World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 26
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of the reign of the son of , king of Judah, this word came from : " says: 'Stand in the court of house, and speak to all the cities of Judah which come to in house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Don't omit a word. It may be they will listen, and every man turn from his evil way, that I may relent from the evil which I intend to do to them because of the evil of their doings.'" You shall tell them, " says: 'If you will not listen to me, to walk in which I have set before you, to listen to the words of my servants whom I send to you, even rising up early and sending them—but you have not listened— then I will make this house like , and will make this city to all the nations of the earth.'" The priests and and all the people heard speaking these words in house. When had finished speaking all that had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and and all the people seized him, saying, "You shall surely ! Why have you prophesied in name, saying, 'This house will be like , and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant'?" All the people were crowded around in house. When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to house; and they sat in the entry of the new of house. Then the priests and spoke to the princes and to all the people, saying, "This man is worthy of , for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears." Then spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying, " sent me to against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and your voice; then will relent from the evil that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, behold, I am in your hand. Do with me what is good and right in your eyes. Only know for certain that if you put me to , you will bring innocent on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants; for in truth has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears." Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and to : "This man is not worthy of ; for he has spoken to us in the name of our ." Then certain of the of the land rose up, and spoke to all of the people, saying, "Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ' of Armies says: "' will be plowed as a field, and will become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the of a forest.' Did king of Judah and all Judah put him to ? Didn't he , and entreat the of , and relented of the disaster which he had pronounced against them? We would commit great evil against our own that way!" There was also a man who prophesied in name, the son of Shemaiah of ; and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of . When the king, with all his and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to ; but when heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into . Then the king sent the son of and certain men with him into . They fetched out of and brought him to the king, who killed him with and cast his body into the of the common people. But the hand of the son of was with , so that they didn't give him into the hand of the people to put him to .
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