Jeremiah
52
- Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he
became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother's name was
Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
- He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just
as Jehoiakim had done.
- It was because of the LORD'S anger that
all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from
his presence. Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
- So in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign,
on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched
against Jerusalem with his whole army. They camped outside the city and built
siege works all around it.
- The city was kept under siege until the
eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
- By the ninth day of the fourth month the
famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people
to eat.
- Then the city wall was broken through, and
the whole army fled. They left the city at night through the gate between
the two walls near the king's garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding
the city. They fled toward the Arabah,
- but the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah
and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated
from him and scattered,
- and he was captured. He was taken to the
king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence
on him.
- There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered
the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of
Judah.
- Then he put out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him
with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till
the day of his death.
- On the tenth day of the fifth month, in
the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander
of the imperial guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
- He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the
royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he
burned down.
- The whole Babylonian army under the commander
of the imperial guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.
- Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried
into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city,
along with the rest of the craftsmen and those who had gone over to the king
of Babylon.
- But Nebuzaradan left behind the rest of
the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.
- The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars,
the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the LORD
and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.
- They also took away the pots, shovels, wick
trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the
temple service.
- The commander of the imperial guard took
away the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes and bowls
used for drink offerings -- all that were made of pure gold or silver.
- The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea
and the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon
had made for the temple of the LORD, was more than could be weighed.
- Each of the pillars was eighteen cubits
high and twelve cubits in circumference; each was four fingers thick, and
hollow.
- The bronze capital on top of the one pillar
was five cubits high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of
bronze all around. The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar.
- There were ninety-six pomegranates on the
sides; the total number of pomegranates above the surrounding network was
a hundred.
- The commander of the guard took as prisoners
Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three
doorkeepers.
- Of those still in the city, he took the
officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took
the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of
the land and sixty of his men who were found in the city.
- Nebuzaradan the commander took them all
and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
- There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath,
the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.
- This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar
carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;
- in Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year, 832
people from Jerusalem;
- in his twenty-third year, 745 Jews taken
into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard. There were
4,600 people in all.
- In the thirty-seventh year of the exile
of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon,
he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison on the twenty-fifth
day of the twelfth month.
- He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat
of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
- So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes
and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king's table.
- Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin
a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death.
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