King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 11
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1The word that came to from , saying, Hear ye the words of this , and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of ; And say thou unto them, Thus saith of Israel; be the man that obeyeth not the words of this , Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of , from the iron furnace, saying, , and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your : That I may perform the which I have unto your fathers, to give them a and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O . Then said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of , saying, Hear ye the words of this , and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of , even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, . Yet they not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil : therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this , which I commanded them to do; but they did them not. And said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of . They are turned back to the of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to them: the and the house of Judah have broken my which I made with their fathers. Therefore thus saith , Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not unto them. Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer : but they shall not them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of have ye set up to that shameful thing, even to unto . Therefore not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest. called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled upon it, and the of it are broken. For of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to in unto . And hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings. But I was like or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. But, O , that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and , let me see thy on them: for unto thee have I my cause. Therefore thus saith of the men of , that seek thy life, saying, not in the name of , that thou not by our hand: Therefore thus saith of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall ; their sons and their daughters shall by : And there shall be no of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of , even the year of their visitation.
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 Jeremiah