Jerusalem in the Time of Lehi

In 622 B.C., an old law book was discovered—a major portion of the book now called Deuteronomy—which expounded on the theology of the Mosaic covenant. In line with its Mosaic precepts, all sacrificial rituals were ordered performed in the Jerusalem temple, and the provincial clergy were invited to join the priestly guilds in the capital, though most refused to do so because they were afraid to give up their pagan practices for fear it would invite retaliation from Assyria who governed the land.

By 612 B.C. the Assyrian Empire began crumbling and Babylonia destroyed Nineveh, Assyria's magnificent capital, marking an end to Assyrian power and rule. Josiah, king of Judah, sparked by religious zeal and political ambition, carried his reformation north to Galilee and west to the Mediterranean Sea. With Assyria's fall from power, Josiah led a fight for Jewish independence.

In 608 B.C., Necho, the Pharaoh of Egypt, wanted to establish a buffer between aggressive Babylonia and his own empire. He dispatched an army to help Assyria, moving his forces through Israel; however, Josiah resolved to resist the approaching Egyptians and went out to meet their army, but in the battle that followed, the Hebrews were beaten and Josiah killed. The Jews chose one of Josiah's sons, Jehoahaz, to be their leader. But after three months, the Egyptians replaced Jehoahaz with Jehoiakim, another of Josiah's sons, and exercised political control of the Kingdom of Judah for three years.

In 605 B.C., the Egyptian authority in Palestine was suddenly halted when the Babylonians under Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar marshaled a mighty force and crushed the Pharaoh's army in the battle of Carchemish, in upper Syria. This Babylonian victory took the Jewish nation out of Egypt's grasp and made Jehoiakim Nebuchadnezzar's servant.

From 604-562 B.C., Nebuchadnezzer II, son of Nabopolassar, who founded the last Chaldean Dynasty in 625 B.C., ruled Babylon. Nebuchadnezzer married Amyitis, the daughter of the King of the Medes, a country which formed a major portion of ancient Persia, and collected tribute from Jerusalem, controlling all of southern Palestine as a vassal state. Nebuchadnezzar allowed Jehoiakim to continue to rule, but the Israelite king later rebelled against Babylon. When the Chaldeans returned with a much larger army, Jehoiakim proclaimed a fast for heavenly intervention against Judah's enemy, but he mysteriously died. His son, Jehoiachin, ascended to the throne of Judah, and surrendered the city to Nebuchadnezzar on March 16, 597 B.C. On his departure from Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar appointed 21-year-old Mattaniah—the gift of Jehovah—whose name was changed to Zedekiah—the righteous gift of Jehovah, king of the Davidic lineage, an uncle of Jehoichin, and the youngest son of Josiah by the same mother as Jehoahaz.

In 597 B.C., Zedekiah, destined to be the last King of Judah, was in his first year of reign in Jerusalem, embarked on a wicked, immoral and corrupt rule. Wickedness swept through Judah and dishonesty, false swearing and idolatry were common vices of the day. Zedekiah decided to follow the disastrous course of Jehoiakim in seeking an alliance with Egypt and scheming a break with Babylon.”In the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah,” Nephi describes the time of the events that open his record. Traditionally, we place this at 600 B.C. Actually Zedekiah began his reign as king of Judah in 597 B.C., and by stating in the commencement of the first year, Nephi tells us that the Lehi Colony left Jerusalem in the springtime, since in the bible, the first month always refers to the first spring month. The “commencement of the year,” therefore, would fall in the springtime regardless of when Zedekiah began to reign as king. The Jews, like the Egyptians, dated a king's rule from the beginning of the real year, which was the ritual time of coronation.