There are four interrelated Biblically–
recounted “Babylonian exiles”:
–605 BCE: Deportation of Judean nobility (Daniel 1:1–6; Chronicles 36:6–7)
–597 BCE: Deportation of additional elite (Jeremiah 52:28–30; 2 Kings 24:10–16)
–586 BCE: Temple I destroyed (2 Kings 25:1–21)
–581 BCE: Another deportation (Jeremiah 52:30)
The Prophet Yechezkel is exiled in 586 BCE along with the Jewish people to Babylon, but all things considered, this is a relatively non–brutal exile.
The exile is under Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigns from 605 BCE to 562 BCE and constructs the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a Wonder of the Ancient World.
Babylon will in due course incubate the development of the Talmud.
Babylon will also see Hebrew script adopted (employed overwhelmingly thereafter), as opposed to the more formal Israelite lettering (as per Torah scrolls).
In Daniel 3:13, in a temporary political twist of Jewish Babylonian fortunes, Nebuchadnezzar orders three Jewish administrators of Babylon who refuse to worship as per Babylon’s customs into the furnace. Shadrach, Meshach and Abad–nego are then, according to Daniel 3:25, joined by a divine agent in the fire, and emerge unscathed.
Ezekiel will later write the Book of Ezekiel in Babylon, which, among other things, commands the Jews not to worship foreign gods, but allows them to become part of (simpatico) Babylonian culture, which indeed they did, to the extent that most did not return to Judea when the conquering Persians allowed it. (The Persians as well as facilitating the rebuilding of the Temple).
Ezekiel also prophesizes the return of the Jews to their land, and their eventual fulfillment in a segment known universally as “The Valley of Dry Bones.”
From Sefer Yechezkel:
He took me out by the spirit of the Lord
and set me down in the valley.
It was full of bones.
He led me all around them;
There were many of them spread over the valley
and they were very dry.
He said to me,
“O mortal can these bones live again?”
I replied, “O Lord God, only You know.”
And He said to me,
“Prophesy over these bones and say to them:
O dry bones,
Hear the word of the Lord!
Thus said the Lord God to these bones:
“I will cause breath to enter you
and you shall live again.
I will lay sinews upon you,
and cover you with flesh,
and form skin over you.
And I will put breath into you,
and you shall live again.
And you shall know that I am the Lord!”
– Ezekiel 37: 1–6
This prophecy is inscribed at Yad Vashem
Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
***
Nebuchadnezzar’s empire is to fall, within 50 years (539 BCE), to Cyrus the Great’s Persians, who are to be historic friends to the Jews.
But, 200 years later, the Persian Empire will (unfortunately for the Jews) in turn fall to Alexander the Great.
Successor regimes to Alexander will include the Seleucid–Greek Antiochus, enemy of the (Jewish–liberator) Maccabees.
Note: Ezekiel is revered as a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches.