Ten Thousand Jews Taken Into Slavery By Nebuchadnezzar

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Babylonia is also called the land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees).  Genesis, 1st book in the Torah,  teaches us that Babylonia was the cradle of humanity and the scene of man's first revolt against God which was the Tower of Babel section.  Many of the early biblical stories find a parallel in Babylonian literature , like the story of the Flood,  Last of all and most importantly is that Abram (Abraham) was born here in Ur of the Chaldeans, and emigrated to Canaan where he later fought King Amraphel of Shinar as told in Genesis 14.  Babylon is regarded by the prophets as a symbol of insolent pagan tyranny, and this symbolism has been adopted by later writers.  Nebuchadnezzar II of 604-561 BCE inherited the Assyrian Empire and after his conquest of Judah in 597 and 586 exiled the Jews to Babylon.       

 Kin 24:13-14 "And Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said. Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land."  His army had done this in 597BCE and again in 586BCE.                                    

Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon at its height.  He was the Stalin of that period from 605-562 BCE.  A result of his victory over the Assyrian-Egyptian alliance at Carchemish in 605BCE resulted in conquering all the lands from the Euphrates to the Egyptian frontier, including Judah (our Jewish state, the southern part of Israel.)

According to clay tablets found, discovered in Iraq and on display at an exhibit, 100 cuneiform tablets, each no bigger than an adult’s palm, the Jews were not slaves but were just needed for their capabilities.  Imagine, highjacking great workers! 

 "One exile in 587 BC saw around 1,500 people make the perilous journey via modern-day Lebanon and Syria to the fertile crescent of southern Iraq, where the Judeans traded, ran businesses and helped the administration of the kingdom.“They were free to go about their lives, they weren’t slaves,” Vukosavovic said. “Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t a brutal ruler in that respect. He knew he needed the Judeans to help revive the struggling Babylonian economy.”The tablets, each inscribed in minute Akkadian script,  was the Semitic language oral and written; used from 4th millennium BCE and used everywhere;  the English of the day until the Greek conquests; but no doubt written by a non-Jew;  detail trade in fruits and other commodities, taxes paid, debts owed and credits accumulated.        

 I'd call being forcefully taken away from one's home and family would be for slavery-and the 2nd generation may have felt at home in Babylonia, but certainly not the first.  We have evidence of our people crying at the river for Jerusalem right in the Bible. Psalm 137 is the 137th psalm of the Book of Psalms, and as such it is included in the Hebrew Bible. In English it is generally known as "By the rivers of Babylon", which is how its first words are translated in the King James Version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTnspbSjKVc

In 597 BCE, after Judah had revolted, he sent contingents which captured Jerusalem, replaced the   Pharoah Necoh- appointed Jewish king Jehoiachim-son of Josiah, birth name-Eliakim (king from  608-598 BCE) who reported to Egypt for 3 years, but became a Babylonian vassal;  with his own nominee, young 21 year old Zedekiah, son of Josiah (king from 597-586) birth-name was Mattaniah but took this name when bestowed as king , and exiled 8,000 of the local aristocracy to Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar's account of these events is preserved in the British Museum.                    

8 years later, Zedekiah rebelled.  The forces of Nebuchadnezzar under Nebuzaradan against invaded Judah, captured Jerusalem in 586, and destroyed Solomon's Temple this time, laying waste the cities and exiling masses of the population.  The king was taken to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar had him killed.  Nebuchadnezzar also figures in a number of legends related in the Book of Daniel.  

King Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned in the Tanakh (Old Testament books) of 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. However he is spoken of most in the book of Daniel. He is first introduced in 2 Kings 24, amidst a crop of corrupt kings of Judah. Eventually, the Babylonian army destroyed and took captive all survivors, fulfilling the prophet Jeremiah’s warnings, and God’s disciplinary action of His people.                                                             The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic state in Western Asia that existed from 312 BC to 63 BC. It was founded by Seleucus I Nicator following the division of the Macedonian Empire established by Alexander the Great.  Persia (Iran) would be above the Persian Gulf in Seleucid territory. Ur, home town of Abraham, is in Mesopotamia near the Persian Gulf.  As I have found out, Elam destroyed Ur and Elam was in Perisa (iran). 

Here is a map showing Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia became Iraq. The Arabs conquered it in 637 CE. 

The name is (from the Greek, meaning 'between two rivers') was an ancient region located in the eastern Mediterranean bounded in the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and in the southeast by the Arabian Plateau, corresponding to today's Iraq, mostly, but also parts of modern-day Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Map showing modern day countries where Ur, Haran and Caanan were as Sumerian / Mesopotamian areas in Abram's time. Ur of the Chaldees is in Southern Iraq (Written in White). Canaan is shown under the word, Israel.  

Resource:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-archaeology-babylon/ancient-tablets-reveal-life-of-jews-in-nebuchadnezzars-babylon-idUSKBN0L71EK20150203

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

maps online