New Living Translation NLT
The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.
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Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for eleven years in Yerushalayim. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu, from Livnah.
2 But Zedekiah did what was evil in the LORD ’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done.
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He did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective, following the example of everything Y'hoyakim had done.
3 These things happened because of the LORD ’s anger against the people of Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally banished them from his presence and sent them into exile. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
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And it was because of ADONAI's anger that all these things happened to Yerushalayim and Y'hudah, until he had thrown them out of his presence. Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel;
4 So on January 15, during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls.
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so in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel marched against Yerushalayim with his entire army. He set up camp against it and built siege towers against it on every side.
5 Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.
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The city remained under siege into the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu.
6 By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.
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On the ninth day of the fourth month, when the famine in the city was so severe that there was no food for the people of the land,
7 Then a section of the city wall was broken down, and all the soldiers fled. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians, they waited for nightfall. Then they slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.
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they broke through into the city. All the soldiers fled and left the city by night through the gate between the two walls, near the king's garden. Because the Kasdim were surrounding the city, they took the route through the 'Aravah.
8 But the Babylonian troops chased King Zedekiah and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered.
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But the army of the Kasdim went in pursuit of the king and overtook Tzidkiyahu on the plains near Yericho; all his troops deserted him.
9 They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.
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Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Bavel in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, where he passed judgment on him.
10 The king of Babylon made Zedekiah watch as he slaughtered his sons. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.
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The king of Bavel slaughtered his sons before his eyes; he also slaughtered all the leading men of Y'hudah in Rivlah.
11 Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze chains, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon. Zedekiah remained there in prison until the day of his death.
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Then the king of Bavel put out Tzidkiyahu's eyes, bound him in chains, carried him off to Bavel and kept him in prison until the day of his death.
12 On August 17 of that year, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem.
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In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was also the nineteenth year of King N'vukhadretzar, king of Bavel, N'vuzar'adan, the commander of the guard and a close associate of the king of Bavel, entered Yerushalayim.
13 He burned down the Temple of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings in the city.
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He burned down the house of ADONAI, the royal palace and all the houses in Yerushalayim - every notable person's house he burned to the ground.
14 Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.
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The whole army of the Kasdim, who were with the commander of the guard, broke down all the walls of Yerushalayim on every side.
15 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.
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N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard then deported some of the poor people, the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Bavel and the rest of the common people.
16 But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind to care for the vineyards and fields.
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But N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard left behind some of the poor people of the land to be vineyard-workers and farmers.
17 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the LORD ’s Temple, the bronze water carts, and the great bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon.
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The Kasdim smashed the bronze columns of the house of ADONAI, also the trolleys and bronze Sea that were in the house of ADONAI, and carried their bronze to Bavel.
18 They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, basins, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple.
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They also took away the pots, shovels, snuffers, basins, pans, and all the bronze articles they had used in worship.
19 The captain of the guard also took the small bowls, incense burners, basins, pots, lampstands, ladles, bowls used for liquid offerings, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.
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The commander of the guard took the cups, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, menorahs, pans and bowls - everything made of gold and everything made of silver.
20 The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea with the twelve bronze oxen beneath it, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the LORD ’s Temple in the days of King Solomon.
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The bronze in the two columns, the one Sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the bases, all of which Shlomo had made for the house of ADONAI, was more than could be weighed.
21 Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference. They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.
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As for the columns, the height of one column was thirty-one-and-a-half feet; it took a twenty-one-foot measuring line to go around it; and its thickness was four fingers - it was hollow.
22 The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7 feet high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around.
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On it was a capital of brass eight-and-three quarters feet high, with netting and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze; the second column was similar, also with pomegranates.
23 There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 pomegranates on the network around the top.
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There were ninety-six pomegranates on the outside; while the total number of pomegranates in the netting was one hundred.
24 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers.
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The commander of the guard took [prisoner] S'rayah the chief cohen, Tz'fanyah the second-ranking cohen, and three doorkeepers.
25 And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army; seven of the king’s personal advisers; the army commander’s chief secretary, who was in charge of recruitment; and sixty other citizens.
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From the city he took an official in charge of the soldiers, seven close associates of the king who had been found in the city, the army commander's secretary in charge of military conscription, and sixty of the common people found inside the city.
26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
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N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Bavel in Rivlah.
27 And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.
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There in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, the king of Bavel had them put to death. Thus Y'hudah was carried away captive out of his land.
28 The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was 3,023.
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The numbers of people deported by N'vukhadretzar were as follows: in the seventh year, 3,023 persons from Y'hudah;
29 Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year he took 832 more.
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in the eighteenth year of N'vukhadretzar, 832 persons from Yerushalayim;
30 In Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who took 745 more—a total of 4,600 captives in all.
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and in the twenty-third year of N'vukhadretzar, N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard deported 745 persons from Y'hudah; the total comes to 4,600 persons.
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to Jehoiachin and released him from prison on March 31 of that year.
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In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Y'hoyakhin king of Y'hudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Eveel-M'rodakh began his reign as king of Bavel; and in his first year, he commuted the sentence of Y'hoyakhin king of Y'hudah and released him from prison.
32 He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon.
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He treated him with kindness and gave him a throne higher than those of the other kings there with him in Bavel.
33 He supplied Jehoiachin with new clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.
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So Y'hoyakhin no longer had to wear prison clothes; moreover, he was provided with food as long as he lived,
34 So the Babylonian king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he lived. This continued until the day of his death.
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and he was granted a daily allowance by the king of Bavel to spend on his other needs for as long as he lived, until the day of his death.
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Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.