King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 49
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Concerning , thus saith ; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no ? why then doth their king Gad, and his people in his cities? Therefore, behold, the days come, saith , that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in of ; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with : then shall Israel be unto them that were his , saith . Howl, O , for is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of , gird you with ; , and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into , and his priests and his princes together. Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her , saying, Who shall come unto me? Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth. And afterward I will bring again of , saith . Concerning , thus saith of hosts; Is no more in ? is from the prudent? is their vanished? Flee ye, , deep, O inhabitants of ; for I will bring the calamity of upon him, the time that I will visit him. If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. But I have made , I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not. Leave thy children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy in me. For thus saith ; Behold, they whose was not to drink of have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. For I have by myself, saith , that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a , a waste, and ; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. I have heard a rumour from , and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine , O thou that dwellest in the clefts of , that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith . Also shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. As in the overthrow of and and the neighbour cities thereof, saith , no man shall there, neither shall a in it. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that that will stand before me? Therefore hear , that he hath taken against ; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of : Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them. The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in . Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his over Bozrah: and at that day shall of the of be as of a woman in her pangs. Concerning . is confounded, and : for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. 24 is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. How is the city of not left, the city of my joy! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war in that day, saith of hosts. And I will kindle a in the wall of , and it shall consume the palaces of Ben–hadad. Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of , which Nebuchadrezzar king of shall smite, thus saith ; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east. Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side. Flee, get you far off, deep, O ye inhabitants of , saith ; for Nebuchadrezzar king of hath taken against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you. Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, saith , which have neither nor bars, which alone. And their camels shall be a booty, and of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith . And shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man there, nor any in it. The word of that came to the against of the reign of king of Judah, saying, Thus saith of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of , the chief of their might. And upon will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of , and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of shall not come. For I will cause to be dismayed before their , and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my , saith ; and I will send after them, till I have consumed them: And I will set my in , and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith . But it shall come to pass in the , that I will bring again of , 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