Bible Timeline · 586 BC
Jerusalem Falls and the First Temple Is Destroyed
In 586 BC the Babylonian army broke through Jerusalem's walls, burned Solomon's temple and carried the people into exile. Jeremiah had warned them for forty years, and Lamentations records the grief that followed.
Read it in the Bible: 2 Kings 25 Jeremiah 39 Lamentations 1 Psalm 137 Jeremiah 25:11 2 Chronicles 36:15-21
In 586 BC, after a siege of about a year and a half, the army of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon broke through the walls of Jerusalem. A month later they burned Solomon's temple, the royal palace and every important house in the city, and tore down the walls. Most of the survivors were marched off to Babylon. The temple had stood for nearly four hundred years. For God's people, it felt like the end of the world.
Why Did Babylon Destroy Jerusalem?
On the human level, it was politics. Judah had been a servant kingdom of Babylon since 605 BC. King Jehoiakim rebelled, and in 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and took King Jehoiachin, the prophet Ezekiel and ten thousand leaders and craftsmen to Babylon. A Babylonian clay tablet called the Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle, now in the British Museum, records this 597 BC capture.
Nebuchadnezzar put Zedekiah on the throne. Then Zedekiah rebelled too, hoping Egypt would save him. That was the last straw.
On the spiritual level, the Bible is clear that this was judgment for generations of idol worship and injustice.
Again and again Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh against His people was stirred up beyond remedy. 2 Chronicles 36:15 to 16
When Did Jerusalem Fall, 586 or 587 BC?
The Bible dates the siege by the years of Zedekiah and Nebuchadnezzar. The siege began in Zedekiah's ninth year, and the temple burned in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, according to 2 Kings 25:8. Historians turn that into either 587 or 586 BC, depending on how they count a king's years. The Owner's Manual uses 586 BC, the most common date. Jewish people still mourn the temple's destruction on Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, in late summer.
What Happened During the Siege?
The siege was brutal. Food ran out. Lamentations describes mothers so starved they did the unthinkable. Clay letters found at Lachish, a fortress southwest of Jerusalem, show the last days of Judah. In one, an officer writes that he is watching for the fire signals of Lachish because he can no longer see Azekah. That fits Jeremiah 34:7, which says Lachish and Azekah were the last fortified cities left.
When the wall finally broke, Zedekiah ran for it by night. The Babylonians caught him near Jericho.
And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon. 2 Kings 25:7
Then Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, came and burned the temple. The bronze pillars and the temple treasures were carted off to Babylon. The Ark of the Covenant is never mentioned again in the history books. Nobody knows what happened to it, though plenty of movies have guessed.
What Did Jeremiah Say About the Fall of Jerusalem?
Jeremiah preached for about forty years, warning that Babylon would come. People called him a traitor. They threw him into a muddy cistern in Jeremiah 38:6. False prophets promised peace. Jeremiah kept saying surrender to Babylon and live.
He also gave a time limit.
And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. Jeremiah 25:11
Counting from the first exile in 605 BC to the first return about 536 BC gives about seventy years. Counting from the temple's destruction in 586 BC to the new temple in 516 BC also gives about seventy. 2 Chronicles 36:21 says the land rested for seventy years to make up its missed Sabbaths.
Even during the siege, Jeremiah bought a field to show that God would bring His people home, Jeremiah 32:15. After the fall, Babylon set him free. He stayed with the poor left in the land until they fled to Egypt and took him along.
What Is the Book of Lamentations?
Lamentations is five poems of grief over the fallen city. Tradition says Jeremiah wrote it, and The Owner's Manual dates it soon after 586 BC. Four of the five poems are acrostics, with each verse or group of verses starting with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is grief with structure, like someone trying to put their pain in order.
How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave. Lamentations 1:1
Right in the middle of the darkest book in the Bible is one of its brightest promises.
Because of the loving devotion of Yahweh we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! Lamentations 3:22 to 23
The famous hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness comes from these verses.
How Did the Exiles Feel About Losing Jerusalem?
Psalm 137 was written by the exiles. Their captors told them to sing the happy songs of Zion. They hung up their harps instead.
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. Psalm 137:1
The psalm ends with a raw and angry prayer against Babylon. The Bible does not hide how the exiles really felt. It gives you permission to bring honest grief to God.
What Does the Fall of Jerusalem Mean for You Today?
The fall of Jerusalem shows that God takes sin seriously, even among His own people. Having a temple did not protect them, as Jeremiah warned in Jeremiah 7:4. Only a real relationship with God does.
It also shows that judgment is not God's last word. The line of David did not end. 2 Kings closes with King Jehoiachin released from prison in Babylon and eating at the king's table. He is in the family line of Jesus in Matthew 1:12. Jesus later wept over Jerusalem and called His own body the temple. When the old temple fell, God was already planning a better one.
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Questions People Ask
When was the first temple destroyed?
Babylon destroyed Solomon's temple in 586 BC, though some historians say 587 BC because of different ways of counting the kings' years. The temple was burned in the fifth month, which is why Jewish people mourn it on Tisha B'Av, the ninth of Av.
Who destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC?
The army of King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem. His captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, burned the temple, the palace and the city's great houses and tore down the walls.
What happened to King Zedekiah?
Zedekiah fled when the walls fell, but the Babylonians caught him near Jericho. They killed his sons in front of him, then blinded him and took him to Babylon in chains, where he died.
What happened to the Ark of the Covenant?
Nobody knows. The Bible does not mention the Ark after the fall of Jerusalem. It may have been destroyed or carried off by Babylon. Some traditions say it was hidden, and Ethiopian Christians believe it is in Aksum, but none of these claims can be proven.
Who wrote Lamentations?
The book does not name its writer. Tradition says Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, wrote it soon after Jerusalem fell. Many scholars agree it was written by an eyewitness in the years right after 586 BC.
Related
- About 970 to 930 BC; temple begun about 966 BCSolomon and the First Temple
- About 622 BCJosiah Finds the Book of the Law
- 586 to 538 BCSeventy Years in Babylon
- 605 BCBabylon Takes Daniel