World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Lamentations 1
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How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a , who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a ! She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her . Judah has gone into because of affliction and because of great servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no rest. All her persecutors overtook her in her distress. The roads to mourn, because no one comes to the solemn . All her are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness. Her have become the head. Her prosper; for has afflicted her for of her . Her young children have gone into before the adversary. All majesty has departed from the daughter of . Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. They have gone without strength before the pursuer. remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old; when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her. The saw her. They mocked at her desolations. has grievously . Therefore she has become . All who her despise her, because they have seen her . Yes, she sighs and turns backward. Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn't remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. "See, , my affliction; for has magnified himself." has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your . All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their . "Look, , and see, for I have become despised." "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which has afflicted me in the day of his . "From on high has he sent into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long. "The of my is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. has me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand. " has set at nothing all my within me. He has called a solemn against me to crush my young men. has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a press. "For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh is far from me. My children are desolate, because has prevailed." spreads out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. has commanded concerning , that those who are around him should be his . is among them as an thing. " is , for I have rebelled against his . Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into . "I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my gave up in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their . "Look, ; for I am in distress. is troubled. turns over within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad, bereaves. At home, it is like . "They have heard that I sigh. There is no one to comfort me. All have heard of my trouble. They are glad that you have done it. You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they will be like me. "Let all their wickedness come before you. Do to them as you have done to me for all my . For my sighs are many, and is faint.
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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.