World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 64
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Oh that you would tear , that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your — as when kindles the brushwood, and the causes the water to boil. Make your name known to your , that the nations may tremble at your ! When you did awesome things which we didn't look for, you came down, and the mountains quaked at your . For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a besides you, who works for him who waits for him. You meet him who rejoices and does , those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we . We have been in for a long time. Shall we be ? For we have all become like one who is , and all our is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our , like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you; for you have hidden your from us, and have consumed us by means of our . But now, , you are . We are the and you our . We all are the work of your hand. Don't be furious, . Don't remember . Look and see, we beg you, we are all your people. Your cities have become a . has become a , a desolation. Our and our beautiful house where our fathers praised you is burned with . All our pleasant places are laid waste. Will you hold yourself back for these things, ? Will you keep silent and punish us very severely?
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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