BAB'YLO'NISH CAPTIVITY, or BABY LO'NIAN EXILE. The name given to the deportation of Judeans to Babylonia by Nebu chadnezzar at the time of the conquest of the Judean Kingdom. The policy of deporting the principal inhabitants of conquered districts, as an effective means of preventing uprisings, appears to have been begun by the Assyrian mon archs, who in their inscriptions frequently refer to the execution of such a measure. So in me. 738, Tiglathpileser I11, carried away portions of the trans-Jo•danic Hebrew tribes, and at the time of the destruction of Samaria, Sargon (B.C. 721) took many captives to Assyria, and re placed them by colonists from various towns of Babylonia. The kings of the Neo-Bahylonian period adopted this policy, and accordingly Nelm ehadnezzar, at the time of the defection of Zede kiah (me. 597), carried dehoiachin the King, the royal household, the princes and chief men to Babylonia; and ten years afterwards, when Je•n saleni was finally destroyed, a second and even larger deportation took place (11. Kings xxv.). Yet it must be borne in mind that the majority of the inhabitants remained in the land, even when we subtract those who went into a volun tary exile in Egypt. Those who were taken to Babylonia were settled in various parts of Southern Alesopotamia, and it would seem that the favorable conditions existing in Babylonia induced many to leave Palestine, where the long ravages of war had brought on great distress, and to join their brethren in the Euphrates Valley. The captivity must not, therefore, be regarded as a condition of hardship. As a matter of fact, the Jews Were allowed, as were all foreigners in the Babylonian domain, the greatest possible freedom, and soon became as similated to conditions prevailing in Babylonia. Instead, however, of cultivating the soil, as they had clone in their own country, they entered upon commercial life; and this change from agricul tural pursuits is, perhaps, the most significant feature of the Babylonish Captivity, which pro foundly influenced the future fortunes of the Jews. Traces of settlements of Jews in Baby lonia may be seen in the numerous Jewish names that appear in the so-called contract tablets found in Babylonia, belonging to the Neo Babylonian and Persian period. From these and other sources we know that many of the Jews acquired riches in Babylonia; and, on the whole, all lived in ease and comfort, if not in pros perity.
So complete was the assimilation to Baby lonian ways of life that when, after the advent of Cyrus (me. a38) permission was given to the Jews to return to their homes in Palestine and to rebuild fhe Temple, only a comparatively small number availed themselves of the oppor tunity. Only the pious and zealous were im pelled to take up the pilgrim's staff, and the sad fortunes encountered by those who did return served to discourage emigration from Baby lonia on a large scale.
The period of the exile was a most important epoch in the religious life of the people. The downfall of Jerusalem was looked upon as a pun ishment sent by Jehovah for the people's sins in not following the injunctions of the purists, who objected to all foreign ingredients in the Jehovistic cult. The cause of the Prophets was thus stren,gthened by the natural catastrophe, and the Ile\V spirit manifested itself during the exile by the literary activity which now began and which gradually transformed the annals and traditions and all literary productions of the past into one grand illustration of the funda mental principle of the religion of the Prophets, that there was no god like Jehovah, and that His people Israel, who were bound to Hirn by the Covenant at Sinai, prospered when they were faithful to Jehovah, and that all disl.ress, de feats, and misfortunes that mark Israel's his tory were punishments sent because of dis obedience to His will. It was important, there fore, for the future to know exactly what was the will of Jehovah, and hence prophets like Ezekiel set themselves to work preparing codes regulating forms of worship and the conduct of life. The upshot of this movement is the produetion of an elaborate code by Ezra. which is promulgated by him and Nehemiah in me. -144 as the eternal law of the land, and which was subsequently combined with the legendary and the historical traditions of Israel to form the present Pentateuch, though it should be added that the Pentateuch itself is but a part of one great final compilation which, extending from Genesis to the end of the second book of Kings, embraeed therefore, besides the Penta teuch, Joshua, 'fudges, Samuel and Kings, the legends, the traditions, the law and the annals of the Hebrews—all viewed from the position of post-exilic Judaism as finally established on the basis of Ezra's Code. See EZEKIEL; EZRA; JEWS ; PENTATEUCII.
The name `Babylonish Captivity is also fre quently applied in Christian Church history to the residence of the Popes at Avignon, from 1309 to 1376.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. For the history, consult WellBibliography. For the history, consult Well- hansen. isractitiRehe and jildisehe Geschichte, 3d ed. (Berlin, 1897) ; Ewald, The History of Is rael, translated by Martineau (London, 1869 74) ; Guthe, Geschichtc Israels and Hedge sehichte (Leipzig, 1900) ; Piepenbring, Histoire du peuple d'Isracl (Paris, 1898) ; also for the special problems connected with the return from the Captivity, Roster. Het Ilerstel von Israel (Heidelberg, 1895) ; Meyer (ed.), Entstehung des Judenthums 1896).