World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 28
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That same year, of the reign of king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, the son of Azzur, the , who was of , spoke to me in house, in the of the priests and of all the people, saying, " of Armies, the of Israel, says, 'I have broken the of the king of . Within two full years I will bring again into this place all the vessels of house that king of took away from this place and carried to . I will bring again to this place the son of , king of Judah, with all the of Judah, who went to ,' ; 'for I will break the of the king of .'" Then the said to the in the of the priests, and in the of all the people who stood in house, even the said, "! May do so. May perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of house, and all those who are , from to this place. Nevertheless listen now to this word that I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people: who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, of evil, and of pestilence. As for the who prophesies of peace, when the word of the happens, then the will be known, that has truly sent him." Then the took the bar from off the neck, and broke it. spoke in the of all the people, saying, " says: 'Even so I will break the of king of from off the neck of all the nations within two full years.'" Then the went his way. Then word came to , after the had broken the bar from off the neck of the , saying, "Go, and tell , saying, ' says, "You have broken the bars of wood, but you have made in their place bars of iron." For of Armies, the of Israel says, "I have put a of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may king of ; and they will him. I have also given him the animals of the field."'" Then the said to the , "Listen, ! has not sent you, but you make this people in a lie. Therefore says, 'Behold, I will send you away from off the surface of the earth. This year you will , because you have spoken rebellion against .'" So the the same year in the seventh month.
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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