World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 15
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Then said to me, "Though and stood before me, yet my would not turn toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out! It will happen when they ask you, 'Where shall we go out?' then you shall tell them, ' says: "Such as are for , to ; such as are for , to ; such as are for the , to the ; and such as are for , to ."' "I will appoint over them four kinds," : " to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of , and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy. I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of , king of Judah, for that which he did in . For who will have on you, ? Who will mourn you? Who will come to ask of your welfare? You have rejected me," . "You have gone backward. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary of showing . I have winnowed them with a fan of the land. I have bereaved them of children. I have destroyed my people. They didn't return from their ways. Their are increased more than the sand of the seas. I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly. She who has borne seven languishes. She has given up . Her sun has gone down while it was yet day. She has been disappointed and confounded. I will their residue to before their ," . Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them me. said, "Most certainly I will strengthen you for good. Most certainly I will cause to make to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze? I will give your substance and your for a plunder without price, and that for all your , even in all your borders. I will make them to pass with your into a land which you don't know; for a is kindled in my , which will burn on you." , you know. Remember me, visit me, and me of my persecutors. You are , so don't take me away. Know that for your sake I have suffered . Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of , for I am called by your name, , of Armies. I didn't sit in of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with . Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? Therefore says, "If you return, then I will bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take out the precious from the vile, you will be as my . They will return to you, but you will not return to them. I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall. They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you to you and to you," . "I will you out of the hand of , and I will you out of the hand of the terrible."
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