Into Exile 10/11/17 Professor Tate

Vocabulary 597 B.C.E. 586 B.C.E. Babylonian Exile Call narrative Jeremiah Temple Sermon New Covenant Nebuchadnezzar Sinai theology vs. Zion theology Ezekiel Merkevah/chariot Kavod/glory

Jeremiah’s Call (ch. 1) Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy”… Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, To pluck up and to pull down, To destroy and to overthrow To build and to plant.”

Jeremiah’s temple sermon (ch. 7) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, that you enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”

Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon (Ch. 7) Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the Lord.

Jeremiah foretells the Babylonian exile (ch. 25) Turn now, every one of you, from your evil ways and wicked doings, and you will remain upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your ancestors from of old and forever… Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, even for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an object of horror and of hissing, and an everlasting disgrace. And I will banish from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness… This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Then, after 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.

Psalm 137 By the rivers of Babylon— There we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, And our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us the songs of Zion!” How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, If I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy… O Daughter of Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them agains the rock!

The New Covenant (Jeremiah 31) The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their god, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Ezekiel’s vision of the Merkevah (ch. 1) Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. Each moved straight ahead; wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went…As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them…When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved…This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking.

Ezekiel’s Call (chs. 2-3) But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you. I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe… O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. He said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.

God’s kavod leaves the temple (ezekiel 10) Then the glory (kavod) of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house and stopped above the cherubim. The cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight as they went out with the wheels beside them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord; and the glory (kavod) of the God of Israel was above them.

Vocabulary 597 B.C.E. 586 B.C.E. Babylonian Exile Call narrative Jeremiah Temple Sermon New Covenant Nebuchadnezzar Sinai theology vs. Zion theology Ezekiel Merkevah/chariot Kavod/glory Canon