King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 50
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The word that spake against and against the land of the by the . Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, is taken, is confounded, is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her are broken in pieces. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast. In those days, and in that time, saith , the shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek their . They shall ask to with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to in a perpetual that shall not be forgotten. My people hath been lost sheep: their have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. All that found them have devoured them: and their said, We offend not, because they have against , the habitation of justice, even , the of their fathers. Remove out of the midst of , and go forth out of the land of the , and be as the he goats before the flocks. For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against an of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in . And shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith . Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls; Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that you shall be : behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a , a dry land, and a . Because of the of it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Put yourselves in array against round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath against . Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the of : take upon her; as she hath done, do unto her. the sower from , and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land. Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of hath broken his bones. Therefore thus saith of hosts, the of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of and his land, as I have punished the king of . And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on and , and his shall be satisfied upon mount and . In those days, and in that time, saith , the of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve. Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and after them, saith , and do according to all that I have commanded thee. A sound of battle is in the land, and of great . How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is become a desolation among the nations! I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O , and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against . hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his : for this is the work of of hosts in the land of the . Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left. all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation. The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of , to declare in the of our , the of his temple. Call together the archers against : all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against , against the One of Israel. Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war in that day, saith . Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee. And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him. Thus saith of hosts; The and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them held them ; they refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong; of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of . A is upon the , saith , and upon the inhabitants of , and upon her princes, and upon her men. A is upon the liars; and they shall dote: a is upon her ; and they shall be dismayed. A is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a is upon her ; and they shall be robbed. A is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven , and they are mad upon their idols. Therefore the wild of with the wild of the islands shall there, and the owls shall therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As overthrew and and the neighbour cities thereof, saith ; so shall no man there, neither shall any therein. Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of . The king of hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly 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 ye , that he hath taken against ; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the : Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them. At the noise of the taking of the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.
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