King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Bel and the Dragon
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is.
1And king was gathered to his fathers, and of received . 2And conversed with the king, and was honoured above all his friends. 3Now the Babylons had an idol, called , and there were spent upon him every day twelve great measures of , and forty sheep, and six vessels of . 4And the king it and went daily to adore it: but his own . And the king said unto him, Why dost not thou ? 5Who answered and said, Because I may not idols made with hands, but the living , who hath created the and the earth, and hath sovereignty over . 6Then said the king unto him, Thinkest thou not that is a living ? seest thou not how much he eateth and drinketh every day? 7Then smiled, and said, O king, be not deceived: for this is but within, and brass without, and did never eat or drink any thing. 8So the king was wroth, and called for his priests, and said unto them, If ye tell me not who this is that devoureth these expences, ye shall . 9But if ye can certify me that devoureth them, then shall : for he hath spoken blasphemy against . And said unto the king, Let it be according to thy word. 10Now the priests of were threescore and ten, beside their wives and children. And the king went with into of . 11So ’s priests said, Lo, we go out: but thou, O king, set on the meat, and make ready the , and shut the door and seal it with thine own signet; 12And to morrow when thou comest in, if thou findest not that hath eaten up all, we will suffer : or else , that speaketh falsely against us. 13And they little regarded it: for under the table they had made a privy entrance, whereby they entered in continually, and consumed those things. 14So when they were gone forth, the king set meats before . Now had commanded his servants to bring , and those they strewed throughout all in the of the king alone: then went they out, and shut the door, and sealed it with the king’s signet, and so departed. 15Now in the night came the priests with their wives and children, as they were wont to do, and did eat and drink up all. 16In the morning betime the king arose, and with him. 17And the king said, , are whole? And he said, Yea, O king, they be whole. 18And as soon as he had opened the dour, the king looked upon the table, and cried with a loud voice, Great art thou, O , and with thee is no deceit at all. 19Then laughed , and held the king that he should not go in, and said, Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps are these. 20And the king said, I see the footsteps of men, women, and children. And then the king was angry, 21And took the priests with their wives and children, who shewed him the privy doors, where they came in, and consumed such things as were upon the table. 22Therefore the king slew them, and into ’s , who destroyed him and his temple. 23And in that same place there was a great dragon, which they of . 24And the king said unto , Wilt thou also say that this is of brass? lo, he liveth, he eateth and drinketh; thou canst not say that he is no living : therefore him. 25Then said unto the king, I will my : for he is the living . 26But give me leave, O king, and I shall this dragon without or . The king said, I give thee leave. 27Then took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them together, and made lumps thereof: this he put in the dragon’s , and so the dragon burst in sunder: and said, Lo, these are the gods ye . 28When they of heard that, they took great , and conspired against the king, saying, The king is become a , and he hath destroyed , he hath slain the dragon, and put the priests to . 29So they came to the king, and said, us , or else we will destroy thee and thine house. 30Now when the king saw that they pressed him sore, being constrained, he unto them: 31Who cast him into the lions’ den: where he was six days. 32And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given them every day two carcases, and two sheep: which then were not given to them, to the intent they might devour . 33Now there was in a , called Habbacuc, who had made pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl, and was going into the field, for to bring it to the reapers. 34But said unto Habbacuc, Go, carry the dinner that thou hast into unto , who is in the lions’ den. 35And Habbacuc said, , I never saw ; neither do I know where the den is. 36Then took him by the , and him by the hair of his head, and through the vehemency of his set him in over the den. 37And Habbacuc cried, saying, O , , take the dinner which hath sent thee. 38And said, Thou hast remembered me, O : neither hast thou forsaken them that seek thee and love thee. 39So arose, and did eat: and set Habbacuc in his own place again immediately. 40Upon the seventh day the king went to bewail : and when he came to the den, he looked in, and behold, was sitting. 41Then cried the king with a loud voice, saying, Great art of , and there is none other beside thee. 42And he drew him out, and cast those that were the cause of his into the den: and they were devoured in a moment before .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Babylon and the exile, 612 BC to 539 BC ›
Babylon replaces Assyria, Jerusalem and its temple are destroyed in 586 BC, and the leadership of Judah lives in Mesopotamia without a king, a temple, or a country.
- Babylon
- Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilds the city on a scale meant to be seen from a distance: the Ishtar Gate in glazed blue brick, the processional way, the ziggurat, and gardens later counted among the wonders of the world. Babylonian tablets record rations issued to the captive king Jehoiachin of Judah by name, which is one of the tidier points of contact between the Bible and the archives.
- Egypt
- Briefly resurgent. Pharaoh Neco marches north, kills King Josiah at Megiddo, and installs and deposes kings in Jerusalem, until Babylon beats him decisively at Carchemish in 605 BC. Jeremiah spends his career saying that betting on Egypt is suicide, and is proved right.
- Judah
- Deported in stages, then destroyed. The temple is burned, the walls broken, and the leadership marched to Mesopotamia. What happens next is one of the strangest survivals in history: a people keeps its identity without land, king, or sanctuary, and comes out of it with its scriptures more central than before.
- Further afield
- An extraordinary century for ideas everywhere at once. Thales and the first Greek philosophers, Solon's reforms at Athens, the Buddha in India, Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, and Zoroaster in Persia all fall within a few generations of the exile.
All of Bel and the Dragon