Era 9 of 13

Exile in Babylon

588–536 BC52 years

2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 40–44; Ezekiel 33–48; Daniel 3–9

Judah in captivity in Babylon until Cyrus’s decree.

How the dates are set: Boundaries from Ussher: Jerusalem falls 588 BC; Cyrus’s decree 537 BC and the first return 536 BC.

Events 16

• Governor Gedaliah murdered 588 BC
  Babylon made Gedaliah governor over the poor left in Judah; within months a member of the royal family, Ishmael, murdered him at Mizpah.
• Jeremiah taken to Egypt 587 BC
  Fearing Babylon's revenge, the remaining Judeans asked Jeremiah for God's guidance, then ignored his answer and fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah and Baruch with them.
• News of Jerusalem's fall reaches Ezekiel 587 BC
  A survivor arrived among the exiles in Babylon with the news: the city has fallen. From then on Ezekiel's message turned from judgment to hope.
• Ezekiel's valley of dry bones 587 BC
  In a vision God set Ezekiel in a valley of dry bones and told him to prophesy; the bones came together, flesh covered them, and breath brought them to life, a picture of Israel's restoration.
• Obadiah condemns Edom 587 BC
  The shortest book of the Old Testament announced judgment on Edom for gloating and plundering when Jerusalem fell.
• Nebuchadnezzar besieges Tyre 584–572 BC
  Nebuchadnezzar besieged the island city of Tyre for thirteen years, as Ezekiel had prophesied, until the city submitted.
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace 580 BC
  Daniel's three friends refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image; thrown into a blazing furnace, they walked unharmed with a fourth figure “like a son of the gods.”
• Ezekiel's vision of a new temple 574 BC
  In the 25th year of the exile, Ezekiel was shown a vast new temple, God's glory returning to it, and a river flowing from it that turned the Dead Sea fresh.
• Nebuchadnezzar's pride and madness 569–563 BC
  Nebuchadnezzar boasted of the great Babylon he had built and lost his sanity, living like an animal for seven periods of time until he acknowledged the Most High.
• Jehoiachin released from prison 562 BC
  After 37 years in prison, King Jehoiachin was released by Nebuchadnezzar's successor, given a seat of honor, and ate at the king's table for the rest of his life.
• Daniel's vision of four beasts and the Son of Man 555 BC
  Daniel saw four beasts rise from the sea, and then one like a son of man coming with the clouds to the Ancient of Days to receive an everlasting kingdom.
• Daniel's vision of the ram and the goat 553 BC
  Daniel saw a two-horned ram trampled by a goat with one great horn; Gabriel explained that they were Medo-Persia and Greece.
• Daniel's prayer and the seventy weeks 538 BC
  Reading Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years, Daniel confessed his people's sins and prayed for Jerusalem; Gabriel answered with a prophecy of seventy “weeks” leading to the Anointed One.
• Daniel in the lions' den 538 BC
  Jealous officials tricked Darius into banning prayer to anyone but the king; Daniel kept praying toward Jerusalem, was thrown to the lions, and God shut their mouths.
• Belshazzar's feast; Babylon falls 538 BC
  At a drunken feast using the temple's gold cups, a hand wrote on Belshazzar's wall; Daniel read it as judgment, and that night Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians.
• Cyrus decrees the return 537 BC
  In his first year, Cyrus of Persia proclaimed that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, and he gave back the temple vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken.

Kings and rulers 1

Zedekiah

See the chart of the kings of Israel and Judah

Open the interactive timelineStart with Governor Gedaliah murdered