World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 5
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"Run back and forth through the streets of , and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. Though they say, 'As lives,' surely they falsely." O , don't your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive . They have made their faces harder than a . They have refused to return. Then I said, "Surely these are . They are foolish; for they don't know way, nor of their . I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know of , and of their ." But these with one accord have broken the , and burst the bonds. Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their are many and their backsliding has increased. "How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed , and assembled themselves in troops at the ' houses. They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shouldn't I punish them for these things?" . "Shouldn't be on such a nation as this? "Go up on her walls, and destroy, but don't make a full end. Take away her , for they are not . For the and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me," . They have denied , and said, "It is not he. Evil won't come on us. We won't see or . will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them." Therefore , the of Armies says, "Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your , and this people wood, and it will devour them. Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, ," . "It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know and don't understand what they say. Their quiver is an open . They are all . They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you with . "But even in those days," , "I will not make a full end of you. It will happen when you say, 'Why has our done all these things to us?' Then you shall say to them, ' as you have forsaken me and foreign gods in your land, so you will strangers in a land that is not yours.' 20"Declare this in the house of , and publish it in Judah, saying, 'Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don't see, who have ears, and don't hear: Don't you fear me?' ; 'Won't you tremble at my , who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual , that it can't pass it? Though its waves toss themselves, yet they can't prevail. Though they roar, they still can't pass over it.' "But this people has a revolting and a rebellious . They have revolted and gone. They don't say in their , 'Let's now our , who gives , both the former and the latter, , who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.' "Your have turned away these things, and your have withheld good from you. For men are found among my people. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich. They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don't plead the cause, the cause of , that they may prosper; and they don't defend the rights of . "Shouldn't I punish for these things?" . "Shouldn't be on such a nation as this? "An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land. falsely, and the priests rule by their own ; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
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