World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 31
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In the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, word came to me, saying, ", tell king of and his multitude: 'Whom are you like in your greatness? Behold, the was a cedar in with beautiful , and with a forest-like shade, of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs. The waters nourished it. The deep made it to grow. Its rivers ran all around its plantation. It sent out its channels to all the trees of the field. Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied. Its became long by reason of many waters, when it spread them out. All the birds of made their nests in its boughs. Under its , all the animals of the field gave birth to their young. All great nations lived under its shadow. 7Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its ; for its root was by many waters. The cedars in the garden of could not hide it. The cypress trees were not like its . The pine trees were not like its ; nor was any tree in the garden of like it in its beauty. I made it beautiful by of its , so that all the trees of , that were in the garden of , envied it.' "Therefore thus said : 'Because he is exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick , and is lifted up in his height, I will him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness. , the tyrants of the nations, have cut him off and have left him. His have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone down from his shadow and have left him. All the birds of will on his , and all the animals of the field will be on his , to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, and don't set their top among the thick boughs. Their mighty ones don't stand up on their height, even all who drink water; for they are all to , to the lower parts of the earth, among the children of men, with those who go down to .' " says: 'In the day when he went down to , I caused a . I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers. The great waters were stopped. I caused to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to with those who descend into . All the trees of , the choice and best of , all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth. They also went down into with him to those who are slain ; yes, those who were his arm, who lived under his shadow in the middle of the nations. "'To whom are you thus like in and in greatness among the trees of ? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the , with those who are slain . "'This is and all his multitude,' ."
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