<P> The first exile was the Assyrian exile , the expulsion from the Kingdom of Israel ( Samaria ) begun by Tiglath - Pileser III of Assyria in 733 BCE . This process was completed by Sargon II with the destruction of the kingdom in 722 BCE , concluding a three - year siege of Samaria begun by Shalmaneser V . The next experience of exile was the Babylonian captivity , in which portions of the population of the Kingdom of Judah were deported in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II . </P>
what date is traditionally given to the first deportation of exiles from judah into babylon
597 BCE