Page 30 - The Minor Prophets - Student textbook

Study Section 5: The Exile (586-538) – Persian Period / Hosea

5.1 Connect

Having falling under the judgment of the Lord, the people of Judah were defeated by
Babylon and taken from their land eastward to a foreign country. They remained there for
seventy years, as prophesized by the prophets. But eventually, as the political climate
changed in the Near East, many Jews were freed to return to their homeland to rebuild the
city of Jerusalem and God’s temple there. Some of the prophets wrote to these people to
caution them about begin faithful to Yahweh and also to encourage them in completing
their duties to rebuild a place of worship to the Lord. Let’s learn about this period in history when the
Children of Israel returned to their land. Then we will begin learning from the Prophet, Hosea.

5.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to describe all the events that led up to the exile of Judah to Babylon.

2. The student should be able to identify how God used these foreign powers to bring about the
restoration of Judah to their land.

3. The student should be able to the major theme of Hosea, to whom it was written, and what
the author’s purpose for writing the book.

5.3 The Exile (586-538).

Though the Exile is usually thought of as beginning in 586 BCE with the fall of Jerusalem, it
must be remembered that thousands had gone into exile from Israel in 735 bce and in 722 BCE
and from Judah in 597 BCE. Furthermore, though the main body of exiles from Judah were in
Babylonia, there were also exiles from Israel in northern Mesopotamia and in Media and exiles
from Judah in Egypt.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylonia urging them to build houses, plant gardens, and
live normal lives. The exiles were allowed to maintain some community organization headed by their
own elders. Some Jews went into business and prospered. Daniel is said to have risen to the position of
counselor to the king. Nebuchadnezzar’s son and successor removed the exiled Jewish king Jehoiachin
from prison and gave him residence in the royal palace in Babylon.

Jeremiah in writing and Ezekiel in person taught the exiles that the destruction of Jerusalem and the
exile were Yahweh’s punishments for their sins. They urged the exiles to keep faith in Yahweh in the
midst of idolatry and held out the hope of return to Judah. The prophecies of the second part of Isaiah
comforted the exiles with the assurance that God, the controller of history, would lead them out of
Babylonia in a new exodus back to Zion, from which the faith in the one true God would spread to all
nations.

29