World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 18
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1The word which came to from , saying, "Arise, and go down to the house, and there I will cause you to hear my words." Then I went down to the house, and behold, he was making something on the wheels. When the that he made of the was marred in the hand of the , he made it again another , as seemed good to the to make it. 5Then word came to me, saying, ", can't I do with you as this ?" . "Behold, as the in the hand, so are you in my hand, . At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it, if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will of the evil that I thought to do to them. At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they don't , then I will of the good with which I said I would benefit them. "Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of , saying, ' says: "Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a plan against you. Everyone return from his evil way now, and amend your ways and your doings."' But they say, 'It is in ; for we will walk after our own plans, and we will each follow the stubbornness of his evil .'" Therefore says: "Ask now among the nations, 'Who has heard such things?' The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. Will the snow of fail from of the field? Will the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? For my people have forgotten me. They have to false gods. They have been made to stumble in their ways in the ancient , to walk in byways, in a way not built up, to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before . I will show them the back, and not the , in the day of their calamity. Then they said, "Come! Let's devise plans against ; for won't from the priest, nor from , nor the word from the . Come, and let's strike him with , and let's not give heed to any of his words." Give heed to me, , and listen to the voice of those who contend with me. Should evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for . Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your from them. Therefore up their children to the , and give them over to the of . Let their wives become and . Let their men be killed and their young men struck in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses when you bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me and hidden snares for my feet. Yet, , you know all their against me to kill me. Don't forgive their . Don't blot out their from your sight, Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them in the time of your .
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