.INTRODUCTION
“How lonely sits the city, that once was full of people.
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great
among the nations. She that was a princess among the provinces has become a
vassal. She weeps
bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has
no
one to comfort her; all
her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her
enemies. Judah had gone
into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the
nations, and finds no
resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her
distress”
Lamentations 1: 1-3.
Anything
that affects Israel affects the nations and the world. God has a program for
the
Jews and the Gentiles
alike, and because of this anything that happens to them is relevant to all of
us. Studying the events
of the Bible in light of archaeological finds opens our eyes to the full
reality
of the Bible as
history. We are able to look at the character of God through his dealings with
his
people, and get a wider
view of his truth.
We
are going to look at their journey through disobedience and subsequently exile
to
Babylonia through the
eyes of archaeologists. They look at the lives of people through the things
they have created. “The
results of all of these excavations and surveys clearly affirm that
Judah was almost
destroyed and that its Jewish population disappeared from most of the kingdoms
territory (except,
perhaps, for the area of Benjamin).
Archaeology has not proved every detail in
the Bible, but it has
substantiated many parts of it. “The Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem is, no
doubt, an important
historical event. For scholars, this date usually marks the end of the period
of
the Monarchy or even
the end of the Iron Age and the beginning of the exilic period.”
THE
COVENANT AND THE PROPHETS
The people of Israel were in covenant
with God. A covenant is similar to a contract, and
it is always a good idea to read a contract
completely. You need to be fully aware of what you
have agreed to, and penalties that will be applied
if the terms are not followed. The covenant
promised blessing if the people maintained their
contractual duty which was, “You shall have no
other Gods before me. You shall not make for
yourself a carved image.” In fact the Ten
Commandments (Deuteronomy5:6-22). It was laid out in
detail with all the blessings and curses
in Deuteronomy 28. “They would be blessed coming in
and going out. They would be the head
and not the tail. They would be above only and not
beneath, but disobedience would bring
judgment and exile.” Continuing in apostasy and
idolatry would seal the judgment. God gives us
choices, but advises us to “choose life” (Deuteronomy
30:19).
PROPHETS
WARNINGS
God
began to send warnings by his prophets a century and a half before the judgment
fell. Micah warned the people to change their ways.
“Be in pain, and labor to bring
forth, O daughter of Zion, Like a woman in birth
pangs. For now you shall go forth from the city,
You shall dwell in the field, And to Babylon you
shall go. There you shall be delivered; There
the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your
enemy” (Micah 4:10).The Lord may give the
warning, and bring judgment, but he does not leave
his people without hope.
ISAIAH
Isaiah
would also give warnings. Isaiah 1:3 says, “The ox knows its owner, and the
donkey its masters crib; But Israel does not know,
my people do not consider.” Judah was like a
rebellious child. Isaiah called heaven and earth to
witness. God had cared for them, and
nourished them and yet they would rebel. Even an ox
and a donkey know who feeds them, and
does not rebel against their owner. “In Isaiah
44:9-20 the idolaters are ridiculed. Not the idol but
the worshippers are the object of laughter. They are
emptiness, who see nothing and know
nothing. They are shamed, less than human (v 11), a
mind deceived.”Man
will take a log and
burn half of it to keep warm and cook his food, and
the other half he carves into an object that he
bows down to worship. It is a sad portrayal of
uselessness and hopelessness. Isaiah 44:24-28
gives hope. God never leaves them hopeless.
JEREMIAH
Jeremiah
felt very deeply his call to be a prophet. He anguishes over the message he
must
take to the people. His was a message of judgment,
but not without hope. “Jeremiah was deeply
conscious of the covenant ratified at Mount Sinai
between God and Israel and succinctly
summarized in the formula, “ I will be your God, and
you will be my people” (Jeremiah
7:23; 11:4; 24:27). Painfully aware that Israel and
Judah had broken that covenant, Jeremiah
looked forward to a new covenant that would mark the
restoration of Israel to divine favor.”
EZEKIEL
Ezekiel
was in Babylon where he was taken captive with Jehoiachin and other Hebrews
in 593-571 B.C. He was giving God’s message in
Babylon at the same time Jeremiah was
proclaiming God’s message in Jerusalem. God had his
prophets in the places he needed them to
proclaim his message of judgment and of hope. He
instructed them to settle in for the long haul,
and to marry and produce children, so their
population would grow and not decrease. They were
to have gardens, and be a positive force where they
were. Jeremiah told them that they would be
seventy years in exile, but God also had him give
them hope. They would be returned home one
day. God would deliver them out of the hands of
their enemy.
Ezekiel
lived and prophesied in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar. “Now it
came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth
month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was
among the captives by the river Chebar, that the
heavens were opened and I saw a vision of God”
(Ezekiel 1:1). Archaeological excavations have
determined that the river Chebar is the canal
Kabar in central Babylonia It runs between Babylon
and Nippu. It would seem that in the
cuneiform the word that indicates river can also
indicate canal.
There
was an expedition in 1880-1900 that unearthed several thousand clay tablets.
Peters, Hayes and Hilprecht headed the expedition.
It is unclear how close the exiles were to this
area. Ezekiel was in Tel Abib.” Then I came to the
captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the river
Chebar; and I sat where they sat, and remained there
among them astonished seven days”
(Ezekiel 3:15). This area is thought to be the
modern Tel Aviv.
Daniel
Daniel’s
writings affirm the majesty of God, and the fact the he is overall. He is in
control of the nations of the world, and works out
his purpose among them. He raises and brings
low as he will, and he never forgets his people.
History would continue on until God judged the
Gentile nations, and set up his kingdom. He preserves
and restores his people. God used Daniel
in the midst of the pagan rulers. Daniel remained a
servant of the Most High God through several
rulers. God always places a light even in the
darkest places.
Habakkuk
Habakkuk
condemns three central ideas of the Babylonian creed: “The king rules by
divine fiat; that the one way flow of material
wealth and captives into Babylonia results from the
recognition of Babylon’s greatness by subject
peoples; and that the king honors his deities by
building projects. Habakkuk’s assessment: The king
is actually a blasphemous fool; he is a looter
who violently dislocates populations without regard
for their well-being; and he is the author of
building projects that he thinks please his God, but
which only emphasize his corruption.” God
still remains sovereign, “But the Lord is in his
holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before
him” (Habakkuk 2:20).
Habakkuk
questions God on the reason evil goes unpunished, and then how God who is
righteous can allow the wicked to punish his people?
God does answer him. God will hold all
nations and people accountable for their actions. He
will set up his kingdom, and the righteous
will find rest.
SEVENTH
CENTURY B.C.E.
Judah
prospered during the late seventh century although it was a time of political
unrest.
Archaeologists have found biblical and non-biblical
texts from this time period which make it
possible to create a vivid picture of the historical
and political back ground. Archaeological
discoveries from sites in the 1970’s have provided
artifacts from the late seventh century. One
important text is the Antiquities of the Jews written by the Jewish historian Flavius
Josephus.
Other non-biblical text that have been found are
Egyptian Historical Text, Assyrian Annals, and
Babylonian Chronicles. “Despite some gaps, the
Chronicles provide precise dates for events
pertaining to the Neo Babylonian Empire (625-539).
Donald Wiseman has made an invaluable
contribution to biblical history by deciphering and
translating several of these Babylonian texts.
Other contemporary written materials consist of
bullae (seals impressions) from Jerusalem and
elsewhere as well as ostraca (inscribed potsherds)
from the fortified town of Lachish and the
border fortress of Arad. The inscriptions illuminate
the political, social, economic, and religious
situation in Judah in the late seventh and early
sixth century.”
Jerusalem
was not destroyed, and continued to prosper in the seventh century as did the
Judean Desert and Negev. The majority of the
settlement of Jerusalem was during this period.
“The common view among archaeologists is that the
Babylonian conquest was a significant
event that led to a collapse and left the area in
desolation. King and Stager wrote about the
Babylonian “scorched-earth policy” (2001, 251-58),
and added, “clearly the population of Judah
was severely diminished. West of the Jordon it is
difficult not only to find a settlement site that
continues to be occupied during the period (586-525
B.C.E.), but also to point to individual
artifacts to fill the gap.”
I
would like to clarify the full impact of the scorched-earth policy. It is a
military strategy
that is used to devastate the enemy. It can be used
when advancing or withdrawing from an area.
Any assets that could be useful to the enemy are
destroyed. It would include things like food,
water, transportation, etc. Stalin used it in the Second
World War as did Sherman and many
others through the centuries. It has been banned by
the Geneva Convention, but is still a common
practice. “It is difficult to speak of continuity
and prosperity after the Babylonian campaign.”
The prosperity that had been enjoyed in the seventh
century B.C.E. ended with the Babylonian
invasion of 586 B.C.E. The area of Benjamin appeared
to sustain a lesser amount of destruction.
“The Babylonians had no interest in supervising the
local economies, or in potential benefits to
be derived from direct management of them. They were
interested in receiving tribute, but
apparently periodic (initially annual) campaigning
ensured this, not a systematic bureaucratic
The devastation of 586 B.C.E. ended the Iron Age II.
This date has been challenged by
Gabriel Barkay who feels that a material culture
would not end that abruptly. “He claims that
biblical descriptions of the destruction and its
impact strongly influenced archaeological thinking
and hence, historic periodization….the process by
which the Iron Age material culture changed
was much slower, and hence the point in time when
the traditional Iron Age assemblages ended
SIXTH
CENTURY B.C.E.
There
would appear to be two schools of thought on the period after the Babylonian
campaign. One school of thought was that it was an ‘empty
land’. The Babylonians used the
scorched earth policy which is total devastation,
but the Babylonians would have targeted the
fortress cities. They would have destroyed as they
passed through the smaller more
rural areas. The problem with this theory is that
there were at least three deportations, and still
people living in the area. Gedaliah was left in
charge by the Babylonians. This would have been
in 586 B.C.E. Archaeologists are unable to find a
difference between the late seventh century and
the early and mid sixth century’s material
cultures.
The
second school of thought would be that the area continued as it did before.
They
believe in the theory of continuity. There was a
lack of Greek pottery which would imply that
there was little or no trade between the
Mediterranean and Judah during the sixth century, so it
would appear a middle ground was actually where the
area of Judah was. There were people
living there, but they were not as prosperous as
before.
THE
FIRST DEPORTATION
The
first deportation would have been in 605B.C.E. This is the one in which Daniel
and
others were carried to Babylon. “In the third year
of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and
besieged it (Daniel 1:1). It was at this
point in time that Daniel and other young men of the
king’s descendants and nobles were taken.
(Daniel 1:3).
Scholars do not
question the second and third deportation, but are skeptical about
the deportation of 605B.C.E. The book of Kings does
not have anything to say about this, and so
it leaves it open for debate. There are certain
Babylonian records that would make this seem very
possible. There was a Babylonian priest by the name
of Berossus who wrote of this time period,
and spoke of such a campaign. Josephus quotes him. “Nabuchodonosor,
as soon as he had
received intelligence of his father’s death, set in
order the affairs of Egypt and the other
countries, and committed to some of his faithful
officers the captives he had taken from the Jews,
Phoenicians, and Syrians, and other nations
belonging to Egypt, that they might conduct them
with that part of the forces which had heavy armor,
together with the rest of his baggage, to
Babylonia: The
Babylonians did not deport the people living in an area, and then send other
people into the area to replace them. They would
place them in Babylonia.
SECOND
AND THIRD DEPORTATIONS
“At
the site of Tell ed-Duweir, generally identified with ancient Lachish,
twenty-two
inscribed ostraca were found belonging to the last
years of Judah (see Text XVI). Apparently
dated before Nebuchadnezzar’s actual invasion, some
refer to the preparation for battle, the use
of fire signals, the employment of codes for
communicating between towns, the sending of a
delegation to Egypt, concern for the harvest,
difference of opinion between the population over
strategy and the forth coming conflict, and the
presence of prophets.”
Nebuchadnezzar and his
servants besieged Jerusalem. This was the eighth year of his
reign. Jehoiachin was reigning, and Jeremiah 22:24
was fulfilled as the king and his family were
taken to Babylon. “And he carried out from there all
the treasures of the house of the Lord and
the treasures of the king’s house, and he cut in
pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king
of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the
Lord had said.” (II Kings 24:13) This would
be the siege of 597 B.C.E. Daniel 1:2 says that part
of the treasures from the house of God were
removed in the first deportation.
II
Kings 24:14-16 says, “And also he carried into exile all Jerusalem: all the
captains and
the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and
all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained
except the poorest people of the land…All the
valiant men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and
smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit
for war, these the king of Babylon
brought
captive to Babylon.” He placed Mattaniah on Judah’s
throne changing his name to Zedekiah.
“Archaeological
excavations of Judean sites show evidence of destruction which scholars
have related to Nebuchadnezzar’s campaigns. Evidence
for destruction extends from Tell ed-
Duweir (Lachish) in the west, to Arad in the south,
to En-gedi in the east. This is not to suggest
that every city was left in ruins. Primarily those
cities which served as fortress towns would have
been the most likely targets for the Babylonians.”
With their leader gone and the men of war
exiled one is forced to assume the worst. Their
possessions would have become the spoils of war.
There would have been little left. They had been
concerned about the harvest. There would have
been a shortage of all the things necessary for
life. This would have been the second military
invasion. There would not only have been the lose of
the necessities of life, but of life itself.
They would have had to bury the dead. It would have
been an impossible situation. War brings
famine and epidemics.
It is amazing how
resilient people can be. They survived, and they begin to
prosper to some extent under Zedekiah, but he
rebelled against the king of Babylon, Zedekiah
reigned until 586 B.C.E. He was taken to the king of
Babylon at Riblah where he was forced to
watch his sons be killed and his eyes were put out,
and he was taken to Babylon in fetters. (II
Kings 25: 1-7)
Nebuzaradan was sent to
Jerusalem to destroy it in the nineteenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar’s reigned. Jerusalem’s walls would
lay in ruin for a century and a half.
He carried off the rest of the treasures, and took
the priests and city officials to Nebuchadnezzar
at Riblah where they were killed. There would be
less chance of more rebellions with all of the
officials gone both religious and civil. “Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard
carried away
captive the rest of the people who remained in the
city and the defectors who had deserted to the
king of Babylon, with the rest of the multitude. But
the captain of the guard left some of the poor
of the land as vinedressers and farmers (II Kings
25:11-12). Jehoiakim’s rebellion was put down
in 602 B.C.E. Jehoiachin was exiled in 597 B.C.E.,
and Zedekiah’s rebellion was put down and
Jerusalem destroyed in 586 B.C.E.
“Some
people remained in Judah after 582, and there are consequently some
archaeological materials from this period, as
Barstad has reiterated. “There is, however, a
significant occupational gap at many sites that the
Babylonians had destroyed, as even a
cursory survey of those sites indicates.”
The area of Benjamin would appear to have had less
destruction in it. In fact Gedaliah’s headquarters
were in Mizpah which was in the territory of
Benjamin. It would appear that there was a
Babylonian presence in that area however small.
“The m(w)sh impressions are potentially of interest
for assessing the problem of Judah’s status in
the mid sixth century. Thirty of the forty-two
exemplars of this stamp type come from Tell en-
Nasbeh…If these stamps reflect economic activity in
the region during the Babylonian period, it
is noteworthy that their distribution is confined to
a very limited radius.”This
would keep them
within the territory of Benjamin.
LIFE
OF THE PEOPLE
The
people commonly lived in four room houses. Burial was carried out in a specific
way. It was the way their society flowed. “Both
marker of life and death, however, disappear
from the archaeological record during the sixth
century .In the early phases after the destruction
there is evidence that some of the few who remained
clung to these habits (i.e., using such tombs
and houses), but as time progressed these habits
became meaningless without the entire social
system they were a part of, and therefore ceased to
be practiced.”
The idealogy of the family
would have taken a blow, and probably did not exist
as it had before. Many had died, and other
exiled, and the families were split, and no longer
functioned as a whole.
LIFE
IN EXILE IN BABYLONIA
The
Babylonians took the people they had captured to the heartland of their
country.
“This explains the phenomenon whereby settlements,
especially in the vicinity of Nippur, were
named after the ethnicon or place of origin of the
exiles settled in them.” According
to Ezekiel
and Isaiah the people lived in the city of Babylon
and in its countryside. The people were placed
in undeveloped areas around newly dug canals
according to Ezekiel who also was exiled there.
Jeremiah
gave them favorable word from God, “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. And
seek the peace of the city where I have
caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to
the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have
peace”(Jeremiah 29:5-7). It would appear that they
followed Gods instructions, because many of
them had prospered, and were unwilling to leave when
the door opened for their return.
“Archaeological evidence demonstrates the
favorable conditions that God promised
Judah’s inhabitants in Babylon. ‘In 1933, E.F.
Weidner, the Assyriologist, took in hand to look
through the tablets and shreds in the basement rooms
of the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum…Among
the dull administrative rubbish Weidner suddenly
found some priceless relics of red tape in the
ancient world. On four different receipts for stores
issued, among them best quality sesame oil,
he came upon a familiar biblical name: ‘Ja’-u-kinu’nJehoiachin! There was no
possibility of his
name being mistaken, because Jehoiachin was given
his full title: king of the land of
Judah’…Jehoiachin, the deposed king of Judah, lived
with his family and retinue in the palace of
Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. We may conclude from
Weidner’s discovery that the biblical
account in Second Book of Kings may be supplemented:
‘And for his diet, there was a continual
diet given him from the king of Babylona, everyday a
portion, until the day of his death, all the
days of his life’ (Jeremiah 52:34)” (Werner, The
Bible as History, 1980, pp. 303-304).”
Their
exile to Babylonia was not the terrible time that they had in Egypt. They were
given some freedom even if they were not completely
free, and they were an enterprising people.
They built a life in the land of exile, and some
prospered there. “As clay tablets of commercial
documents in the fifth century B.C. show, even after
the end of the exile, the Babylonian banks
were firmly in the hands of the Jews. There was one
Jewish banker whose firm, Bank of
Marashu & Sons, had greatly expanded into real
estate business. Its headquarters in nearby
Nippur, and approximately 200 branches throughout
the country!” (Babylon, quoted in Editorial
PRESENT
DAY INTERESTS
There
are many conflicts that are focused on the Holy Land. The focus for many is the
Holy City, Jerusalem, the center of the world. There
are archaeologist that consider themselves
to be in a national fight. Their goal is to prove
that the Davidic Kingdom existed. They have been
searching for decades. “The excavations in the “City
Of David” (Called in propaganda terms)
have been handed over to Ateret Cohanim, an
ultra-nationalistic religious society, building in the
provocative parts of the town. Also Israeli
archaeologists protest against the way of research-
only subject is to find proofs supporting the claim
for the temple mount. On the other hand
Palestinians see themselves and their history pushed
away and ignored.”
CONCLUSION
The
nation of Israel is important to the world. It is the place our eyes are always
turned
even today. It can never be any different it was
through that nation, the nation of God’s chosen
people that salvation came. God has his hand on them
even as he has on the Gentiles as he works
out his plan for the world as a whole. We can look
at their journey through the eyes of the Bible
and archaeology and find hope. God never left his
children without hope. He was with them
every step of the way. He even opened opportunities
for them in some of their darkest times.
Jeremiahs instructions to them in 29:5-7. We need to
occupy until he returns, and using Christ as
an example we should “be about our Father’s work”.
We are to further his kingdom here, and to
do so we must walk close to him. We must always keep
our eyes on him, and never turn away.
We
can look at the failings of his people, and learn from their mistakes. We can
also
learn from the things they did right. We can look at
our own country through the eyes of God and
his prophets, and bow a knee before him. We must
pray that the eye of the people will be opened
and hearts prepared to receive before we also find
that it is too late, and we have gone beyond
our ability to change and return to the God of our
youth.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Faust,Avraham.
Judah in the Neo-Babylonian Period: The
Archeology of Desolation. Atlanta, GA. The
Society of Biblical Literature. 2012.
Feldbacher,
Rainer. 2013.”Area of Conflict Archaeology and its implication in the Holy Land”
Journal of the World of Archeology Congress.
10.1007/s11759-013-9221-8. Accessed: April 10, 2014. http://link.springer.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/article/10.1007/s117…
Finkelstein,
Israel and Neil Asher Silberman. The
Bible Unearthed. New York. Simon and Schuster. 2001.
Hare,
John Bruno, “Internet Sacred Text Archive” 2010. Accessed: May 1, 2014.
www.sacred-text.com
King,
Philip J. Jeremiah: An Archaeological
Companion. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press.1993
Miller
J. Maxwell and John H. Hayes. A History of Ancient Israel and Judah.
Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.1986.
Seiglie,
Mario, “The Downfall of Judah: Exile to Babylon” United Church of God, An International Association. 1999-2014.
Accessed: April 22, 2014.
www.churhofgodtwincities.org/lit/gn/gno2o/downfall.html
Stern,
Ephraim. 2004. “The Babylonian Gap: The Archaeological Reality, “Journal for
Study of the Old Testament.28, no 3. Accessed April 8, 2014.
Vanderhooft,
David Stephen. The Neo-Babylonian Empire
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