ILLUSTRATES Tom Womb
EDITION Felipe van Deursen
– (Tom Belly/Strange World)
THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
Led by Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylonian soldiers surrounded the city, destroyed Solomon’s Temple, and expelled the Jews
READ THE REPORT “THE STORIES THAT THE BIBLE DIDN’T TELL”
– Ark of Noah
– Exodus
– Samson
– David
– Fall of Jerusalem
– Crucifixion
had a blow
In 597 BC, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar 2nd, invaded Jerusalem, deported part of the population and placed Zedekiah (or Zedekiah) on the throne. Eight years later, the king turned his coat and rebelled. In 588 BC, the Babylonians marched back to Jerusalem and secured control of the capital, at the cost of destruction, death and fire.
strategic point
The fall of Jerusalem was the result of political and territorial disputes. Little Judah was located in a coastal region, important for trade, which always put it at the target of powers. Before the Babylonians, the Assyrians controlled the area
defenses
In 701 BC, another king, Hezekiah, worried about the Assyrians, reinforced the walls and equipped them with catapults. The king ordered the construction of an underground tunnel, which connected a water reservoir to the city. Even if it were besieged, the population would not die of thirst.
wall down
The Babylonians were experts in sieges. To demolish a fortification, they used the ram: the heavy wood made holes in the walls. Arrows provided protection for soldiers approaching with the siege towers (wooden structure with internal stairs). They still dug galleries under the protective walls of cities
the siege
According to Bible, the Babylonians camped behind the walls for 18 months, where they built attack ramps. This prevented the population from leaving and supplies from entering. When the people were starving, the army invaded the city. The prophet Jeremiah, one of the authors who describe the siege in the holy book, was captured
Undoing
The devastation in Jerusalem would have been total. Nebuchadnezzar’s army, to avoid insurrection, burned the entire city, looted what it could, and sent thousands of Jews, especially members of the elite and intellectuals, into exile in Babylon. Gedaliah was named the new ruler, but was assassinated two months later by a member of the royal family of Judah.
Jeremiah knows everything
The prophet had been predicting the fall of Jerusalem, which would be punished by God, as the people persisted in the sin of idolatry. Jeremiah claimed that the famine imposed by the Babylonians would be such that mothers would eat their own children. He was accused of being a traitor, because he told the Hebrews that there was no point in resisting: it was better to surrender quickly to the enemy
The House fell
Built by King Solomon in 957 BC, the Temple in Jerusalem was looted and burned. According to Bible, there was the Ark of the Covenant, which kept the tablets of the Ten Commandments. After the invasion, the ark was never seen again.
lost chest
The Babylonians had a list of stolen items, and at no point was the Ark mentioned. A Bible it says that Jeremiah hid it in a mountain called Nebo. However, Israeli archaeologist Dan Barat explains that to say that something went to Mount Nebo means that it went to hell. A Bible would have been interpreted literally
what science says
The episode of the fall of Jerusalem has foundation. The Roman historian Flavius Josephus recorded it in the 1st century. Furthermore, a Babylonian tablet mentions an official who is also in the book of Jeremiah in the Bible. The collection of tablets also reports the first siege by Nebuchadnezzar, but not the second. For the Babylonians, other conflicts of the same time were more relevant, such as the taking of Karkemish, in Syria.
- Jeremiah probably existed. The scribe Baruch ben Neriah, to whom he dictated his texts in exile, appears in Jewish documents found in excavations in 1975 and 1996
SOURCES Bible Archeology, Biblical Archeology, British Museum, Jewish Virtual Library, Journal of Archaeological Science, Slinging; books A Bible: A Biographyby Karen Armstrong BibleGod, A Biographyby Jack Miles, Excavating Jesusby John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, The Mystic Pastby Thomas L. Thompson, and Jesus, Collection To Know Moreby Rodrigo Cavalcante and André Chevitarese