<P> The Jewish diaspora (Hebrew: Tfutza, תְּפוּצָה) or exile (Hebrew: Galut, גָּלוּת; Yiddish: Golus) is the dispersion of Israelites, Judahites and later Jews out of their ancestral homeland (the Land of Israel) and their subsequent settlement in other parts of the globe . </P> <P> In terms of the Hebrew Bible, the term "Exile" denotes the fate of the Israelites who were taken into exile from the Kingdom of Israel during the 8th century BCE, and the Judahites from the Kingdom of Judah who were taken into exile during the 6th century BCE . While in exile, the Judahites became known as "Jews" (יְהוּדִים, or Yehudim)--"Mordecai the Jew" from the Book of Esther being the first biblical mention of the term . </P> <P> The first exile was the Assyrian exile, the expulsion from the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) begun by Tiglath - Pileser III of Assyria in 733 BCE . This process was completed by Sargon II with the destruction of the kingdom in 722 BCE, concluding a three - year siege of Samaria begun by Shalmaneser V . The next experience of exile was the Babylonian captivity, in which portions of the population of the Kingdom of Judah were deported in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II . </P> <P> Before the middle of the first century CE, in addition to Judea, Syria and Babylonia, large Jewish communities existed in the Roman provinces of Egypt, Cyrene and Crete and in Rome itself; after the Siege of Jerusalem in 63 BCE, when the Hasmonean kingdom became a protectorate of Rome, emigration intensified . In 6 CE the region was organized as the Roman province of Judea, but the Judean population revolted against the Roman Empire in 66 CE during the period known as the First Jewish--Roman War which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE . During the siege, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and most of Jerusalem . This event marked the beginning of the Roman exile, also called Edom exile . Jewish leaders and elite were exiled from the land, killed, or taken to Rome as slaves . </P>

What date is traditionally given to the first deportation of exiles from judah into babylon