Ezekiel deported to Babylon

In 597 BC, Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar II marched against Jerusalem after Judah’s young king, Jehoiachin, rebelled against Babylonian control. Judah had been a Babylonian vassal state since Nebuchadnezzar’s earlier victory over Egypt and its allies—including Judah—at Carchemish, in what is now Turkey. When Jehoiachin’s father, Jehoiakim, stopped paying tribute, Nebuchadnezzar retaliated. Jehoiakim died before the Babylonian army arrived, leaving his 18-year-old son to face the crisis.

Jerusalem was surrounded, and after a short siege Jehoiachin surrendered. To prevent further uprisings, Nebuchadnezzar deported Judah’s royal family, top officials, soldiers, craftsmen, and priests—about 10,000 people in all—to Babylon. This first major deportation was not meant to destroy Judah but to weaken it by removing its leaders and skilled workers. Among the exiles was a young priest named Ezekiel, who would later become one of the great prophets of Israel’s captivity.

The deportees were settled along the Chebar Canal near the ancient city of Nippur, in modern-day Iraq. There they lived as captives but not as slaves—allowed to build homes, farm, and form Jewish communities. Ezekiel described seeing visions of God by that canal, and his prophecies gave hope to the exiles that God had not abandoned them. Judah itself was left under another puppet king, Zedekiah, who would later rebel and trigger the final destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC. The deportation of Jehoiachin marked the beginning of the Babylonian Exile—the darkest, yet most transformative, era in Judah’s history.

Jerusalem's buildings and walls were destroyed, including Solomon's 600-year-old Temple.