Exile

Event

Exile in the biblical narrative refers principally to the forced removal of Israel's population from their land as a covenant curse for persistent apostasy, most fully realized in the Assyrian deportation of the northern kingdom (722/721 B.C.) and the Babylonian deportation of Judah in three waves (605, 597, and 586 B.C.). The prophets interpreted exile not merely as military defeat but as the LORD himself driving his people out of his land in fulfillment of the covenant warnings of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. Yet they equally proclaimed a coming restoration: Israel would be brought back, the land renewed, and a new covenant established (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Ezekiel 36:24–28; Isaiah 40–55). The New Testament frames the return from exile as only partially fulfilled and envisions a deeper, cosmic exile from God addressed by the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection (Luke 4:18–19; 2 Corinthians 5:19–20).