Proclamation Against Pharaoh

²⁰ And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²¹ “Son of man, I have ^(A)broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and see, ^(B)it has not been bandaged for healing, nor a ^[a]splint put on to bind it, to make it strong enough to hold a sword. ²² Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Surely I am ^(C)against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will ^(D)break his arms, both the strong one and the one that was broken; and I will make the sword fall out of his hand. ^23 (E)I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them throughout the countries. ²⁴ I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand; but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he will groan before him with the groanings of a mortally wounded man. ²⁵ Thus I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; ^(F)they shall know that I am the Lord, when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. ^26 (G)I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ”

Egypt Cut Down Like a Great Tree^(A)

31 Now it came to pass in the ^(B)eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:

¹⁰ “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and ^(I)its heart was ^[d]lifted up in its height, ¹¹ therefore I will deliver it into the hand of the ^(J)mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness. ¹² And aliens, ^(K)the most terrible of the nations, have cut it down and left it; its branches have fallen ^(L)on the mountains and in all the valleys; its boughs lie ^(M)broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone from under its shadow and left it.

¹⁴ So that no trees by the waters may ever again exalt themselves for their height, nor set their tops among the thick boughs, that no tree which drinks water may ever be high enough to reach up to them.

¹⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: ‘In the day when it ^(Q)went down to ^[e]hell, I caused mourning. I covered the deep because of it. I restrained its rivers, and the great waters were held back. I caused Lebanon to ^[f]mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it. ¹⁶ I made the nations ^(R)shake at the sound of its fall, when I ^(S)cast it down to ^[g]hell together with those who descend into the Pit; and ^(T)all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, ^(U)were comforted in the depths of the earth. ¹⁷ They also went down to hell with it, with those slain by the sword; and those who were its strong arm ^(V)dwelt in its shadows among the nations.

^18 (W)‘To which of the trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the depths of the earth; ^(X)you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord God.”

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.