2 Kings 24; 2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36

1 During his reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.

2 The Lord sent Chaldean, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim. He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord He had spoken through His servants the prophets.

3 This happened to Judah only at the Lord's command to remove them from His sight. It was because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all he had done,

4 and also because of all the innocent blood he had shed. He had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not forgive.

5 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim's [reign], along with all his accomplishments, are written about in the Historical Record of Judah's Kings.

6 Jehoiakim rested with his fathers, and his son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

7 Now the king of Egypt did not march out of his land again, for the king of Babylon took everything that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

8 Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; [she was] from Jerusalem.

9 He did what was evil in the Lord's sight as his father had done.

10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.

11 Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it.

12 Jehoiachin king of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials, surrendered to the king of Babylon. So the king of Babylon took him [captive] in the eighth year of his reign.

13 He also carried off from there all the treasures of the Lord's temple and the treasures of the king's palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the Lord's sanctuary, just as God had predicted.

14 Then he deported all Jerusalem and all the commanders and all the fighting men, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and metalsmiths. Except for the poorest people of the land, nobody remained.

15 Nebuchadnezzar deported Jehoiachin to Babylon. Also, he took the king's mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

16 The king of Babylon also brought captive into Babylon all 7,000 fighting men and 1,000 craftsmen and metalsmiths-all strong and fit for war.

17 Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.

18 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king; he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; [she was] from Libnah.

19 Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord's sight just as Jehoiakim had done.

20 Because of the Lord's anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He finally banished them from His presence. Then, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.

2 The city was under siege until King Zedekiah's eleventh year.

3 By the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine was so severe in the city that the people of the land had no food.

4 Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors [fled] by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. As the king made his way along the route to the Arabah,

5 the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah's entire army was scattered from him.

6 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.

7 They slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze [chains], and took him to Babylon.

8 On the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.

9 He burned the Lord's temple, the king's palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses.

10 The whole Chaldean army [with] the commander of the guards tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

11 Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported the rest of the people who were left 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 of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

13 Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars of the Lord's temple, the water carts, and the bronze reservoir, which were in the Lord's temple, and carried the bronze to Babylon.

14 They also took the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the dishes, and all the bronze articles used in [temple] service.

15 The commander of the guards took away the firepans and the sprinkling basins-whatever was gold or silver.

16 As for the two pillars, the one reservoir, and the water carts that Solomon had made for the Lord's temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.

17 One pillar was 27 feet tall and had a bronze capital on top of it. The capital, encircled by a grating and pomegranates of bronze, stood five feet high. The second pillar was the same, with its own grating.

18 The commander of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.

19 From the city he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; five trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and 60 men from the common people who were found within the city.

20 Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

21 The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.

22 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over the rest of the people he left in the land of Judah.

23 When all the commanders of the armies-they and their men-heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. [The commanders included] Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite-they and their men.

24 Gedaliah swore an oath to them and their men, assuring them, "Don't be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you."

25 In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with 10 men and struck down Gedaliah, and he died. Also, [they killed] the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, and the commanders of the army, left and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

27 On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah's King Jehoiachin, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah [and released him] from prison.

28 He spoke kindly to him and set his throne over the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

29 So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life.

30 As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king, a portion for each day, for the rest of his life.

1 Then the common people took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

2 Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king; he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

3 The king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and fined the land 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold.

4 Then [Neco] king of Egypt made Jehoahaz's brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took his brother Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt.

5 Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king; he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God.

6 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him and bound him in bronze [shackles] to take him to Babylon.

7 Also Nebuchadnezzar took some of the utensils of the Lord's temple to Babylon and put them in his temple in Babylon.

8 The rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim, the detestable things he did, and what was found against him, are written about in the Book of Israel's Kings. His son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

9 Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king; he reigned three months and 10 days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the Lord's sight.

10 In the spring Nebuchadnezzar sent [for him] and brought him to Babylon along with the valuable utensils of the Lord's temple. Then he made Jehoiachin's brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

11 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king; he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.

12 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet at the Lord's command.

13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God. He became obstinate and hardened his heart against returning to the Lord God of Israel.

14 All the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, imitating all the detestable practices of the nations, and they defiled the Lord's temple that He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

15 But the Lord God of their ancestors sent word against them by the hand of his messengers, sending them time and time again, for He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.

16 But they kept ridiculing God's messengers, despising His words, and scoffing at His prophets, until the Lord's wrath was so stirred up against His people that there was no remedy.

17 So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their choice young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young man and virgin or elderly and aged; He handed them all over to him.

18 He took everything to Babylon-all the articles of God's temple, large and small, the treasures of the Lord's temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials.

19 Then the Chaldeans burned God's temple. They tore down Jerusalem's wall, burned down all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable utensils.

20 Those who escaped from the sword he deported to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian kingdom.

21 This fulfilled the word of the Lord through Jeremiah and the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation until 70 years were fulfilled.

22 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The Lord put it into the mind of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and also [to put it] in writing:

23 This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a temple at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you of His people may go up, and may the Lord his God be with him.