World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 40
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"Comfort, comfort my people," says your . "Speak comfortably to , and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her is pardoned, that she has received of hand double for all her ." The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare of in ! Make a level highway in for our . Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. shall be , and shall see it together; for has spoken it." The voice of one saying, "Cry out!" One said, "What shall I cry?" " is like grass, and all its is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our stands ." You who tell to , go up on a high mountain. You who tell to , lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Don't be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your !" Behold, will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his before him. He will feed his flock like a . He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them . He will gently lead those who have their young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off with his , and calculated of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed , or has taught him as his ? Who did he take with, and who instructed him, and taught him in of , and taught him knowledge, and showed him of ? Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing. is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering. All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and . To whom then will you liken ? Or what will you compare to him? A workman has cast an , and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. He who is too impoverished for such an chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a for him that will not be moved. Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? Haven't you been told ? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like ; who stretches out like a , and spreads them out like a tent to in, who brings princes to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth . They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. "To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?" says the One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in , not one is lacking. Why do you say, , and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from , and the due me is disregarded by my "? Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The , , the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His is unsearchable. He gives to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; but those who will renew their strength. They will mount up with like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
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 Isaiah