The Fall of the Southern Kingdom of Judah

Chapter 24

⁸Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. ⁹He did what was displeasing to the Lord, just as his father had done. ¹⁰At that time, the troops of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched against Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. ¹¹King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against the city while his troops were besieging it. ¹²Thereupon King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, and his courtiers, commanders, and officers, surrendered to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. ¹³He carried off from Jerusalem all the treasures of the House of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace; he stripped off all the golden decorations in the Temple of the Lord—which King Solomon of Israel had made—as the Lord had warned. ¹⁴He exiled all of Jerusalem: all the commanders and all the warriors—ten thousand exiles—as well as all the craftsmen and smiths; only the poorest people in the land were left. ¹⁵He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; and the king’s wives and officers and the notables of the land were brought as exiles from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶All the able men, to the number of seven thousand— all of them warriors, trained for battle—and a thousand craftsmen and smiths were brought to Babylon as exiles by the king of Babylon. ¹⁷And the king of Babylon appointed Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, changing his name to Zedekiah.

¹⁸Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ¹⁹He did what was displeasing to the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah were a cause of anger for the Lord, so that He cast them out of His presence.

Chapter 25

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. ¹And in the ninth year of his^a reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar moved against Jerusalem with his whole army. He besieged it; and they built towers against it all around. ²The city continued in a state of siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³By the ninth day [of the fourth month] the famine had become acute in the city; there was no food left for the common people.

⁴Then [the wall of] the city was breached. All the soldiers [left the city] by night through the gate between the double walls, which is near the king’s garden—the Chaldeans were all around the city; and [the king] set out for the Arabah. ⁵But the Chaldean troops pursued the king, and they overtook him in the steppes of Jericho as his entire force left him and scattered. ⁶They captured the king and brought him before the king of Babylon at Riblah; and they put him on trial. ⁷They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes; then Zedekiah’s eyes were put out. He was chained in bronze fetters and he was brought to Babylon.

⁸On the seventh day of the fifth month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Baby-lon—Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹He burned the House of the Lord, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of every notable person. ¹⁰The entire Chaldean force that was with the chief of the guard tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. ¹¹The remnant of the people that was left in the city, the defectors who had gone over to the king of Babylon—and the remnant of the population—were taken into exile by Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards. ¹²But some of the poorest in the land were left by the chief of the guards, to be vinedressers and field hands.

¹³The Chaldeans broke up the bronze columns of the House of the Lord, the stands, and the bronze tank that was in the House of the Lord; and they carried the bronze away to Babylon. ¹⁴They also took all the pails, scrapers, snuffers, ladles, and all the other bronze vessels used in the service. ¹⁵The chief of the guards took whatever was of gold and whatever was of silver: fire-pans and sprinkling bowls. ¹⁶The two columns, the one tank, and the stands that Solomon provided for the House of the Lord—all these objects contained bronze beyond weighing. ¹⁷The one column was eighteen cubits high. It had a bronze capital above it; the height of the capital was three cubits, and there was a meshwork [decorated] with pomegranates about the capital, all made of bronze. And the like was true of the other column with its meshwork.

¹⁸The chief of the guards also took Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah, the deputy priest, and the three guardians of the threshold. ¹⁹And from the city he took a eunuch who was in command of the soldiers; five royal privy councillors who were present in the city; the scribe of the army commander, who was in charge of mustering the people of the land; and sixty of the common people who were inside the city. ²⁰Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹The king of Babylon had them struck down and put to death at Riblah, in the region of Hamath.

Thus Judah was exiled from its land. ²²King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon put Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan in charge of the people whom he left in the land of Judah. ²³When the officers of the troops and their men heard that the king of Babylon had put Gedaliah in charge, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah with Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maachite, together with their men. ²⁴Gedaliah reassured them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.”

²⁵In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with ten men, and they struck down Gedaliah and he died; [they also killed] the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were present with him at Mizpah. ²⁶And all the people, young and old, and the officers of the troops set out and went to Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

²⁷In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, King Evilmerodach of Babylon, in the year he became king, took note of King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. ²⁸He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a throne above those of other kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹His prison garments were removed, and [Jehoiachin] received regular rations by his favor for the rest of his life. ³⁰A regular allotment of food was given him at the instance of the king—an allotment for each day—all the days of his life.