¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.^{(A) 19} He did evil in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ Because of the anger of the Lord these things happened in Jerusalem and Judah, and it [finally] came to the point that He cast them from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar Besieges Jerusalem

25 Now in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he with all his army, against Jerusalem, and camped against it and built siege works surrounding it. ² The city came under siege [for nearly two years] until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine [caused by the siege] was severe in the city; there was no food for the people of the land. ⁴ Then the city [wall] was broken into [and conquered]; all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, though the ^[a]Chaldeans (Babylonians) were all around the city. And they went by way of the Arabah (the plain of the Jordan). ⁵ The army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Then his entire army was dispersed from him. ⁶ So they seized the king (Zedekiah) and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah [on the Orontes River], and sentence was passed on him. ⁷ They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him [hand and foot] with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.^(B)

Jerusalem Burned and Plundered

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned the house (temple) 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 (Babylonians) who were with the captain of the bodyguard tore down the walls around Jerusalem. ¹¹ Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard deported [into exile] the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had joined the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. ¹² But the captain of the bodyguard left some of the unimportant and poorest people of the land to be vineyard workers and farmers.

¹³ Now the Chaldeans (Babylonians) smashed the bronze pillars which were in the house of the Lord and their bases and the bronze sea (large basin) which were in the house of the Lord, and carried the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴ They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the bronze articles which were used in the temple service, ¹⁵ the captain of the bodyguard also took away the firepans and basins, anything made of fine gold and anything made of fine silver. ¹⁶ The two pillars, the one sea (large basin), 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 (27 ft.), and a capital of bronze was on top of it. The height of the capital was three cubits (4.5 ft.); a network (lattice work) and pomegranates around the capital were all of bronze. And the second pillar had the same as these, with a network.

¹⁸ The captain of the bodyguard took [captive] Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers [of the temple]. ¹⁹ And from the city [of Jerusalem] he took an officer who was in command of the men of war, and five men from 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 [for military service] and sixty men from the people of the land who were found in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ Then the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath [north of Damascus]. So Judah was taken into exile from its land.