King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 1
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Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the by the river of , that were opened, and I saw of . In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king ’s , expressly unto the priest, the son of , in the land of the by the river ; and the hand of was there upon him. And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the . Also out of the midst thereof came the of . And this was their appearance; they had the of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four . And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their . Their were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the of their faces, they four had the of a man, and the of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the of an ox on the left side; they four also had the of an eagle. Thus were their faces: and their were stretched upward; two of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And they went every one straight forward: whither was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. As for the of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of , and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the was bright, and out of the went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one : and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever was to go, they went, thither was their to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for of the was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for of the was in the wheels. And the of the firmament upon the heads of the was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above. And under the firmament were their straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies. And when they went, I heard the noise of their , like the noise of great waters, as the voice of , the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their . And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their . And above the firmament that was over their heads was the of a , as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the of was the as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of , and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of , so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the of . And when I saw it, I fell upon , and I heard a voice of one that spake.
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