1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.
2He did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
3For it was because of the anger of Yahweh that this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4And it happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and they camped against it and built a siege wall around it.
5So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the famine grew severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
7Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled and went out from the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden—though the Chaldeans were around the city—and they went by way of the Arabah.
8But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.
9So they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgments on him.
10The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.
11Then he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters, and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon and put him in the house of punishment until the day of his death.
12And in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
13He burned the house of Yahweh and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned with fire.
14And all the walls of Jerusalem all around, all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard tore down.
15And some of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who remained in the city, and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile.
16But some of the poorest of the land Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left behind to be vinedressers and plowmen.
17And the bronze pillars that belonged to the house of Yahweh, and the stands, and the bronze sea that was in the house of Yahweh, the Chaldeans broke to pieces, and they carried all their bronze to Babylon.
18And the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the ladles, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered, they took.
19And the bowls, the firepans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the ladles, and the libation bowls—whatever was of gold, as gold, and whatever was of silver, as silver—the captain of the guard took.
20As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the stands that King Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh—the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weighing.
21And the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a cord of twelve cubits would encircle it, and its thickness was four fingers; it was hollow.
22And there was a capital of bronze on it, and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with a lattice-work and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze. And the second pillar was like these, and it had pomegranates too.
23There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates around the lattice-work numbered a hundred.
24The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold.
25And from the city he took a certain court official who was overseer of the men of war, and seven men from those who saw the king’s face who were found in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land who were found within the city.
26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
27And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.
28This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans.
29In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, 832 persons from Jerusalem;
30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Judean persons; all the persons were 4,600.
31And it happened in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out from the prison house.
32And he spoke kindly with him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
33And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread before him continually all the days of his life.
34And as for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him from the king of Babylon, a portion each day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
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