World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 21
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The word which came to from , when King sent to him the son of Malchijah, and the son of , the priest, saying, "Please inquire of for us; for king of makes war against us. Perhaps will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may withdraw from us." 3Then said to them, "Tell : ', the of Israel says, "Behold, I will the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of , and against the who besiege you outside the walls; and I will gather them into the middle of this city. I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in , in , and in great . I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and animal. They will of a great pestilence. Afterward," , "I will king of Judah, his servants, and the people, even those who are left in this city from the pestilence, from , and from the , into the hand of king of , and into the hand of their , and into the hand of those who seek their life. He will strike them with the edge of . He will not spare them, have , or have mercy."' "You shall say to this people, ' says: "Behold, I set before you of life and of . He who in this city will , by the , and by the pestilence, but he who goes out and passes over to the who besiege you, he will live, and he will escape with his life. For I have set on this city for evil, and not for good," . "It will be given into the hand of the king of , and he will burn it with ."' "Concerning the house of the king of Judah, hear word: House of , says, ' in the morning, and him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my go out like , and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, and of of the plain,' . 'You that say, "Who would come down against us?" or, "Who would enter into our homes?" I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,' ; 'and I will kindle a in her forest, and it will devour all that is around her.'"
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