Is »Exile« Enough?

The prophetic books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel exhibit many similarities. From their historical setting around the final days before Jerusalem's destruction and the deportation of its elite to Babylonia, to a large shared theological vocabulary, to a number of shared image-rich metaphors, these books have long invited scholars to explore their likenesses. And yet, the two books diverge sharply in their tone, their advice for how to live in Babylonia, and their vision for the future of YHWH's people. This article argues the divergence follows from distinctly different experiences of involuntary migration which these texts depict and to which, therefore, they respond.