² So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ By the ninth day of the ^(A)fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

² In the ^(A)eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the ^[a]city was penetrated.

^3 (B)Then all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar-Nebo, Sarsechim, ^[b]Rabsaris, Nergal-Sarezer, ^[c]Rabmag, with the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.

⁴ Then ^(A)the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And ^(B)the king^[a] went by way of the ^[b]plain. ⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ⁶ So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon ^(C)at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him.

^10 (A)Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ He also ^(B)put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in ^[a]bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

^12 (C)Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (^(D)which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ^(E)Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

^17 (A)The ^(B)bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸ They also took away ^(C)the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the ^[a]bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. ¹⁹ The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. ²⁰ The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—^(D)the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. ²¹ Now concerning the ^(E)pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen ^[b]cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was ^[c]four fingers; it was hollow. ²² A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same. ²³ There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; ^(F)all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.

¹³ He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. ¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

^24 (A)The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, ^(B)Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵ He also took out of the city an ^[a]officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. ²⁶ And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷ Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

^9 (A)Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained in the city and those who ^(B)defected to him, with the rest of the people who remained. ¹⁰ But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left in the land of Judah the ^(C)poor people, who had nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields ^[a]at the same time.

Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah^(A)

²² Then he made Gedaliah the son of ^(B)Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor over ^(C)the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left.