World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 8
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"At that time," , "they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of , and the bones of the inhabitants of , out of their . They will spread them before the sun, the moon, and of , which they have loved, which they have , after which they have walked, which they have sought, and which they have . They will not be gathered or be buried. They will be like dung on the surface of the earth. will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that of this evil family, that in all the places where I have driven them," of Armies. "Moreover you shall tell them, ' says: "'Do men fall, and not rise up again? Does one turn away, and not return? Why then have the people of fallen back by a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit. They refuse to return. I listened and heard, but they didn't say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle. Yes, the stork in knows her . The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don't know law. "'How do you say, "We are , and law is with us"? But, behold, the false pen of the has made that a lie. men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected word. What kind of is in them? Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will possess them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the even to the priest everyone deals falsely. They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. Were they when they had committed ? No, they were not at all . They couldn't blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation they will be cast down, . "'I will utterly consume them, . No grapes will be on , no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf will fade. The things that I have given them will pass away from them.'" "Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let's enter into the fortified cities, and let's be silent there; for our has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have against . We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay! The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. The whole land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who therein." "For, behold, I will send , adders among you, which will not be charmed; and they will bite you," . Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! is faint within me. Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: "Isn't in ? Isn't her King in her?" "Why have they provoked me to with their engraved , and with foreign idols?" "The harvest is past. The summer has ended, and we are not ." For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am hurt. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in ? Is there no physician there? Why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
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