[9] The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple led to a religious, spiritual and political crisis, which left its mark in prophetic literature and biblical tradition.

[8] After Babylon had fallen to Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, in 539 BC, he allowed the exiled Judeans to return to Zion and rebuild Jerusalem.

[10] In 601 BC, during the fourth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar II unsuccessfully attempted to invade Egypt and was repulsed with heavy losses.

Jeconiah and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah; According to the Book of Kings, about 10,000 were deported from the land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire.

[9] However, despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar II by ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra.

After being forced to watch their executions, Zedekiah had his eyes gouged out and was taken captive to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1–7; 2 Chronicles 36:12; Jeremiah 32:4–5; 34:2–3; 39:1–7; 52:4–11), where he remained a prisoner until his death.

The city and Solomon's Temple were plundered and destroyed, and most of the Judeans were taken by Nebuzaradan into captivity in Babylon, with only a few people permitted to remain to tend to the land (Jeremiah 52:16).

[8] Gedaliah, a Judean, was made governor of the remnant of Judah, the Yehud Province, with a Chaldean guard stationed at Mizpah (2 Kings 25:22–24; Jeremiah 40:6–8).

Gedaliah was assassinated by Ishmael son of Nethaniah two months later, and the population that had remained and those who had returned then fled to Egypt for safety (2 Kings 25:25–26, Jeremiah 43:5–7).

In Egypt, they settled in Migdol (it is uncertain where the Bible is referring to here, probably somewhere in the Nile Delta), Tahpanhes, Memphis (called Noph), and Pathros in the vicinity of Thebes (Jeremiah 44:1).

[14] In 2004, Rodger Young published an analysis in which he identified 587 BC for the end of the siege, based on details from the Bible and neo-Babylonian sources for related events.

Identification of Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year for the end of the siege places the event in the summer of 587 BC, which is consistent with all three relevant biblical sources—Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and 2 Kings.

[21] Ash and burnt wood beams were also discovered at several structures in the Givati Parking Lot, which were attributed by the archeologists to the destruction of the city in 586 BC.