World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 59
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Behold, hand is not shortened, that it can't ; nor his ear dull, that it can't hear. But your have separated you and your , and your have hidden from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with , and your fingers with . Your have spoken lies. Your mutters wickedness. No one sues in , and no one pleads in truth. They in and speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to . They hatch adders' eggs and weave the spider's web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper. Their webs won't become garments. They won't cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of , and acts of are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to . Their are of . Desolation and are in their . They don't know of peace; and there is no in their ways. They have made crooked for themselves; whoever goes in them doesn't know peace. Therefore is far from us, and doesn't overtake us. We look for , but see ; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like men. We all roar like bears and moan sadly like . We look for , but there is none, for , but it is far off from us. For our are multiplied before you, and our testify against us; for our are with us, and as for our , we know them: transgressing and denying , and turning away from following our , speaking and revolt, conceiving and uttering from words of falsehood. is turned away backward, and stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter. Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. saw it, and it displeased him that there was no . He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought to him; and his sustained him. He put on as a breastplate, and a helmet of on his head. He put on garments of for clothing, and was clad with as a mantle. According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate: to his , to his . He will repay the islands their due. So they will name from the west, and his from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which breath drives. "A will come to , and to those who turn from in ," . "As for me, this is my with them," . " who is on you, and my words which I have put in your shall not depart out of your , nor out of the of , nor out of the of ," , "from now on and ."
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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