King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 25
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The word that came to concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of the son of king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of ; The which the spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of , saying, From the thirteenth year of the son of king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And hath sent unto you all his servants , rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and in the land that hath given unto you and to your fathers : And go not after other gods to them, and to them, and provoke me not to with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith ; that ye might provoke me to with the works of your hands to your own hurt. 8Therefore thus saith of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith , and Nebuchadrezzar the king of , my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the , and the voice of the , the sound of the millstones, and of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall the king of seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of , and that nation, saith , for their , and the land of the , and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which hath prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall themselves of them also: and I will them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. For thus saith of Israel unto me; Take the of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of that I will send among them. Then took I at ’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom had sent me: To wit, , and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and ; as it is this day; king of , and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of , and all the kings of the land of the , and , and Azzah, and , and of , , and , and , And all the kings of , and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, , and , and , and all that are in the utmost corners, And all the kings of , and all the kings of the mingled people that in , And all the kings of , and all the kings of , and all the kings of the , And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith of hosts, the of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith of hosts. Therefore thou against them all these words, and say unto them, shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with ; he will give them that are to , saith . Thus saith of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be , neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. Howl, ye , and cry; and wallow yourselves in the , ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant . And the shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the , and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for hath spoiled their pasture. And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the of . He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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