CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
THE VIEW
FROM JERUSALEM
Biblical responses to the Babylonian
presence^1Baruch A. Levine
T
he Hebrew Bible exhibits a strong awareness of the presence of Babylonia on the
international scene, and more poignantly, of its direct impact on the destiny of
Jerusalem and Judah during a brief, but crucial period of Ancient Near Eastern
history. The Neo-Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II, destroyed Jerusalem, devastated
major areas of the country, and exiled large numbers of Judeans to Babylonia in a
series of military campaigns. These began at the very end of the seventh century BCE,
and reached their climax in 586 BCEwith the complete destruction of Jerusalem and
the central Temple. This brought an end to the kingdom of Judah, and to the period
of the First Temple, as it is known in biblical studies. It is only to be expected that
these historically definitive events, and the circumstances leading up to them, as well
as those resulting from them, should have commanded the full attention of biblical
writers.
It would have been possible to include in our discussion a review of significant
cross-cultural connections between ancient Israel and Mesopotamia, in the areas of
law, religion, government, and shared literary genres. To do so in the present instance
would, however, require a complex differentiation between specifically Babylonian
and more generally Mesopotamian cultural features. It is also to be understood that
some of what was thought of as Mesopotamian is actually Syrian, or western, and
that the flow of culture was not unidirectional, from east to west. It was decided,
therefore, to adopt an historical approach that is structured by identifiable events,
leaving an assessment of the extent of Babylonian cultural impact on ancient Israel
for another occasion.
The actual history of Babylonia, of its conquests and international policies, its
downfall and legacy, are being treated in the various chapters of this volume. The
view from Jerusalem deals with responses to, and interpretations of, Babylonian
domination in the west, particularly in Judah and the neighboring territories, such
as have been preserved in the Hebrew Bible. The current availability of contemporary
Babylonian documents, and of other extra-biblical sources, has greatly reduced
dependence on information provided by the Hebrew Bible in reconstructing Babylonian
history per se, although the Hebrew Bible does, in fact, contain historical information.