Historical Jerusalem

By 600 BCE, war and other geopolitical competition had been going on between Babylon and Egypt for control of Palestine and parts of Syria, and Babylon had gotten effective control over all the land from “the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates.” (2 Kings 24:7) Even so, some Judean rebels unwisely hoped that they could use an alliance with Egypt as leverage against Babylon.

In 609 BCE, the pharaoh Necho II deposed the king of Judah, Jehoahaz, and placed Eliakim on the throne. His name was changed to Jehoiakim. In 605 BC Babylon defeated the Egyptians at the battle of Carchemish. In the same year Nebuchadnezzar II ascended to the throne, and besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim changed his allegiance to Babylon to avoid bloodshed, but changed his allegiance back to Egypt in 601 BCE. The Babylonian army besieged Jerusalem for three months, during which time Jehoiakim died. He was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin, also known by a name variant, Jeconiah. Second Chronicles gives us his age as eight when ascending to the throne, but Second Kings gives it as eighteen. This is probably a copy error. After only three months on the throne, he, his mother and the entire palace staff went off and surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, who promptly exiled them to Babylon.

The fact of the exile of Jehoiachin is clear first from the account of Ezekiel (1:1), and from a Babylonian decree to establish Jehoiachin’s rations. Being recorded in the Babylon Chronicles, the historicity of the Sack of Jerusalem is beyond any doubt, as is the accompanying exile, by far the largest in the series of three exiles to Babylon.

The Babylonian Chronicle gives the date of the surrender as March 16, 597, stating that Nebuchadnezzar appointed a king of his own choice “the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his [Jehoiachin’s] father’s brother in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.” (2 Kings 24:17). “And [the king of Babylon] hath taken of the king’s seed, and made a covenant with him [Mattaniah/Zedekiah], and hath taken an oath of him: he hath also taken the mighty of the land.” (Ezekiel 17:13-18).

At some point late in Zedekiah’s eleven-year reign, he too fell in with the Judean rebels and, in spite of the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah, Baruch and Neriah, as well of some advisers and family, he entered into alliance with Egypt and withheld tribute. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem for about thirty months, when, in the eleventh year of his reign, Zedekiah and his followers attempted to flee, but were captured on the plains of Jericho. He and his family were taken to Riblah in the district of Hamath, north of Damascus, where he was forced to witness the execution of his sons. His eyes were then gouged out and he was taken captive to Babylon. The status of a captive in Babylon was far worse than that of the exiles. And so, the Lehi saga anachronism: First Nephi mistakenly lumped the Sack of Jerusalem of 597 BCE into his later Babylonian conquest.

Table 1 Babylonian Documents re the Sack of Jerusalem

The Babylonian Chronicle

He [Nebuchadnezzar[ camped against the city of Judah [Jerusalem[ and on the second day of the month of Adar [March 16, 597 BCE] he took the city and captured the king [Jehoiachin]. He appointed a king of his own choice there [Zedekiah], took its heavy tribute and brought them to Babylon.

Two of Several Jehoiachin Ration Tablets

1. “10 (sila of coil) to the king of Judah, Iaukin [Jehoiachin]; 2 ½ sila (oil) to the offspring of Judah’s king: 4 sila to eight men from Judea.”

2. “1 ½ sila (oil) for three carpenters from Arwad, ½ apiece; 11 ½ sila for eight wood workers from Byblos . . .; 3 ½ sila for seven Greek craftsman, ½ sila apiece; ½ sila to the carpenter, Nabuetir; 10 sila to Ia-ku-u-ki-nu [Jehoiachin], the sive sons of the Judean king.” [Hebrew sounds “h” & “y”, were lost in Babylonian (Akkadian). See John Huehnergard, A Grammar of Akkadian (Lake Winona IN: Eisenbrauns, 2011), p. 38. Jehoiachin, in the 7th c. BCE Hebrew, was Yehoyakin. So accordingly, note that in Babylonian transcription, “k” could be used for Hebrew “h” & “I” for “Y” (e.g., Judah [Heb. Yehûdâ: Ia-ku-du)]

We thus have two major events, the Sack of Jerusalem just before Zedekiah’s ascension to the throne, and the destruction of the temple, palace and walls of Jerusalem at the end of Zedekiah’s rule. In the Sack of Jerusalem, the city was thoroughly plundered of all precious moveable items, including the vessels of the temple, and other gold, silver and brass items in the temple and palace. Thousands were exiled to Babylon.