The Siege and Fall of Jerusalem
1In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He camped against it and built a siege wall all around it. 2The city remained under siege until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city had grown so severe that there was no food left for the people of the land. 4Then the city wall was broken through, and all the soldiers fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. The king fled toward the Arabah, 5but the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, and all his soldiers scattered and left him. 6They seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was passed on him. 7They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, then put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
The Temple Destroyed
8In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month — in the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9He burned the house of Yahweh, the king’s house, and every house in Jerusalem; every important building he burned down. 10The whole Chaldean army under the commander of the guard tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem. 11Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, deported the rest of the people left in the city, along with the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the population. 12But the commander of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and the fields. 13The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars of the house of Yahweh, the movable stands, and the bronze Sea that stood in the house of Yahweh, and carried the bronze off to Babylon. 14They also took the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. 15The commander of the guard took away the firepans and the sprinkling bowls, whatever was pure gold or pure silver. 16As for the two pillars, the one Sea, and the movable stands that Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh, the bronze from all these articles was beyond weighing. 17Each pillar was eighteen cubits high, with a bronze capital on top three cubits high; a network with pomegranates encircled the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with its network, matched the first. 18The commander of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 19From the city he took a court official who had been in command of the soldiers, five men who had access to the king and were found in the city, the secretary of the army commander who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found within the city. 20Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, 21and the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah, in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile, away from its own land.
Gedaliah and the Flight to Egypt
22As for the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left behind, he appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over them. 23When all the army commanders and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to him at Mizpah — Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, and their men. 24Gedaliah swore an oath to them and their men, telling them, “Do not be afraid of the Chaldean officials. Settle in the land, serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.” 25But in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of royal descent, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah, killing him, along with the Judeans and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26Then all the people, from the least to the greatest, together with the army commanders, fled to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
Jehoiachin Released in Babylon
27In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 28He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 29So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes, and for the rest of his life he ate regularly at the king’s table. 30Every day, for the rest of his life, he was given a regular allowance by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day.
