DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, in 587/586 BC. Scholars use both years, depending on how a king's years are counted. It wasn't the first blow: a deportation had followed Jerusalem's surrender in 597. Solomon's Temple was burned, and the court, army, priests and skilled workers were carried off. But many Judeans stayed on the land, as 2 Kings 25:12 notes of the vinedressers and farmers left behind.
Why it’s interesting
This is the Hebrew Bible's hinge. So much of it was written, gathered or reshaped in the shadow of losing the land and the Temple. Exile turned a national story into a portable faith.
Scholarly consensus
Learn the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.