² Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.

³ By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign,^[a] the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.

² Two and a half years later, on July 18^[a] in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, a section of the city wall was broken down. ³ All the officers of the Babylonian army came in and sat in triumph at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, and Nebo-sarsekim,^[b] a chief officer, and Nergal-sharezer, the king’s adviser, and all the other officers of the king of Babylon.

⁴ Then a section of the city wall was broken down. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians,^[a] the soldiers waited for nightfall and escaped^[b] through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden. Then they headed toward the Jordan Valley.^[c]

⁵ But the Babylonian^[d] troops chased the king and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered. ⁶ They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.

¹⁰ The king of Babylon made Zedekiah watch as he slaughtered his sons. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. ¹¹ Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze chains, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon. Zedekiah remained there in prison until the day of his death.

The Temple Destroyed

¹² On August 17 of that year,^[a] which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem.

¹⁷ The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the Lord’s Temple, the bronze water carts, and the great bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon. ¹⁸ They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, basins, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple. ¹⁹ The captain of the guard also took the small bowls, incense burners, basins, pots, lampstands, ladles, bowls used for liquid offerings, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.

²⁰ The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea with the twelve bronze oxen beneath it, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the Lord’s Temple in the days of King Solomon. ²¹ Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference.^[a] They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.^{[b] 22} The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7 1⁄2 feet^[c] high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around. ²³ There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 pomegranates on the network around the top.

¹³ He burned down the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings^[a] in the city. ¹⁴ Then he supervised the entire Babylonian^[b] army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.

²⁴ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers. ²⁵ And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army; seven of the king’s personal advisers; the army commander’s chief secretary, who was in charge of recruitment; and sixty other citizens. ²⁶ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷ And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.

⁹ Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles to Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had defected to him, and everyone else who remained. ¹⁰ But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind in the land of Judah, and he assigned them to care for the vineyards and fields.

Gedaliah Governs in Judah

²² Then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan as governor over the people he had left in Judah.

Jeremiah Remains in Judah

¹¹ King Nebuchadnezzar had told Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, to find Jeremiah. ¹² “See that he isn’t hurt,” he said. “Look after him well, and give him anything he wants.” ¹³ So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard; Nebushazban, a chief officer; Nergal-sharezer, the king’s adviser; and the other officers of Babylon’s king ¹⁴ sent messengers to bring Jeremiah out of the prison. They put him under the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, who took him back to his home. So Jeremiah stayed in Judah among his own people.