Interesting. I just looked up "Babylonian Exile" in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Just thought I'd share:
Babylonian Exile
Encyclopædia Britannica Article also called Babylonian Captivity, the forced detention of Jews in Babylonia following the latter's conquest of the kingdom of Judah in 598/7 and 587/6 BC . The exile formally ended in 538 BC , when the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great , gave the Jews permission to return to Palestine. Historians agree that several deportations took place (each the result of uprisings in Palestine), that not all Jews were forced to leave their homeland, that returning Jews left Babylonia at various times, and that some Jews chose to remain in Babylonia—thus constituting the first of numerous Jewish communities living permanently in the Diaspora (q.v.)."Babylonian Exile ." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 3 May 2006 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9011622>.