Captivity. The Babylonian captivity or exile refers to the time period in Israel’s history when Jews were taken captive by king Nebuchadnezzar ll of Babylon. It is an important period of biblical history because both the captivity and the return and restoration of the Jewish nation were fulfillments of prophecies. God used Babylon as His agent of judgement against Israel for their sins of idolatry and rebellion against Him. There were actually several different times during this period (60-586 B.C. when the Jew were taken captive by Babylon. With each successive rebellion against Babylonian rule, Nebuchadnezzar would lead his armies against Judah until they laid siege to Jerusalem for over a year, killing any people and destroying the Jewish
