King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 39
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In the ninth year of king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of and all his army against , and they besieged it. And in the eleventh year of , in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. And all the princes of the king of came in, and sat in the middle , even –sharezer, Samgar–nebo, Sarsechim, Rab–saris, –sharezer, Rab–mag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of . And it came to pass, that when the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by of the king’s garden, by the betwixt the two walls: and he went out of the plain. But the ’ army pursued after them, and overtook in the plains of : and when they had taken him, they brought him up to king of to in the land of , where he gave upon him. Then the king of slew the sons of in before his eyes: also the king of slew all the nobles of Judah. Moreover he put out ’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to . And the burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with , and brake down the walls of . Then Nebuzar–adan the captain of the guard into of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained. But Nebuzar–adan the captain of the guard left of of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. Now Nebuchadrezzar king of gave charge concerning to Nebuzar–adan the captain of the guard, saying, Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee. So Nebuzar–adan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rab–saris, and –sharezer, Rab–mag, and all the king of ’s princes; Even they sent, and took out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto the son of the son of , that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people. Now unto , while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Go and speak to Ebed–melech the , saying, Thus saith of hosts, the of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee. But I will thee in that day, saith : and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will surely thee, and thou shalt not fall , but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy in me, 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