King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 36
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Also, thou , unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of : Thus saith ; Because hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient are ours in possession: Therefore and say, Thus saith ; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in of talkers, and are an infamy of the people: Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of ; Thus saith to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about; Therefore thus saith ; Surely in the of my have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all , which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their , with despiteful , to cast it out for a prey. therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith ; Behold, I have spoken in my and in my fury, because ye have borne the of the heathen: Therefore thus saith ; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their . But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your , and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the , even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am . Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their , and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men. Thus saith ; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations; Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith . Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith . 16Moreover unto me, saying, , when the dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my name, when they said to them, These are the people of , and are gone forth out of his land. But I had for mine name, which the had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the , Thus saith ; I do not this for your sakes, O , but for mine name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am , saith , when I shall be in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new also will I give you, and a new will I put within you: and I will take away the stony out of your , and I will give you an of . And I will put within you, and cause you to walk in , and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your . I will also you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more of among the heathen. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your and for your . Not for your sakes do I this, saith , be it known unto you: be and confounded for your own ways, O . Thus saith ; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your I will also cause you to in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like ; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith ; I will yet for this be enquired of by the , to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. As the flock, as the in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: 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