The Babylonian chronicles are terse year-by-year notes with none of the boasting of royal monuments, which is what makes them precious. For Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year the entry records, almost in passing: he marched to the west, besieged “the city of Judah,” took it on the second day of Adar (16 March 597 BC by our calendar), seized its king, appointed a king of his own choosing, and sent tribute home. That is 2 Kings 24 in Babylonian shorthand — down to the replaced king.
- What it is
- A clay tablet of the neutral Babylonian court chronicle series, covering the years 605–594 BC
- Date of artifact
- 6th century BC
- Discovered
- Babylonia (acquired by the British Museum; published 1956)
- Where it is now
- British Museum, London
- Related to
- Nebuchadnezzar's capture of Jerusalem and the exile of King Jehoiachin
- Scripture
- 2 Kings 24:8–17
What this find showsThe 597 BC fall of Jerusalem, the deportation of Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah's installation as puppet king — event, sequence, and virtually the exact date.
What it does not proveThe chronicle for the later, final destruction of 586 BC has not survived, so this tablet covers only the first capture.
Sources & further reading