King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 2
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Moreover to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of , saying, Thus saith ; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in , in a land that was not sown. Israel was unto , and the of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith . Hear ye the word of , O house of , and all the families of the : Thus saith , What have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after , and are become ? Neither said they, Where is that brought us up out of the land of , that led us through , through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of , and of the shadow of , through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an . The priests said not, Where is ? and they that handle knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and prophesied by , and walked after things that do not profit. Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith , and with your children’s children will I plead. For pass over the isles of , and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye , at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith . For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn ? why is he spoiled? The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. Also the children of and Tahapanes have broken the of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken thy , when he led thee by ? And now what hast thou to do in of , to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in of , to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken thy , and that my fear is not in thee, saith of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy , and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and thou wanderest, playing the . Yet I had planted thee a noble , wholly a right : how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange unto me? For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine is marked before me, saith . How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after ? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways; A wild ass used to , that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no : no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. As the thief is when he is found, so is the ; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their , Saying to a stock, Thou art ; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their : but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and us. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith . In have I smitten your children; they received no : your own hath devoured your , like a destroying lion. O generation, see ye the word of . Have I been a unto Israel? a land of ? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught ones thy ways. Also in thy skirts is found of the of innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these. Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not . Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be of , as thou wast of . Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.
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