On March 16, 597 BCE (2 Adar in the Hebrew calendar), the armies of Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and deposed King Jehoiachin, beginning the Babylonian Captivity. For nearly 50 years, thousands of Judah's most prominent citizens and scholars would be held prisoner in Mesopotamia, until Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered the Babylonians in 538 and repatriated the captives to Israel.
The destruction of Solomon's temple on this date stimulated long-standing messianic hopes among the Jews for its reconstruction. In the minds of many later Christians, the reconstruction of the Temple also became a persistent focus of apocalyptic speculation.
