World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 32
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This is the word that came to from in the tenth year of king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of . Now at that time the king of army was besieging . the was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah's house. For king of Judah had shut him up, saying, "Why do you , and say, ' says, "Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of , and he will take it; and king of Judah won't escape out of the hand of the , but will surely be into the hand of the king of , and will speak with him to , and his eyes will see his eyes; and he will bring to , and he will be there until I visit him," , "though you fight with the , you will not prosper"'?" 6 said, " word came to me, saying, 'Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, "Buy my field that is in ; for the right of is yours to buy it."'" "So Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard according to word, and said to me, 'Please buy my field that is in , which is in the land of ; for the right of is yours, and the is yours. Buy it for yourself.' "Then I knew that this was word. I bought the field that was in of Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, called , and weighed the money in the balances to him. So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open; and I the deed of the purchase to the son of , the son of Mahseiah, in the of Hanamel my uncle's son, and in the of the who signed the deed of the purchase, before all the who sat in the court of the guard. 13"I commanded before them, saying, 14 of Armies, the of Israel, says: 'Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an , that they may last many days.' For of Armies, the of Israel says: 'Houses and fields and vineyards will yet again be bought in this land.' Now after I had the deed of the purchase to the son of , I to , saying, "Ah ! Behold, you have made and the earth by your great and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you. You show to thousands, and repay the of the fathers into the of their children after them. The great, the mighty , of Armies is your name: great in , and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings; who performed signs and wonders in the land of , even to this day, both in Israel and among other men; and made yourself a name, as it is today; and brought your people Israel out of the land of with signs, with wonders, with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, and with great terror; and gave them this land, which you to their fathers to give them, a and honey. They came in and it, but they didn't your voice and didn't walk in . They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them. "Behold, siege ramps have been built against the city to take it. The city is given into the hand of the who fight against it, because of , of the , and of the pestilence. What you have spoken has happened. Behold, you see it. You have said to me, , 'Buy the field for money, and call ;' whereas the city is given into the hand of the ." 26Then word came to , saying, "Behold, I am , the of . Is there anything too hard for me? Therefore says: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the , and into the hand of king of , and he will take it. The , who fight against this city, will come and set this city on , and burn it with the houses on whose roofs they have offered to , and poured out drink to other gods, to provoke me to . "For the and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the have only provoked me to with the work of their hands, . For this city has been to me a provocation of my and of my from the day that they built it even to this day, so that I should remove it from before , because of all the evil of the and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to —they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their , the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of . They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. Although I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive . But they set their in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. They built the of , which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through to , which I didn't command them. It didn't even come into my , that they should do this , to cause Judah to ." Now therefore , the of Israel, says concerning this city, about which you say, "It is given into the hand of the king of , by the , and by the pestilence:" "Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my , and in my , and in great ; and I will bring them again to this place. I will cause them to safely. Then they will be my people, and I will be their . I will give them one and one way, that they may fear me , for their good and the good of their children after them. I will make an with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their , that they may not depart from me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my and with my whole ." For says: " as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. Fields will be bought in this land, about which you say, 'It is desolate, without man or animal. It is given into the hand of the .' Men will buy fields for money, sign the deeds, seal them, and call , in the land of , and in the places around , in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their to be reversed," .
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