<P> The Kingdom of Judah ( Hebrew : מַמְלֶכֶת יְהוּדָה ‎ , Mamlekhet Yehudāh ) was an Iron Age kingdom of the Southern Levant . The Hebrew Bible depicts it as the successor to a United Monarchy , but historians are divided about the veracity of this account . In the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely populated , limited to small rural settlements , most of them unfortified . Jerusalem , the kingdom 's capital , likely did not emerge as a significant administrative centre until the end of the 8th century ; prior to this archaeological evidence suggests its population was too small to sustain a viable kingdom . In the 7th century its population increased greatly , prospering under Assyrian vassalage ( despite Hezekiah 's revolt against the Assyrian king Sennacherib ) , but in 605 the Assyrian Empire was defeated , and the ensuing competition between the Twenty - sixth Dynasty of Egypt and the Neo-Babylonian Empire for control of the Eastern Mediterranean led to the destruction of the kingdom in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582 , the deportation of the elite of the community , and the incorporation of Judah into a province of the Neo-Babylonian Empire . </P>
<P> The Kingdom of Judah ( Hebrew : מַמְלֶכֶת יְהוּדָה ‎ , Mamlekhet Yehudāh ) was an Iron Age kingdom of the Southern Levant . The Hebrew Bible depicts it as the successor to a United Monarchy , but historians are divided about the veracity of this account . In the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely populated , limited to small rural settlements , most of them unfortified . Jerusalem , the kingdom 's capital , likely did not emerge as a significant administrative centre until the end of the 8th century ; prior to this archaeological evidence suggests its population was too small to sustain a viable kingdom . In the 7th century its population increased greatly , prospering under Assyrian vassalage ( despite Hezekiah 's revolt against the Assyrian king Sennacherib ) , but in 605 the Assyrian Empire was defeated , and the ensuing competition between the Twenty - sixth Dynasty of Egypt and the Neo-Babylonian Empire for control of the Eastern Mediterranean led to the destruction of the kingdom in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582 , the deportation of the elite of the community , and the incorporation of Judah into a province of the Neo-Babylonian Empire . </P>
when did the southern kingdom fall to babylon
when did the southern kingdom fall to babylon
582
582