Exile

While the English word simply means expulsion from one's native country, whether it is self-imposed or forced, the Exile has a special meaning when used in the context of biblical studies: it refers to the violent removal of the most important citizens of Judah by the Babylonians in the 6th Cent BC. The Exile marked one of the most significant turning points in the history of the Jews.

Central to the teachings of the OT is the Israel was the chosen people of God. Among the privileges of this election was the gift of the land (the Promised Land). This gift of the land, however, was conditioned on Israel remaining faithful to Yahweh, expressed especially in a life free of idol worship and, in particular, participation in the worship of her pagan neighbours. Israel, however, found the temptation too enticing, and this failure to obey and to remain faithful to Yahweh was the constant tenor of OT history. This is reflected in the fact that all the different forms of the word 'idol'—idols, idolatrous, idolatry, idolaters, and baal—is found nearly 300x in the OT. Despite the arduous, almost shrill, warnings against it raised by the prophets against it, Israel remained deaf to them. In the northern kingdom of Israel, e.g., Jeroboam ben Nebat established two centres—at Dan in the north and Bethel in the south—for the worship of the golden calf (1 Ki 13). The official endorsement of baal worship by Jeroboam was continued and augmented by his successors, until the entire kingdom, comprising the ten northern tribes, were conquered and exiled by the Assyrians in 722 BC. The ten tribes disappeared from history.

It might be thought that the disaster of the northern kingdom would have been sufficient warning to the southern kingdom of Judah, but it didn't. Even after the exile of Israel, Judean kings like Manasseh and Amon continued in their baal worship, adding child-sacrifice to their menu (2 Ki 21:6). Josiah attempted a series of important reforms to put things right, but it was too late. He was soon killed in battle and succeeded by a series of spineless relatives who, despite the impassioned preaching of Jeremiah, led the country into disaster. In 589 Zedekiah rebelled against his Babylonian suzerain. Nebuchadnezzar was occupied at that time, but within a year he began his siege of Jerusalem. In 586, after 18 horrendous months, the Babylonian army breached the city walls. Zedekiah was captured, his sons killed before his eyes, he was then blinded and taken prisoner to Babylon. Jerusalem was sacked, the temple razed to the ground, and Judah laid waste, depopulated and taken into exile. Only Jeremiah's prophecy that, out of Yahweh's faithfulness to his promise to the house of David, the exile would last only seventy years gave hope of a possible future for the nation.

This exile—the Babylonian Exile, or just simply, the Exile—ended when the Persian king, Cyrus, defeated the Babylonians and became Judah's overlord. He permitted the Jews to return and rebuild their lives in their ancient homeland. The Exile, however, changed the Jews forever. Idolatry would never again be the mark of her life. Instead there came a strenuous effort to study the laws of God and chart out all possible ways not to transgress them, the beginning of what eventually became the way of life of the Pharisees and rabbinic Judaism.

When biblical studies speak, therefore, of the 'pre-exilic,' the 'exilic,' and the 'post-exilic' periods, it is this exile that provides the reference point. We know with certainty three prophets who ministered to Judah during this exile: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk; they are, therefore, often referred to as the 'exilic prophets.'