Judahite king, both before and after the deportation of 586 B.C.E. It was certainly not accidental that the leader of the first wave of Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem was Jehoiachin’s son, Sheshbazzar, and that the builder of the Second Temple was his grandson, Zerubbabel. 4

In short, according to the editors of 2 Kings and Jeremiah, the Exile to Babylonia began in 597 B.C.E. when King Jehoiachin was taken hostage by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24-12–17; Jeremiah 52-28–30). This was the first and largest of three separate deportations; a second deportation occurred at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. (2 Kings 25-8–12; Jeremiah 52-12–16) and, according to Jeremiah, a third occurred after the assassination of Gedaliah in 582 B.C.E. (Jeremiah 52-30).

The Book of Chronicles presents quite a different picture- Here there is only one deportation, at the time of the destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C.E., and indeed very little is said about it (2 Chronicles 36-20–21). Although the Chronicler records the deportation of Jehoiachin himself in 597 B.C.E. (2 Chronicles 36-10), he does not associate the beginning of the national Exile with that event. Rather, the Chronicler states that “the precious vessels of the house of the Lord” were removed to Babylon with the exile of Jehoiachin; the removal of the Temple vessels is what is important, not the removal of the people.

Second Chronicles is a simplified retelling of the story in which the historian has stressed what he considers most significant. The Temple—its plan, construction, furnishings, administration and service—is of paramount importance throughout the Chronicler’s history. In Ezra 1–6 (a continuation of the narrative of 2 Chronicles 36), the Chronicler regards the return of the Temple vessels at the end of the Exile as an important link in establishing continuity between the cultic establishment of the First and Second Temples (Ezra 1-7–11,5-14–15,6-5). 5

For the Chronicler, when the Jews returned from Exile, they returned not with a king to reestablish the older political order, but with the Temple vessels to continue the cultic order that had allegedly existed in ancient times.
Equally important for the Chronicler is his claim that the Exile resulted in the land becoming desolate and lying fallow (in effect keeping its own sabbath) (2 Chronicles 36-21). This description of the land seems to have been derived from a tradition ( Leviticus 26-1–39) preserved in the Holiness Code; the code states that the punishment for idolatry is banishment to a foreign land, with the result that the land lies fallow- And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheath the sword after you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbaths. (Leviticus 26-33–34)

The Chronicler also made use of Jeremiah’s prophecy of an exile of 70 years (Jeremiah 25-11, 29-10), not simply to indicate that this would be the duration of the Exile, but to stress that the land would have a tenfold (seven years times ten) sabbath rest- He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years. (2 Chronicles 36-21)

The prophet Zechariah also uses the 70-year designation to characterize the period of divine anger (Zechariah 1-12; 7-3, 5) and is also certainly dependent on Jeremiah. If the number 70 was important, one had to begin counting at some point. Both Zechariah and the Chronicler chose to begin with the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E., 6 not the captivity of Jehoiachin in 597 B.C.E.

The Chronicler’s account of the Exile appears to have been shaped by his editorial concerns. It is thus less useful for historical reconstruction than the traditions in 2 Kings and Jeremiah, especially when Chronicles is in disagreement with these two sources. What does seem fairly certain, however, is that the Babylonian Exile began before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. When the deportees in 586 B.C.E., and at any subsequent time, reached Babylonia they joined a Jewish community that was already established. Given that the Judahite leaders were among the last to be deported, the task of reestablishing the community began in earnest after 586 B.C.E.

Moreover, in the late eighth century B.C.E., exiles from Israelite Samaria had been settled by the Assyrians in western Syria, Mesopotamia and Media (see 2 Kings 15-29, 17-6; 1 Chronicles 5-26). The annals of Sargon II indicate a deportation/settlement (and also military conscription) of about 27,000 Israelites. 7

The preaching of Ezekiel shows that not all of these communities had been assimilated by pagan cultures; much of this biblical book is concerned with the reunification of the Judahite and Israelite branches of the nation after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. Indeed, some passages in Ezekiel read as if they were actually directed at specific Israelite—that is, northern— communities in exile. The Jews of the military colony at Elephantine in Egypt (see below) may also have been of northern, Israelite origin. 8

Thus, while we may date the Babylonian Exile from 597 and 586 B.C.E., this event was but part of a long process of establishing Israelite/Judahite settlements in Mesopotamia and Babylonia, a process that had begun earlier and that would continue. Most of Israel was not deported, and many of the descendants of the exiles never returned; the Jewish people had become a people both in their ancestral homeland and in the Diaspora.

“By the Waters of Babylon”- The Jewish Exiles in Babylonia

The familiar words of Psalm 137, “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion,” are often cited as expressing the mood of the Babylonian exiles. This is not surprising; the psalm is a poem of great beauty, in which plaintive lyricism is mixed both with frustration (“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”) and with nostalgia and loyalty (“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!”). What it expresses was certainly part of the experience of Exile for many of the deportees. But it falls short of conveying all we know of Jewish life in Babylonia and thus ought not to be taken as characteristic of the Exile experience as a whole. A more representative text—certainly of the social and economic dimensions of life by the waters of Babylon—is found in a letter written by Jeremiah to the deportees after 597 B.C.E.- Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But 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 find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29-5–7)

Indeed, this seems to be how things worked out, though hardly in deference to the prophet’s appeal.

Although our knowledge of Jewish life in Babylonia is fragmentary, we are nonetheless able to put together a general picture of the situation from allusions in contemporary biblical texts, from later biblical texts and from extrabiblical sources.

Life in Babylonia

With the exception of some members of the royal Judahite family and aristocracy, the people did not live in “captivity”; they were settled on deserted agricultural land where they were free, as Jeremiah says, to “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.” Their status probably did not permit them to be landowners; more likely, they were land-tenants on royal estates. 9

We know that some Jews were settled beside “the river Chebar” (Ezekiel 1-1–3, 3-15, 23), an irrigation canal of the Euphrates (Akkadian, nâru kabari) that flowed through Nippur. One Jewish settlement beside the Chebar was known as Tel-abib (Ezekiel 3-15); if this settlement was even then a tell, or mound containing a buried ancient city, it might be evidence that the Babylonians settled the Jewish deportees at or near the sites of ruined, abandoned cities, perhaps as part of a program to develop unused land resources. Further support for this suggestion comes from the fact that Jewish exiles were apparently also settled at Tel-melah and Tel-harsha ( Ezra 2-59). Other places of Jewish settlement mentioned by name are Cherub, Addan/Addon, Immer (Ezra 2-59; Nehemiah 7-61), and Casiphia (Ezra 8-17). The locations of these cities are not known. Some Jews were probably also conscripted into military and other imperial services, as was the custom both of the Assyrians and of the Babylonians in their dealings with deportees.

Evidence of Jews in the nâru kabari (Chebar) region also comes from a number of cuneiform documents discovered in excavations at Nippur. The so-called Murashu texts contain the records of a large Babylonian family banking firm. Copies of contracts made by Jews and other documents concerning Jews testify to the existence of Jewish communities in 28 settlements in the Nippur area. Although dating from the Persian period (fifth century B.C.E.), these records indicate that Jews had prospered in agriculture, trade and banking during the century after their settlement there. There appears to be no discrimination against the Jews even though they were descendants of foreigners. Jews made the same kinds of contracts at the same interest rates as others. Several held positions of prestige, one in the Murashu firm itself, another in government service. One Jew held a military fief, for which he was obliged to render military services or to furnish a substitute. 10

Indications that some of the Jews of the Exile managed to accumulate wealth also appear in Ezra 1-5–6 and 2-68–69, which speak of contributions in gold, silver and precious goods for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Ezra 2-65 mentions male and female slaves who returned with their Jewish masters. Not only were Jews permitted to own slaves, some were financially able to do so.

Jehoiachin, a Leader in Exile

The recognized leader of the Jewish community during the Babylonian Exile was the Davidic monarch Jehoiachin. Although his leadership was only titular, it was nonetheless significant. From the very beginning of Jehoiachin’s captivity in 597 B.C.E., there was apparently hope for his restoration to power, even though the prophet Jeremiah counseled against a naive optimism in this regard (Jeremiah 28–29). Ezekiel indicated his own loyalty to the hostage king by dating events from the year 597 B.C.E. and expressing the hope that Jehoiachin’s family would again shepherd the people in their native land ( Ezekiel 34-20–31, 37-24–28). In addition to the biblical texts, two sets of epigraphic data may testify to the status of Jehoiachin in exile- First, a number of seal impressions found throughout Judah bear the inscription “Belonging to Eliakim, steward of Yaukin”; second, a cuneiform document from the official archives in Babylon lists rations of foods to be supplied from the royal storehouses to King Yaukin of Judah, his five sons and other Judahite officials. William F. Albright, who discovered of the first of the Yaukin seals at Tell Beit Mirsim, suggested that Yaukin was a form of Jehoiachin and that Eliakim was the Judahite administrator of the crown properties of Jehoiachin following the king’s deportation. Recently, however, scholars have questioned this identification. 11 Albright argued that Zedekiah, the puppet-king appointed by the Babylonians, decided not to confiscate Jehoiachin’s wealth because he was insecure in his own position. Zedekiah was unsure whether Jehoiachin would be restored. 12

As for the significance of the ration for Jehoiachin in the Babylonian cuneiform archives, we may cite Albright- Now we know that Jehoiachin was not only the legitimate king of the Jewish exiles in Babylonia from their own point of view, he was also regarded by the Babylonians as legitimate king of Judah, whom they held in reserve for possible restoration to power if circumstances should seem to favor it. 13

Jehoiachin was released from prison in 561 B.C.E. by Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, Amel-Marduk, and thereafter received provisions by royal allowance (2 Kings 25-27–30 and the Babylonian cuneiform archives). Thus, the exiled king and his family enjoyed some measure of freedom in Babylonia. This did not, however, result in Jehoiachin’s restoration to power in his native land. We do not know what prompted Jehoiachin’s release, and we can only guess at how this action may have related to internal Babylonian politics. 14

All we know is that Jehoiachin spent the remainder of his life in Babylonia as the recognized head of the exiled Jewish community.

The release of Jehoiachin and the attendant hopes at reestablishing the monarchy could well have inspired his contemporary, the incumbent chief priest Jehozadak, to embark on the task of editing the authoritative texts of the emerging Bible- the Pentateuch and Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings). 15

The task of compiling and redacting these texts was certainly the most significant accomplishment of the exiled community. It is impossible to conceive of this activity without the involvement of the learned priestly stratum of Babylonian Jewish society.

Jewish communal leadership in Babylonia appears to have been in the hands of officials known as “elders”—the elders of the Exile, of Judah and of Israel (Jeremiah 29-1; Ezekiel 8-1, 14-1, 20-1). Texts concerning the return to Jerusalem also mention “the heads of families” (e.g., Ezra 2-68, 8-1). The family was apparently the basic unit of
social organization in Babylonia. Whether families kept the strict genealogical records indicated in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 is moot; one group of priests was chided (and subsequently disenfranchised) for not having done so (Ezra 2-59–63; Nehemiah 7-61–65 ). The genealogical tables in Ezra 2-36–58 and Nehemiah 7-39–60 show a keen interest in the families of the cultic orders, that is, the priests, Levites, nethinim (temple servants), and a group known as the “sons of Solomon’s servants.” A passage in Ezra 8-15–20 indicates that these families were concentrated in particular places; Ezra secured a number of Levites and nethinim from “the place Casiphia.”

A Temple in Babylon

This raises the question of cultic or religious activities among the exiles in Babylonia. From a hoard of papyri known as the Elephantine papyri, we know that a Jewish temple existed in Egypt at Elephantine (Yeb) during the fifth century B.C.E. 16

From Josephus we know that in the Hellenistic period another Jewish temple was built in Egypt at Leontopolis. 17 We also learn from Josephus of a Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim. 18 The Deuteronomic restriction on multiple shrines and the command to make pilgrimage to and perform cultic rites at only one place (Deuteronomy 12) was interpreted as applying only to worship in the land of Canaan, not outside. It thus leaves open the question of worship in the Diaspora.

It is sometimes suggested that the synagogue (as a substitute for the temple) came into being at this time. But there is no specific evidence for this, and the question has been debated with no clear resolution. 19

Part of the difficulty stems from the lack of agreement on exactly what is meant by synagogue- Is it the institution known from later times, with clearly defined functions relating to the reading of the law and prayers, or is it simply a meeting place for community activities? 20

Whichever, the origins of the synagogue are obscure. Nor is it clear that its original purpose, functionally speaking, was to provide a place of worship for those who either did not have a temple or found it inconvenient to get to a temple. There were, for example, synagogues in Jerusalem during the Roman period, before the destruction of the Second Temple; such synagogues clearly were not needed as substitutes for the nearby Temple and its rituals. Hence, many of the functions associated with later synagogues (dating after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E.), such as Torah study, law, charity and hostelry, may also be associated with the Second Temple equivalent. From the earliest periods (the sixth century B.C.E. to the Hellenistic period), typical gathering places around city gates and other open areas could well have served as models for the later closed and architecturally discrete entity known as the synagogue 21

The question of how and where Jews may have worshiped in Babylonia needs to be addressed in the context of the communal character of Jewish prayer. Prayer may be offered in solitude, as was the case with Daniel in Babylon; Daniel prayed three times daily in his chamber, facing a window that opened toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6-10–11).

But the experience of prayer in Israel was rooted in community worship. It is through the shared experience of worship that one becomes accustomed to a specific number of daily prayers (the reference in Daniel is the earliest to the thrice-daily practice that later became standard in Judaism), and it is through group conditioning that prayers come to have a standard form- in the case of Daniel’s prayer, thanksgiving, petition and supplication (Daniel 6-11).

A shared experience similarly influences religious rites of fasting. It inculcates the custom of observance, determines the dates on which one fasts and sets the standards of what is appropriate for fasting (from what one abstains, conditions of sorrow and mortification, penitential prayers, personal adornment, etc.). We learn from Zechariah 7-1–6 that it had become the custom during the 70 years of the Exile to fast in the fifth and seventh months, that is, in the month in which the Temple had been burned (the seventh day of the fifth month, according to 2 Kings 25-8, although in Jeremiah 52-12 it is the tenth day of the fifth month) and the month in which Gedaliah had been assassinated (the seventh month [2 Kings 25-25; Jeremiah 41-1–2]). A longer catalogue of fast days appears in Zechariah 8-18–19. It includes fasts in the fourth and tenth months, that is, in those months in which the wall of Jerusalem had first been breached by the Chaldeans/Babylonians (the ninth day of the fourth month [2 Kings 25-3–4; Jeremiah 52-6]) and during the previous year, in the month in which the siege of Jerusalem had begun (the tenth day of the tenth month [2 Kings 25-1; Jeremiah 52-4]). Zechariah’s consideration of fast days was clearly inspired by a delegation from Beth El, which questioned the appropriateness of fasting during the time of joy and celebration signaled by Cyrus’s Edict of Return and the imminence of the rededication of the Second Temple; 22 but the fact that some Judahites were concerned about the continuation of fast days indicates that fast days were observed in many quarters of Judahite society on the eve of the restoration of the Temple.

If Jews in Babylonia observed these fasts, they must have had some place to convene. Esther 4-16 indicates that fasting was a communal phenomenon among Jews in the Exile- “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do.” But neither a temple with sacred precincts nor a public house of prayer would have been necessary for such gatherings; any open place with adequate space would have sufficed. “The place (maqôm) Casiphia,” with its concentration of Levites and temple servants, skilled in liturgy, could have been such a place of gathering; if so, it was certainly not the only place. In this connection, Psalm 137 speaks of weeping (rites of mourning) beside the waters (that is, water canals) of Babylon. Ezekiel 1-1–3-15 mentions the banks of the river Chebar (the canal nâru kabari) as the place of the prophet’s “visions of God” (appropriately so, if it was a place of community worship). Later texts dealing with the Jewish Diaspora of the Greco-Roman world testify to the existence of public places of prayer by the seaside or beside rivers. 23

One such witness comes from the New Testament, in the story of Paul in Philippi- We remained in this city some days; and on the sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer. (Acts 16-12–13)

Thus, while there may have been special places of public assembly, such as the area around a city gate, where religious rituals were performed, it is clear that there were no buildings associated with these places.

Assimilation

We may assume that not all Jews were faithful to the religion of their parents; some may have assimilated into Babylonian culture. But of this we have no direct evidence. We do know that Ezekiel was concerned with Jews adopting Babylonian cults (Ezekiel 8-14).

But his concern was directed primarily at the situation in the Jewish homeland rather than in the Exile. Deutero-Isaiah’s oracles against idol worship (Isaiah 44-9–17, 46-1–13), Zechariah’s vision of the Woman in the Ephah (Zechariah 5-5–11) and the oracles on the End of False Prophecy (Zechariah 13-2–6) all point to the lure of paganism during the period of the Exile and the severe threat to Yahwism that it represented. The attraction of idols was, and remained, a problem for spiritual leaders in the Jewish Diaspora, as may be seen from later writings, including the letter of Jeremiah and the Wisdom of Solomon 13–15 (from the Apocrypha). In addition, we know that some Jews adopted Babylonian names. Others, while using Hebrew/Aramaic names, replaced the more traditional Israelite/Jewish element yahu (a form of Yahweh) with the more general divine element el. 24

This indicates a degree of assimilation, but not an abandonment of traditional Jewish religion.

Members of the house of Jehoiachin had Babylonian names, probably out of deference to their royal patrons. Nahman Avigad has published a seal of a woman who had a traditional Jewish name, but whose father bore a Babylonian name, perhaps reflecting the renewal of national aspirations among Babylonian Jews of the second generation in Exile—to which the oracles of Deutero-Isaiah also bear witness. 25

Most notable in this connection are the names of Sheshbazzar (Ezra 1-8, 5-14) and Zerubbabel (Haggai 1-1, 14; Zechariah 4-6–10a), both members of the Davidic family and governors of Judah, whose names clearly reflect the pagan milieu of Babylonia.

In short, the Jewish deportees were settled in Babylonia as land-tenants of royal estates in undeveloped areas. As such, they joined other ethnic minorities in the Mesopotamian/Babylonian region, including some previously settled Israelite communities. With the exception of some members of the royal family, the Judahites were not imprisoned or held as captives. They were free to engage in agriculture and commerce and to accumulate wealth, although on a modest scale. They were not coerced to abandon their traditional cultural ways or social organization. The imprisoned (and later freed) king Jehoiachin was their titular head, although de facto leadership was in the hands of elders, priests and/or heads of families. Their major pragmatic challenge was compiling their sacred writings, the Torah and the Former Prophets. Their corporate life included religious observances of prayer and public fasting. We have no evidence that they erected public buildings for such communal activities. Some Jews were assimilated into Babylonian culture; others were not. When the opportunity arose, a number of Jewish families returned to their homeland to reconstruct a national life there. Many, however, remained in Babylonia, where the Jewish Diaspora continued as an important cultural phenomenon for more than two millennia.