King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 40
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The word that came to from , after that Nebuzar–adan the captain of the guard had let him go from , when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were of and Judah, which were unto . And the captain of the guard took , and said unto him, thy hath pronounced this evil upon this place. Now hath brought it, and done according as he hath said: because ye have against , and have not his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you. And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into , come; and I will look well unto thee: but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into , forbear: behold, all the land is before thee: whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go. Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to the son of the son of , whom the king of hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go. Then went unto the son of to ; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land. Now when all the captains of the forces which were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of had made the son of governor in the land, and had committed unto him men, and women, and children, and of of the land, of them that were not to ; Then they came to to , even the son of , and and Jonathan the sons of , and the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the , and Jezaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. And the son of the son of sware unto them and to their men, saying, Fear not to the : in the land, and the king of , and it shall be well with you. As for me, behold, I will at to the , which will come unto us: but ye, gather ye , and summer fruits, and oil, and put them in your vessels, and in your cities that ye have taken. Likewise when all the that were in , and among , and in , and that were in all the countries, heard that the king of had left a of Judah, and that he had set over them the son of the son of ; Even all the returned out of all places whither they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to , unto , and gathered and summer fruits very much. Moreover the son of , and all the captains of the forces that were in the fields, came to to , And said unto him, Dost thou certainly know that Baalis the king of hath sent the son of to thee? But the son of them not. Then the son of spake to in secretly, saying, Let me go, I thee, and I will the son of , and no man shall know it: wherefore should he thee, that all the which are gathered unto thee should be scattered, and in Judah ? But the son of said unto the son of , Thou shalt not do this thing: for thou speakest falsely of .
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