Yehud Medinata

Yehud, also known as Yehud Medinata or Yehud Medinta, was an autonomous administrative province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It was one of several such provinces in Palestine, with the others being Moab, Ammon, Gilead, Samaria, Ashdod and Idumea, constituting the fifth Persian satrapy of Eber-Nari. Located in Judea, it continued to exist for two centuries before it was incorporated into the Hellenistic empires following the Wars of Alexander the Great. After the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was annexed by the Persians; the Persian province of Yehud succeeded the earlier Babylonian province of Yehud, which was formed after the Babylonians conquered the Kingdom of Judah following the Jewish–Babylonian War. Due to the lingering effects of the Babylonian captivity, the province had a considerably smaller population than that of the fallen Israelite kingdom. "Yehud Medinata" was the Aramaic-language name of the province, and was first introduced by the Babylonians during their governance of the same region prior to the Persian conquest. Yehud (Babylonian province) In the late-7th century BCE, Judah became a vassal-kingdom of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, but there were rival factions at the court in Jerusalem, some supporting loyalty to Babylon and others urging rebellion. In the early years of the 6th century BCE, despite the strong remonstrances of the prophet Jeremiah and others, the Judahite king Jehoiakim revolted against Nebuchadnezzar II. The revolt failed, and in 597 BCE, many Judahites, including the prophet Ezekiel, were exiled to Babylon. A few years later, Judah revolted yet again. In 589, Nebuchadnezzar again besieged Jerusalem, and many Jews fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom and other countries to seek refuge. The city fell after an 18-month siege and Nebuchadnezzar again pillaged and destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple. Thus, by 586 BCE, much of Judah was devastated, the royal family, the priesthood, and the scribes, the country's elite, were in exile in Babylon, and the former kingdom suffered a steep decline of both economy and population.