11. By the Rivers of Babylon

Time:  605 BC - 536 BC
Place:  Babylon Rivers
Event:  Psalm 137
People:  The Exiles

Yesterday, we saw that Ezekiel was often at Chebar River because the exiles lived there.  Chebar River was a long canal in lower Mesopotamia whose water came from the Euphrates.

What is it like by the Rivers of Babylon?

Psalm 137 gives us a glimpse of what the exiles were doing by the Rivers of Babylon.

Spend some time to meditate on Psalm 137 for it helps us to understand their longing for God in a foreign land.

Psalm 137 :1-6

By the rivers of Babylon,
    there we sat down and wept,
    when we remembered Zion.
² On the willows there
    we hung up our lyres.
³ For there our captors
    required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How shall we sing Yahweh's song
    in a foreign land?
⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand forget its skill!
⁶ Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
    above my highest joy!

:)

9. 2nd Group of Exile

Place:  Jerusalem
Time:  597 BC 
Event: 2nd Group of Exile

To understand the Book of Daniel, sometimes we need to zero in to study one verse, and sometimes we need to step back and look at the situation in a panoramic view.

The Book of Daniel only tells us about the 1st group of exile in 605 BC.

In Dan 1:1-2, it says, "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god."

• Only part of the vessels were taken back to Babylon at this time. 
• This was NOT a complete take over of Jerusalem yet. 

This act would have warned the Israelites that they either subject totally to Babylon or everything will eventually be destroyed in Jerusalem and taken away in due time if they do not obey God.

This is why Jeremiah kept warning the Israelites and Judah kings to repent and surrender to Babylon, but they did not take to heed Jeremiah's warnings.

In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar came back to Jerusalem again to lay siege in Jerusalem and carried off the second group of exile.

The second group of Exile is recorded in 2 Kings 24:13-16.

This time, Nebuchadnezzar carried off all the treasures of the house of Yahweh and the treasures of the king's house.  They cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of  Yahweh as Yahweh had foretold.  The King carried away all Jerusalem, and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and smiths - a total of 10,000 captives.    King Jehoiachin was also carried away to Babylon.   2 Kings 24:10-16

Nebuchadnezzar ransacked the city for everything of value and carried away 'all' he could. Much of the population of Jerusalem were taken to become slaves in Babylon.  Only the poorest  people were left behind.

This event happened 8 years after the 1st Exile.


Homework:

Take out your Timeline graph and write in "597 2nd Exile" in the second box.

:)