Page 75 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Revised

The fall of Jerusalem (586 BCE)
Again Nebuchadnezzar invaded
rebellious Judah. Letters on potsherds
sent to the Jewish commander at Lachish
illustrate the advance of the Babylonians
as they captured town after town.
Lachish itself was taken and burned.
Jerusalem withstood the Babylonian
siege for eighteen months. In July 586
BCE, the Babylonians broke through the
walls. Zedekiah tried to escape, but he
was captured, blinded, and taken to
Babylon. In August, the Babylonians
burned the city, including the Temple,
and broke down the walls. Some of the
Jewish leaders were executed, and others were taken to Babylonia. Only the poor were left to till the
soil.

In 597 BCE, Jerusalem falls at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar captured
Jehoiachin and took him as a prisoner to Babylon. Zedekiah was set up as a puppet king over Judah.

In 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. He destroyed the city and burned its temple.
The destruction of the temple started on the 9th of Ab (Hebrew month) and was completed on the 10th.
It is interesting that the 9th of Ab will also be the day Jerusalem's second temple (Herod's temple) was
completely destroyed in 70 A.D.

Life During this Time…

There was a lot of stone and very little wood in Judea at this time, so houses were typically constructed
of stones, sometimes 1 to 2 feet thick. Normally they were rectangular in shape and consisted of very
few rooms: one central gathering area and rooms to sleep in. Quite often, the houses were
interconnected like our compendiums of today. Stone walls made the homes cooler in the heat of the
summer and warmer in the cooler weather. They used wood beams for the ceilings and covered the
wood with dirt, sometimes a foot deep or more. Most all the roofs were flat and had stair access from
the lower floor to the roof. Some houses had a room at the front that served as a workshop or a front
location for a home business. Behind this room was a courtyard, then rooms opening from the
courtyard for family living.

Farming was the principal trade in Judea, but most farmlands were terraced up hillsides, just as they are
today. They grew vegetables, hay, wheat, and groves of olive trees used for oil. The oil of the olive
trees had medicinal purposes, plus they used it for cooking and lighting their homes in the evening.

Marriage and Family
As is today in many middle eastern countries, most marriages were arranged by the parents of the
woman and man. There were exceptions, but most arranged marriages were seldom forced on young
people who had absolutely no interest in each other. Sometimes these arrangements were made when
the girl or boy was very young teenagers. Most rabbis proposed age 18 as the appropriate age for men

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