24 While Jehoiakim was king, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked the land of Judah. So Jehoiakim became Nebuchadnezzar’s servant for three years. Then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and broke away from his rule. ² The Lord sent raiding parties from Babylon, Aram, Moab, and Ammon against Jehoiakim to destroy Judah. This happened as the Lord had said it would through his servants the prophets.

³ The Lord commanded this to happen to the people of Judah, to remove them from his presence, because of all the sins of Manasseh. ⁴ He had killed many innocent people and had filled Jerusalem with their blood. And the Lord would not forgive these sins.

⁵ The other things that happened while Jehoiakim was king and all he did are written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. ⁶ Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

⁷ The king of Egypt did not leave his land again, because the king of Babylon had captured all that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

Jehoiachin King of Judah

⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he was king three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem. ⁹ Jehoiachin did what the Lord said was wrong, just as his father had done.

¹⁰ At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem. When they reached the city, they attacked it. ¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar himself came to the city while his officers were attacking it. ¹² Jehoiachin king of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon, along with Jehoiachin’s mother, servants, nobles, and officers. So Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin a prisoner in the eighth year he was king of Babylon. ¹³ Nebuchadnezzar took all the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and from the palace. He cut up all the gold objects Solomon king of Israel had made for the Temple of the Lord. This happened as the Lord had said it would. ¹⁴ Nebuchadnezzar took away all the people of Jerusalem, including all the leaders, all the wealthy people, and all the craftsmen and metal workers. There were ten thousand prisoners in all. Only the poorest people in the land were left. ¹⁵ Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, as well as the king’s mother and his wives, the officers, and the leading men of the land. They were taken captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ The king of Babylon also took all seven thousand soldiers, who were strong and able to fight in war, and about a thousand craftsmen and metal workers. Nebuchadnezzar took them as prisoners to Babylon. ¹⁷ Then he made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in Jehoiachin’s place. He also changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah.

Zedekiah King of Judah

¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah^[a] from Libnah. ¹⁹ Zedekiah did what the Lord said was wrong, just as Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ All this happened in Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was angry with them. Finally, he threw them out of his presence.

The Fall of Jerusalem

Zedekiah turned against the king of Babylon.

25 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army during Zedekiah’s ninth year as king, on the tenth day of the tenth month. He made a camp around the city and piled dirt against the city walls to attack it. ² The city was under attack until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king. ³ By the ninth day of the fourth month, the hunger was terrible in the city. There was no food for the people to eat. ⁴ Then the city was broken into, and the whole army ran away at night through the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden. While the Babylonians were still surrounding the city, Zedekiah and his men ran away toward the Jordan Valley. ⁵ But the Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All of his army was scattered from him, ⁶ so they captured Zedekiah and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There he passed sentence on Zedekiah. ⁷ They killed Zedekiah’s sons as he watched. Then they put out his eyes and put bronze chains on him and took him to Babylon.

⁸ Nebuzaradan was the commander of the king’s special guards. This officer of the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem on the seventh day of the fifth month, in Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year as king of Babylon. ⁹ Nebuzaradan set fire to the Temple of the Lord and the palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building was burned.

¹⁰ The whole Babylonian army, led by the commander of the king’s special guards, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, captured the people left in Jerusalem, those who had surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the people. ¹² But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to take care of the vineyards and fields.

¹³ The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze stands, and the large bronze bowl, which was called the Sea, in the Temple of the Lord. Then they carried the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴ They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes, and all the bronze objects used to serve in the Temple. ¹⁵ The commander of the king’s special guards took away the pans for carrying hot coals, the bowls, and everything made of pure gold or silver. ¹⁶ There were two pillars and the large bronze bowl and the movable stands which Solomon had made for the Temple of the Lord. There was so much bronze that it could not be weighed. ¹⁷ Each pillar was about twenty-seven feet high. The bronze capital on top of the pillar was about four and one-half feet high. It was decorated with a net design and bronze pomegranates all around it. The other pillar also had a net design and was like the first pillar.

Judah Is Taken Prisoner

¹⁸ The commander of the guards took some prisoners—Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ Of the people who were still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, as well as five people who advised the king. He took the royal secretary who selected people for the army and sixty other men who were in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan, the commander, took all these people and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them killed. So the people of Judah were led away from their country as captives.

Gedaliah Becomes Governor

²² Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon left some people in the land of Judah. He appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as governor.

²³ The army captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, so they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. They were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, and their men. ²⁴ Then Gedaliah promised these army captains and their men, “Don’t be afraid of the Babylonian officers. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and everything will go well for you.”

²⁵ In the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama from the king’s family, came with ten men and killed Gedaliah. They also killed the men of Judah and Babylon who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah. ²⁶ Then all the people, from the least important to the most important, along with the army leaders, ran away to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Babylonians.

Jehoiachin Is Set Free

²⁷ Jehoiachin king of Judah was held in Babylon for thirty-seven years. In the thirty-seventh year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, and he let Jehoiachin out of prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. ²⁸ Evil-Merodach spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honor above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ So Jehoiachin put away his prison clothes. For the rest of his life, he ate at the king’s table. ³⁰ Every day, for as long as Jehoiachin lived, the king gave him an allowance.

Jehoahaz King of Judah

36 The people of Judah chose Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and made him king in Jerusalem in his father’s place.

² Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for three months. ³ Then King Neco of Egypt removed Jehoahaz from being king in Jerusalem. Neco made the people of Judah pay about seventy-five hundred pounds of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold. ⁴ The king of Egypt made Jehoahaz’s brother Eliakim the king of Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took his brother Jehoahaz to Egypt.

Jehoiakim King of Judah

⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. He did what the Lord his God said was wrong. ⁶ King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Judah, captured Jehoiakim, put bronze chains on him, and took him to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar removed some of the things from the Temple of the Lord, took them to Babylon, and put them in his own palace.

⁸ The other things Jehoiakim did as king, the hateful things he did, and everything he was guilty of doing, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

Jehoiachin King of Judah

⁹ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king of Judah, and he was king in Jerusalem for three months and ten days. He did what the Lord said was wrong. ¹⁰ In the spring King Nebuchadnezzar sent for Jehoiachin and brought him and some valuable treasures from the Temple of the Lord to Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin’s uncle Zedekiah the king of Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah King of Judah

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. ¹² Zedekiah did what the Lord his God said was wrong. The prophet Jeremiah spoke messages from the Lord, but Zedekiah did not obey. ¹³ Zedekiah turned against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had forced him to swear in God’s name to be loyal to him. But Zedekiah became stubborn and refused to obey the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁴ Also, all the leaders of the priests and the people of Judah became more wicked, following the evil example of the other nations. The Lord had made the Temple in Jerusalem holy, but the leaders made it unholy.

The Fall of Jerusalem

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent prophets again and again to warn his people, because he had pity on them and on his Temple. ¹⁶ But they made fun of God’s prophets and hated God’s messages. They refused to listen to the prophets until, finally, the Lord became so angry with his people that he could not be stopped. ¹⁷ So God brought the king of Babylon to attack them. The king killed the young men even when they were in the Temple. He had no mercy on the young men or women, the old men or those who were sick. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁸ Nebuchadnezzar carried away to Babylon all the things from the Temple of God, both large and small, and all the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and from the king and his officers. ¹⁹ Nebuchadnezzar and his army set fire to God’s Temple and broke down Jerusalem’s wall and burned all the palaces. They took or destroyed every valuable thing in Jerusalem.

²⁰ Nebuchadnezzar took captive to Babylon the people who were left alive, and he forced them to be slaves for him and his descendants. They remained there as slaves until the Persian kingdom defeated Babylon. ²¹ And so what the Lord had told Israel through the prophet Jeremiah happened: The country was an empty wasteland for seventy years to make up for the years of Sabbath rest^[a] that the people had not kept.

²² In the first year Cyrus was king of Persia, the Lord had Cyrus send an announcement to his whole kingdom. This happened so the Lord’s message spoken by Jeremiah would come true. He wrote: