World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 49
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Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: has called me from the ; from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name. He has made my like a sharp . He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver. He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." But I said, "I have labored in . I have spent my strength in for nothing; yet surely the due to me is with , and my reward with my ." Now , he who formed me from the to be his servant, says to bring again to him, and to gather Israel to him, for I am honorable in eyes, and my has become my strength. Indeed, he says, "It is too a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of , and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you as a to the nations, that you may be my to the end of the earth." , the of Israel, and his One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a : "Kings shall see and rise up, princes, and they shall , because of who is , even the One of Israel, who has chosen you." says, "I have answered you in an acceptable time. I have helped you in a day of . I will preserve you and give you for a of the people, to raise up the land, to make them the desolate heritage, saying to those who are bound, 'Come out!'; to those who are , 'Show yourselves!' "They shall feed along the , and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights. They shall not nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them, for he who has mercy on them will lead them. He will guide them by springs of water. I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim." Sing, , and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains! For has comforted his people, and will have on his afflicted. But said, " has forsaken me, and has forgotten me." "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have on the son of her ? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you! Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me. Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live," , "you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a . "For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now that land will be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, 'This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in.' Then you will say in , 'Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am alone, an , and wandering back and forth? Who has brought these up? Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?'" says, "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and lift up my banner to the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their , and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will to you with their faces to the earth, and lick of your feet. Then you will know that I am ; and those who wait for me won't be disappointed." Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty, or the lawful be ? But says, "Even the of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder retrieved from the fierce, for I will contend with him who contends with you and I will your children. I will feed those who oppress you with their own ; and they will be drunk on their own , as with sweet . Then shall know that I, , am your and your , the Mighty One of ."
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