Why did God impose the Babylonian Captivity on the Jews? (Solved)

[rakovskii]

I asked this question in a long form here: Why did God inflict the Babylonian captivity on the Jews? Was that fair or too severe?, and people asked me to condense it into one post.

The early apologist Minucius Felix responded to the argument that worshiping God didn’t help the Jews because they experienced catastrophe. He wrote:

For they themselves also, as long as they worshipped our God-and He is the same God of all-with chastity, innocency, and religion, as long as they obeyed His wholesome precepts, from a few became innumerable, from poor became rich, from being servants became kings; a few overwhelmed many; unarmed men overwhelmed armed ones as they fled from them, following them up by God’s command, and with the elements striving on their behalf.

Carefully read over their Scriptures, or if you are better pleased with the Roman writings, inquire concerning the Jews in the books (to say nothing of ancient documents) of Flavius Josephus or Antoninus Julianus, and you shall know that by their wickedness they deserved this fortune, and that nothing happened which had not before been predicted to them, if they should persevere in their obstinacy. Therefore you will understand that they forsook before they were forsaken, and that they were not, as you impiously say, taken captive with their God, but they were given up by God as deserters from His discipline.

My question is: What exactly was the Jews’ violation for which God imposed the Babylonian Captivity, and was it too severe?

I can think of seven potential reasons for the Captivity:

1. Jeremiah implied in Jer. 25:4-6 that the Kingdom of Judah’s people had been following an evil way and worshiping other gods. But AFAIK, Jerusalem’s Temple only worshiped Jehovah between Hezekiah’s time and the Captivity. What was their evil?
2. I remember a theory that the Jews failed to keep the Torah’s 7-year “Shmita” sowing cycle, and that this was why Jer. 25:11 said that the Babylonian conquest was for 70 years. But I lost where I read this theory, and I don’t know if the Bible says that the Jews failed to observe it.
3. In Isaiah, King Hezekiah showed Babylonian emissaries his treasures, and Isaiah was indignant and predicted that the Babylonians would invade and take away the treasures. But I don’t know what was wrong with Hezekiah showing his treasures.
4. Wikipedia notes that Jeremiah warned Judah’s king not to rebel against Babylon in alliance with Egypt, and Judah’s king didn’t heed Jeremiah. Josephus discusses this in Antiquities, Book X, Chp 6. But while fighting Babylon might have been strategically foolish, but was this such a moral mistake that it was God’s reason for the Temple’s destruction?
5. Hezekiah’s son and successor, Manasseh, was impious. But didn’t the piety of Manasseh’s successor, Josiah, return the leadership to the right course?
6. Josiah’s successor Jehoahaz was impious, but Josephus doesn’t go into details.
7. Egypt captured Jehoahaz and replaced him with the impious ruler Jehoiakim. But since the Egyptians put Jehoiakim on the throne (eg. as a puppet), can we hold the Israelites responsible for his impiety?

 

[Prodigal1984]

Hezekiah’s son and successor, Manasseh, was impious. But didn’t the piety of Manasseh’s successor, Josiah, return the leadership to the right course?

Manasseh repented, and his Prayer that appears in the appendix to the Vulgate is one of the most beautiful penitential prayers I have ever read.

 

[rakovskii]

Manasseh repented

Good reply, Prodigal.
But consider 2 Kings 24:1-4, where it says about the Babylonian invasion:

1. Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did;
2. And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the Lord would not pardon.

Still, after Manasseh you had the pious king Josiah who one would think had returned the leadership to the right course.

 

[Prodigal1984]

I think it was an ongoing succession of sins by kings, in the book of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles and Jeremiah it is obvious basically every other king was pretty corrupt and disobeyed God. That and the people of Judah were taking part in idolatry. Prophets kept warning them and they didn’t heed to the warnings but harrassed the prophets instead. This in my view sums up why God punished them. The same way he cleansed the evil generation in the wilderness from entering the Holy Land for 40 years, he cleansed it again by exiling the people to Babylon as well for 70 years.

 

[meltzerboy2]

I believe that the traditional Jewish response to this (the Babylonian Captivity) and to all the other misfortunes and tragedies that beset the Jewish people, is that G-d was, and still is, testing them to find out whether they will or will not keep His Law (Torah) despite the misery caused by the tragic events. After all, it is relatively easy to believe in G-d and His Law when things are going well but not the case when misfortune arrives. And the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. As a people, the Jews survive and flourish despite all the peoples and nations that have sought their destruction throughout recorded history, and this only by the grace of G-d.

 

[rakovskii]

Meltzer,
Sure, they have the idea that G-d is testing them, but doesn’t the Bible have the idea that in particular the Babylonian Captivity was punishment for some particular violation? I wish I still had the webpage about the Torah’s 7 year Shmita cycle rule, and the theory that it was correlated with the 70 years of the captivity.

 

[meltzerboy2]

G-d may hold the Jews to a higher standard than others because it was they who accepted the responsibility of taking on His Law and serving as the light to the other nations of the world. Thus, whatever crime they commit, their punishment is intentionally severe. This ultimately serves, however, to strengthen the people’s resolve to endure.

 

[Justin_Mary]

After all, it is relatively easy to believe in G-d and His Law when things are going well but not the case when misfortune arrives.

Actually it’s quite the opposite isn’t it?

When things are going well, we tend to forget to do what is right. To give due thanks & praise, even so far as to puff out our chest & walk with a little swagger.

When things go south, we’re quick to pull out the sack cloth & acknowledge who has the real power.

At least in my own personal experience.

 

[adgloriam]

1. In Isaiah, King Hezekiah showed Babylonian emissaries his treasures, and Isaiah was indignant and predicted that the Babylonians would invade and take away the treasures. But I don’t know what was wrong with Hezekiah showing his treasures.

A king (and his counselors) should be wise and know better.

1. Hezekiah’s son and successor, Manasseh, was impious. But didn’t the piety of Manasseh’s successor, Josiah, return the leadership to the right course?

It was insufficient (taken over the whole) and didn’t change the surrounding corruption of habits lastingly.

1. But while fighting Babylon might have been strategically foolish, but was this such a moral mistake that it was God’s reason for the Temple’s destruction?

It’s addressed directly in Jer 2:14-21.

1. Jeremiah implied in Jer. 25:4-6 that the Kingdom of Judah’s people had been following an evil way and worshiping other gods. But AFAIK, Jerusalem’s Temple only worshiped Jehovah between Hezekiah’s time and the Captivity. What was their evil?

The reasons are given throughout the book of Jeremiah as a whole. A significant majority of the Israelis had disregarded practice of the law, frequently turning to foreign gods, even the religious cast had become corrupted (their applause of false prophets is mentioned several times), as had been the monarchy/scribes. THE WHOLE SOCIETY, with few if any exceptions.

You’ll notice precisely in the chapter 25 that you cite, from versicle 15 onward the long list of other nations that were going to be punished together with the Israelis.

The basic reason for this is sin (which is recurrently -both practice and exaltation of- enumerated in many of its forms through the book of Jeremiah).

 

[rakovskii]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Adgloriam. Out of the reasons that I gave, which ones do you think apply.

The End Times Truth website gives the theory that I was looking for about the 7 year sowing cycle as follows:

It is also important to realize that the reason given in the Bible for the Babylonian captivity lasting 70 years is that Israel failed to observe the Shemitah Sabbaths for the previous 70 times they were supposed to have occurred (2 Chron. 36:21

; Jeremiah 25:11

). The Shemitah was commanded by God to be observed every 7 years, and it consisted of one full year in which the land would be allowed to rest from planting crops. It was a Sabbath for the land. Thus, prior to the Babylonian captivity there was a period of time equal to 70 x 7 years, for a total of 490 years, that Israel refused to perform the Shemitah as required by the Law of Moses (Lev. 25:4

). To make up for this deficiency, God said that their exile from the land would last 70 years to allow the land to rest for the 70 times that the Jews did not follow this law. Thus amazingly, there was a 490 year period prior to the captivity that was calculated by 70 x 7 Shemitah years; which was followed by a 70 year rest of the land during the Babylonian captivity; and then there is predicted in Daniel’s prophecy to be a final 70 x 7 = 490 year period as revealed by the angel Gabriel that would occur after the captivity. This is such amazing time symmetry within an incredible God-inspired book!

However, in the verses that it cited, 2 Chron 36, it wasn’t clear to me that the Biblical writer ascribed the 70 years of captivity to neglecting the rule on leaving the fields fallow as the End Times website claims. What do you think?

 

[CarmeliteKnight]

For multiple reasons.

1. Israel as a collective people we’re not upholding their end of the Covenant in worshipping God and God Alone. Read the book of Ezekiel. God literally shows Ezekiel (and by extension, us the reader) all the false Pagan Idols that were in God’s Temple, and all the pagan practices His people were practicing ( literal baby murder being one of them). Israel was cheating on God for years upon years. God being ever merciful put up with it but He can only put up with so much. Eventually you have to leave that toxic relationship ( again going back to Ezekiel with God literally leaving the temple and Israel)

And I know what you’re thinking

but if God already left why did He come back with Babylon to re-enslave his people?

Which goes into point
2) God had to give Israel unto Babylon and destroy the temple to save His own reputation and His grand plans for salvation. You see, if God just put up with the baby murder and the idolatry forever, our one and only God would be forever associated with baby murder and He would be know as one of many (false) gods. People would never be saved because they would be forever trapped in the belief of the disobedient Isrealites. They would come to associate baby murder and polytheism as the truth. Our good and just God could not allow that to continue. So He had to give them unto Babylon to get Israel to realize they done messed up. Thats why He sent Jerimiah to do the hard preaching he was commissioned to preach.

The final point
3) Israel being given unto captivity all apart of God the Father’s grand scheme to give us His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Everything happens for a reason. God the Father taking the Kingdom of Israel away was to set up the comming of His final King from the line of David. The one Messiah to lead not only Israel out of captivity for good, but for the gentiles as well. Fullfilling His promise to Abraham and having his decedents as numerous as the stars in the sky.

 

[rakovskii]

God reply, Carmelite. I hadn’t thought of Ezekiel’s complaints.
Are there any that I put in the 7 that you dont think were among the real reasons?

 

[Vico]

Babylonian Captivity

598-538 B.C. Captivity (some use 605-536 B.C.)

2 Kings 24
19 He [Zedekiah] did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 20 This befell Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was so angry that he cast them out of his sight.

 

[CarmeliteKnight]

Im sure God considered those reasons aswell when He passed judgment on His people. Israel was pretty sinful, especially since they were to be better than the heathens, but failed at doing so.

 

[rakovskii]

Reason #2 (the Shemitah cycle) is interesting, because 2 Chron 36 does seem to say that the land remained fallow for 70 years to fulfill its Sabbaths, as if Israel owed the land 70 years of Sabbath years, meaning that for 490 years Israel had ignore the 7 year sowing cycle rule. An issue comes up with the weeks of Daniel, in that one theory goes that Daniel predicted his 490 years or 7 weeks of 70 years based on the underlying reasoning in 2 Chron 36 with the 490 years. That is, one might reasons that if for 490 years AFTER the end of the captivity Israel had continued to ignore the 7 year sowing rule, then the country would be due another comparable destruction again, ie. in the 1st century AD. This is interesting because one of the questions with Daniel 9 is where Daniel got his 490 years from. I think that I was told before when I asked this question someplace (probably not on this forum) that there is not really an underlying reason, it was just something that an angel told Daniel. But now it looks like there was a reason for the 490 years.

The Kingdom Ready article “Did the Babylonian Captivity Really Last 70 Years?” points to Ezekiel’s 390 years and theorizes that the 7 year cycle was not ignored for 490 consecutive years, but rather that those were the total years that Israel and Judah each missed keeping the fields fallow:
http://lhim.org/blog/2015/10/25/did-the-babylonian-captivity-really-last-70-years
The article proposes tgat the 70 years of captivity begun when Babylon defeated King Jehoiakim and dates the period this way: “the spring of 605 BC, to the late fall of 537 BC, comprises 68 full Jewish years, plus parts of two additional Jewish years (at the beginning and end of the period).”

 

[CarmeliteKnight]

So after reading more into the cycles that you were talking about, I think I’m starting to understand what you’re talking about and coming from. The Shemittah year is supposed to show that Israel has faith in God. That God will take care of them, even when Israel completely abstains from farming and collecting debts. The seven year cycle is actually written in the Mosaic law (Farming cycle [Leviticus 25:3–6] Jubilee cycle [Deuteronomy 15:1–2]).

It follows that when Israel started breaking the seven year cycle, it was breaking both of the greatest Commandments ( not forgiving your neighbor’s debts goes against the love Jesus told us to have for our neighbors, and not abstaining from farming for the whole year goes against the Trust In The Love Jesus told us to have for God the Father).

Going back to what you were talking about in Daniel, if one were to add up the dates the beginning of the enslavement in Babylon (the golden representing the Babylonian Kingdom) to the the beginning of Christ’s Ministry in Rome ( the iron feet) in theory should add up to 490 years.

Maybe it’s just all apart of God’s Grand scheme. Our God being outside of time He’s able to plan everything for the coming of His Son Jesus Christ.

 

[rakovskii]

It follows that when Israel started breaking the seven year cycle, it was breaking both of the greatest Commandments

I don’t know if the Bible says that they weren’t following the rule about the debt forgiveness, but it sounds like 2 Chron. 36 implies that they hadnt been keeping the land fallow:
“And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon… To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.”

 

[rakovskii]

if one were to add up the dates the beginning of the enslavement in Babylon (the golden representing the Babylonian Kingdom) to the the beginning of Christ’s Ministry in Rome ( the iron feet) in theory should add up to 490 years.

I think it would be from the end of the captivity, or more exactly when they started tilling again. Dan 9 says the count starts from the order to rebuild Jerusalem, which may have been in the 5th century.

 

[rakovskii]

I think that the answer is that it was a combination of all the factors that we discussed, and that it wasn’t too severe because the nation returned after 70 years.
Some of the factors might not have been enough on their own- if one king was bad, but the other kings were good enough, it might not have happened.

Reason #1 (the king’s choice to show off the treasures) has to do with Hezekiah’s pride, as 2 Chronicles 32 explains:

However, when ambassadors arrived from Babylon to ask about the remarkable events that had taken place in the land, God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart.

Reason #4, fighting Babylon, was a strategic mistake, and they should have respected Jeremiah and listened to him as a divine prophet, but the strategic mistake seems more like a practical factor- God wanted to have them conquered for other reasons, and their fighting Babylon provided the particular incident for Him to do so.

In Josephus’ passage in Antiquities Book X, Chp. 6, it doesn’t actually say that Jehoiakim’s rebellion against Babylon was a reason why God imposed the captivity, it just says that Jeremiah warned against fighting Babylon. The difference is that if it was a purely strategic mistake, then it’s hard to emphasize that it was the Lord’s doing. Josephus writes:

And indeed the prophet Jeremiah foretold every day, how vainly they relied on their hopes from Egypt, and how the city would be overthrown by the king of Babylon, and Jehoiakim the king would be subdued by him. But what he thus spake proved to be of no advantage to them, because there were none that should escape; for both the multitude and the rulers, when they heard him, had no concern about what they heard; but being displeased at what was said, as if the prophet were a diviner against the king, they accused Jeremiah, and bringing him before the court, they required that a sentence and a punishment might be given against him. Now all the rest gave their votes for his condemnation, but the elders refused, who prudently sent away the prophet from the court of [the prison], and persuaded the rest to do Jeremiah no harm; for they said that he was not the only person who foretold what would come to the city, but that Micah signified the same before him, as well as many others, none of which suffered any thing of the kings that then reigned, but were honored as the prophets of God.

 

[CarmeliteKnight]

I don’t know if the Bible says that they weren’t following the rule about the debt forgiveness

I think they did, hence why Jesus had to give his parable of the unforgiving servent to Israel. This is the same Israel that broke the 1st commandment. Breaking the Jubilee rule in the Mosaic law wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility.