History of ancient Israel and Judah

==Aftermath: Assyrian and Babylonian periods==
{{Main|Samerina|Yehud (Babylonian province)}}

After its fall, the former Kingdom of Israel became  the Assyrian province of [[Samerina]], which was taken over about a century later by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, created after the revolt of the Babylonians and them defeating the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

[[File:Al-Yahudu_Tablets3_(cropped).jpg|thumb|One of the [[Al-Yahudu Tablets]], written in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], which documented the condition of the exiled Judean community in Babylon]]
Babylonian Judah suffered a steep decline in both economy and population<ref>Grabbe 2004, p. 28.</ref> and lost the Negev, the Shephelah, and part of the Judean hill country, including Hebron, to encroachments from Edom and other neighbours.<ref>[[André Lemaire|Lemaire]] in Blenkinsopp 2003, p. 291.</ref> Jerusalem, destroyed but probably not totally abandoned, was much smaller than previously, and the settlements surrounding it, as well as the towns in the former kingdom's western borders, were all devastated as a result of the Babylonian campaign. The town of [[Mizpah in Benjamin]] in the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom became the capital of the new Babylonian province of [[Yehud (Babylonian province)|Yehud]].<ref>Davies 2009.</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Lipschits |first=Oded |date=1999 |title=The History of the Benjamin Region under Babylonian Rule |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/tav.1999.1999.2.155 |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=155–190 |doi=10.1179/tav.1999.1999.2.155 |issn=0334-4355 |quote=The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (586 B.C.E.) is the most traumatic event described in biblical historiography, and in its shadow the history of the people of Israel was reshaped. The harsh impression of the destruction left its mark on the prophetic literature also, and particular force is retained in the laments over the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in its midst. [...] most of Judah's inhabitants remained there after the destruction of Jerusalem. They concentrated chiefly in the Benjamin region and the northern Judean hill country. This area was hardly affected by the destruction, and became the centre of the Babylonian province with its capital at Mizpah. [...] The archaeological data reinforce the biblical account, and they indicate that Jerusalem and its close environs suffered a severe blow. Most of the small settlements near the city were destroyed, the city wall was demolished, and the buildings within were put to the torch. Excavation and survey data show that the western border of the kingdom also sustained a grave onslaught, seemingly at the time when the Babylonians went to besiege Jerusalem.}}</ref> This was standard Babylonian practice: when the Philistine city of [[Ashkalon]] was conquered in 604, the political, religious and economic elite (but not the bulk of the population) was banished and the administrative centre shifted to a new location.<ref>Lipschits 2005, p. 48.</ref> There is also a strong probability that for most or all of the period the temple at [[Bethel]] in Benjamin replaced that at Jerusalem, boosting the prestige of Bethel's priests (the Aaronites) against those of Jerusalem (the Zadokites), now in exile in Babylon.<ref>Blenkinsopp in Blenkinsopp 2003, pp. 103–05.</ref>

The Babylonian conquest entailed not just the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, but the liquidation of the entire infrastructure which had sustained Judah for centuries.<ref>Blenkinsopp 2009, p. 228.</ref> The most significant casualty was the state ideology of "Zion theology,"<ref>Middlemas 2005, pp. 1–2.</ref> the idea that the god of Israel had chosen Jerusalem for his dwelling-place and that the [[Davidic dynasty]] would reign there forever.<ref>Miller 1986, p. 203.</ref> The fall of the city and the end of Davidic kingship forced the leaders of the exile community{{snd}} kings, priests, scribes and prophets{{snd}} to reformulate the concepts of community, faith and politics.<ref>Middlemas 2005, p. 2.</ref> The exile community in Babylon thus became the source of significant portions of the Hebrew Bible: [[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]] 40–55; [[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]]; the final version of [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]]; the work of the hypothesized [[priestly source]] in the [[Pentateuch]]; and the final form of the history of Israel from [[Deuteronomy]] to [[Books of Kings|2 Kings]].<ref name="middlemas10">Middlemas 2005, p. 10.</ref> Theologically, the Babylonian exiles were responsible for the doctrines of individual responsibility and universalism (the concept that one god controls the entire world) and for the increased emphasis on purity and holiness.<ref name="middlemas10" /> Most significantly, the trauma of the exile experience led to the development of a strong sense of Hebrew identity distinct from other peoples,<ref>Middlemas 2005, p. 17.</ref> with increased emphasis on symbols such as circumcision and Sabbath-observance to sustain that distinction.<ref>Bedford 2001, p. 48.</ref>

[[Hans M. Barstad]] writes that the concentration of the biblical literature on the experience of the exiles in Babylon disguises that the great majority of the population remained in Judah; for them, life after the fall of Jerusalem probably went on much as it had before.<ref>Barstad 2008, p. 109.</ref> It may even have improved, as they were rewarded with the land and property of the deportees, much to the anger of the community of exiles remaining in Babylon.<ref>Albertz 2003a, p. 92.</ref> Conversely, [[Avraham Faust]] writes that archaeological and demographic surveys show that the population of Judah was significantly reduced to barely 10% of what it had been in the time before the exile.<ref>Faust, Avraham (2012). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=NcnPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA119 Judah in the Neo-Babylonian Period: The Archaeology of Desolation.]'' Society of Biblical Lit. p. 140</ref> The assassination around 582 of the Babylonian governor by a disaffected member of the former royal House of David provoked a Babylonian crackdown, possibly reflected in the [[Book of Lamentations]], but the situation seems to have soon stabilized again.<ref>Albertz 2003a, pp. 95–96.</ref> Nevertheless, those unwalled cities and towns that remained were subject to slave raids by the Phoenicians and intervention in their internal affairs by [[Samaritan]]s, Arabs, and Ammonites.<ref>Albertz 2003a, p. 96.</ref>
Description	What you type	What you get
Italic	''Italic text''	Italic text
Bold	'''Bold text'''	Bold text
Bold & italic	'''''Bold & italic text'''''	*Bold & italic text*
Description	What you type	What you get
Reference	Page text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>	Page text.^[1]
Named reference	Page text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>	Page text.^[2]
Additional use of the same reference	Page text.<ref name="test" />	Page text.^[2]
Display references	<references />	↑ Link text, additional text. ↑ Link text