2 Kings 24; 2 Kings 25; John 5:1-24

1 During Jehoiakim's reign King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked [Judah], and Jehoiakim became subject to him for three years. Then Jehoiakim turned against him and rebelled.

2 The LORD sent raiding parties of Babylonians, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim to destroy Judah as the LORD had predicted through his servants the prophets.

3 Without a doubt, this happened to Judah because the LORD had commanded it to happen. He wanted to remove the people of Judah from his sight because of Manasseh's sins--everything he had done,

4 including the innocent blood he had shed. He had a lot of innocent people in Jerusalem killed, and the LORD refused to forgive him.

5 Isn't everything else about Jehoiakim--everything he did--written in the official records of the kings of Judah?

6 Jehoiakim lay down in death with his ancestors, and his son Jehoiakin succeeded him as king.

7 The king of Egypt didn't leave his own country again because the king of Babylon had taken all the territory from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates River. This territory had belonged to the king of Egypt.

8 Jehoiakin was 18 years old when he began to rule as king. He was king for three months in Jerusalem. His mother was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.

9 Jehoiakin did what the LORD considered evil, as his father had done.

10 At that time the officers of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem. (The city was blockaded.)

11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon arrived while his officers were blockading the city.

12 King Jehoiakin of Judah, his mother, officials, generals, and eunuchs surrendered to the king of Babylon. In the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon captured Jehoiakin.

13 He also took away all the treasures in the LORD's temple and the royal palace. As the LORD had predicted, Nebuchadnezzar stripped the gold off all the furnishings that King Solomon of Israel had made for the LORD's temple.

14 He captured all Jerusalem, all the generals, all the soldiers (10,000 prisoners), and all the craftsmen and smiths. Only the poorest people of the land were left.

15 He took Jehoiakin to Babylon as a captive. He also took the king's mother, wives, eunuchs, and the leading citizens of the land from Jerusalem as captives to Babylon.

16 The king of Babylon brought all 7,000 of the prominent landowners, 1,000 craftsmen and smiths, and all the men who could fight in war as captives to Babylon.

17 The king of Babylon made King Jehoiakin's Uncle Mattaniah king in his place and changed Mattaniah's name to Zedekiah.

18 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

19 Zedekiah did what the LORD considered evil, as Jehoiakim had done.

20 The LORD became angry with Jerusalem and Judah and threw the people out of his sight. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

1 On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army. They set up camp and built dirt ramps around the city walls.

2 The blockade of the city lasted until Zedekiah's eleventh year as king.

3 On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city became so severe that the common people had no food.

4 The enemy broke through the city walls that night. All Judah's soldiers left on the road of the gate between the two walls beside the king's garden. While the Babylonians were attacking the city from all sides, the king took the road to the plain [of Jericho].

5 The Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plain of Jericho. His entire army had deserted him.

6 The Babylonians captured the king, brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and passed sentence on him.

7 They slaughtered Zedekiah's sons as he watched, and then they blinded Zedekiah. They put him in bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

8 On the seventh day of the fifth month of Nebuchadnezzar's nineteenth year as king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, who was the captain of the guard and an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9 He burned down the LORD's temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem. Every important building was burned down.

10 The entire Babylonian army that was with the captain of the guard tore down the walls around Jerusalem.

11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, captured the few people left in the city, those who surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.

12 The captain of the guard left some of the poorest people in the land to work in the vineyards and on the farms.

13 The Babylonians broke apart the bronze pillars of the LORD's temple, the stands, and the bronze pool in the LORD's temple. They shipped the bronze to Babylon.

14 They took the pots, shovels, snuffers, dishes, and all the bronze utensils used in the temple service.

15 The captain of the guard took all of the incense burners and bowls that were made of gold or silver.

16 The bronze from the two pillars, the pool, and the stands that Solomon had made for the LORD's temple couldn't be weighed.

17 One pillar was 27 feet high and had a bronze capital on it that was 4½ feet high. The filigree and the pomegranates around the capital were all made of bronze. The second pillar and its filigree were the same.

18 The captain of the guard took the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, and the 3 doorkeepers.

19 From the city he also took an army commander, 5 men who had access to the king whom he found in the city, the scribe who was in charge of the militia, and 60 of the common people whom he found in the city.

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

21 The king of Babylon executed them at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So the people of Judah were captives when they left their land.

22 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, to govern the remaining people in the land of Judah.

23 When all the army commanders and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah. They were Ishmael (son of Nethaniah), Johanan (son of Kareah), Seraiah (son of Tanhumeth from Netophah), and Jaazaniah from Beth Maacah and their men.

24 Gedaliah swore an oath to them and their men. He said, "Don't be afraid of the Babylonian officers. Live in this country, serve the king of Babylon, and you will prosper."

25 In the seventh month Ishmael (son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, a descendant of the kings) went with ten men to kill Gedaliah and the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.

26 Then people of all classes and the army commanders left for Egypt because they were afraid of the Babylonians.

27 On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the imprisonment of King Jehoiakin of Judah, King Evil Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, freed King Jehoiakin of Judah from prison.

28 He treated him well and gave him a special position higher than the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

29 Jehoiakin no longer wore prison clothes, and he ate his meals in the king's presence as long as he lived.

30 The king of Babylon gave him a daily food allowance as long as he lived.

1 Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival.

2 Near Sheep Gate in Jerusalem was a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew. It had five porches.

3 Under these porches a large number of sick people--people who were blind, lame, or paralyzed--used to lie.

4

5 One man, who had been sick for 38 years, was lying there.

6 Jesus saw the man lying there and knew that he had been sick for a long time. So Jesus asked the man, "Would you like to get well?"

7 The sick man answered Jesus, "Sir, I don't have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get there, someone else steps into the pool ahead of me."

8 Jesus told the man, "Get up, pick up your cot, and walk."

9 The man immediately became well, picked up his cot, and walked. That happened on a day of worship.

10 So the Jews told the man who had been healed, "This is a day of worship. You're not allowed to carry your cot today."

11 The man replied, "The man who made me well told me to pick up my cot and walk."

12 The Jews asked him, "Who is the man who told you to pick it up and walk?"

13 But the man who had been healed didn't know who Jesus was. (Jesus had withdrawn from the crowd.)

14 Later, Jesus met the man in the temple courtyard and told him, "You're well now. Stop sinning so that something worse doesn't happen to you."

15 The man went back to the Jews and told them that Jesus was the man who had made him well.

16 The Jews began to persecute Jesus because he kept healing people on the day of worship.

17 Jesus replied to them, "My Father is working right now, and so am I."

18 His reply made the Jews more intent on killing him. Not only did he break the laws about the day of worship, but also he made himself equal to God when he said repeatedly that God was his Father.

19 Jesus said to the Jews, "I can guarantee this truth: The Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does.

20 The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. The Father will show him even greater things to do than these things so that you will be amazed.

21 In the same way that the Father brings back the dead and gives them life, the Son gives life to anyone he chooses.

22 "The Father doesn't judge anyone. He has entrusted judgment entirely to the Son

23 so that everyone will honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn't honor the Son doesn't honor the Father who sent him.

24 I can guarantee this truth: Those who listen to what I say and believe in the one who sent me will have eternal life. They won't be judged because they have already passed from death to life.