The Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC Painting by William Brassey Hole Wiki.org
God Had Warned Solomon
Israel could not say they had not been warned. God warned Solomon on completion of the Temple in Jerusalem:
“As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’
“But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’”
King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon Attacks Jerusalem
Two hundred and fifty years after Jehoshaphat's victory over the Moabites and Ammonites, Jerusalem came under attack from the most powerful King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II. The first attack took place when King Jeconiah of Judah rebelled against Babylonian rule. Nebuchadnezzar launched a prolonged siege of Jerusalam in 597 BC, which ended in Jeconiah being deported in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah as puppet king and Judah as a vassal state of Babylon.
The Siege of Jerusalem, Destruction of The Temple of Solomon & Exile to Babylon
Zedekiah eventually rebelled against Babylonian rule. In 589 BC Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city and in 587 BC after breaking down the walls, destroyed the city and the Temple Solomon had built. Zedekiah himself watched his sons put to death before his eyes were gouged out and he was carried off to Babylon, where he remained a prisoner until he died. The Jews, with a few exceptions who were left behind, were carried off to exile in Babylon, which lasted for seventy years as the prophet Jeremiah prophesied.