King James Version · 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, unto me, saying, , write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of set himself against this same day. And utter unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith ; Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it: Gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones. Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it therein. Wherefore thus saith ; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it. For her is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a ; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with ; That it might cause fury to come up to take ; I have set her upon the top of a , that it should not be covered. Therefore thus saith ; Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for great. Heap on wood, kindle the , consume , and spice it well, and let the bones be burned. Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed. She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the . In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. I have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I ; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith . 15Also unto me, saying, , behold, I take away from thee the of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no for , bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy upon thy feet, and cover not thy , and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife ; and I did in the morning as I was commanded. And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so? 20Then I answered them, unto me, saying, Speak unto the , Thus saith ; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the of your eyes, and that which your pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall . And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your , nor eat the bread of men. And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your , and mourn one toward another. Thus is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am . Also, thou , shall it not 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 he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears? In that day shall thy be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they 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