World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 20
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Now , the son of the priest, who was chief officer in house, heard prophesying these things. Then struck the and put him in the stocks that were in the upper of , which was in house. On the next day, released out of the stocks. Then said to him, " has not called your name , but Magormissabib. For says, 'Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall of their , and your eyes will see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of , and he will carry them to , and will kill them with . Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, yes, I will give all the of the kings of Judah into the hand of their . They will make them , take them, and carry them to . You, , and all who in your house will go into . You will come to , and there you will , and there you will be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.'" , you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day. Everyone mocks me. For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, " and !" because word has been made a to me, and a derision, all day. If I say that I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in as it were a burning shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can't. For I have heard the defaming of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce, and we will denounce him!" say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall. "Perhaps he will be persuaded, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our on him." But is with me as an awesome mighty one. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they won't prevail. They will be utterly disappointed because they have not dealt wisely, even with an dishonor which will never be forgotten. But of Armies, who tests , who sees and , let me see your on them, for I have my cause to you. ! , for he has the of from the hand of . is the day in which I was born. Don't let the day in which my mother bore me be . is the man who brought news to , saying, "A boy is born to you," making him very glad. Let that man be as the cities which overthrew, and didn't . Let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime, because he didn't kill me from the . So my mother would have been my , and her always great. Why did I come out of the to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with ?
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