King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 60
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Arise, shine; for thy is come, and is upon thee. For, behold, shall cover the earth, and gross the people: but shall arise upon thee, and his shall be seen upon thee. And the shall come to thy , and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the shall come unto thee. of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of and Ephah; all they from shall come: they shall bring gold and ; and they shall shew forth the of . All the flocks of shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine , and I will the house of my . Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the to their windows? Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of thy , and to the One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my I smote thee, but in my have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the , and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not thee shall ; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The of shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet . The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of , The of the One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an excellency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt also suck the milk of the , and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I am thy and thy , the mighty One of . For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors . shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls , and thy . The sun shall be no more thy by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give unto thee: but shall be unto thee an , and thy thy . Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for shall be thine , and the days of thy shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all : they shall the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I will hasten it in his time.
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