(only occurs of an expatriated person, צעֶה, tsoeh', bent, "captive exile," Isaiah 51:14; גֹלֶה, goleh', a transported captive, as elsewhere often (See BANISH), ASSYRIO-BABYLONIAN), of the Israelitish nation (comp. Cellarii Dissertatt. page 178 sq.). (See CAPTIVITY).

1. Of the kingdom of Israel, as early as the time of Pekah (q.v.), B.C. cir. 741. Tiglath Pileser (q.v.), in accordance with a cardinal maxim of Oriental despots (compare Haeren, Ideen, I, 1:405 sq.; Gesenius, Jesa. 1:949), transported to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29; comp. Isaiah 8:23) a part of the inhabitants of Galilee and the trans-Jordanic provinces (Gilead). A still earlier deportation (1 Chronicles 5:26) seems to have been made by Pul (q.v.). After the destruction of Samaria (q.v.) and the entire northern state (B.C. 720) by Shalmaneser (q.v.), the same fate overtook all the distinguished and serviceable Israelites (2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 18:9 sq.; 1 Chronicles 5:26). They were assigned a residence on the Chaboras, in Mesopotamia (See HABOR), and in Media (comp. Josephus, Ant. 9:14, 1), and there established the worship of Jehovah after their corrupt fashion (2 Kings 17:27 sq.). See Witsius, Δεκάφυλον, site de decem tribubus Isr. (in his ,Egyptiaca, page 318 sq.), Michaelis, De exilio decem tribuum (in his Comment. Soc. Gott. Brem. 1774, page 31 sq.). (See ISRAEL (KINGDOM OF).)

2. Respecting the carrying away of the Jews in several colonies, there are various accounts in the Hebrew historical books, which modern writers have not carefully distinguished (see Bauer, Hebrews Gesch. 2:370 sq.; Jahn, Archdol. 11, 1:190 sq.; Bertholdt, Zeittafel zum Daniel, page 503 sq.).

(a.) The books of Kings mention only two deportations: the first occurred after the surrender of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, in the time of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:14 sq.; comp. Jeremiah 27:20 sq.; in this way involved Mordecai (Esther 2:6), and it befell (besides the king himself) the affluent and useful citizens, 10,000 and upwards in number (Josephus says 10,832, Ant. 10:7, 1); the second was the result of a formal capture of Jerusalem by assault of the Chaldaeans in the time of Zedekisah, and was effected by Nebuchadnezzar's general (in that prince's 19th year) Nebuzaradan (2 Kings 25:11). Only the common people, devoted to agriculture, remained (2 Kings 25:12; 2 Kings 25:22).

(b.) The books of Chronicles expressly record only the carrying away under Zedekiah (2 Chronicles 26:20), while (2 Chronicles 26:10), in mentioning the transportation of king Jehoiachin, they say nothing of a deportation of the people at that time.

(c.) Jeremiah 52:28 sq., specifies three distinct carryings away, and assigns to each not only the number of those deported, but also a date namely, the first deportation in the 7th year (of Nebuchadnezzar, comp. Jeremiah 52:29-30), which consisted of 3023 Jews; the second in the 18th of Nebuch., of 832 chiefs of Jerusalem; then third in the 23d of Neb., of 745 individuals. Finally

(d.), according to Daniel 1:1; Daniel 1:3 sq., as early as the 3d yeas of Jehoiakim's reign, some Jewish youths of noble families among them Daniel himself) must have been carried to Babylon. These difficulties (see Hengstenberg, Genuineness of Daniel [Clarke's ed.], page 43 sq., against De Wette, in the Hall. Encyclop. 23:7 sq.; Lengerke, Daniel, page 13 sq.) are readily adjusted by observing, 1st, that the years of Nebuchadnezzar in this passage of Jeremiah bear date from his full accession to the throne of Babylon (the beginning of B.C. 604), while those in Kings are reckoned from the epoch of his viceroyship, a little over one year earlier (See NEBUCHADNEZZAR); and, 2dly, that the apparent discrepancy in the number of citizens transported naturally arises from the different manner in which they are enumerated and classified in the several narratives. Thus viewed, the transactions will appear concisely as follows:

1. (Early in B.C. 6516.) Nebuuchadnezzar's invasion, in the 3d year of Jehoiakimn (Daniel 1:1).

2. (Sumumer of B.C. 606.) Subjugation by Nebuchadnezzar in his first associate year, and the 4th of Jehoiakiam (Jeremiah 25:1); when, besides some of the sacred vessels (2 Chronicles 36:7), a few royal youths were taken away as hostages, including Daniel and his companions (Daniel 1:2 sq.).

3. (Spring of B.C. 598) First general deportation, in the 7th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign (Jeremiah 52:28), or the 8th of his viceroyship (2 Kings 24:12), and the beginning of Jehoiachin's reign (2 Kings xxiv, 8), when 3028 eminent Jews (Jeremiah 52:28), including the king (2 Chronicles 36:10), his family, and officers (2 Kings 24:12), with such men as Mordecai (Esther 2:6), also some 7000 warriors (2 Kings 21:16), were carried away, making about 10,000 individuals of note (2 Kings 24:14), besides about 1000 artisans (2 Kings 24:16, and leaving only the poorer classes of the city and its neighborhood (2 Kings 14:14).

4. (Late in B. C. 588.) Second general deportation, in Nebuchadnezzar's 18th year of reign (Jeremiah 52:29), or the 19th of his viceroyship (2 Kings 25:8), when, besides the rest of the sacred vessels (2 Chronicles 36:18), 832 more of the principal men who had by that time rallied to Jerusalem were taken away (Jeremiah 52:29), iucluding especially the refugees (2 Kings 25:1), and leaving but the commonest agricultural laborers (2 Kings 25:14).

5. (Early in BS.C. 582.) Final deportation, in Nebuchadnezzer's 28d year (Jeremiah 52:30), when the last 745 private persons (Jeremiah 52:30) who had not fled to Egypt (Jeremiah 43:5-7), nor been destroyed in the pa vioum massacres (2 Chronicles 36:20), ware taken away making 4600 definitely enumerated (Jeremiah 52:10), but in all somue 12,600 male heads of families, with their wives, children, and dependents, from Jerusalem and its vicinity alone, and a proportionate number from the residue of the country of Judaea.

The Babylonian exile thus began with the Jews partially in B.C. 598, but generally in B.C. 588. It ended in the first year of the reign of Cyrus (over Babylon), i.e., B.C. 536, and therefore lasted strictly 51-52 years. The reckoning of Jeremiah, however (Jeremiah 25:11 sq.; Jeremiah 29:10; compare 2 Chronicles 36:21; Zechariah 1:12; Zechariah 7:5; Josephus, War, 5:9, 4), which assigns it a length of 70 years, is to be understood as computed from Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Western Asia in B.C. 606, when, as appears from Daniel 1:1; Daniel cf.1 some of the members of the royal family of Judah were carried into captivity, in fulfillment of Isaiah 39:6-7. (See Offerhaus, Spicilegium, page 181 sq.; Schroder, Rege. Babyl. page 286 sq.). This was the more natural epoch to the Jews, inasmuch as from that time Nebuchadnezzar became to all intents and purposes the liege lord of the Jewish kings, and in the above table we see the years of his reign are dated accordingly. It is a remarkable coincidence that from thee date of the destruction of the Temple, B.C. 588 (2 Kings 25:8), to the time of its complete restoration, B.C. 517 (Ezra 6:15), is precisely the commensurate (and sacred) term of 70 years; and this period is sometimes employed as an aera by the sacred writers (Ezekiel 40:1). Other very strained conjectures as to this time are those of Behin (in Iken and Hase's Thesaur. theol. philol. 1:954 sq.), Bengel (Ordo temporum, page 196 sq.), etc. Ideler deems the desolation of the Temple to be exclusively referred to (Flandbuch d. Chronol. 1:530). Gramberg (Religionsid. 2:388 sq.) and Hitzig (Jerem. page 230) think the 70 years merely a round number. (See SEVENTY YEARS' CAPTIVITY).

The condition of the Hebrews in the exile was certainly, as a general thing, not so severe (Jahn, Archaologie, II, 1:209; comp. Leydecker, De var. reip. Hebr. statu, page 299 sq., especially page 310 sq.; Verbrugge, De statu ad condit. Judaeurum teampore exil. Babyl., in his work De nomin. Hebr. plur. num. [Groning. 1730], page 71 sq.) as is usually held. Most of them became settled (Jeremiah 29:5 sq.), and acquired property, even to affluence (Tob. 1:22, 25; 2:1; 6:13; 8:21; 9:3; 10:11; 14:15, etc.), and the possession of slaves (Tobit 8:14 sq.; Tobit 11:10). Several were taken to court (Daniel 1:3 sq., Daniel 1:19), and even promoted to high station (Daniel 2:48 sq.; 6:2; compare Esther 10:3), or were honored with important trusts (Tobit 1:16); indeed, in one instance a Jewess actually reached queenly dignities (Esther 2:17). They also appear to have kept up in some sort their national constitution (Ezekiel 14:1; Ezekiel 20:1; Susan. 5:28), and to have maintained among themselves an observance of the Mosaic law (Tobit 7:14; Susan. 5:62). According to the Talmud (R. Gedaliah in Shalshel. Flakkab. folio 13; Gemara, Makkoth, 1:1; Sanhedr. 1:12 and 21), they were under the general direction of an aichmalotarch (q.v.), or "chief of the exiles" (ראֹשׁ הִגְּלוּת ), one of their own nation (Buddaei Hist. Vet. T. 2:863). Religious discipline was exercised among them; but, as they could not lawfully offer sacrifice outside Jerusalem, their worship necessarily consisted of prayer (and public reading, out of which naturally grew expounding) in stated assemblies (comp. Psalms 137). (See SYNAGOGUE). They did not lack strong comfort and exhortation: Ezekiel (q.v.) lifted in their midst his prophetic voice, and Jeremiah (q.v.) sent them from afar a monitory epistle (chapter 29). Probably many surrendered themselves to levity and vice (Ezekiel 33:31), and yielded an ear to false prophets (Jeremiah 29:21; but comp, Tobit 2:14).

Of the permission to return to Palestine, which Cyrus granted to the entire people (Ezra 1:5; Ezra 7:13), Jews alone, in the first instance at least, availed themselves (Ezra 2; Nehemiah 7; comp. Josephus, Ant. 11:5, 2: "But the whole people of the Israelites remained in the mine country ... The ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates to this day, unknown and innumerable myriads"); for the return mentioned in Ezra 2:1, is only of such exiles as had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, and in the list there following there are (besides priests and Levites) only recited Judahites and Benjamites; nor can "Israel" (Ezra 2:59; compare Nehemiah 7:61) be there referred to the former kingdom so called. The indications of Jeremiah 1:4; Jeremiah cf., 17, 19; Ezekiel 37:11 sq., had, moreover, not at that time been fulfilled (the date in 1 Chronicles 5:26 is uncertain; Keil, On Kings, page 497, n.). (See Witsius, Δεκάφυλον, page 344 sq.; Ritter, Erdk. 10:250.) Yet it cannot well be doubted that many of the exiles from the northern kingdom, who were likewise embraced in the decree of Cyrus, and at the time included in his dominions, did eventually join their Jewish brethren, if not in some of the homeward expeditions named in Scripture as having taken place under Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah, yet in some smaller, later, or less distinguished companies. This supposition is not only justified by the, nature of the case, but fortified by the numerous intimations in the prophets (e.g. Jeremiah 1:4, 5, 17-20, 33-35) coupling the return of both the kingdoms (see Meth. Quart. Review, July, 1855, page 419 sq.), and is well-nigh established by the Palestinian occurrence in a late age of individuals from the northern tribes (e.g. Luke 2:36; comp. Acts 26:7). What proportion thus returned we have no means of determining; it was doubtless small, as was indeed that of the exiles from the southern tribes compared with the great mass who still remained in the land of their captivity, now become their home. Community of lot must have drawn both branches of the common stock of Israel nearer together during the captivity under the same heathen government, and it is altogether likely that in a few centuries those who permanently remained lost all trace of the sectarian distinction that had once estranged "Judah and Ephraim." (See RESTORATION (OF THE JEWS).)

The descendants of those who did not return either centred at certain points, especially Babylon (q.v.), where they afterwards became celebrated for their Jewish schools of Rabbinical literature; or, as was chiefly the case, it may be presumed, with the more distant and earlier removed ten tribes, wandered still farther in numerous Jewish colonies into the Medo- Babylonian provinces (Lightfoot, Append. to Hor. Hebr. in Acts, page 264 sq.), remnants of which have survived to a late day (Benj. of Tudela, quoted in Ritter, Erdk. 10:241 sq.). It is possible even that the Samaritans may have owed their mongrel origin to some such source (Gesenius, De Pentat. Samar. page 4), as they were transplanted to Palestine before the deportation of the Jews, and yet sufficiently late to have allowed a partial amalgamation with the heathen whence they came to have taken place, and especially as they had only the Pentateuch (Paulus, in Eichhorn's Biblioth. 1:931). From the provinces of the Persian empire the Jewish colonists may readily have spread into Arabia, India, and even China. Wild attempts at their discovery have been abundantly made, such as those of Adair (tlistory of the American Indians, Lond. 1775), Noah (The Amer. Indians the Descendants of the ten Lost Tribes of Israel, N.Y, 1835), and Grant (Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes, N.Y. 1841). (See DISPERSED JEWS).

Bibliography Information
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Exile'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/e/exile.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.

Bible Encyclopedias Exile

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Bible Encyclopedias
Exile