Term Effects Of The Babylonian Exile

The Babylonian Exile had several short and long term effects on the life and thought of the Israelites. A question that the Israelites faced when they were exiled to Babylonia is whether or not they should establish lives while in Babylonia. One of the most prominent short term effects was the questioning of whether God had abandoned the Israelites or not. This short term effect evolved into the long term effect that is known as the religion of Judaism. While in Babylonia, the Israelites struggled with the question of whether God is as powerful as they previously thought. A further long term effect of the Babylonian exile is that the Israelites changed from a Davidic King to a foreign king. When the Israelites first entered into the
On top of this, even if God’s power was uncontested, the Israelites had no clue if they angered God to the point of complete abandonment. In this time, it was believed that when one nation destroyed another they way that the Babylonians destroyed and exiled the Israelites, it meant that the deity of the conquering nation was the more powerful of the two. (Coogan, 383) These questions must have arisen within the exile because the author of Lamentations feels the need to declare that even with all of the punishment that God is bestowing upon the Israelites, they will remain faithful to the true God and remain hopeful that God has not abandoned them completely. (Lamentations
Before the exile, it was important that the Israelite king be of the Davidic line from the time of Saul. (1 Samuel 9-11) After Saul, there was a long list of Davidic Kings, including David, Solomon, and Hezekiah. The final Davidic King was Zedekiah, who ruled up until the Babylonians took over Israel. The Babylonians brutally executed Zedekiah and started the exile after a two year siege. (Jeremiah 52) Although the Davidic line remained important, the end of the exile led to the acceptance of a foreign ruler: King Cyrus of Persia. Isaiah shows that King Cyrus was accepted because words that were previously used only for Israelite King are used to describe him. These terms include the Lord’s Shepherd, the anointed one of Yahweh, and chosen by Yahweh. (Isaiah 44:28-45:1) On top of this, Ezra 1 shows that King Cyrus believed in the God of the Israelites as the edict he gives is God ordained. (Ezra 1:2-4) The people of Israel are shown to respond positively to this, and even gave silver and gold on top of their freewill offerings. (Ezra