World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 54
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"Sing, , you who didn't give birth! Break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who didn't travail with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife," . "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; don't spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out on and on the left; and will possess the nations and settle in desolate cities. "Don't be afraid, for you will not be . Don't be confounded, for you will not be disappointed. For you will forget the of your youth. You will remember the of your widowhood no more. For your Maker is your husband; of Armies is his name. The One of Israel is your . He will be called the of the whole earth. For has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in , even a wife of youth, when she is cast off," says your . "For a small moment I have forsaken you, but I will gather you with great . In overflowing I hid from you for a moment, but with I will have mercy on you," your . "For this is like the waters of to me; for as I have that the waters of will no more go over the earth, so I have that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, but my will not depart from you, and my of peace will not be removed," who has mercy on you. "You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires. 12I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children will be taught by , and your children's peace will be great. You will be established in . You will be far from , for you will not be afraid, and far from terror, for it shall not come near you. Behold, they may gather together, but not by me. Whoever gathers together against you will fall because of you. "Behold, I have created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame, and forges a weapon for his work; and I have created to destroy. No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every that rises against you in . This is the heritage of servants, and their is of me," .
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