By Stan Goodenough

In 701 BC, 19 years after vanquishing and forever wiping out the northern kingdom of Israel, Assyria, under Sennacherib, moved against the southern kingdom of Judah and laid siege to Jerusalem. God delivered Judah at that time by sending a plague against the Assyrians which killed many and caused Sennacherib to withdraw.

Following this deliverance, awareness grew in Jerusalem of the link between Judah’s increasing sinfulness and increasingly imperiled security.

King Josiah had the priests in the capital read from the neglected scrolls of the Mosaic Law, which put the fear of God into the leadership, who called the nation to repent. By forging alliances with various nations, including Egypt, during this time, Judah managed to resist conquest for another century. However, its slide into idolatry continued.

In 605, the ascendant Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Egypt’s army, doing away with Judah’s main ally. From then on, Judah’s end was only a matter of time. Nebuchadnezzar’s armies ravaged the land and on March 16, 597, after a terrible and agonizing siege, Jerusalem fell.

Nebuchadnezzar took captive most of the survivors, including the able-bodied soldiers, craftsmen and artisans. He left only the poorest people of the land behind, and appointed Zedekiah as king of his choice who was to remain subservient and send tribute to Babylon.

After a few years Jerusalem rose up against Nebuchadnezzar however and was again besieged. The city walls were breached in 587/86 and this time Nebuchadnezzar finished with the place, destroying the Temple, tearing down many of the houses, and completely demolishing the walls.

So ended the first commonwealth of the nation of Israel.

Despite all this destruction and massive bloodshed, however, seeds of hope remained for Israel’s future.

While the Assyrians made a complete end of the northern kingdom, to the extent even of sowing the land with non-Hebrews who soon absorbed the few Israelites who remained, the Babylonians did not send pagan tribes to colonize the conquered kingdom of Judah.

The poor people of Judah were allowed to remain on their lands and to some extent continue the worship of their God – though now without a Temple and without priests to carry out the required sacrifices. Some Benjamite cities were even left intact.

There was also a diaspora or scattering of some of the survivors, who fled north to Samaria, east to Edom and Moab, and south to Egypt.

From 588 BC until today a majority of the Jews have always lived outside the borders of the Land of Israel.

© Israel My Beloved