How to deal with a foreign king? Answers from Babylonia and Judah

Babylonia and Judah both experienced the drama that their indigenous kingship was abolished by foreign conquest. In Judah this happened in 586 BC, when King Nebuchadnezzar of the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Jerusalem and deported the last Judean king. In Babylonia something similar happened, when Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon (539 BC). Both countries now were ruled by a foreign king. For the people and especially for the scribal and religious elite, this created a new situation with which they had to cope. In both cases we see that kingship is judged critically and that scholars and religious leaders now see themselves as the new leaders of the country and emphasize that kings need to obey their rulings and laws. The Hebrew Bible, written after 586, emphasizes the role of prophets and high priests at the expense of the king. In Babylonia, in the New Year Festival Ritual, written in the Hellenistic period, the king has to obey the high priest and is in fact humiliated. The role of the supreme deity in both Babylonia and Judah also changes. Many more examples are discussed in this article.