World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 13
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
said to me, "Go, and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your waist, and don't put it in water." So I bought a belt according to word, and put it on my waist. word came to me the second time, saying, "Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the , and hide it there in a cleft of ." So I went and hid it by the , as commanded me. 6After many days, said to me, "Arise, go to the , and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there." Then I went to the , and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was ruined. It was profitable for nothing. 8Then word came to me, saying, " says, 'In this way I will the pride of Judah, and the great pride of . This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their , and have gone after other gods to them and to them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole and the whole house of Judah to cling to me,' ; 'that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for , and for ; but they would not hear.' "Therefore you shall speak to them this word: ', the of Israel says, "Every container should be filled with ."' They will tell you, 'Do we not certainly know that every container should be filled with ?' Then tell them, ' says, "Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on , the priests, , and all the inhabitants of , with drunkenness. I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together," : "I will not , spare, or have , that I should not destroy them."'" Hear, and give ear. Don't be proud, for has spoken. Give to your , before he causes , and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for , he turns it into the shadow of , and makes it deep . But if you will not hear it, will weep in secret for your pride. My eye will weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because flock has been taken . Say to the king and to the queen mother, "Humble yourselves. Sit down, for your have come down, even the of your . The cities of the South are shut up, and there is no one to open them. Judah is : all of them. They are wholly . Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock? What will you say when he sets over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Won't sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail? If you say in , "Why have these things come on me?" Your skirts are uncovered because of the greatness of your , and your heels suffer . Can the change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil. "Therefore I will scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of . This is your lot, the measured to you from me," , "because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood." Therefore I will also uncover your skirts on your , and your will appear. I have seen your , even your adulteries and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, ! You will not be made clean. How long will it yet be?"
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