King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 44
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Yet now hear, O my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus saith that made thee, and formed thee from the , which will help thee; Fear not, O , my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour upon thy , and my upon thine : And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am ’s; and another shall call himself by the name of ; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto , and surname himself by the name of Israel. Thus saith the King of Israel, and his of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no . And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even . Is there a beside me? yea, there is no ; I know not any. They that make a graven are all of them ; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own ; they see not, nor know; that they may be . Who hath formed a , or molten a graven that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be : and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be together. The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a , and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven , and falleth down thereto. 16He burneth part thereof in the ; with part thereof he eateth ; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the : And the residue thereof he maketh a , even his graven : he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, me; for thou art my . They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their , that they cannot understand. And none considereth in , neither is there knowledge nor to say, I have burned part of it in the ; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted , and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an ? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? He feedeth on : a deceived hath turned him aside, that he cannot his , nor say, Is there not a lie in my ? Remember these, O and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy , and, as a cloud, thy : return unto me; for I have thee. Sing, O ye ; for hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for hath , and glorified himself in Israel. Thus saith , thy , and he that formed thee from the , I am that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh mad; that turneth men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the of his ; that saith to , Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: That saith of , He is , and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to , Thou shalt be built; and to , Thy foundation shall be laid.
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.
All of Isaiah