¹⁷ Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet^[a] high. The bronze top of one pillar was about 4½ feet^[b] high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate-shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.

¹⁸ The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five^[c] of the king’s advisers^[d] who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens^[e] for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.