About the Three Weeks: A Chronology of Destruction

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The following is a list of the major events leading up to the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.

First Temple:

3316 Yehoyakim ben Yoshiyahu becomes King of Judea (II Kings 23:36)

3320 Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon conquers Judea. He removes part of the Temple’s holy vessels and children of the royal family take them to Babylon (Daniel 1)

3327 Yehoyachin (Yechonia) ben Yehoyakim becomes king and reigns for only three months. Nebuchadnezzar exiles him to Babylon together with 10,000 people and the Torah Sages (II Kings 24:16)

3327 Zedekiah ben Yehoyakim becomes the last King of Judea (24:18)

3338 The First Temple is destroyed. It had stood for 410 years.

Second Temple:

3768 Rome (the dominant power in Judea since 3648) begins to appoint the Kings of Judea. The first Roman appointee is Agrippas ben Aristoblus.

3788 The Sanhedrin is exiled (Avodah Zarah 9b). Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, a student of Hillel the Elder (who died in 3768), becomes Head of the Academy (Zemach David 910).

3804 Agrippas II becomes the last Roman-appointed King and Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel becomes Nassi (Prince).

3828 The Second Temple is destroyed. It had stood for 420 years.


The information was compiled from Rabbi Shlomo Rottenberg’s Toldot Am Olam by Long Island NCSY.