2 Kings 25
1 In the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army. He camped against it, and they built a siege wall around it.
2 The city remained under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
3 On the ninth day of the month, the famine grew severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
4 Then the city wall was breached. All the men of war fled by night through the gate between the two walls, near the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans surrounded the city. The king went by way of the Arabah.
5 But the Chaldean army pursued the king and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. His whole army scattered and abandoned him.
6 They seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment on him.
7 They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Then they blinded Zedekiah, bound him with bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.
8 On the seventh day of the fifth month—which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard and servant of the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.
9 He burned the house of the LORD, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned every large house with fire.
10 The whole Chaldean army that was with the captain of the guard tore down the walls around Jerusalem.
11 Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, led into exile the rest of the people left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the people.
12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people in the land to work the vineyards and the fields.
13 The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars in the house of the LORD, the stands, and the bronze sea in the house of the LORD, and they carried their bronze to Babylon.
14 They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, bowls, and all the bronze utensils used in the service.
15 The captain of the guard also took the fire pans and basins—whatever was gold, as gold, and whatever was silver, as silver.
16 The two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the LORD—the bronze of all these items could not be weighed.
17 One pillar was eighteen cubits high, with a bronze capital on top. The capital was three cubits high, and it was decorated all around with bronze latticework and pomegranates. The second pillar was the same, with its latticework.
18 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.
19 From the city he took one officer who was in charge of the men of war; five of the king’s attendants who were found in the city; the army’s chief scribe, who enrolled the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.
20 Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took these people and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
21 The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away from its land into exile.
22 As for the people left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left behind, he appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over them.
23 When all the army commanders and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they went to him at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite—they and their men.
24 Gedaliah swore to them and their men, and said, “Do not be afraid of the Chaldean officials. Stay in the land, serve the king of Babylon, and things will go well for you.”
25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with ten men. They struck down Gedaliah, and he died, along with the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
26 Then all the people, from the least to the greatest, and the army commanders set out and went to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison.
28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
29 Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes and ate at the king’s table every day for the rest of his life.
30 The king provided him with a regular allowance, a portion for each day, every day for the rest of his life.
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