World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 6
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"Flee for safety, you children of , out of the middle of ! Blow the in Tekoa and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem, for evil looks out from the north with a great . I will the beautiful and delicate one, the daughter of . with their flocks will come to her. They will pitch their tents against her all around. They will feed everyone in his place." "Prepare war against her! Arise! Let's go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. Arise! Let's go up by night, and let's destroy her palaces." For of Armies said, "Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against . This is the city to be visited. She is filled with within herself. As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness. and is heard in her. Sickness and wounds are continually before me. Be instructed, , lest be alienated from you, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land." of Armies says, "They will thoroughly of Israel like a . Turn again your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets." To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is , and they can't listen. Behold, word has become a to them. They have no delight in it. Therefore I am full of . I am weary with holding it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street, and on of young men together; for even the husband with the wife will be taken, the aged with him who is full of days. Their houses will be turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, ." "For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness. From the even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially, saying, 'Peace, peace!' when there is no peace. Were they when they had committed ? No, they were not at all , neither could they blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall. When I visit them, they will be cast down," . says, "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old , 'Where is the good way?' and walk in it, and you will find rest for your . But they said, 'We will not walk in it.' I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the !' But they said, 'We will not listen!' Therefore hear, you nations, and know, , what is among them. Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their , because they have not listened to my words; and as for , they have rejected it. To what purpose does from come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your are not pleasing to me." Therefore says, "Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together will stumble against them. The neighbor and his friend will ." says, "Behold, a people comes from the north country. A great nation will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of ." We have heard its report. Our hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labor. Don't go out into the field or walk by ; for of and terror are on every side. Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with , and wallow in ! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter , for will suddenly come on us. "I have made you a tester of metals and a among my people, that you may know and try their way. They are all grievous rebels, going around to slander. They are bronze and iron. All of them deal corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely. The lead is consumed in the . In they go on refining, for are not plucked away. Men will call them rejected silver, because has rejected them."
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