World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 42
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Then he brought me out into the outer court, toward the north. Then he brought me into the room that was opposite the separate place, and which was opposite the building toward the north. Facing the length of one hundred was the north door, and the width was fifty . Opposite the twenty which belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery in the three stories. Before the rooms was a walk of ten ' width inward, a way of one ; and their doors were toward the north. Now the upper rooms were shorter; for the galleries took away from these more than from the lower and the middle in the building. For they were in three stories, and they didn't have pillars as the pillars of the courts. Therefore the uppermost was set back more than the lowest and the middle from the ground. The wall that was outside by the side of the rooms, toward the outer court before the rooms, was fifty long. For the length of the rooms that were in the outer court was fifty . Behold, those facing were one hundred . From under these rooms was the entry on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court. In the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, before the separate place, and before the building, there were rooms. before them was like the appearance of the rooms which were toward the north. Their length and width were the same. All their exits had the same arrangement and doors. 12Like the doors of the rooms that were toward the south was a door at the head of , even directly before the wall toward the east, as one enters into them. Then he said to me, "The north rooms and the south rooms, which are opposite the separate place, are the rooms, where the priests who are near to shall eat the most things. There they shall lay the most things, with the , the , and the trespass offering; for the place is . When the priests enter in, then they shall not go out of the place into the outer court until they lay their garments in which they minister there; for they are . Then they shall put on other garments, and shall approach that which is for the people." Now when he had finished measuring the inner house, he brought me out by of the which faces toward the east, and measured it all around. He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around. 17He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around. 18He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 19He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, the length five hundred , and the width five hundred , to make a separation between that which was and that which was common.
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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