Jeremiah 52

1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

2And he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

3For because of the anger of Yahweh it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out from before his face; and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came—he and all his army—against Jerusalem, and they encamped against it and built a siege wall around it.

5So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine became severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

7Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were all around the city; and they went by way of the Arabah.

8But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.

9They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

10Then the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.

11Then he blinded Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon and put him in the house of custody until the day of his death.

12In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

13He burned the house of Yahweh, the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned with fire.

14And all the walls around Jerusalem were broken down by all the army of the Chaldeans that was with the captain of the guard.

15And some of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who remained in the city, and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile.

16But some of the poorest of the land Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left as vinedressers and farmers.

17And the Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze pillars that were in the house of Yahweh, and the stands, and the bronze Sea that was in the house of Yahweh, and carried all their bronze to Babylon.

18They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the dishes, and all the bronze vessels with which they ministered.

19And the bowls, the firepans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the cups, and the vessels for pouring—whatever was gold, gold, and whatever was silver, silver—the captain of the guard took.

20As for the two pillars, the one Sea, and the twelve bronze oxen that were under the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh—there was no weighing the bronze of all these vessels.

21As for the pillars, the height of each pillar was eighteen cubits, and a line of twelve cubits would go around it; its thickness was four fingers, and it was hollow.

22And on it was a bronze capital, and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with latticework and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze. And the second pillar had the same, with pomegranates.

23There were ninety-six pomegranates toward the outside; all the pomegranates on the lattice all around were one hundred.

24And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold.

25And from the city he took one court official who had been appointed over the men of war, and seven men from those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land who were found within the city.

26Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

27And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile from its land.

28These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans.

29In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, from Jerusalem, 832 persons.

30In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away 745 Judeans. All the persons were 4,600.

31And it happened in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out from the prison.

32He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

33And he changed out of his prison clothes and ate bread before him continually all the days of his life.

34And his allowance, a continual allowance, was given to him from the king of Babylon, a daily portion day by day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.