World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Lamentations 4
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How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of are poured out at the head of every street. The precious sons of , comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the ! Even the jackals offer their breast. They nurse their young ones. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in . of the nursing child clings to the roof of his for thirst. The young children ask for bread, and no one breaks it for them. Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills. For the of the daughter of my people is greater than the of , which was overthrown as in a moment. No hands were laid on her. Her nobles were purer than snow. They were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was like sapphire. Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like wood. Those who are killed with are better than those who are killed with ; for these pine away, stricken through, for lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the of the daughter of my people. has accomplished his . He has poured out his . He has kindled a in , which has devoured its foundations. The kings of the earth didn't , neither did all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and would enter into the of . It is because of the of her and the of her priests, that have shed of the in the middle of her. They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with , So that men can't touch their garments. "Go away!" they cried to them. "! Go away! Go away! Don't touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, "They can't live here any more." has scattered them. He will not pay attention to them any more. They didn't respect the persons of the priests. They didn't the . Our eyes still fail, looking in for our help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not . They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are fulfilled, for our end has come. Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of . They chased us on the mountains. They set an ambush for us in . The breath of our nostrils, of , was taken in their pits; of whom we said, under his shadow we will live among the nations. Rejoice and be glad, daughter of , who dwells in the land of . will pass through to you also. You will be drunken, and will make yourself . The punishment of your is accomplished, daughter of . He will no more carry you away into . He will visit your , daughter of . He will uncover your .
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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.