World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Isaiah 65
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"I am inquired of by those who didn't ask. I am found by those who didn't seek me. I said, 'See me, see me,' to a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own ; a people who provoke me to continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning on bricks; who sit among the , and spend nights in secret places; who eat pig's meat, and broth of things is in their vessels; who say, 'Stay by yourself, don't come near to me, for I am holier than you.' These are smoke in my nose, a that burns all day. "Behold, before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their your own and the of your fathers together", , "who have on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills. Therefore I will first measure their work into their ." says, "As the is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Don't destroy it, for a is in it:' so I will do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all. I will bring out of , and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains. My chosen will it, and my servants will there. Sharon will be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me. "But you who forsake , who forget my mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed to Destiny; I will destine you to , and you will all to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn't answer. When I spoke, you didn't listen; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn't delight." Therefore says, "Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry; behold, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Behold, my servants will rejoice, but you will be disappointed. Behold, my servants will sing for joy of , but you will cry for sorrow of , and will for anguish of . You will leave your name for to my chosen, and will kill you. He will call his servants by another name, so that he who blesses himself in the earth will himself in the of truth; and he who swears in the earth will by the of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes. "For, behold, I create new and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered, nor come into . But be glad and rejoice in that which I create; for, behold, I create to be a delight, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in , and delight in my people; and the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will be heard in her no more. "No more will there be an infant who only lives days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child will one hundred years old, and the being one hundred years old will be . They will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and another inhabit. They will not plant and another eat; for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in nor give birth for calamity; for they are the of and their with them. It will happen that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. will be food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my mountain," .
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