World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Ezekiel 48
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"Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end, beside of Hethlon to the entrance of , Hazar at the border of , northward beside (and they shall have their sides east and west), Dan, one . "By the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one . "By the border of Asher, from the east side even to the west side, , one . "By the border of , from the east side to the west side, , one . "By the border of , from the east side to the west side, , one . "By the border of , from the east side even to the west side, , one . "By the border of , from the east side to the west side, Judah, one . "By the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the which you shall offer, twenty-five thousand reeds in width, and in length as one of the portions, from the east side to the west side; and shall be in the middle of it. 9"The that you shall offer to shall be twenty-five thousand reeds in length, and ten thousand in width. For these, even for the priests, shall be the : toward the north twenty-five thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in width, and toward the east ten thousand in width, and toward the south twenty-five thousand in length; and of shall be in the middle of it. It shall be for the priests who are of the sons of , who have kept my , who didn't go astray when the went astray, as the went astray. It shall be to them an from the of the land, a most thing, by the border of the . "Alongside the border of the priests, the shall have twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in width. All the length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the width ten thousand. They shall sell none of it, nor exchange it, nor shall the of the land be alienated, for it is to . "The five thousand that are left in the width, in front of the twenty-five thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for dwelling and for pasture lands; and the city shall be in the middle of it. These shall be its measurements: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred. 17The city shall have pasture lands: toward the north two hundred fifty, and toward the south two hundred fifty, and toward the east two hundred fifty, and toward the west two hundred fifty. The remainder of the length, alongside the , shall be ten thousand eastward and ten thousand westward; and it shall be alongside the . Its increase shall be for food to those who labor in the city. Those who labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate it. All the shall be a square of twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand. You shall offer it as a , with the possession of the city. "The remainder shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the and of the possession of the city; in front of the twenty-five thousand of the toward the east border, and westward in front of the twenty-five thousand toward the west border, alongside the portions, it shall be for the prince. The and of the house shall be in the middle of it. 22Moreover, from the possession of the , and from the possession of the city, being in the middle of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of , shall be for the prince. "As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, , one . "By the border of , from the east side to the west side, , one . "By the border of , from the east side to the west side, , one . "By the border of , from the east side to the west side, , one . "By the border of , from the east side to the west side, Gad, one . "By the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from to the waters of Meribath , to the brook, to the great sea. "This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel for , and these are their several portions, . "These are the exits of the city: On the north side four thousand five hundred reeds by measure; and the of the city shall be named after the tribes of Israel, three northward: the of , one; the of Judah, one; the of , one. 32"At the east side four thousand five hundred reeds, and three : even the of , one; the of , one; the of Dan, one. 33"At the south side four thousand five hundred reeds by measure, and three : the of , one; the of , one; the of , one. 34"At the west side four thousand five hundred reeds, with their three : the of Gad, one; the of Asher, one; the of , one. "It shall be eighteen thousand reeds in circumference; and the name of the city from that day shall be, ' is there.'
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