By what means, then, did Jehovah bring a national calamity upon them in 607 B.C.E.? It was by means of the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. After about eighteen months of besieging Jerusalem, the Babylonian army broke into the city, plundered it and its temple, led off the miserable survivors captive, and burned down the holy city.

The observing pagans round about seemed to have reason to believe that, with Jehovah’s people in exile largely in Babylon, His worship would die out.