World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Habakkuk 2
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I will stand at my watch and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. answered me, "Write the , and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. For the is yet for the , and it hurries toward the end, and won't prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come. It won't delay. Behold, his is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but will live by his . Yes, moreover, is treacherous: an arrogant man who doesn't stay at home, who enlarges his as ; he is like and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations and heaps to himself all peoples. Won't all these take up against him, and a taunting against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?' Won't your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim? Because you have plundered many nations, all of the peoples will plunder you because of men's , and for the done to the land, to the city and to all who in it. Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be from the hand of evil! You have devised to your house by cutting off many peoples, and have against your . For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it. Woe to him who builds a town with , and establishes a city by ! Behold, isn't it from of Armies that the peoples labor for the , and the nations weary themselves for ? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of , as the waters cover the sea. "Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their bodies! You are filled with , and not . You will also drink and be exposed! of will come around to you, and will cover your . For the done to will overwhelm you, and the of the animals will terrify you, because of men's and for the done to the land, to every city and to those who in them. "What value does the engraved have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten , even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' or to the mute stone, 'Arise!' Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all within it. But is in his temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!"
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.