Destruction of the First Temple and Jerusalem

Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had placed on the throne following the deportation of his nephew Jehoiachin, in turn rebelled by leaning on Egypt. The Babylonian army came to lay siege to Jerusalem in the tenth month of the ninth year of his reign; an Egyptian sortie lifted the siege for several weeks, then it resumed. Famine settled in the besieged city, to the point that the book of Lamentations declares it worse than the sword. The wall was breached in the fourth month of the eleventh year.

Zedekiah fled by night toward the plain of Jericho; caught, he was brought to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, before the king of Babylon. His sons were slaughtered before his eyes, then his eyes were gouged out and he was carried away in chains. One month after the breach, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, set fire to the Temple, the royal palace, and every great house in Jerusalem; the Chaldeans tore down the walls. The high priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, and the keepers of the threshold were executed at Riblah along with dignitaries of the city. The sanctuary built by Solomon had stood for nearly four centuries.

What followed was not merely ruin: the Davidic kingship ceased, sacrifice ceased, and it was in exile that Judaism learned to live without a temple — the synagogue, the public reading of the Law, and prayer find their source there. The Jewish calendar still bears four fasts: the tenth of Tevet for the beginning of the siege, the seventeenth of Tammuz for the breach, the ninth of Av for the burning of the Temple, and the fast of Gedaliah for what came after.

⚠ The year is read as 586 or 587 depending on how one aligns the Judean reigns with Babylonian chronology; both are defended by historians.