The Second of Kings 25:1-30
25 In the ninth year of Zed·e·kiʹah’s reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, King Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar+ of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem.+ He camped against it and built a siege wall all around it,+
2 and the city was under siege until the 11th year of King Zed·e·kiʹah.
3 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was severe+ in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.+
4 The city wall was broken through,+ and all the soldiers fled by night through the gate between the double wall near the king’s garden, while the Chal·deʹans were surrounding the city; and the king went by the way of the Arʹa·bah.+
5 But the Chal·deʹan army pursued the king, and they overtook him in the desert plains of Jerʹi·cho, and all his troops were scattered from his side.
6 Then they seized the king+ and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Ribʹlah, and they passed sentence on him.
7 They slaughtered Zed·e·kiʹah’s sons before his eyes; then Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar blinded Zed·e·kiʹah’s eyes, bound him with copper fetters, and brought him to Babylon.+
8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, that is, in the 19th year of King Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar the king of Babylon, Neb·uʹzar·adʹan+ the chief of the guard, the servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.+
9 He burned down the house of Jehovah,+ the king’s house,*+ and all the houses of Jerusalem;+ he also burned down the house of every prominent man.+
10 And the walls surrounding Jerusalem were pulled down by the entire Chal·deʹan army that was with the chief of the guard.+
11 Neb·uʹzar·adʹan the chief of the guard took into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.+
12 But the chief of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to serve as vinedressers and as compulsory laborers.+
13 And the Chal·deʹans broke into pieces the copper pillars+ of the house of Jehovah and the carriages+ and the copper Sea+ that were in the house of Jehovah, and they carried the copper away to Babylon.+
14 They also took the cans, the shovels, the extinguishers, the cups, and all the copper utensils used in the temple service.
15 The chief of the guard took the fire holders and the bowls that were of genuine gold+ and silver.+
16 As for the two pillars, the Sea, and the carriages that Solʹo·mon had made for the house of Jehovah, the copper of all these articles was beyond weighing.+
17 Each pillar was 18 cubits* high,+ and the capital on it was of copper; and the height of the capital was three cubits, and the network and pomegranates all around on the capital were all made of copper.+ The second pillar with its network was like it.
18 The chief of the guard also took Se·raiʹah+ the chief priest, Zeph·a·niʹah+ the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.+
19 And he took from the city one court official who was the commissioner over the soldiers, five close associates of the king who were found in the city, as well as the secretary of the chief of the army, the one mustering the people of the land, and 60 men of the common people of the land who were yet found in the city.
20 Neb·uʹzar·adʹan+ the chief of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Ribʹlah.+
21 The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Ribʹlah in the land of Haʹmath.+ Thus Judah went into exile from its land.+
22 King Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar of Babylon appointed Ged·a·liʹah+ the son of A·hiʹkam+ the son of Shaʹphan+ over the people whom he had left behind in the land of Judah.+
23 When all the army chiefs and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Ged·a·liʹah, they immediately came to Ged·a·liʹah at Mizʹpah. They were Ishʹma·el the son of Neth·a·niʹah, Jo·haʹnan the son of Ka·reʹah, Se·raiʹah the son of Tan·huʹmeth the Ne·tophʹa·thite, and Ja·az·a·niʹah the son of the Ma·acʹa·thite, together with their men.+
24 Ged·a·liʹah swore an oath to them and their men and said to them: “Do not be afraid of being servants to the Chal·deʹans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.”+
25 And in the seventh month, Ishʹma·el+ son of Neth·a·niʹah son of E·lishʹa·ma, who was of the royal line,* came with ten other men, and they struck down Ged·a·liʹah and he died, along with the Jews and the Chal·deʹans who were with him in Mizʹpah.+
26 After that all the people, from small to great, including the army chiefs, rose up and went to Egypt,+ for they were afraid of the Chal·deʹans.+
27 And in the 37th year of the exile of King Je·hoiʹa·chin+ of Judah, in the 12th month, on the 27th day of the month, King Eʹvil-merʹo·dach of Babylon, in the year he became king, released* King Je·hoiʹa·chin of Judah from prison.+
28 He spoke kindly with him and put his throne higher than the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
29 So Je·hoiʹa·chin took off his prison garments, and he regularly ate before him all the days of his life.
30 A regular allowance of food was given him from the king, day after day, all the days of his life.
