(Psalm 74:1–23; Psalm 79:1–13; 2 Kings 24:18–20; 2 Chronicles 36:11–14)
1
Zedekiah [is] a son of twenty-one years in his reigning, and he has reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2
And he does evil in the eyes of YHWH, according to all that Jehoiakim has done,
3
for because of the anger of YHWH, it has been in Jerusalem and Judah until He has cast them from before His face, and Zedekiah rebels against the king of Babylon.
4
And it comes to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has come—he and all his force—against Jerusalem, and they encamp against it, and build against it a fortification all around;
5
and the city comes into siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6
In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, when the famine is severe in the city, and there has been no bread for the people of the land,
7
then the city is broken up, and all the men of war flee, and go forth from the city by night, the way of the gate between the two walls that [is] by the king’s garden—and the Chaldeans [are] by the city all around—and they go the way of the plain.
8
And the forces of the Chaldeans pursue after the king, and overtake Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his forces have been scattered from him,
9
and they capture the king, and bring him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and he speaks with him—judgments.
10
And the king of Babylon slaughters the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he has also slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah;
11
and he has blinded the eyes of Zedekiah, and he binds him in bronze chains, and the king of Babylon brings him to Babylon, and puts him in the house of inspection to the day of his death.
The Temple Destroyed
(2 Kings 25:8–17)
12
And in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month—it [is] the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon—Nebuzar-Adan, chief of the executioners, has come; he has stood before the king of Babylon in Jerusalem,
13
and he burns the house of YHWH, and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem—even every great house he has burned with fire,
14
and all the forces of the Chaldeans that [are] with the chief of the executioners have broken down all the walls of Jerusalem.
15
And of the poor of the people, and the remnant of the people who are left in the city, and those who are defecting, who have defected to the king of Babylon, and the remnant of the multitude, Nebuzar-Adan, chief of the executioners, has removed;
16
and of the poor of the land, Nebuzar-Adan, chief of the executioners, has left for vinedressers and for farmers.
17
And the pillars of bronze that [are] in the house of YHWH, and the bases, and the bronze sea that [is] in the house of YHWH, the Chaldeans have broken, and they carry away all the bronze of them to Babylon;
18
and the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they minister, they have taken away;
19
and the basins, and the fire-pans, and the bowls, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the cups, the gold of that which [is] gold, and the silver of that which [is] silver, the chief of the executioners has taken.
20
The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen that [are] beneath the bases, that King Solomon made for the house of YHWH, there was no weighing of the bronze of all these vessels.
21
As for the pillars, eighteen cubits [is] the height of the one pillar, and a cord of twelve cubits goes around it, and its thickness [is] four fingers hollow.
22
And the capital on it [is] of bronze, and the height of the one capital [is] five cubits, and network and pomegranates [are] on the capital all around, the whole [is] of bronze; and like these—the second pillar—and pomegranates.
23
And the pomegranates are ninety-six on a side, all the pomegranates [are] one hundred on the network all around.
Captives Carried to Babylon
(2 Kings 25:18–21)
24
And the chief of the executioners takes Seraiah the head priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold,
25
and he has taken a certain eunuch out of the city, who has been inspector over the men of war, and seven men of those seeing the king’s face, who have been found in the city, and the head scribe of the host, who musters the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land, who are found in the midst of the city;
26
and Nebuzar-Adan, chief of the executioners, takes them, and brings them to the king of Babylon at Riblah,
27
and the king of Babylon strikes them, and puts them to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and he removes Judah from off its own ground.
28
This [is] the people whom Nebuchadnezzar has removed: in the seventh year, of Jews, three thousand and twenty-three;
29
in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar—from Jerusalem—eight hundred thirty-two souls;
30
in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzar-Adan, chief of the guard, has removed of Jewish souls, seven hundred forty-five; all the souls [are] four thousand and six hundred.
Jehoiachin Released from Prison
(2 Kings 25:27–30)
31
And it comes to pass, in the thirty-seventh year of the expulsion of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon has lifted up, in the year of his reign, the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brings him out from the house of restraint,
32
and speaks good things with him, and sets his throne above the throne of the kings who [are] with him in Babylon,
33
and he has changed his prison garments, and he has continually eaten bread before him, all the days of his life.
34
And his allowance—a continual allowance—has been given to him by the king of Babylon, the matter of a day in its day, until [the] day of his death—all [the] days of his life.
Copyright © 2020 Covenant Press and the CCC - licensed under CC BY-SA