The Fall of Jerusalem Recounted

(Psalm 74:1-23; Psalm 79:1-13)

1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3For, because the anger of Jehovah was against Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, [that] Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem; and they encamped against it, and built turrets against it round about. 5And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 6In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 7And the city was broken into: and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden (now the Chaldeans were near the city round about); and they went the way toward the plain. 8And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 9And they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon, unto Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment upon him. 10And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; and he slaughtered also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with chains of brass; and the king of Babylon carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and the City Burned

12And in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, which was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzar-adan, captain of the body-guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came unto Jerusalem; 13and he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; and every great [man's] house he burned with fire. 14And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the body-guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. 15And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive of the poorest sort of the people, and the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. 16But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard left of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen.

17And the brazen pillars that were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of Jehovah, the Chaldeans broke up, and carried all the brass thereof to Babylon. 18The pots also, and the shovels, and the knives, and the bowls, and the cups, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, they took away. 19And the basons and the censers, and the bowls, and the pots, and the candlesticks, and the cups, and the goblets, that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the body-guard took away. 20The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve brazen oxen that formed the bases, which king Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah: for the brass of all these vessels there was no weight. 21And as to the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a line of twelve cubits encompassed it; and the thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow. 22And the capital upon it was brass, and the height of the one capital [was] five cubits; and the network and the pomegranates, upon the capital round about, all of brass; and similarly for the second pillar, and the pomegranates. 23And there were ninety-six pomegranates on the [four] sides; all the pomegranates upon the network were a hundred round about.

Captives Carried to Babylon

24And the captain of the body-guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 25And out of the city he took a eunuch that was set over the men of war, and seven men of them that were in the king's presence, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the host, who enrolled the people of the land. And sixty men of the people of the land that were found in the midst of the city. 26And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah; 27and the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his land.

28This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand and twenty-three Jews; 29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar [he carried away captive] from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; 30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand six hundred.

Evil-Merodach Releases Jehoiachin

31And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, [that] Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison; 32and he spoke kindly unto him, and set his seat above the seat of the kings that were with him in Babylon. 33And he changed his prison garments; and he ate bread before him continually all the days of his life; 34and his allowance was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.