ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains when scholars speak about 'the Exile' in biblical studies they almost univocally mean the Babylonian exile in 587-539 bce rather than any historical and literary exiles mentioned in ancient literature. The Babylonian exile is frequently put forward as the main explanatory factor for religious and literary developments that can be found in the Hebrew Bible. Even if the Babylonian exile looms large in biblical literature, there are in fact narratives about several major exiles in the Hebrew Bible. The sheer number of both 'historical' and narrative exiles confirms this, but one does not do justice to the topic by restricting it to the exile in Babylon after 587 bce. There are several discrepancies between biblical and extra-biblical sources on invasion and deportation in Palestine of the 1st millennium bce.
