World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 51
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"Listen to me, you who follow after , you who seek . Look to you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from. Look to your , and to who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I him, and made him many. For has comforted . He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her like , and her like the garden of . Joy and gladness will be found in them, , and the voice of melody. "Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my for a to the peoples. My is near. My has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will my arm. Lift up your eyes to , and look at the earth beneath; for will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment. Its inhabitants will in the same way, but my will be , and my will not be abolished. "Listen to me, you who know , the people in whose is . Don't fear the of men, and don't be dismayed at their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my will be , and my ." Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of ! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who cut in pieces, who pierced the monster? Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the to pass over? Those ransomed by will return, and come with singing to . joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. "I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall , and of who will be made as grass? Have you forgotten your Maker, who stretched out , and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor? The will speedily be freed. He will not and go down into . His bread won't fail. For I am your , who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. of Armies is his name. I have put my words in your and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant , and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell , 'You are my people.'" Awake, awake! Stand up, , you who have drunk from hand of his . You have drunken the bowl of of staggering, and drained it. There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons whom she has brought up. These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and , and and . How can I comfort you? Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of , the rebuke of your . Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with : Your , your who pleads the cause of his people, says, "Behold, I have taken out of your hand of staggering, even the bowl of of my . You will not drink it any more. I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your , ', that we may walk over you;' and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over."
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