World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 14
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Then some of the came to me and sat before me. word came to me, saying, ", these men have taken their idols into their , and put the stumbling block of their before their . Should I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak to them and tell them, ' says: "Every man of the who takes his idols into and puts the stumbling block of his before then comes to the , I will answer him there according to of his idols, that I may take the in their own , because they are all estranged from me through their idols."' "Therefore tell the , ' says: "Return, and turn yourselves from your idols! Turn away your faces from all your . "'"For everyone of the , or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me and takes his idols into , and puts the stumbling block of his before , and comes to the to inquire for himself of me, I will answer him by myself. I will set against that man and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a , and I will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am . "'"If the is deceived and speaks a word, I, , have deceived that , and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will destroy him from among my people Israel. They will bear their . The of the will be even as the of him who seeks him, that the may no more go astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their ; but that they may be my people, and I may be their ," .'" 12 word came to me, saying, ", when a land against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it, and break the of its bread and send on it, and it man and animal— though these three men, , , and , were in it, they would only their own by their ," . "If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they ravage it and it is made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the animals— though these three men were in it, as I live," , "they would neither sons nor daughters. They only would be , but the land would be desolate. "Or if I bring a on that land, and say, ', go through the land, so that I it man and animal'— 18though these three men were in it, as I live," , "they would neither sons nor daughters, but they only would be themselves. "Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my on it in , to it man and animal— though , , and , were in it, as I live," , "they would neither son nor daughter; they would only their own by their ." For says: "How much more when I send my four severe judgments on —, the , the evil animals, and the pestilence—to it man and animal! Yet, behold, there will be left a in it that will be carried out, both sons and daughters. Behold, they will come out to you, and you will see their way and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought on , even concerning all that I have brought on it. They will comfort you, when you see their way and their doings; then you will know that I have not done all that I have done in it without cause," .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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