<P> Jehoiakim ruled originally as a vassal of the Egyptians, paying a heavy tribute . However, when the Egyptians were defeated by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BCE, Jehoiakim changed allegiances, paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon . In 601 BCE, in the fourth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar unsuccessfully attempted to invade Egypt and was repulsed with heavy losses . This failure led to numerous rebellions among the states of the Levant which owed allegiance to Babylon . Jehoiakim also stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar and took a pro-Egyptian position . Nebuchadnezzar soon dealt with these rebellions . According to the Babylonian Chronicles, after invading "the land of Hatti (Syria / Palestine)" in 599 BCE, he lay siege to Jerusalem . Jehoiakim died in 598 BCE during the siege, and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah at an age of either eight or eighteen . The city fell about three months later, on 2 Adar (March 16) 597 BCE . Nebuchadnezzar pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple, carting all his spoils to Babylon . Jeconiah and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah, numbering about 10,000 were deported from the land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire . (2 Kings 24: 14) Among them was Ezekiel . Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, king of the reduced kingdom, who was made a tributary of Babylon . </P> <P> Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar, ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra . In 589 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II returned to Judah and again besieged Jerusalem . During this period, many Jews fled to surrounding Moab, Ammon, Edom and other countries to seek refuge . The city fell after a siege which lasted either eighteen or thirty months and Nebuchadnezzar again pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple, after which he destroyed them both . After killing all of Zedekiah's sons, with the possible exception of one, Nebuchadnezzar took Zedekiah to Babylon, putting an end to the independent Kingdom of Judah . According to the Book of Jeremiah, in addition to those killed during the siege, some 4,600 people were deported after the fall of Judah . By 586 BCE much of Judah was devastated, and the former kingdom suffered a steep decline of both economy and population . </P> <P> Jerusalem apparently remained uninhabited for much of the 6th century, and the centre of gravity shifted to Benjamin, the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom, where the town of Mizpah became the capital of the new Babylonian province of Yehud for the remnant of the Jewish population in a part of the former kingdom . This was standard Babylonian practice: when the Philistine city of Ashkelon was conquered in 604 BCE, the political, religious and economic elite (but not the bulk of the population) was banished and the administrative centre shifted to a new location . </P> <P> Gedaliah was appointed governor of the Yehud Medinata, supported by a Babylonian guard . The administrative centre of the province was Mizpah in Benjamin, not Jerusalem . On hearing of the appointment, many of the Judeans that had taken refuge in surrounding countries were persuaded to return to Judah . However, before long Gedaliah was assassinated by a member of the royal house, and the Chaldean soldiers killed . The population that was left in the land and those that had returned fled to Egypt fearing a Babylonian reprisal, under the leadership of Yohanan ben Kareah, ignoring the urging of the prophet Jeremiah against the move . (2 Kings 25: 26, Jeremiah 43: 5--7) In Egypt, the refugees settled in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and Pathros, (Jeremiah 44: 1) and Jeremiah went with them as a moral guardian . </P>

Biblical king of judea in 7th century bc