World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 24
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Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, word came to me, saying, ", write the name of the day, this same day. The king of drew close to this same day. Utter to the rebellious house, and tell them, ' says, "Put the cauldron on the . Put it on, and also pour water into it. Gather its pieces into it, even every good piece: the thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with the choice bones. Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile of wood for the bones under the cauldron. Make it boil well. Yes, let its bones be boiled within it." "'Therefore says: "Woe to the bloody city, to the cauldron whose rust is in it, and whose rust hasn't gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece without casting lots for it. "'"For she shed is in the middle of her. She set it on the . She didn't pour it on the ground, to cover it with . That it may cause to come up to take , I have set her on the , that it should not be covered." "'Therefore says: "Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great. Heap on the wood. Make the hot. Boil the meat well. Make the broth thick, and let the bones be burned. Then set it empty on its coals, that it may be hot, and its bronze may burn, and that its filthiness may be molten in it, that its rust may be consumed. She is weary with toil; yet her great rust, rust by , doesn't leave her. "'"In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have cleansed you and you weren't cleansed, you won't be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my toward you to rest. "'"I, , have spoken it. It will happen, and I will do it. I won't go back. I won't spare. I won't . According to your ways and according to your doings, they will judge you," .'" 15Also word came to me, saying, ", behold, I will take away from you the of your eyes with one stroke; yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud. Make no for . Bind your headdress on you, and put your on your feet. Don't cover your , and don't eat mourner's bread." So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife . So I did in the morning as I was commanded. The people asked me, "Won't you tell us what these things mean to us, that you act like this?" 20Then I said to them, " word came to me, saying, 'Speak to the , " says: 'Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your , the of your eyes, and that which your pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall . You will do as I have done. You won't cover your or eat mourner's bread. Your turbans will be on your heads, and your on your feet. You won't mourn or weep; but you will pine away in your , and moan one toward another. Thus will be a sign to you; according to all that he has done, you will do. When this comes, then you will know that I am .'"'" "You, , shouldn't it be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their , the of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their —their sons and their daughters— that in that day he who escapes will come to you, to cause you to hear it with your ears? In that day your will be opened to him who has escaped, and you will speak and be no more mute. So you will be a sign to them. Then they will know that I am ."
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