King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Zephaniah 3
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Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She not the voice; she received not ; she trusted not in ; she drew not near to her . Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow. Her are and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted , they have done to . The is in the midst thereof; he will not do : every morning doth he bring his to , he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no . I have the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant. I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive ; so their dwelling should not , howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings. Therefore wait ye upon me, saith , until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine , even all my : for all the earth shall be devoured with the of my . For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of , to him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine . In that day shalt thou not be for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my mountain. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and people, and they shall in the name of . of Israel shall not do , nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful be found in their : for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of ; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all , O daughter of . hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even , is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to , Fear thou not: and to , Let not thine hands be slack. thy in the midst of thee is mighty; he will , he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn , who are of thee, to whom the of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them and fame in every land where they have been . At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a among all people of the earth, when I your before your eyes, saith .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.