Have you ever seen a destroyed city?

February 1, 2017

The horror of Edom (Jer 49:17-49:18)

“‘Edom shall become

An object of horror.

Everyone who passes by it

Will be horrified.

They will hiss

Because of all its disasters.

As when Sodom,

With Gomorrah,

With their neighbors,

Were overthrown,

No one shall live there.

No one shall settle in it.’

Says Yahweh.”

Yahweh said that Edom would become an object to horror because everyone passing by it would be horrified. They will hiss at it because of the disasters there. Edom would become like the famous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, chapter 19. Here there is also a mention of their neighboring towns. The same results will happen to Edom. No one would want to live or settle in Edom.

July 26, 2016

The deserted land (Isa 17:9-17:9)

“On that day,

Their strong cities will be

Like the deserted places of the Hivites,

Like the deserted places of the Amorites.

They deserted them

Because of the children of Israel.

Now there will be desolation.”

On this day of destruction, the strong cities of the north would be deserted like the former places of the Hivites and the Amorites. The Hivites were one of the northern tribes that lived in Canaan, supposedly the Semitic descendants of Ham, the son of Noah. The Amorites were southern Canaanites, before Judah took over. However, the Amorites were more spread out into Mesopotamia and into Syria. Within the biblical literature Amorites and Canaanites are sometimes interchangeable. Anyway, after the takeover of Canaan at the time of Joshua, their cities were deserted because the children of Israel left them in ruins. The same thing was now going to happen to the northern Israelites.

January 24, 2015

The ruin of Jerusalem (2 Chr 36:17-36:21)

“Therefore Yahweh brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no compassion on young man or young women, the aged or the feeble. He gave them all into his hand. He brought to Babylon all the vessels of the house of God, large and small, the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king and of his princes. They burned the house of God. They broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned all its palaces with fire. They destroyed all its precious vessels. The king of the Chaldeans took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword. They became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”

This is a short summary of 2 Kings, chapter 25. There is no exact date at in 2 Kings. King Zedekiah had probably began to plot with the Egyptians and rebelled against the king of Babylon. There are no details of the battles here. The invaders are called Chaldeans instead of Babylonian soldiers. There was no explicit mention of King Nebuchadnezzar, just the king of the Chaldeans. Neither is there any mention of the killing of the sons of King Zedekiah before his eyes. All the details of 2 Kings are missing about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. There is no detailed description about all the sacred vessels that they took as in 2 Kings. They burned the Temple of Yahweh and the palace of the king, as well as all the great houses of Jerusalem. They tore down the wall around Jerusalem. They took all the people as captives. There is no indication that the poor people stayed in Judah as in 2 Kings. However, here there is an insertion about the prophet Jeremiah saying that the land would enjoy a Sabbath for 70 years until the Persian kingdom came into existence. The kingdom of Judah lasted about 134 years after the fall of Samaria.