World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 27
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of the reign of the son of , king of Judah, this word came to from , saying, says to me: "Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck. Then send them to the king of , to the king of , to the king of , to the king of , and to the king of , by the hand of the who come to to king of Judah. Give them a command to their masters, saying, ' of Armies, the of Israel says, "You shall tell your masters: 'I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of the king of , my servant. I have also given the animals of the field to him to him. All the nations will him, his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their . "'"'It will happen that I will punish the nation and which will not the same king of , and that will not put their neck under the of the king of ,' , 'with , with , and with pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. But as for you, don't listen to your , to your , to your , to your soothsayers, or to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, "You shall not the king of ;" for they a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, so that I would drive you out, and you would . But the nation that brings their neck under the of the king of and serves him, that nation I will let in their own land,' ; 'and they will till it and in it.'"'" I spoke to king of Judah according to all these words, saying, "Bring your necks under the of the king of , and him and his people, and live. Why will you , you and your people, , by the , and by the pestilence, as has spoken concerning the nation that will not the king of ? Don't listen to the words of who speak to you, saying, 'You shall not the king of ;' for they a lie to you. For I have not sent them," , "but they falsely in my name; that I may drive you out, and that you may , you, and who to you." Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, says, "Don't listen to the words of your who to you, saying, 'Behold, the vessels of house will now shortly be brought again from ;' for they a lie to you. Don't listen to them. the king of , and live. Why should this city become a desolation? But if they are , and if word is with them, let them now make intercession to of Armies, that the vessels which are left in house, in the house of the king of Judah, and at , don't go to . For of Armies says concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, which king of didn't take when he the son of , king of Judah, from to , and all the nobles of Judah and — 21yes, of Armies, the of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are left in house, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at : 'They will be carried to , and there they will be, until the day that I visit them,' ; 'then I will bring them up, and restore them to this place.'"
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