After capturing Jerusalem in 597 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II deported the Judean king, court and skilled inhabitants to Babylonia in Mesopotamia. Further deportations followed the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 587 BCE. Persian rule later permitted return, although a permanent Jewish community remained in Babylonia.

Exile profoundly shaped Hebrew literature, including the Book of Lamentations, Psalm 137 and important sections of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah. Its language of displacement, memory and hoped-for return became foundational to later Jewish and diasporic poetry.