How did nebuchadnezzar treat conquered people?

Answer 1

He allowed the Judean aristocracy, which had been deported to Babylon by the Babylonians, to return to Judea to try to reclaim their estates if they wished. Half declined because they were well established in Babylon and stayed. The returnees had mixed success - many could not provide credible evidence to their claim. The successful ones became the new aristocracy in Judea.

The reason they had been deported in the first place was that the Babylonians followed the practice of their predecessors the Assyrians, by exchanging aristocracies of conquered territories so that peoples were ruled by foreigners who were not sympathetic to them and so avoid uprisings. The aristocracies of the 10 northern tribes of Hebrews had been sent by the Assyrians to rule peoples there, and aristocracies from Assyria sent to rule the 10 tribes. The Babylonians did the same thing with the two southern tribes - Judah and Benjamin a century later, and thn incoming Persian Cyrus gave them their chance and came back to take over the two southern tribes. This didn't happen to the northern 10 tribes, giving rise to the fable that the people had disappeared. The common people remained in Israel under foreign rulers in the north. And the common people of the two southern tribes remained in the south.

Answer 2

There can be no doubt that the Persians treated the Jews extremely well, especially in comparison the their treatment under the Babylonians. Isaiah chapter 42 speaks of the Jews, during their captivity by the Babylonians, as a people robbed and spoiled, snared in holes and hidden in prison houses.

The Persians freed the Jews and all the other captive nations, and told the Jews that they could return to their homeland if they wished to do so. They sent the eunuch, Nehemiah, to teach the Jews their own religion, or perhaps that version of it that the Persians wished them to learn. Much of modern Judaism arose in this period, with parallels to the Zoroastrian religion of the Persians.

Second Isaiah was full of praise for Cyrus, king of the Persians. At Isaiah 44:28: "That saith of Cyrus. He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid." Verse 45:1: "Thus saith the Lord to his appointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden ..." Verse 45:4: "For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee even though thou has not known me."

The high regard the Jews felt for the Persians is demonstrated by their willing adoption of Aramaic as their new language, after the Persians pronounced it the lingua franca of empire, and their refusal to adopt the Greek language of the Hellenistic empire that overthrew the Persians.

Some of the Jews chose to stay behind in Babylon rather than return. The Book of Esther is a story about Jews in Babylon during the reign of King Xerxes, and portrays the king as a man of integrity, but that the court was filled with intrigue and that many Persians wishing to slaughter the Jews. The book lionises the Jews, while portraying them as cruel and ruthless, but there is strong evidence that it is entirely fictional. This story does not represent the treatment of the Jews in Persian times.

Answer 3

He deported people of the Judea and Benjamin tribes to Babylon for 70 years. These people were called Hebrews, then Israel and by time of the Babylon captivity they became Jews, meaning they were from Judea. There were strict laws for the captives. At the end of the 70 year period, they were liberated by Cyrus the great.

Answer 4

They ate them.