World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 41
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"Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let's meet together for . Who has up one from the east? Who called him to his feet in ? He hands over nations to him and makes him kings. He gives them like to his , like the driven stubble to his bow. He pursues them and passes by safely, even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. Who has worked and done it, calling the generations ? I, , the first, and with the last, I am he." The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come. Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, "Be strong!" So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smooths with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter. "But you, Israel, my servant, whom I have chosen, the of my friend, you whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant. I have chosen you and have not cast you away.' Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your . I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with of my . Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall . You will seek them, and won't find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a nonexistent thing. For I, your , will hold your , saying to you, 'Don't be afraid. I will help you.' Don't be afraid, you worm , and you men of Israel. I will help you," . "Your is the One of Israel. Behold, I have made you into a new sharp instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like . You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in . You will in the One of Israel. and needy seek water, and there is none. Their fails for thirst. I, , will answer them. I, the of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in . I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in ; that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that hand has done this, and the One of Israel has created it. Produce your cause," . "Bring out your strong reasons!" says the King of . "Let them announce and declare to us what will happen! Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come. Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an . "I have up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name, and he shall come on as on mortar, and as the treads . Who has declared it , that we may know? and before, that we may say, 'He is right'? Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words. I am the first to say to , 'Behold, look at them;' and I will give one who brings to . When I look, there is no man, even among them there is no who, when I ask, can answer a word. Behold, all of their deeds are and nothing. Their are wind and confusion.
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