The destruction of the First Temple
Babylon razes Jerusalem and deports its elite, and Judaism is remade in exile.
- When
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem in 587 BCE after a revolt, burns the temple Solomon had built, and deports the ruling class to Babylon. The exile is the hinge of Israelite religion: without temple or land, worship shifts toward text, sabbath, and a God not tied to one place — and much of the Hebrew Bible is compiled, edited or written in response to it. Monotheism in its strict form is largely a product of this crisis rather than its cause.