King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Habakkuk 3
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A of the upon Shigionoth. O , I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O , revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in remember mercy. came from , and the One from mount . . His covered , and the earth was full of his . And his brightness was as ; he had coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his . Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are . I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of did tremble. Was displeased against the rivers? was thine against the rivers? was thy against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of ? Thy bow was made quite , according to the of the tribes, even thy word. . Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. Thou didst march through the land in , thou didst thresh the heathen in . Thou wentest forth for the of thy people, even for with thine ; thou woundedst the head out of the house of , by discovering the foundation unto the neck. . Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour secretly. Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters. When I heard, my belly trembled; my quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in , I will joy in the of my . is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine . To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.