Diaspora Jews and the 4 R's of Exile

(4) How shall we sing the LORD’S song In a foreign land?

(1) By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion. (2) Upon the willows in the midst thereof We hanged up our harps. (3) For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, And our tormentors asked of us mirth: ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.' (4) How shall we sing the LORD’S song In a foreign land? (5) If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning. (6) Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, If I remember thee not; If I set not Jerusalem Above my chiefest joy. (7) Remember, O LORD, against the children of Edom The day of Jerusalem; Who said: 'Rase it, rase it, Even to the foundation thereof.' (8) O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; Happy shall he be, that repayeth thee As thou hast served us. (9) Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones Against the rock.

(11) Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set My face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah. (12) And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. (13) For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; (14) so that none of the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there; for none shall return save such as shall escape.’

(15) Then all the men who knew that their wives offered unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great assembly, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying: (16) ’As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee. (17) But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to offer unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil. (18) But since we let off to offer to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. (19) And is it we that offer to the queen of heaven, and pour out drink-offerings unto her? did we make her cakes in her image, and pour out drink-offerings unto her, without our husbands?’

(1) Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. (4) And I looked, and, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with a fire flashing up, so that a brightness was round about it; and out of the midst thereof as the colour of electrum, out of the midst of the fire.

(4) And the glory of the LORD mounted up from the cherub to the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’S glory.

(16) And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them. (17) When they stood, these stood, and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them; for the spirit of the living creature was in them. (18) And the glory of the LORD went forth from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. (19) And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went forth, and the wheels beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’S house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. (20) This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.

(22) Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. (23) And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. (24) And a spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from Me. (25) Then I spoke unto them of the captivity all the things that the LORD had shown me.

(1) Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon, (2) after that Jeconiah the king, and the queen-mother, and the officers, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem; (3) by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying: (4) Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem unto Babylon: (5) Build ye houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; (6) take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply ye there, and be not diminished. (7) And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the LORD for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. (8) For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets that are in the midst of you, and your diviners, beguile you, neither hearken ye to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. (9) For they prophesy falsely unto you in My name; I have not sent them, saith the LORD.

(27) And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison. (28) And he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. (29) And he changed his prison garments, and did eat bread before him continually all the days of his life. (30) And for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him of the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.