World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 63
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Who is this who comes from , with dyed garments from Bozrah? Who is this who is in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I who speak in , mighty to ." Why is your clothing red, and your garments like him who treads in the vat? "I have trodden the press alone. Of the peoples, no one was with me. Yes, I trod them in my and trampled them in my . Their is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing. For the day of was in , and the year of my has come. I looked, and there was no one to help; and I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought to me. My own upheld me. I trod down the peoples in my and made them drunk in my . I poured their out on the earth." I will tell of the loving kindnesses of and the of , according to all that has given to us, and the great goodness toward the , which he has given to them according to his , and according to of his loving kindnesses. For he said, "Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely;" so he became their . In all their affliction he was afflicted, and of his them. In his love and in his he them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his . Therefore he turned and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, and his people, saying, "Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the of his flock? Where is he who put his among them?" Who caused his arm to be at ' ? Who divided the waters before them, to make himself an name? Who led them through the depths, like a horse in , so that they didn't stumble? As the livestock that go down into the valley, caused them to rest. So you led your people to make yourself a name. Look down from , and see from the habitation of your and of your . Where are your and your mighty acts? The yearning of and your is restrained toward me. For you are , though doesn't know us, and Israel does not us. You, , are . Our from is your name. O , why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your . Your people it but a little while. Our have trodden down your sanctuary. We have become like those over whom you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name.
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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