Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Yerushalayim: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu of Livna.
1
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.
2 He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Yehoiakim had done.
2
As far as God was concerned, Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.
3 For through the anger of the LORD did it happen in Yerushalayim and Yehudah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel.
3
The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God's anger. God turned his back on them as an act of judgment.
4 It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nevukhadretztzar king of Bavel came, he and all his army, against Yerushalayim, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about.
4
Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it.
5 So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Tzidkiyahu.
5
He arrived on the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah's reign. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah).
6 In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
6
By the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn't so much as a crumb of bread for anyone.
7 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Kasdim were against the city round about;) and they went toward the `Aravah.
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Then the Babylonians broke through the city walls. Under cover of the night darkness, the entire Judean army fled through an opening in the wall (it was the gate between the two walls above the King's Garden). They slipped through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the Jordan into the Arabah Valley,
8 But the army of the Kasdim pursued after the king, and overtook Tzidkiyahu in the plains of Yericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
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but the Babylonians were in full pursuit. They caught up with them in the Plains of Jericho. But by then Zedekiah's army had deserted and was scattered.
9 Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Bavel to Rivlah in the land of Hamat; and he gave judgment on him.
9
The Babylonians captured Zedekiah and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath, who tried and sentenced him on the spot.
10 The king of Bavel killed the sons of Tzidkiyahu before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of Yehudah in Rivlah.
10
The king of Babylon then killed Zedekiah's sons right before his eyes. The summary murder of his sons was the last thing Zedekiah saw, for they then blinded him. The king of Babylon followed that up by killing all the officials of Judah.
11 He put out the eyes of Tzidkiyahu; and the king of Bavel bound him in fetters, and carried him to Bavel, and put him in prison until the day of his death.
11
Securely handcuffed, Zedekiah was hauled off to Babylon. The king of Babylon threw him in prison, where he stayed until the day he died.
12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nevukhadretztzar, king of Bavel, came Nevuzar'adan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Bavel, into Yerushalayim:
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In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon's chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem.
13 and he burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Yerushalayim, even every great house, burned he with fire.
13
He burned the Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city. He burned the whole place down.
14 All the army of the Kasdim, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Yerushalayim round about.
14
He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls.
15 Then Nevuzar'adan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Bavel, and the residue of the multitude.
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Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile.
16 But Nevuzar'adan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers.
16
He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields.
17 The pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases and the brazen sea that were in the house of the LORD, did the Kasdim break in pieces, and carried all the brass of them to Bavel.
17
The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the huge bronze basin (the Sea) that were in the Temple of God, and hauled the bronze off to Babylon.
18 The pots also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered, took they away.
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They also took the various bronze-crafted liturgical accessories, as well as the gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls, used in the services of Temple worship.
19 The cups, and the fire pans, and the basins, and the pots, and the menorot, and the spoons, and the bowls-that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver,-the captain of the guard took away.
19
The king's deputy didn't miss a thing. He took every scrap of precious metal he could find.
20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, which king Shlomo had made for the house of the LORD. The brass of all these vessels was without weight.
20
The amount of bronze they got from the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls that supported the Sea, and the ten washstands that Solomon had made for the Temple of God was enormous. They couldn't weigh it all!
21 As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness of it was four fingers: it was hollow.
21
Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high with a circumference of eighteen feet. The pillars were hollow, the bronze a little less than an inch thick.
22 A capital of brass was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital round about, all of brass: and the second pillar also had like these, and pomegranates.
22
Each pillar was topped with an ornate capital of bronze pomegranates and filigree, which added another seven and a half feet to its height.
23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network round about.
23
There were ninety-six pomegranates evenly spaced - in all, a hundred pomegranates worked into the filigree.
24 The captain of the guard took Serayah the chief Kohen, and Tzefanyah the second Kohen, and the three keepers of the threshold:
24
The king's deputy took a number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate priest, three wardens,
25 and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king's face, who were found in the city; and the Sofer of the captain of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.
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the chief remaining army officer, seven of the king's counselors who happened to be in the city, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and sixty men of standing from among the people who were still there.
26 Nevuzar'adan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Bavel to Rivlah.
26
Nebuzaradan the king's deputy marched them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
27 The king of Bavel struck them, and put them to death at Rivlah in the land of Hamat. So Yehudah was carried away captive out of his land.
27
And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood. Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.
28 This is the people whom Nevukhadretztzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand twenty-three Yehudim;
28
3,023 men of Judah were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in the seventh year of his reign.
29 in the eighteenth year of Nevukhadretztzar he carried away captive from Yerushalayim eight hundred thirty-two persons;
29
832 from Jerusalem were taken in the eighteenth year of his reign.
30 in the three and twentieth year of Nevukhadretztzar Nevuzar'adan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Yehudim seven hundred forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.
30
745 men from Judah were taken off by Nebuzaradan, the king's chief deputy, in Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year. The total number of exiles was 4,600.
31 It happened in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Yehoiakim king of Yehudah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-Merodakh king of Bavel, in the [first] year of his reign, lifted up the head of Yehoiakim king of Yehudah, and brought him forth out of prison;
31
When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month.
32 and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Bavel,
32
The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the political prisoners held in Babylon.
33 and changed his prison garments. [Yehoiakim] ate bread before him continually all the days of his life:
33
Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and from then on ate his meals in company with the king.
34 and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Bavel, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
34
The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably for the rest of his life.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.