King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 29
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Now these are the words of the letter that the sent from unto the residue of the which were , and to the priests, and to , and to all the people whom had from to ; (After that the king, and the queen, and the , the princes of Judah and , and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from ;) By the hand of Elasah the son of , and Gemariah the son of , (whom king of Judah sent unto to king of ) saying, Thus saith of hosts, the of Israel, unto all that are , whom I have caused to be from unto ; Build ye houses, and in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be , and unto for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. For thus saith of hosts, the of Israel; Let not your and your , that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither to your which ye cause to be dreamed. For they falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith . For thus saith , That after seventy years be accomplished at I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the that I think toward you, saith , of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and unto me, and I will unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all . And I will be found of you, saith : and I will turn away your , and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith ; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be . Because ye have said, hath us up in ; Know that thus saith of the king that sitteth upon of , and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into ; Thus saith of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them , the , and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. And I will persecute them with , with the , and with the pestilence, and will them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be , and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a , among all the nations whither I have driven them: Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith , which I sent unto them by my servants , rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith . Hear ye therefore the word of , all ye of , whom I have sent from to : Thus saith of hosts, the of Israel, of the son of Kolaiah, and of the son of , which a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of ; and he shall them before your eyes; And of them shall be taken up by all of Judah which are in , saying, make thee like and like , whom the king of roasted in the ; Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a , saith . Thus shalt thou also speak to , saying, Thus speaketh of hosts, the of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at , and to the son of the priest, and to all the priests, saying, hath made thee priest in the stead of the priest, that ye should be officers in the , for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a , that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks. Now therefore why hast thou not reproved of , which maketh himself a to you? For therefore he sent unto us in , saying, This is long: build ye houses, and in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And the priest read this letter in the ears of the . 30Then came the word of unto , saying, Send to all them of , saying, Thus saith concerning ; Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to in a lie: Therefore thus saith ; Behold, I will punish , and : he shall not have a man to among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith ; because he hath taught rebellion against .
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