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How Bad Was the Babylonian Exile?

Were the Judahites really weeping by the rivers of Babylon?


Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  04/15/2017 (04/15/2017T08:30)

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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in 2016.—Ed.

 
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, sat and wept, as we thought of Zion.”
—Psalm 137:1 [JPS]

The Babylonian Exile that resulted from King Nebuchadnezzar’s sixth-century B.C.E. capture of
Jerusalem has traditionally been portrayed with the Judahites lamenting their circumstances.
But the textual remains left by the Babylonians and even some Judahites may reveal an entirely
different story.

The Babylonian Exile began in 597 B.C.E. with the


deportation of Judahite king Jehoiachin, his family,
skilled craftsmen, warriors and 10,000 additional
captives (2 Kings 24:12–16). Two more deportations took
place: one in 586 B.C.E., when Jerusalem and the Temple
were destroyed, and another in 582 B.C.E. Jeremiah
52:28–30 claims that a total of 4,600 Judahites were
displaced in the Babylonian Exile. Psalm 137:1–2
poetically recounts the feelings of the deported Cuneiform tablets from “Judahtown”
(Babylonian āl-Yāḫūdu) offer insight into
Judahites: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, sat and what life was like for ordinary Judahites
wept, as we thought of Zion. There on the poplars we during the Babylonian Exile. Photo: Avi
Noam.
hung up our lyres.”

University of California, Berkeley, Lecturer in Akkadian Laurie E. Pearce explores the evidence
in her article “How Bad Was the Babylonian Exile?” in the September/October 2016 issue of
Biblical Archaeology Review. According to Pearce, despite the melancholic tone of Psalm 137, life
in Babylon was actually pretty good for many of the Judahite deportees.
 

 
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According to the Bible, notes Laurie E. Pearce, King Jehoiachin was given special treatment—
even over other imprisoned kings (2 Kings 25:30; Jeremiah 52:31–34). Moreover, cuneiform
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ration lists discovered in Nebuchadnezzar’s South Palace in Babylon show that captive kings and
high officials received monthly rations of grain and oil.

The lives of non-royal Judahites, too, are preserved in Babylonian records. Texts from Nippur
contain the names of Judahites who served as witnesses in land contracts. The Judahite identity
of the witnesses is revealed by their Yahwistic names—names formed from the Israelite divine
name YHWH. The texts record the business activities of a family whose patriarch was an
entrepreneur named Murašû. Since witnesses to contracts usually have the same social status as
those engaged in the transaction, this would suggest, Laurie E. Pearce argues, that a number of
Judahites were as successful as the Murašû family.
 

 
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Records from the city of Susa (Biblical Shushan, where the book of Esther is set) reference
Judahites with Yahwistic names serving as royal courtiers, and in Sippar, a few Yahwistic names
appear under the designation “royal merchant.” However, the majority of Pearce’s evidence that
the Babylonian Exile wasn’t so bad is focused on cuneiform texts from in and around a
settlement called Judahtown (Babylonian āl-Yāḫūdu).

“These texts, along with approximately 160 texts written in nearby towns,” Pearce writes,
“provide balance to the known documentation, now attesting to the lives of the lowly as well as
high-born Judean and other West Semitic exiles, in rural as well as the previously documented
urban landscapes, from the start of the Judean Exile to the time of the rebuilding of the Temple
and beyond.”

The evidence reveals a diversity of experiences for the Judahite exiles, and the picture of the
Judahite experience in the Babylonian Exile that emerges is perhaps not as morose as previously
believed.

To learn more about the Judahite experience during the Babylonian Exile as gleaned through
the Biblical and archaeological evidence, including the texts from Judahtown, read the full
article “How Bad Was the Babylonian Exile?” by Laurie E. Pearce in the September/October
2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

——————

BAS Library Members: Read the full article “How Bad Was the Babylonian Exile?” by Laurie
E. Pearce in the September/October 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library member yet? Join the BAS Library today.
 

 
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on September 22, 2016.
 
 

Related reading in Bible History Daily:


How Was the Bible Written During and After the Exile?

Tablets of Jewish Exiles

Hanging Gardens of Babylon … in Assyrian Nineveh

The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet

BAR Test Kitchen: Tah’u Stew


 

Related reading in the BAS Library:


Bill T. Arnold, “Nebuchadnezzar & Solomon,” Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February
2007.

André Lemaire, “The Universal God,” Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2005.

Hugh G. M. Williamson, “Laments at the Destroyed Temple,” Bible Review, August 1990.

Not a BAS Library member yet? Join the BAS Library today.
 

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