25 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it, and they built siege works against it round about.

² The city was besieged [nearly two years] until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

³ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was complete in the city; there was no food for the people of the land.

⁴ Then the city was broken through; the king and all the warriors fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were round about the city. [The king] went by the way toward the Arabah (the plain).

⁵ The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him.

⁶ So they captured Zedekiah and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and sentence was passed on him.

⁷ And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in double fetters [hands and feet] and carried him to Babylon. [Foretold in Jer. 34:3; Ezek. 12:13.]

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the Babylonian king’s guard, came to Jerusalem.

⁹ He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

¹⁰ All the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the [Babylonian] guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

¹¹ Now the rest of the people left in the city and the deserters who fell away to the king of Babylon, along with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile.

¹² But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and soil tillers.

¹³ The bronze pillars in the Lord’s house and [its] bases and the bronze Sea the Chaldeans smashed and carried the bronze to Babylon.

¹⁴ And they took away the pots, shovels, snuffers, dishes for incense, all the bronze vessels used in the temple service,

¹⁵ The firepans, and bowls. Such things as were of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver [he took away] as silver.

¹⁶ The two pillars, the one Sea, and the bases, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these articles was incalculable.

¹⁷ The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and upon it was a capital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits; a network and pomegranates round about the capital were all of bronze. And the second pillar had the same as these, with a network.

¹⁸ The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold.

¹⁹ And out of the city he took an officer who was in command of the men of war and five men of the king’s personal advisors, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the army who mustered the people of the land and sixty men of the people who were found in the city.

²⁰ Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

²¹ The king of Babylon smote and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath [north of Damascus]. So Judah was taken into exile.

²² Over the people whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left in the land of Judah he appointed as governor Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.

²³ And when all the captains of the forces and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite.

²⁴ And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, Do not be afraid of the Chaldean officials. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.

²⁵ But in the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family [so having a claim to be governor], came with ten men and smote and killed Gedaliah and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

²⁶ Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

²⁷ And in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, showed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison;

²⁸ He spoke kindly to him and ranked him above the kings with him in Babylon.

²⁹ Jehoiachin put off his prison garments, and he dined regularly at the king’s table the remainder of his life.

³⁰ And his allowance, a continual one, was given him by the king, every day a portion, for the rest of his life.