The Captivity to the
end of the Old Testament

Period of about 200 years


* * * * *

PROPHETS               JEWISH EVENTS               DATE B.C.          CONTEMPORARY
                                                                        HISTORY
Jer. 36-39, 46         First captivity (Daniel,      605              Battle of Carchemish
                          et al.)

Jer. 39:1-10           Second captivity              597
 2 Kin. 25:1-21          (Jerusalem captured)

Jer. 43-44             Third captivity               586              Nebuchadnezzar
                         (temple destroyed)                             beseiges Tyre

Ezek. 17-21            Last of Ezekiel's             571              Evil Merodach,
                          prophecies                                    Babylon, 562

2 Kin. 25:28           Jehoiachin released           562              Temple of Diana,
                                                                        Ephesus, 552 (?)
                                                                      Public library at
                                                                        Athens, 544
                                                                      Babylon taken by
                                                                        Cyrus, 539

Dan. 5                 Belshazzar's feast            539              First year of Cyrus, 538

Dan. 6                 Daniel in den of lions        538              Pythagoras, 582-507

2 Chr. 36:22,23        The decree for the return     538
 Ezra 1:1              End of first reckoning of                      Pisistratus, Athens, 605-527
                          70 years
Ezra 1:5-2:70          First return                  538              Nabonidus, Babylon, 556
                          50,000 under Zerubbabel
Ezra 3-6               Temple foundation laid        537-6            Darius in Babylon, 521
                          Long delay
Ezra 4:24              Temple building resumes       520              Roman Republic, 510

Ezra 6:15              Temple dedicated              516              Marathon, 490
                       End of Second Reckoning       516              Xerxes I (Ahasuerus),
                          of 70 years                                   486-465/64
                                                                      Invasion of Greece, 480

Esther 1               Feast of Ahasuerus            483              Herodotus Sophocles
                         (Xerxes I)

Esther 2               Esther becomes queen          479

Esther 3-7             Haman's plot                  474              First decemvirate, Rome, 451
                                                                      Socrates 470

Ezra 7:1, 8, 9         Second return under Ezra      458              Pericles, Athens, 444

Neh. 2:1               Return under Nehemiah         445              Parthenon, Athens, 443-438

Neh. 6:15              Wall of Jerusalem             444              Peloponnesian War, 431-404
                                                                      Plato, 427

Neh. 10                Reforms                                        Xenophon's retreat, 401
                       Death of Nehemiah             400
NOTE: The 70 years of exile prophesied by Jeremiah begin with the destruction of the
temple in 586, and end with the second temple completed in 516.



The Time of the Kings | Chronology of the Bible |Jewish Calendar