Babylonian Exile

Babylonian Exile

 or Babylonian Captivity

Forced detention of Jews in Babylonia following Babylonian conquest of Judah in 598/597 and 587/586 BC. The first deportation may have occurred after King Jehoiachin was deposed in 597 BC or after Nebuchadrezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586. In 538 BC the Persian Cyrus II conquered Babylonia and allowed the Jews to return to Palestine. Some Jews chose to remain in Babylonia, initiating the Jewish Diaspora. During the Babylonian Exile the Jews maintained their national spirit and religious identity despite cultural pressures in a foreign land, with Ezekiel and other prophets keeping hope alive. Petrarch and other writers designated the Avignon papacy as the Babylonian Captivity in the 14th century, and Martin Luther used the term in the title of one of his works attacking the papacy and the Roman Catholic church in the 16th century.