The Fall of Jerusalem Recounted
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and eleven years he reigned in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.
And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
For because of the anger of the LORD it came about in Jerusalem and Judah, until he threw them out from before his face. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
And it was in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem; and they camped against her and built a siege wall against her all around.
And the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the famine was strong in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
And the city was broken open, and all the men of war fled and went out from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden — and the Chaldeans were around the city — and they went by the way of the Arabah.
And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
And they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he spoke judgments with him.
And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; and also all the princes of Judah he slaughtered at Riblah.
And the eyes of Zedekiah he blinded, and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon and put him in the house of the guard until the day of his death.
The Temple Destroyed
And in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month — that is the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan the chief of the guards, who stood before the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
And he burned the house of the LORD and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; and every great house he burned with fire.
And all the walls of Jerusalem all around, the whole army of the Chaldeans who were with the chief of the guards tore down.
And from the poor of the people, and the rest of the people who remained in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans, Nebuzaradan the chief of the guards exiled.
But of the poor of the land Nebuzaradan the chief of the guards left some for vinedressers and for field workers.
And the pillars of bronze that belonged to the house of the LORD, and the stands, and the sea of bronze that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke; and they carried all their bronze to Babylon.
And the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the basins and the pans and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered they took.
And the bowls and the firepans and the basins and the pots and the lampstands and the pans and the libation cups — what was of gold as gold and what was of silver as silver — the chief of the guards took.
The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen that were under the stands, which King Solomon made for the house of the LORD — there was no weighing the bronze of all these vessels.
And as for the pillars: eighteen cubits was the height of the one pillar, and a cord of twelve cubits went around it; and its thickness was four fingers, hollow.
And a capital of bronze was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze. And like these were the second pillar and the pomegranates.
And the pomegranates were ninety-six on a side; all the pomegranates on the network were a hundred all around.
Captives Carried to Babylon
And the chief of the guards took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold.
And from the city he took one eunuch who was officer over the men of war, and seven men from those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men from the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.
And Nebuzaradan the chief of the guards took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
And the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And Judah was exiled from off its ground.
This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar exiled: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Judeans;
in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, from Jerusalem, eight hundred and thirty-two souls;
in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the chief of the guards exiled seven hundred and forty-five souls of the Judeans; all the souls were four thousand six hundred.
Jehoiachin Released from Prison
And it was in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year of his kingship, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out from the house of confinement.
And he spoke good things with him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
And he changed the garments of his confinement; and he ate bread before him continually all the days of his life.
And his allowance — a continual allowance was given him from the king of Babylon, the matter of a day in its day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.