2 Kings 25

¹And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it and built siegeworks against it all around.

²And the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

³On the ninth of the month the famine was severe in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.

⁴Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which is beside the king's garden, while the Chaldeans were against the city all around; and he went by way of the Arabah.

⁵And the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army scattered from him.

⁶And they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed judgment on him.

⁷And the sons of Zedekiah they slaughtered before his eyes; and the eyes of Zedekiah he blinded, and bound him in bronze fetters, and brought him to Babylon.

⁸And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month -- that is, the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon -- Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

⁹And he burned the house of the LORD and the house of the king and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down with fire.

¹⁰And the walls of Jerusalem all around all the forces of the Chaldeans who were with the chief of the guard demolished.

¹¹And the rest of the people who remained in the city, and the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude -- Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard exiled.

¹²But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

¹³And the bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands, and the bronze sea that was in the house of the Lord -- the Chaldeans broke them and carried their bronze to Babylon.

¹⁴And the pots, and the shovels, and the wick trimmers, and the pans, and all the bronze vessels with which they used to minister, they took.

¹⁵The firepans also and the sprinkling bowls -- whatever was of gold, the captain of the guard took away in gold, and whatever was of silver, in silver.

¹⁶The two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord -- there was no weighing the bronze of all these vessels.

¹⁷The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and upon it was a bronze capital; the height of the capital was three cubits, with latticework and pomegranates on the capital all around -- all of it bronze. And the like was on the second pillar, with the latticework.

¹⁸And the chief of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold.

¹⁹And from the city he took one court official who was the overseer of the men of war, and five men of those who attended the king, who were found in the city, and the scribe, the commander of the army who had mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land who were found in the city.

²⁰And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

²¹And the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was exiled from its land.

²²And the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left behind, over them he appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan.

²³When all the commanders of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah 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.

²⁴And Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, Do not fear the servants of the Chaldeans; dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you all.

²⁵And it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, of royal descent, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah so that he died, and also the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

²⁶Then all the people, from the least to the greatest, and the commanders of the forces, arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

²⁷And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, lifted the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah from the house of prison.

²⁸And he spoke kindly with him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

²⁹And he changed his prison garments and ate bread before him continually all the days of his life.

³⁰And his ration, a regular ration, was given to him from the king, a daily portion each day, all the days of his life.