World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 47
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He brought me back to the door of ; and behold, waters flowed out from under the threshold of eastward, for the front of faced toward the east. The waters came down from underneath, from the right side of , on the south of the . Then he brought me out by of the northward, and led me around by outside to the outer , by of the that looks toward the east. Behold, waters ran out on the right side. When the man went out eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand , and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. 4Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through waters that were to the waist. Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the waters had , waters to swim in, a river that could not be walked through. He said to me, ", have you seen this?" Then he brought me and caused me to return to the bank of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then he said to me, "These waters flow out toward the eastern region and will go down into the . Then they will go toward the sea and flow into the sea which will be made to flow out; and the waters will be healed. It will happen that every which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, will live. Then there will be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river comes. It will happen that fishermen will stand by it. From even to En Eglaim will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish will be after their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many. But its swamps and marshes will not be healed. They will be given up to salt. By the river banks, on both sides, will grow every tree for food, whose leaf won't wither, neither will its fruit fail. It will produce new fruit every month, because its waters issue out of . Its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for healing." says: "This shall be the border by which you shall divide the land for according to the twelve tribes of Israel. shall have two portions. You shall it, one as well as another; for I to give it to your fathers. This land will fall to you for . "This shall be the border of the land: "On the north side, from the great sea, by of Hethlon, to the entrance of Zedad; , Berothah, Sibraim (which is between the border of and the border of ), to Hazer Hatticon, which is by the border of Hauran. The border from the sea shall be Hazar Enon at the border of ; and on the north northward is the border of . This is the north side. "The east side, between Hauran, , , and the land of Israel, shall be ; from the north border to the east sea you shall measure. This is the east side. "The south side southward shall be from as far as the waters of Meriboth , to the brook, to the great sea. This is the south side southward. "The west side shall be the great sea, from the south border as far as opposite the entrance of . This is the west side. 21"So you shall divide this land to yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. You shall divide it by lot for an to you and to the aliens who live among you, who will children among you. Then they shall be to you as the native-born among the . They shall have with you among the tribes of Israel. 23In whatever tribe the lives, there you shall give him his ," .
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