King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 28
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And it came to pass the same year, of the reign of king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that the son of Azur the , which was of , spake unto me in the , in the of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh of hosts, the of Israel, saying, I have broken the of the king of . Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of ’s house, that king of took away from this place, and carried them to : And I will bring again to this place the son of king of Judah, with all the of Judah, that went into , saith : for I will break the of the king of . Then the said unto the in the of the priests, and in the of all the people that stood in the , Even the said, : do so: perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of ’s house, and all that is , from into this place. Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people; that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the shall come to pass, then shall the be known, that hath truly sent him. Then the took the from off the ’s neck, and brake it. And spake in the of all the people, saying, Thus saith ; Even so will I break the of king of from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the went his way. Then unto the , after that the had broken the from off the neck of the , saying, Go and tell , saying, Thus saith ; Thou hast broken the of wood; but thou shalt make for them of iron. For thus saith of hosts, the of Israel; I have put a of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may king of ; and they shall him: and I have given him the of the field also. Then said the unto the , Hear now, ; hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to in a lie. Therefore thus saith ; Behold, I will cast thee from off the of the earth: this year thou shalt , because thou hast taught rebellion against . So the the same year in the seventh month.
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