The Fall of Jerusalem

1Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2Zedekiaha had done evil in the LORD’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3Because Jerusalem and Judah had angered the Lord, he cast them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, 4and in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. He encamped near it and set up siege works all around it. 5The city was under siege until the eleventh year of the reign ofb King Zedekiah. 6By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe that there was no food for the people of the land. 7The wall ofc the city was broken through, and all the soldiers fled, leaving the city at night through the gate between the two walls next to the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah.d

8The Chaldean army went after the king, overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his troops were scattered from him. 9They captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where the king of Babylone passed judgment on him. 10The king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also killed all the Judean officialsf at Riblah. 11He blinded Zedekiah and bound him in bronze shackles. Then the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in prison until he died.

The Destruction of the Temple

12In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—it was the nineteenth year of the reign ofg King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard who servedh the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. 13He burned the LORD’s Temple, the king’s house, and all the houses in Jerusalem. He also burned every public buildingi with fire. 14All the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.j

17The Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze pillars that were in the LORD’s Temple and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the LORD’s Temple, and they carried all thek bronze to Babylon. 18They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the pans, and all the bronze utensils that were used in the temple service. 19The captain of the guard took away the bowls, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lamp stands, the pans, and the bowls for libations, both those made of gold and those made of silver. 20There was too much bronze to weigh in the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze oxen that were under the sea,l and the stands which King Solomon had made for the LORD’s Temple. 21Each of the pillars was twelve cubitsm high and its circumference twelve cubits.n It was hollow and about a handbreadtho thick. 22On each pillarp was a capital of bronze, and the height of each capital was five cubits.q Latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar was like this, including the pomegranates. 23There were 96 pomegranates open to view.r In all, there were 100 pomegranates all around the latticework.

Executions and Deportations to Babylon

24The captain of the guard arrested Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the next ranking priest,s and the three guards of the gate.t 25From the city he arrested one of the officers who had been in charge of the troops, seven men from the king’s personal advisors who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and 60 men of the people of the land who were found inside the city. 26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard arrested them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from the land.

28These are the people Nebuchadnezzar took into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; 29in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; 30in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took 745 people from Judah into exile. All the people taken into exileu numbered 4,600.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

31In the first year of his reign, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, showed favor to King Jehoiachin of Judah by releasing him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah. 32He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the otherv kings who were in Babylon with him. 33Jehoiachinw changed his prison clothes and regularly dined with the kingx as long as he lived. 34As for his living expenses, a regular allowance was given him daily by the king of Babylon as long as he lived,y until the day of his death.