2 Kings 25:1-21

Fall and Captivity of Judah

1 ¹And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, ²Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. ³And they built siegeworks all around it.

2 So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

3 On the ninth day of the fourth month ⁴the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

4 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by ⁵the king's garden, though ⁶the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the ⁷Arabah.

5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.

6 Then they captured the king ⁸and brought him up to the king of Babylon at ⁹Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.

7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, ¹⁰and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.

8 ¹¹In the fifth month, on ¹²the seventh day of the month--that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon--Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9 ¹³And he burned the house of the LORD ¹⁴and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

10 And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, ¹⁵broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

11 ¹⁶And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile.

12 But the captain of the guard left ¹⁷some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.

13 ¹⁸And the pillars ¹⁹of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and ²⁰the stands and ²¹the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon.

14 ²²And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service,

15 the fire pans also and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver.

16 As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, ²³the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.

17 ²⁴The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits,^[a] and on it was a capital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits. A latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with the latticework.

18 ²⁵And the captain of the guard took ²⁶Seraiah the chief priest and ²⁷Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold,

19 and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and ²⁸five men of the king's council who were found in the city, and the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.

20 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at ²⁹Riblah.

21 And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at ³⁰Riblah in the land of Hamath. ³¹So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

2 Kings 25:1-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 25

In this chapter is an account of the siege, taking, and burning of the city of Jerusalem, and of the carrying captive the king and the inhabitants to Babylon, 2Ki 25:1-12, as also of the pillars and vessels of the temple brought thither, 2Ki 25:13-17 and of the putting to death several of the principal persons of the land, 2Ki 25:18-22, and of the miserable condition of the rest under Gedaliah, whom Ishmael slew, 2Ki 25:23-26, and the chapter, and so the history, is concluded with the kindness Jehoiachin met with from the king of Babylon, after thirty seven years' captivity, 2Ki 25:27-30.

&c.] Of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. From hence to the end of 2Ki 25:7, the account exactly agrees with Jer 52:4-11. 18182-941226-1348-2Ki25.2

Cross References

• 1. For ver. 1-7, see 2 Chronicles 36:17-20; Jeremiah 39:1-7; Jeremiah 52:4-11
• 2. Jeremiah 34:1, 2; Jeremiah 39:1, 2; Ezekiel 24:2
• 3. [Ezekiel 21:22; Ezekiel 26:8]
• 4. [Lamentations 4:9, 10]
• 5. Nehemiah 3:15
• 6. See 2 Kings 24:2
• 7. See Deuteronomy 1:1
• 8. Jeremiah 32:4
• 9. [2 Kings 23:33]
• 10. [Ezekiel 12:13]
• 11. For ver. 8-12, see Jeremiah 39:8-12; Jeremiah 52:12-16
• 12. [Jeremiah 52:12]
• 13. 2 Chronicles 36:19; Psalms 79:1
• 14. [Hosea 8:14; Amos 2:5]
• 15. Nehemiah 1:3
• 16. 2 Chronicles 36:20
• 17. 2 Kings 24:14; Jeremiah 40:7
• 18. [Jeremiah 27:19, 22]; For ver. 13-17, see 2 Chronicles 36:18-20; Jeremiah 52:17-23
• 19. 1 Kings 7:15
• 20. 1 Kings 7:27
• 21. 1 Kings 7:23
• 22. Exodus 27:3; 1 Kings 7:45, 50
• 23. 1 Kings 7:47
• 24. [1 Kings 7:15-18; 2 Chronicles 3:15]
• 25. For ver. 18-21, see Jeremiah 52:24-27
• 26. 1 Chronicles 6:14; Ezra 7:1
• 27. Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 29:25; Jeremiah 37:3
• 28. Esther 1:14; [Jeremiah 52:25]
• 29. 2 Kings 23:33
• 30. [See ver. 20 above]
• 31. [2 Kings 23:27; Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:64]

Footnotes

• [a]. A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters