How long after Solomon's Temple was built did the Babylonian captivity happen?
The Babylonian captivity occurred roughly 400 years after Solomon's Temple was built. Nebuchadnezzar came in 606 B.C., and the Babylonian Empire destroyed the Temple, Jerusalem, and Israel, taking the people into captivity. This was a matter of about four centuries after the Temple was built.
Les explains that shortly after the Temple was built, a matter of about 400 years passed before Nebuchadnezzar came in 606 B.C. The Babylonian Empire then destroyed the Temple, Jerusalem, and Israel went into captivity. Les brings this up because it shows how conquering empires emptied the land of most Jews and took them east to Babylon. Seventy years later, the Medes and Persians under King Cyrus decreed that the Jews could return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, but most did not return; only 44,000 out of several million went back.