World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 1
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The words of the son of , one of the priests who were in in the land of . word came to him in the days of the son of , king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of the son of , king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of , the son of , king of Judah, to the carrying away of in the fifth month. Now word came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the , I knew you. Before you were born, I you. I have appointed you a to the nations." Then I said, "Ah, ! Behold, I don't know how to speak; for I am a child." But said to me, "Don't say, 'I am a child;' for you must go to whomever I send you, and you must say whatever I command you. Don't be afraid because of them, for I am with you to rescue you," . Then stretched out his hand and touched my . Then said to me, "Behold, I have put my words in your . Behold, I have today set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." Moreover word came to me, saying, ", what do you see?" I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree." Then said to me, "You have seen well; for I watch over my word to perform it." word came to me the second time, saying, "What do you see?" I said, "I see a boiling cauldron; and it is tipping away from the north." Then said to me, "Out of the north, evil will break out on all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north," . "They will come, and they will each set his at the entrance of the of , and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah. I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have to other gods, and the works of their own hands. "You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don't be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them. For behold, I have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you", , "to rescue you."
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 Jeremiah