New empires arose in Mesoptoamia in the eighth through sixth centuries BCE. One empire, the Assyrians, conquered and destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE (the inhabitants, who variously went into exile, were killed, or otherwise lost to history, are known as the "Ten Lost Tribes of Israel" in myth and legend).
The southern kingdom of Judah (with its capital in Jerusalem) held on, caught between the politics of Egypt and a new Mesopotamian empire, the Babylonians. Eventually, the southern kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the leaders of Judah taken into exile.
The Babylonian Empire eventually fell to the Persian Empire, which managed to extend its boundaries east into the Mediterranean. The Persians allowed the leaders of Judah to go home and organize a much smaller, semi-autonomous province of Persia (now called Yehud). They rebuilt the Temple and city of Jerusalem, and survived under Persian rule for almost two centuries.
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