World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 34
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
The word which came to from , when king of , with all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his , and all the peoples, were fighting against and against all its cities, saying: ", the of Israel, says, 'Go, and speak to king of Judah, and tell him, says, "Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of and he will burn it with . You won't escape out of his hand, but will surely be taken and into his hand. Your eyes will see the eyes of the king of , and he will speak with you to . You will go to ."' 4"Yet hear word, O king of Judah. says concerning you, 'You won't . You will in peace; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will make a burning for you. They will you, saying, "Ah !" for I have spoken the word,' ." Then the spoke all these words to king of Judah in , when the king of army was fighting against and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against and against ; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities. The word came to from , after King had made a with all the people who were at , to proclaim to them, that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is a or a Hebrewess, go free, that no one should make of them, of a his brother. All the princes and all the people who had entered into , that everyone should let his male servant and everyone his female servant go free, that no one should make of them any more. They and let them go, but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids whom they had let go free to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. 12Therefore word came to from , saying, ", the of Israel, says: 'I made a with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of , out of the house of bondage, saying: At the end of seven years, every man of you shall his brother who is a , who has been sold to you, and has you six years. You shall let him go free from you. But your fathers didn't listen to me, and didn't incline their ear. You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in every man proclaiming to his neighbor. You had made a before me in the house which is called by my name; but you turned and profaned my name, and every man caused his servant and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return. You brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.'" Therefore says: "You have not listened to me, to proclaim , every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim to you a ," , "to , to the pestilence, and to the . I will make you be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. I will give the men who have transgressed my , who have not performed the words of which they made before me when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts: the princes of Judah, the princes of , the , the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf. I will even give them into the hand of their and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their bodies will be food for the birds of and for the animals of the earth. "I will give king of Judah and his princes into the hands of their , into the hands of those who seek their life and into the hands of the king of army, who has gone away from you. Behold, I will command," , "and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it, take it, and burn it with . I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."
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