2 Kings 25

25 ¹ 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 entire army. He camped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it. ² So the city remained under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had grown so severe that there was no food left for the people of the land. ⁴ Then the city wall was breached, and though the Babylonians had surrounded the city, all the soldiers fled by night through the gate between the two walls, beside the king's garden, and headed toward the Arabah. ⁵ But the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his troops were scattered from him. ⁶ They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they passed sentence on him. ⁷ They slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes; then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and carried him off to Babylon.

The Father's House Laid in Ashes

⁸ In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month — in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard and a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned the house of our Father, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. ¹⁰ And the whole Babylonian army under the commander of the guard broke down the walls surrounding Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, carried into exile the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population. ¹² But the commander of the guard left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and the fields.

¹³ The Babylonians broke into pieces the bronze pillars of the house of our Father, along with the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were there, and carried the bronze off to Babylon. ¹⁴ They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. ¹⁵ The commander of the guard took away the firepans and the sprinkling bowls — everything made of pure gold and pure silver. ¹⁶ The two pillars, the Sea, and the movable stands that Solomon had made for the house of our Father — the bronze of all these articles was beyond weighing. ¹⁷ Each pillar stood eighteen cubits high, topped by a bronze capital three cubits high, with a network of bronze pomegranates encircling it. The second pillar, with its network, was just the same.

Judah Carried into Exile

¹⁸ The commander of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ From the city he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, five of the king's royal advisers who were found in the city, the secretary of the army commander who conscripted the people of the land, and sixty of the common people who were found in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death. So Judah went into exile, far from its own land.

Gedaliah Set Over the Land

²² Over the people who remained in the land of Judah, those whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left behind, he appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as governor. ²³ When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came to him at Mizpah — Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, together with their men. ²⁴ Gedaliah gave them and their men his oath, saying, "Do not be afraid of the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you."

Gedaliah Struck Down

²⁵ But in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah, killing him along with the Judeans and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. ²⁶ At this, all the people, from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Babylonians.

Hope for the Exiled King

²⁷ In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-merodach became king of Babylon, he showed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. ²⁸ 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. ²⁹ So Jehoiachin set aside his prison clothes, and for the rest of his life he ate regularly at the king's table. ³⁰ Day by day the king gave him a regular allowance for as long as he lived.