Exile and Diaspora in the Bible

Abstract

Abstract This essay focuses on biblical views of exile as portrayed in historiographic narrative and in prophetic and poetic literature. It considers the pre-exilic idea that exile is a punishment for unfaithfulness to God and the broader postexilic concept of the ongoing exile as a way to describe the Jewish condition in the restored Judah. Drawing on Mesopotamian documents as well as on the Bible, it constructs a picture of Jewish life in the Babylonian exile and discusses the diaspora stories of Esther and Daniel, where Jews preserved their ethnic identity and flourished. In the Bible, exile transcended the historical deportations and became an important element in postexilic Jewish identity.

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