Top of Page
Page Style
the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They encamped outside the city, and they built siege works and laid siege to Jerusalem. 2 The city was besieged until the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah. 3 By the ninth day of the fourth month famine prevailed in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land to eat. 4 Then the city wall was broken through, and all of the soldiers fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. King Zedekiah fled along the route to the Arabah, 5 but the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his soldiers deserted him and scattered. 6 The Chaldeans captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. 7 They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and they then put out Zedekiah’s eyes, blinding him. Zedekiah was bound with bronze fetters, and taken to Babylon.
8 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of the reign of the King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 He burned down the House of the Lord, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burnt every significant house or building. 10 The whole Chaldean army under the commander of the guards broke down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem. 11 Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, carried into exile the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population. 12 But the commander of the guards left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.
13 The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars of the House of the Lord, the movable stands, and the bronze Sea, which were in the House of the Lord, and they carried the bronze off to Babylon. 14 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the dishes, and all the bronze vessels used in the temple service. 15 The commander of the guards took away the firepans and the sprinkling bowls—all that were made of gold were taken for the content of gold, and all that were made of silver for the silver.
16 As for the two pillars, the one Sea, and the movable stands, which Solomon had madefor the House of the Lord, the weight of bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 17 The height of one of the pillars was eighteen cubits. It had a bronze capital on it three cubits high that was decorated with a network and pomegranates all around. The second pillar was the same, with its network.
18 The commander of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 19 He also took from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the fighting men; five of the king’s advisers found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, in charge of conscripting the people of the land; and sixty men from the common people who were found in the city. 20 Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 21 The king of Babylon had them struck down and put to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath.
So Judah was taken away into exile from its land.
22 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shapan, as governor over the people he had left behind the land of Judah. 23 When all the commanders of the armies and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. These were: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite—they and their men. 24 Gedaliah swore an oath to them and their men, assuring them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.”
25 In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men, and struck down Gedaliah, and he died. They also killed the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26 At this turn of events, all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, both small and great, and the commanders of the armies, left and fled to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison on the twenty–seventh day of the twelfth month. 28 He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a more prominent seat over the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin changed from his prison clothes, and he ate regularly at the king’s table the rest of his life. 30 The king allocated Jehoiachin a regular allowance, a portion each day, for the rest of his life.