event · E0353
Babylonian Chronicle ABC 5 הכרוניקה הבבלית על כיבוש ירושלים
A clay tablet of the Babylonian Chronicle series (BM 21946, acquired 1896, identified and published by Donald Wiseman in 1956) covering Nevuchadnetzar's accession through his eleventh year, 605–594 BCE: Carchemish, the yearly Hatti-land campaigns — and, in year 7, "he encamped against the city of Judah and on the second day of the month of Adar he seized the city and captured the king. He appointed there a king of his own choice." It is the only cuneiform text that directly narrates a capture of Jerusalem, and it dates the event to the day: 2 Adar, 16 March 597 BCE — the exile of Yehoyachin and the installation of Tzidkiyahu.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- הכרוניקה הבבלית על כיבוש ירושלים
- Also known as
- Jerusalem Chronicle, Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle, BM 21946
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3330 AM — placed at the chronicle's composition window (just after the last year it records) on the atlas's mapping; the capture of Jerusalem it witnesses is 3327 AM, galut Yechonyah
- Civil (computed)
- 3330 AM · 431 BCE (trad.)
- Academic
- covers 605–594 BCE; the capture of Jerusalem it records is 2 Adar = 16 March 597 BCE; the surviving tablet is a later archival copy
- Date range
- records 605–594 BCE; the surviving tablet is a Babylonian archival copy, likely 6th century BCE or somewhat later
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Bavel
IV. What
- Events
- Destruction of the First Temple
Why it matters
Somewhere in a Babylonian archive, a scribe keeping the official year-by-year record of Nevuchadnetzar's reign noted, under year 7, that the king "encamped against the city of Judah," took it on the second of Adar, captured its king, and installed one of his own choosing. That dry line is the churban's countdown, date-stamped in Babylonian ink: the surrender of Jerusalem in 597 BCE, the exile of Yehoyachin with the charash and masger, and the crowning of Tzidkiyahu, whose eleventh year would end in fire. It is the only cuneiform narrative of a capture of Jerusalem ever found — and the reason modern historians can put a day, 16 March 597, to a moment Tanakh dates by the years of its kings.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The tablet, BM 21946, was acquired by the British Museum in 1896 (exact findspot in Babylonia unrecorded) and lay unread until Donald Wiseman identified and published it in 1956; it belongs to the Babylonian Chronicle series (ABC 5) and covers Nevuchadnetzar's accession year through year 11, 605–594 BCE. It is not always on open display. | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| Under year 7 the chronicle reads: "he encamped against the city of Judah and on the second day of the month of Adar he seized the city and captured the king. He appointed there a king of his own choice, received its heavy tribute and sent [them] to Babylon" — 2 Adar = 16 March 597 BCE. Tanakh narrates the same surrender: Yehoyachin (Yehoyachin) goes out to the king of Babylon and is carried into exile with his household and the craftsmen, and Nevuchadnetzar makes Matanyah-Tzidkiyahu (Tzidkiyahu) king in his place. | biblical archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| The chronicle opens with Carchemish, 605 BCE — Nevuchadnetzar, as crown prince, destroying the Egyptian army — the campaign Yirmiyahu dates to Yehoyakim's fourth year, and the horizon of Daniel's opening verse. The tablet thus frames the whole countdown: 605 at Carchemish, 597 at Jerusalem's gates.
Daniel 1:1 counts "the third year of Yehoyakim," a much-discussed difference of counting conventions; the Carchemish synchronism itself is standard.
|
biblical archaeology | ★★★★☆ | |
| The chronicle's text was compiled from records close to the events, but the surviving tablet is a Babylonian archival copy, likely 6th century BCE or somewhat later. Following the atlas's standing placement rule — an artifact sits when it existed or was written, never at its discovery or its museum — the entity is placed at the chronicle's composition window (c. 3330 AM, just after the last year it records), and the events it witnesses (3327 AM / 597 BCE) are carried here in the claims. If the physical tablet's copying is later, the true existence point moves later still; the recorded dates are unaffected.
Placement interpretation documented per the atlas rule for chronicles composed or copied later than the events they record.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |
Referenced by: Daniel, Yehoyachin, Tzidkiyahu, Galut Yechonyah