The period within which the literature of Isa 40–66 was composed begins with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. In this defeat the city was destroyed and the kingdom of Judah was reduced to a Babylonian province. Some thousands of the inhabitants were removed to Babylonia, to be added to the exiled group which had been taken there in 597 B.C. It is impossible to get accurate figures for the population removed to Babylon or for the proportion