World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 14
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
This is word that came to concerning the : "Judah mourns, and its languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of goes up. Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads. Because of the ground which is cracked, because no has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads. Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. The wild donkeys stand on the heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no vegetation. Though our testify against us, work for your name's sake, ; for our rebellions are many. We have against you. You of Israel, its in the time of trouble, why should you be as a in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night? Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't ? Yet you, , are in the middle of us, and we are called by your name. Don't leave us. says to this people: "Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore does not accept them. Now he will remember their , and punish them for their ." said to me, "Don't for this people for their good. When they , I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and , I will not accept them; but I will consume them , by , and by pestilence." Then I said, "Ah, ! Behold, tell them, 'You will not see , neither will you have ; but I will give you assured peace in this place.'" Then said to me, " lies in my name. I didn't send them. I didn't command them. I didn't speak to them. They to you a lying , , and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own . Therefore says concerning who in my name, but I didn't send them, yet they say, ' and will not be in this land.' Those will be consumed by and . The people to whom they will be cast out in the streets of because of the and . They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them. "You shall say this word to them: "'Let my 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 wound. If I go out into the field, then behold, the slain with ! If I enter into the city, then behold, those who are sick with ! For both the and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.'" Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your loathed ? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay! We , , our wickedness, and the of our fathers; for we have against you. Do not abhor us, for your name's sake. Do not of your . Remember, and don't break your with us. Are there any among the of the nations that can cause ? Or can give ? Aren't you he, our ? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
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