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Course 6 · Lesson 4.3

Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the fall of Jerusalem

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 6 outline

Module 1: Israel in the Ancient Near East

  1. Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan: the world of the Old Testament
  2. What archaeology and ancient texts can and cannot show
  3. Genesis 1 to 3 beside other ancient creation accounts
  4. Ancient cosmology and how Christians and Jews read Genesis

Module 2: Covenant: Abraham and Moses

  1. What a covenant is, and covenant forms in the ancient world
  2. The covenants with Noah and Abraham
  3. The exodus and the covenant at Sinai
  4. The Torah: law, worship and the tabernacle
  5. Covenant in Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed thought

Module 3: Kingship in Israel

  1. From the judges to the first kings
  2. David, Jerusalem and the promise of a lasting house
  3. Solomon, the temple and the divided kingdom
  4. How Samuel and Kings tell the story: sources and purpose

Module 4: The Prophets, Exile and Restoration

  1. What a prophet was in Israel and in the ancient world
  2. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah: justice, loyalty and judgment
  3. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the fall of Jerusalem
  4. The return, Ezra, Nehemiah and the rebuilt temple
  5. How the prophetic books were formed: the debate over Isaiah and others

Module 5: Wisdom and Apocalyptic Writing

  1. Proverbs and the way of the wise
  2. Job and Ecclesiastes: wisdom that questions
  3. What apocalyptic writing is: Daniel and its setting
  4. Reading apocalyptic images responsibly

Module 6: Second Temple Judaism and the Development of Jewish Thought

  1. Persian, Greek and Maccabean periods
  2. Temple, synagogue and the main groups in Jewish life
  3. Development in Jewish thought: angels, resurrection, wisdom and law
  4. Sources: the Dead Sea Scrolls, the deuterocanonical books and Josephus

Module 7: Messianic Expectation and the Shape of the Covenants

  1. Anointed ones in the Old Testament: king, priest, prophet
  2. Messianic texts in the prophets and psalms
  3. How Jews and Christians read the messianic texts
  4. The promise of a new covenant
  5. Mapping the development of covenant across the Old Testament

All courses

Program / Course 6: Old Testament Theology and History / Lesson 4.3

What you will learn

  • Outline the events from the rise of Babylon to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
  • Describe Jeremiah’s message to Judah and his letter to the exiles.
  • Describe Ezekiel’s visions of judgment and of restoration.
  • Explain how the exile raised questions about God, covenant and hope.

The big idea

In the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC, Babylon replaced Assyria as the great power and took Judah apart. Jeremiah spoke in Jerusalem before and after its fall, warning of judgment and later promising a new covenant. Ezekiel, a priest taken to Babylon, saw God’s glory leave the temple and then return in a vision of restoration. Both prophets faced a question that threatened Israel’s faith: if the city and temple fall, has God abandoned his people?

Key terms

Exile
The forced removal of Judah’s leaders and people to Babylon, in stages from 597 BC and after 586 BC.
Nebuchadnezzar
The king of Babylon from 605 to 562 BC, who captured and destroyed Jerusalem.
Confessions of Jeremiah
Passages in Jeremiah where the prophet complains to God about his suffering and calling.
Glory (kavod)
The visible presence of God, which Ezekiel sees depart from the temple and return.
New covenant
The promise in Jeremiah 31:31 to 34 of a renewed covenant in which God writes his law on the heart.
Diaspora
A Greek word for dispersion, used for Jews living outside the land.
Lament
A prayer or poem of grief. The book of Lamentations mourns the fall of Jerusalem.

Background

In 612 BC the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, fell to a coalition led by Babylon and the Medes. Egypt tried to help Assyria and was defeated by Babylon at Carchemish in 605 BC. Judah, between them, was trapped. King Josiah died in 609 BC trying to stop an Egyptian army. His sons and grandson followed, and each was caught between the two powers. The Babylonian Chronicle records that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem on the second of Adar, in March 597 BC, and installed a new king, Zedekiah.

Zedekiah rebelled, and Babylon returned. Jerusalem fell after a siege, and the temple was burned in 586 BC (some scholars date the event to 587). Many leaders were taken to Babylon, and the rest were left under a governor, Gedaliah, who was soon assassinated. Letters found at Lachish, written on pottery, reflect the panic of Judah’s last days.

Jeremiah and Ezekiel interpret these events from two places. Jeremiah remained in Judah and was taken to Egypt. Ezekiel lived among the exiles by the river Chebar. Their words show both the shock of the disaster and the first steps toward a response.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Jeremiah, warning in Jerusalem

Jeremiah, a priest’s son from Anathoth, was called in the thirteenth year of Josiah, about 627 BC, as a boy who protested that he could not speak (Jeremiah 1). He is told that he will uproot and tear down, and also build and plant. In his temple sermon (Jeremiah 7 and 26), he warns that the people trust in the temple while they steal, murder and worship Baal. The words nearly cost him his life.

Jeremiah is persecuted, jailed and thrown into a cistern. His scribe Baruch writes down his words, and when King Jehoiakim burns the scroll, Jeremiah dictates it again (Jeremiah 36). In passages called his confessions, he complains bitterly to God. He is a lonely figure whose own feelings are part of the text. He tells the people to submit to Babylon, and his opponents call him a traitor.

Step 2: Jeremiah’s hope

In Jeremiah 29, he writes to the exiles in Babylon. They are told to build houses, plant gardens, marry, and seek the peace of the city, for in its peace they will have peace. He says that after seventy years God will visit them and bring them back. The letter denies the false prophets who said that the exile would be brief, and it asks for a long patience.

In chapters 30 to 33, sometimes called the Book of Consolation, Jeremiah promises restoration. Chapter 31 announces a new covenant, not like the one made when God led Israel out of Egypt, a covenant in which God writes the law on their hearts and forgives their iniquity. Jeremiah buys a field in a besieged land as a sign that houses and fields will again be bought (Jeremiah 32).

Step 3: Ezekiel, a priest among exiles

Ezekiel was among those taken in 597 BC. About 593 BC, by the river Chebar, he sees a vision of a storm cloud and four living creatures, wheels within wheels, and the likeness of the glory of the Lord on a throne (Ezekiel 1). He is sent to a rebellious people and told to be a watchman. His early messages are of judgment. In sign-acts, he lies on his side and draws Jerusalem on a brick.

In chapters 8 to 11, he is carried in vision to the temple and sees idolatry within it. Then the glory of the Lord rises from the temple and leaves the city. This is the center of the book: God leaves because of sin. Chapter 18 insists on personal responsibility, saying that the soul that sinneth, it shall die and not the children for the fathers.

Step 4: Ezekiel’s restoration

After the news of Jerusalem’s fall (Ezekiel 33), the tone changes. God will be the shepherd of his scattered sheep (chapter 34). He will give a new heart and put a new spirit within them, taking away the heart of stone (chapter 36). In chapter 37 the prophet sees a valley of dry bones that come to life, a picture of Israel restored. The book ends with a vision of a new temple and a river flowing from it (chapters 40 to 48), and the glory returns.

Readers differ on whether the dry bones depict only the national restoration or also resurrection of the dead. Jewish tradition reads the vision as a promise for Israel and also, in rabbinic discussion, as pointing to resurrection. Christian traditions have read it in both senses. The temple vision is read in several ways, from a plan for a future temple to a symbolic picture.

  1. Why did Jeremiah’s temple sermon anger his hearers?
  2. What does Jeremiah ask the exiles to do in chapter 29, and why?
  3. Why does Ezekiel see the glory of God leave the temple?
  4. How do Ezekiel 18 and 36 speak of responsibility and a new heart?
  5. What questions about God did the exile raise for the people of Judah?
  6. How do the two prophets complement one another?

Examples

The buried belt

Jeremiah buys a linen belt, wears it, and then hides it in a rock by the Euphrates. When he digs it up, it is ruined and good for nothing. God tells him that the people of Judah are like the belt (Jeremiah 13). The story shows how a prophet acts a message.

The siege-time purchase

While Jerusalem is under siege and Jeremiah is in prison, he buys a field from his cousin, signs the deed and places it in a jar to last many days (Jeremiah 32). The act says that Judah will have a future even as the city falls.

By the rivers of Babylon

Psalm 137 begins with exiles weeping by the rivers of Babylon when they remembered Zion. It is a lament and also a harsh outcry for vengeance at the end. It shows the real feelings of the exiles and the Bible’s willingness to record them.

Different perspectives

Jewish readers

Jewish tradition remembers the destruction of the first temple on the ninth of Av, and the book of Lamentations is read on that day. The exile is seen as a punishment and also the beginning of a way of faith that does not depend on the temple. Jeremiah’s letter is treated as a model for life in diaspora.

Catholic readers

The Church reads Jeremiah 31 as pointing to the new covenant in Christ and uses Ezekiel’s promise of a new heart in baptism and confirmation. The Catechism also notes that the Jewish people remain in a covenant relation with God.

Orthodox readers

The Orthodox read Ezekiel’s closed gate (Ezekiel 44) as a figure of the Virgin Mary, and read the vision of the dry bones at Holy Saturday as pointing to the resurrection. They include Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah in their Old Testament.

Protestant readers

Protestants read Jeremiah’s new covenant as fulfilled in Christ, with references in Hebrews 8. Dispensationalists expect the restoration promises to be fulfilled for national Israel in the future, and some expect a literal rebuilt temple from Ezekiel 40 to 48. Others read the vision symbolically.

Scholarly views

Scholars debate how much of Jeremiah was written by the prophet and how much by editors, and note differences between the shorter Greek text and the longer Hebrew. They treat Ezekiel as a unified book more than most prophets, though with additions.

Why it matters

The exile changed Israel and Judaism. It is the setting for much of the Old Testament’s final form and for the hope of a new covenant that the New Testament takes up. Reading Jeremiah and Ezekiel together shows how a people in disaster asked hard questions of God, and how those questions were answered by judgment, honesty and promise.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The exile ended Israel’s faith.

Correction: The exile was a crisis, but the faith deepened and developed. Texts were gathered, prayer and study took on new weight, and hope for restoration was renewed.

Misunderstanding: Jeremiah was only a prophet of doom.

Correction: He announced judgment and also promised restoration, including the new covenant in chapters 30 to 33.

Misunderstanding: Ezekiel’s visions are secret codes about the modern world.

Correction: They had meaning for his first hearers in exile. Later readers have found further meanings, and interpretations differ widely.

Misunderstanding: Everyone agrees on the date of the fall of Jerusalem.

Correction: Most scholars give 586 BC, and some give 587. The difference arises from counting methods.

Knowledge check

What are the key dates of the Babylonian conquest of Judah?

Babylon defeated Egypt at Carchemish in 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem in 597 BC and took the king and many leaders to Babylon. After a rebellion by Zedekiah, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC, a date some scholars give as 587. Further deportations followed. The Babylonian Chronicle confirms the capture of 597.

What does Jeremiah tell the exiles in chapter 29?

He tells them to build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children, and seek the welfare of the city where they live, since its peace will be theirs. He says the exile will be long, with a return after seventy years. He warns them against prophets who promise a quick end. The letter shaped a way of living faithfully away from the land.

What is the new covenant in Jeremiah 31?

It is God’s promise to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, unlike the covenant made after the exodus, which they broke. God will put his law within them and write it on their hearts, so all will know him, and he will forgive their iniquity. Jews and Christians read it differently.

What is the significance of the glory leaving and returning in Ezekiel?

In chapters 8 to 11 the glory of the Lord leaves the temple because of idolatry, showing that God’s presence is not tied to a building. In chapters 40 to 48 the glory returns to a new temple, and the book closes with the city named The Lord is there. The sequence tells of judgment followed by restored presence.

Think it through

  1. How would you speak to a people who had lost their home, their temple and their king?
  2. Why might Jeremiah’s letter have been hard to hear?
  3. What does Ezekiel’s emphasis on personal responsibility add to the idea of the covenant?
  4. How can a community hold on to hope without denying its pain?

Independent assignment

A letter to the exiles

In your own notebook, read Jeremiah 29 and Psalm 137. Write 300 to 400 words in which you set out, in your own words, what a faithful life in Babylon would involve according to Jeremiah, and what feelings the psalm preserves that the letter does not. Then add a short note on how this might apply to people living away from home today. Keep it for yourself.

Further study