Nebuchadnezzar II Destroys Jerusalem and the First Temple
- Date
- 587/586 BCE
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Levant (Israel/Palestine)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
After Judah's king Zedekiah rebelled against Babylonian overlordship, Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem and, in 587/586 BCE, captured and razed the city, destroying Solomon's Temple (the First Temple).
Much of the population was deported to Babylonia, deepening the Babylonian Exile that had begun with an earlier deportation in 597 BCE. The destruction ended the kingdom of Judah as an independent polity and removed the central institution of Israelite religion. The Exile proved a profound turning point in Jewish history and thought: it spurred the consolidation and editing of biblical texts, the development of synagogue-centred and increasingly monotheistic practice independent of the Temple, and a diaspora consciousness. The exile ended after Cyrus the Great's conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, and the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE.
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Empires active in 587/586 BCE
- Roman Kingdom753 BCE – 509 BCE
- Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire626 BCE – 539 BCE
- Scythians800 BCE – 300 BCE
- Zhou Dynasty1046 BCE – 256 BCE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE – 146 BCE
- Kingdom of Kush1070 BCE – 350 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- Enlightenment of the Buddha at Bodh Gayac. 528 BCE (traditional)
- Josiah's reform and the 'Book of the Law' (Deuteronomic Reform)c. 622 BCE
- Death (moksha) of Mahavira and the consolidation of Jainismc. 527 BCE (traditional)
- Ashoka commissions the Great Stupa at Sanchic. 250 BCE
- The Septuagint: Hebrew scripture translated into Greekc. 250 BCE
- Third Buddhist Council and Ashoka's Buddhist missionsc. 250 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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