2 Kings 25

It happened in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built siege works against it all around. ²So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. ³On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was great in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. ⁴Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city all around); and the king went by the way of the Arabah. ⁵But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. ⁶Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they pronounced judgment on him. ⁷They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon. ⁸Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹He burned the house of Allah, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire. ¹⁰All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around. ¹¹The residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive. ¹²But the captain of the guard left the poorest of the land to work the vineyards and fields. ¹³The pillars of bronze that were in the house of Allah, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the house of Allah, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried the bronze of them to Babylon. ¹⁴The pots, shovels, snuffers, spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered, they took away. ¹⁵The fire pans, and the basins, that which was made of solid gold and silver, the captain of the guard took away. ¹⁶The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which Sulayman had made for the house of Allah, the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. ¹⁷The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a capital of bronze was on it; and the height of the capital was three cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze: and the second pillar was the same, with a network. ¹⁸The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold: ¹⁹and he also took out of the city an officer who was set over the men of war; and five men of those who saw the king's face, who were found in the city; and the scribe, the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city. ²⁰Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land. ²²As for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he made Gedaliah Ibn Ahikam, Ibn Shaphan, governor over them. ²³Now when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ismail Ibn Nethaniah, and Johanan Ibn Kareah, and Seraiah Ibn Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah Ibn the Maacathite, they and their men. ²⁴Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, Do not be afraid because of the servants of the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. ²⁵But it happened in the seventh month, that Ismail Ibn Nethaniah, Ibn Elishama, of the royal seed came, and ten men with him, and struck Gedaliah, so that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah. ²⁶All the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose, and fled to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. ²⁷It happened in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison; ²⁸and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, ²⁹and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life: ³⁰and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.