Jeremiah 52

Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

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

For through the anger of Yahweh it happened in Jerusalem and Judah—until he had cast them out from his presence—that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

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

So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city such that there was no bread for the people of the land.

Then a breach was made in the city and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by the route that went through the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city all around it), and they went toward the Arabah.

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

Then they took the king and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him.

The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the officials of Judah in Riblah.

He put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and then the king of Babylon bound him in fetters and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

Now in the fifth month, in 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;

He burned the house of Yahweh and the king’s house, and also all the houses of Jerusalem—every great house—he burned with fire.

All the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard exiled some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.

But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land as vineyard keepers and farmers.

The Chaldeans broke into pieces the pillars of bronze that were in the house of Yahweh and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of Yahweh and carried the bronze to Babylon.

They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the spoons, and all the articles of bronze with which the priests served.

The captain of the guard took away the cups, the fire pans, the sprinkling bowls, the pots, the menorahs, the spoons, and the bowls, and whatever was of gold, as gold, and whatever was of silver, as silver.

They took the two pillars, the one sea, and the 12 bronze bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh. The bronze of all these items was too much to weigh.

As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was 18 cubits, and a line of 12 cubits encircled it; and its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow.

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

There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and all the pomegranates around the latticework numbered 100.

The captain of the guard took Seraiah the Chief Priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three guards of the threshold,

and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war, and seven men of Those Who See The Kings Face who were present in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and 60 men of the people of the land who were present in the middle of the city.

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

The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was exiled from off of his land.

This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year 3,023 Jews;

in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 persons;

in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews 745 persons. All the persons were 4,600.

It came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in 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 forth out of prison,

and he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon,

and he changed his prison garments and he ate bread in his presence continually all the days of his life,

and his allowance, a continual allowance, was given to him from the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.