World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Obadiah
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The of . This is what says about . We have heard news from , and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, "Arise, and let's rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised. The pride of has deceived you, you who in the clefts of , whose habitation is high, who says in , 'Who will bring me down to the ground?' Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there," . "If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, what disaster awaits you—wouldn't they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn't they leave some grapes? How will be ransacked! How his hidden are sought out! All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him." "Won't I in that day", , "destroy men out of , and understanding out of the mountain of ? Your , , will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may from the mountain of by slaughter. For the done to your brother , will cover you, and you will . In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers his substance and entered into his and cast lots for , even you were like one of them. But don't look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don't rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their . Don't speak proudly in the day of distress. Don't enter into the of my people in the day of their calamity. Don't look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity. Don't stand in the crossroads to those of his who escape. Don't up those of his who in the day of distress. For is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. For as you have drunk on my mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been. But in Mount , there will be those who escape, and it will be . The house of will possess their possessions. The house of will be a , the a flame, and the house of for stubble. They will burn among them and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of ." Indeed, has spoken. Those of the South will possess the mountain of , and those of the lowland, the . They will possess the field of , and the field of . will possess . The of this army of the , who are among , will possess even to ; and the of , who are in , will possess the cities of the Negev. Saviors will go up on Mount to judge the mountains of , and will be .
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 Obadiah