King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 14
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The word of that came to concerning the dearth. Judah mourneth, and the thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no in the earth, the plowmen were , they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the , they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. O , though our testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have against thee. O the of Israel, the thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot ? yet thou, O , art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not. Thus saith unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore doth not accept them; he will now remember their , and visit their . Then said unto me, not for this people for their good. When they , I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them , and by the , and by the pestilence. Then said I, Ah, ! behold, say unto them, Ye shall not see , neither shall ye have ; but I will give you assured peace in this place. Then said unto me, lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they unto you a false and , and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their . Therefore thus saith concerning that in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, and shall not be in this land; By and shall those be consumed. And the people to whom they shall be cast out in the streets of because of the and ; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them. Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with ! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with ! yea, both the and the priest go about into a land that they know not. Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy lothed ? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble! We , O , our wickedness, and the of our fathers: for we have against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not of thy : remember, break not thy with us. Are there any among the of the that can cause ? or can give ? art not thou he, O our ? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
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