King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 32
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The word that came to from in the tenth year of king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. For then the king of ’s army besieged : and the was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house. For king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou , and say, Thus saith , Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of , and he shall take it; And king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the , but shall surely be into the hand of the king of , and shall speak with him to , and his eyes shall behold his eyes; And he shall lead to , and there shall he be until I visit him, saith : though ye fight with the , ye shall not prosper. 6And said, unto me, saying, Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in : for the right of is thine to buy it. So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of , and said unto me, Buy my field, I thee, that is in , which is in the country of : for the right of is thine, and the is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of . And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that was in , and weighed him the money, even seventeen of silver. And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took , and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to and custom, and that which was open: And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto the son of , the son of , in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle’s son, and in the of the that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the that sat in the court of the prison. 13And I charged before them, saying, 14Thus saith of hosts, the of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an , that they may continue many days. For thus saith of hosts, the of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be again in this land. Now when I had the evidence of the purchase unto the son of , I unto , saying, Ah ! behold, thou hast made the and the earth by thy great and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Thou shewest unto thousands, and recompensest the of the fathers into the of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty , of hosts, is his name, Great in , and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings: Which hast set signs and wonders in the land of , even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and hast made thee a name, as at this day; And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror; And hast given them this land, which thou didst to their fathers to give them, a and honey; And they came in, and it; but they not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them: Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the , that fight against it, because of , and of the , and of the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest it. And thou hast said unto me, O , Buy thee the field for money, and take ; for the city is given into the hand of the . 26Then came the word of unto , saying, Behold, I am , the of : is there any thing too hard for me? Therefore thus saith ; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the , and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of , and he shall take it: And the , that fight against this city, shall come and set on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered unto , and poured out drink unto other gods, to provoke me to . For the and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the have only provoked me to with the work of their hands, saith . For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; 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, and their , and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of . And they have turned unto me the back, and not the : though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive . But they set their in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. And they built the of , which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the unto ; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my , that they should do this , to cause Judah to . And now therefore thus saith , the of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be into the hand of the king of , and by the , and by the pestilence; Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine , and in my fury, and in great ; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their : And I will give them one , and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: And I will make an with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their , that they shall not depart from me. Yea, 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 thus saith ; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the . Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take in the land of , and in the places about , and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their to return, saith .
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