How Did Babylon Affect The Rise Of Mesopotamia?

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From the year 722 BCE the Assyrians controlled most of the ancient near east and were occupying modern-day Israel. This, however, came to an end in the year 612 BCE when the Babylonians conquered Assyria. Babylon is situated in the modern-day Iraqi region and the Babylonian empire was one of the great empires that dominated the region of Mesopotamia. The Babylonian empire struggled to grow at the beginning and had many skirmishes with the Egyptians especially around the year 605 BCE. It was in the same year that Nebuchadnezzar became King of Babylon, a man who would have a great impact on the life of the peple of Israel and Judah during this time. It is, in fact, in the same year that Nebuchadnezzar became King that the Babylonians invaded …show more content…

Later, Mattaniah changed his name to Zedekiah. One of the men who was sent to Babylon at this time was a man named Ezekiel, who also is regarded as a prophet and began his prophecy during his exile. Despite warnings from the prophet Jeremiah (BIBLE), over time, the Judeans, who weren’t exiled, became rebellious in their nature. They believed that if the rebelled against the Babylonians, they could not only sustain a rebellion but that they could drive the Babylonians out of Judea once and for all. They naively relied on help from the Egyptians and were under the illusion that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had forgotten about them. In July 587 BCE Zedekiah rebelled against Babylonia, making an alliance with Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem again, starving the people. Later, the Babylonian troops managed to get inside the walls and conquer the city and Nebuzaradan, a Babylonian executioner, burned down Solomon's Temple, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, and exiled a large number of the Jews to Babylonia; the third wave. He appointed Gedilia as the administor of the Jews that weren't exiled from Judah. Judah ceased to exist a year later, in 586 BC. Gedalia was later murdered in 582 …show more content…

They targeted the upper-classes and prominent figures and leaders, this means that many working-class, ordinary people remained. From various sources one conclude that the majority of those who remained in the land were positive about the diversion of poverty and even justified it theologically. For them, the exile was Yahweh’s judgement on the exploitation of the upper classes and a liberation from debt. For those that were deported, however, the exile was felt a lot differently. Initially one would have to imagine that the Jews who were deported were downtrodden, depressed and had lost all hope. They were forced from their homes into a land, culture and society that wasn’t familiar. They must have felt as though they were being unfairly punished by God. However, Jeremiah, in his letter to the Jews in Babylon, seen in Jeremiah 29:5-7 asked them to “Build houses and settle down. Plant Gardens and eat what you grow in them. Marry and have children. Then let your children get married so that they may also have children. You must increase in numbers and not decrease” . The Jews that were deported did exactly this. The life of the exiles was not one of 'concentration camps' The Judeans who were carried off in 597 were settled on the great irrigation canals of Mesopotamia. One of their tasks (forced labour) was to keep the canal system between the Tigris and the Euphrates in repair under the

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