King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 45
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Thus saith to his , to , whose I have holden, to nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved ; and the shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the of , and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, , which call thee by thy name, am the of Israel. For my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. I am , and there is none else, there is no beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am , and there is none else. I form , and create : I make peace, and create evil: I do all these things. Drop down, ye , from above, and let the skies pour down : let the earth open, and let them bring forth , and let spring up together; I have created it. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his , What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? Thus saith , the One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out , and all their host have I commanded. I have him up in , and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my , not for price nor reward, saith of hosts. Thus saith , The labour of , and merchandise of and of the , men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make unto thee, saying, Surely is in thee; and there is none else, there is no . Verily thou art a that hidest thyself, O of Israel, the . They shall be , and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be in with an : ye shall not be nor confounded world without end. For thus saith that created ; himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in , he formed it to be inhabited: I am ; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the of , Seek ye me in : I speak , I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven , and unto a that cannot . Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I ? and there is no else beside me; a and a ; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye , all the ends of the earth: for I am , and there is none else. I have by myself, the word is gone out of my in , and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every shall . Surely, shall one say, in have I and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be . In shall all the of Israel be , and shall .
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