King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 12
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1The word of also came unto me, saying, , thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, thou , prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house. Then shalt thou bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou shalt go forth at even in their sight, as they that go forth into . Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby. In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy , that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the . And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for , and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I it upon my shoulder in their sight. 8And in the morning came the word of unto me, saying, , hath not the , the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou? Say thou unto them, Thus saith ; This burden concerneth the prince in , and all the that are among them. Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into . And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover , that he see not the ground with his eyes. My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to to the land of the ; yet shall he not see it, though he shall there. And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out after them. And they shall know that I am , when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries. But I will leave men of them from , from the , and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their among the heathen whither they come; and they shall know that I am . 17Moreover to me, saying, , eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness; And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith of the inhabitants of , and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the of all them that therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am . 21And unto me, saying, , what is that that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every faileth? Tell them therefore, Thus saith ; I will make this to cease, and they shall no more use it as a in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every . For there shall be no more any nor flattering within the . For I am : I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith . 26Again to me, saying, , behold, they of the say, The that he seeth is for many , and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith ; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith .
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 Ezekiel