King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 13
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1And unto me, saying, , against of Israel that , and say thou unto them that out of their own , Hear ye the word of ; Thus saith ; Woe unto the foolish , that follow their own , and have seen nothing! O Israel, thy are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the to stand in the battle in . They have seen and lying , saying, saith: and hath not sent them: and they have made others to that they would confirm the word. Have ye not seen a , and have ye not spoken a lying , whereas ye say, saith it; albeit I have not spoken? Therefore thus saith ; Because ye have spoken , and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith . And mine hand shall be upon that see , and that divine lies: they shall not be in of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the , neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am . Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter: Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it? Therefore thus saith ; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine , and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am . Thus will I accomplish my upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; To wit, of Israel which concerning , and which see of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith . Likewise, thou , set thy against the daughters of thy people, which out of their own ; and thou against them, And say, Thus saith ; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt ! Will ye hunt the of my people, and will ye the alive that come unto you? And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to the that should not , and to the alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies? Wherefore thus saith ; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the go, even the that ye hunt to make them fly. Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am . Because with lies ye have made of sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of , that he should not return from his way, by promising him life: Therefore ye shall see no more , nor divine divinations: for I will my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am .
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