King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 48
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Against thus saith of hosts, the of Israel; Woe unto ! for it is spoiled: is confounded and taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed. There shall be no more of : in they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; shall pursue thee. A voice of crying shall be from , spoiling and great . is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. For in the going up of continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of the have heard a cry of . Flee, your lives, and be like the heath in . For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy , thou shalt also be taken: and shall go forth into with his priests and his princes together. And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall , and the plain shall be destroyed, as hath spoken. Give unto , that it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to therein. be he that doeth the work of deceitfully, and be he that keepeth back his from . hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from to , neither hath he gone into : therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith , that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles. And shall be of , as the was of Beth–el their confidence. How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war? is spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is of hosts. The calamity of is near to come, and his affliction hasteth . All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong broken, and the beautiful ! Thou daughter that dost inhabit , come down from thy , and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds. O inhabitant of , stand by , and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done? is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in , that is spoiled, And is come upon the plain country; upon , and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath, And upon , and upon , and upon Beth–diblathaim, And upon , and upon Beth–gamul, and upon Beth–meon, And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of , far or near. of is , and his arm is broken, saith . Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against : also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy. O ye that in , leave the cities, and in , and be like the that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s . We have heard the pride of , (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of . I know his , saith ; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it. Therefore will I howl for , and I will cry out for all ; mine shall mourn for the men of –heres. O of , I will weep for thee with the weeping of : thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of : the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage. And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of ; and I have caused to fail from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting. From the cry of even unto , and even unto , have they uttered their voice, from even unto , as an heifer of three years old: for the waters also of shall be desolate. Moreover I will cause to cease in , saith , him that offereth in the , and him that burneth to his gods. Therefore mine shall sound for like pipes, and mine shall sound like pipes for the men of –heres: because the riches that he hath gotten are . For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins . There shall be generally upon all the housetops of , and in the streets thereof: for I have broken like a wherein is no pleasure, saith . They shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how hath turned the back with ! so shall be a derision and a dismaying to all them about him. For thus saith ; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his over . Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the ’s in at that day shall be as of a woman in her pangs. And shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against . Fear, and , and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of , saith . He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into ; and he that getteth up out of shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon , the year of their visitation, saith . They that fled stood under the shadow of because of the force: but a shall come forth out of , and a flame from the midst of , and shall devour the corner of , and the of the head of the tumultuous ones. Woe be unto thee, O ! the people of perisheth: for thy sons are taken , and thy daughters . Yet will I bring again of in the , saith . Thus far is the 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