World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 38
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
1 word came to me, saying, ", set your toward , of the land of , the prince of , , and , and against him, and say, ' says: "Behold, I am against you, , prince of , , and . I will turn you around, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling ; , , and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; , and all his hordes; the house of in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes—even many peoples with you. "'"Be prepared, yes, prepare yourself, you, and all your companies who are assembled to you, and be a guard to them. After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land that is brought back from , that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought out of the peoples and they will securely, all of them. You will ascend. You will come like a storm. You will be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you." "' says: "It will happen in that day that things will come into , and you will devise an evil plan. You will say, 'I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go to those who are at rest, who securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor , to take the plunder and to take prey; to turn your hand against the waste places that are inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten livestock and goods, who in the middle of the earth.' , , and the merchants of , with all its young lions, will ask you, 'Have you come to take the plunder? Have you assembled your company to take the prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?'"' "Therefore, , , and tell , ' says: "In that day when my people Israel dwells securely, will you not know it? You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. You will come up against my people Israel as a cloud to cover the land. It will happen in the that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me when I am in you, , before their eyes." "' says: "Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants of Israel, who prophesied in those days for years that I would bring you against them? It will happen in that day, when comes against the land of Israel," , "that my will come up into my nostrils. For in my and in the of my I have spoken. Surely in that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel, so that the fish of the sea, the birds of , the animals of the field, all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth will shake at my . Then the mountains will be thrown down, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground. I will call for a against him to all my mountains," . "Every man's will be against his brother. I will enter into with him with pestilence and with . I will on him, on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, torrential with great hailstones, , and sulfur. I will magnify myself and myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations. 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