6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and took prisoners including the young man Daniel and his friends.
The Babylon Chronicle agrees:
Nebuchadnezzar …mustered and took command of the troops
He marched to Carchemish ……against the Egyptian army…
accomplished their defeat and beat them to non-existance.
As for the rest …which escaped …..the Babylonian troops overtook and defeated them.
At that time Nebuchadnezzar conquered the whole area of the Hatti country.
2 Chronicles 36:9-10(ESV)
9 Jehoiachin was eighteen[a] years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.10 In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
The ‘Hatti’ country included Palestine, agreeing with the Bible’s historical account
Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem again in 598 BC
2 Kings 24:10-17 (ESV)
Jerusalem Captured
10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.11 And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it,
12 and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign13 and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the Lord had foretold.
14 He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land.15 And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
16 And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war.17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
Babylonian Quote
The king of Akkad mustered his troops, marching to the Hitti land and encamped against the city of Judah……besieged the city
And coptured the king
He appointed there a king of his own choice, received its heavy tribute and sent them to Babylon
Babylonian captivity in the history of Israel, the period from the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.) to the reconstruction in Palestine of a new Jewish state (after 538 B.C.).
After the capture of the city by the Babylonians some thousands, probably selected for their prosperity and importance, were deported to Mesopotamia. The number of those who remained is disputed by scholars. Such deportations were commonplace in Assyrian and Babylonian policy.
The exiles maintained close links with their kinsmen at home, as is clear from Ezekiel, the prophet of the early years of the Exile. In 538 B.C., Cyrus the Great, the new master of the empire, initiated a new attitude toward the nations and decreed the restoration of worship at Jerusalem.
The century following this decree was critical in the history of the Jews, for it is the time of their reintegration into a national and religious unit. For parts of the period, Ezra and Nehemiah are the best sources. The prophesied 70 years of captivity were fulfilled when the new Temple was completed in 516 B.C. Jews taken captive back to Babylon.
Ezekiel was taken to Babylon at this time
2 Kings 24:16 (ESV)
16 And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war.
Nebuchadnezzar deported all the important men to Babylonia, 7000 in all and 1000 skilled workers, including the blacksmiths, all of them able-bodied men fit for military duty.
Nebuchadnezzar needed a large number of men to maintain the miles of irrigation channels as well as building the palaces and temples, especially after Sennacherib had previously destroyed the city, leaving much to be rebuilt.
The special relations between Babylon and Israel are confirmed by tablets discovered in the royal palace of Babylon by Robert Koldeway
