carried away captive 3,023 eminent Jews, including the king (2 Chronicles
36:10), with his family and officers (2 Kings 24:12), and a large number of
warriors (16), with very many persons of note (14), and artisans (16),
leaving behind only those who were poor and helpless. This was the first
general deportation to Babylon.
In B.C. 588, after the revolt of Zedekiah (q.v.), there was a second general
deportation of Jews by Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 52:29; 2 Kings 25:8),
including 832 more of the principal men of the kingdom. He carried away
also the rest of the sacred vessels (2 Chronicles 36:18). From this period,
when the temple was destroyed (2 Kings 25:9), to the complete
restoration, B.C. 517 (Ezra 6:15), is the period of the “seventy years.”
In B.C. 582 occurred the last and final deportation. The entire number
Nebuchadnezzar carried captive was 4,600 heads of families with their
wives and children and dependants (Jeremiah 52:30; 43:5-7; 2 Chronicles
36:20, etc.). Thus the exiles formed a very considerable community in
Babylon.
When Cyrus granted permission to the Jews to return to their own land
(Ezra 1:5; 7:13), only a comparatively small number at first availed
themselves of the privilege. It cannot be questioned that many belonging to
the kingdom of Israel ultimately joined the Jews under Ezra, Zerubbabel,
and Nehemiah, and returned along with them to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 50:4,
5, 17-20, 33-35).
Large numbers had, however, settled in the land of Babylon, and formed
numerous colonies in different parts of the kingdom. Their descendants
very probably have spread far into Eastern lands and become absorbed in
the general population. (See JUDAH, KINGDOM OF; CAPTIVITY.)
- EXODUS the great deliverance wrought for the children of Isreal when
they were brought out of the land of Egypt with “a mighty hand and with
an outstretched arm” (Ex 12:51; Deuteronomy 26:8; Ps 114; 136), about
B.C. 1490, and four hundred and eighty years (1 Kings 6:1) before the
building of Solomon’s temple.
The time of their sojourning in Egypt was, according to Exodus 12:40, the
space of four hundred and thirty years. In the LXX., the words are, “The
sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt and in
the land of Canaan was four hundred and thirty years;” and the Samaritan