Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

Theme · narrative

Exile and Return

The first exile is from Eden — humanity cast out from God's presence with a flaming sword barring the way back. Abraham is called out of his homeland, and Israel descends into Egypt. The exodus is the great return, but the cycle repeats: judges deliver, the people rebel, and deliverance comes again. The Babylonian exile is the definitive displacement, and the prophets frame the return as a new exodus. Jesus's own journey — leaving glory, entering the 'far country' of human existence, dying outside the city, and returning in resurrection — recapitulates and resolves the exile-and-return pattern for all humanity.

Passages expressing this theme

  • 2Chr 36:17 — Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that s
  • 2Kgs 17:23 — Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
  • 2Kgs 25:21 — And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.
  • Amos 9:14 — And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make g
  • Deut 28:64 — And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and
  • Deut 30:3 — That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
  • Deut 30:4 — If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
  • Ezek 37:12 — Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
  • Ezek 37:14 — And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
  • Ezra 1:1 — Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamatio
  • Ezra 1:3 — Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.
  • Gen 3:23 — Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
  • Gen 3:24 — So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
  • Hos 11:11 — They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.
  • Isa 11:11 — And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros,
  • Isa 35:10 — And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
  • Isa 40:1 — Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
  • Isa 43:5 — Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;
  • Jer 29:10 — For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
  • Jer 29:14 — And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I wi
  • Jer 30:3 — For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, a
  • Lev 26:33 — And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
  • Neh 1:8 — Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
  • Ps 126:1 — When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
  • Ps 137:1 — By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.