1Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2And he did that which was evil in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
3For, through the anger of Jehovah, it was so with Judah and Jerusalem that at length he cast them forth from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, and built forts against it round about.
5And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that 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 out of the city by night, by the way of the gate between the two walls, which is by the king's garden, (whilst the Chaldaeans were by the city round about,) and they went toward the plain.
8But the army of the Chaldaeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
9And they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon, to Riblah, in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him.
10And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He slew also all the princes or Judah, in Riblah.
11And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in chains; and the king of Babylon carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.
12And in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, (it was the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon,) came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, one that stood in the presence of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem.
13And he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house; and all the houses at Jerusalem, all the great houses, burned he with fire.
14And all the army of the Chaldaeans that was with the captain of the guard brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.
15And some of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had gone over to the king of Babylon, even the remainder of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carry away captive.
16But some of the poor of the land did Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, leave for vine-dressers and for husbandmen.
17And the pillars of brass that were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of Jehovah, the Chaldaeans brake, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
18The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the pans, and all the vessels of brass which were used in ministering, did they take away.
19And the basins, and the fire-pans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the censers, and the cups, and whatever was of gold or silver, did the captain of the guard take away.
20The two pillars, the sea, and the twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon made in the house of Jehovah, the brass from all these was beyond weight.
21For as to the pillars, eighteen cubits in height was the one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured it round, and their thickness was four fingers, being hollow.
22And a chapiter of brass was upon them; and the height of one chapiter was five cubits; and there was network with pomegranates upon the chapiter all round, the whole of brass. The second pillar also, and the pomegranates, were like unto these.
23And the pomegranates were ninety and six toward every wind; all the pomegranates were a hundred upon the network round about.
24And the captain of the guard took Seraiah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the door;
25and out of the city he took a eunuch who had charge over the men of war, and seven men of those that were near the king's person, who were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city;
26these, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took, and brought to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
27And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus was Judah carried away captive out of their own land.
28This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;
29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons;
30in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons. All the persons were four thousand and six hundred.
31And it came to pass in the thirty and seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-merodach, the king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison,
32and spoke kindly to him, and set his seat above the seat of the kings that were with him in Babylon,
33and changed his prison garments; and he ate bread before him all the days of his life.
34And a constant allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, a portion every day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.