World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 4
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"If you will return, Israel," , "if you will return to me, and if you will your out of my sight; then you will not be removed; and you will , 'As lives,' in truth, in justice, and in . will themselves in him, and they will in him." For says to the men of Judah and to , "Break up your fallow ground, and don't sow among . Circumcise yourselves to , and take away the foreskins of , you men of Judah and inhabitants of ; lest my go out like , and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Declare in Judah, and publish in ; and say, 'Blow the in the land!' Cry aloud and say, 'Assemble yourselves! Let's go into the fortified cities!' Set up a standard toward . Flee for safety! Don't wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great ." A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant. For this, clothe yourself with , and ; for the of hasn't turned back from us. "It will happen at that day," , "that of the king will , along with of the princes. The priests will be astonished, and will wonder." Then I said, "Ah, ! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and , saying, 'You will have peace;' whereas reaches to ." At that time it will be said to this people and to , "A hot wind blows from the heights in toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse. A full wind from these will come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them." Behold, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots will be as the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined. , wash from wickedness, that you may be . How long will your evil lodge within you? For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of : "Tell the nations, behold, publish against , ' come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah. As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,'" . "Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness, for it is bitter, for it reaches to ." My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very ! trembles within me. I can't hold my peace, because you have heard, O , the sound of the , the alarm of war. on is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment. How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the ? "For my people are foolish. They don't know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don't know how to do good." I saw the earth and, behold, it was waste and void, and , and they had no . I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of had fled. I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a , and all its cities were broken down at the of , before his . For says, "The whole land will be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. For this the earth will mourn, and above be black, because I have spoken it. I have planned it, and I have not , neither will I from it." Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers. They go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein. You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in . Your lovers despise you. They seek your life. For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of , who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, "Woe is me now! For faints before the ."
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