24 ^(A)In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.

Daniel Taken to Babylon

1 In the third year of ^(A)the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

Seventy Years of Captivity

25 ^(A)The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),

^9 (A)behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^(B)my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, ^(C)and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

² About Egypt. ^(A)Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in ^(B)the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

^6 (A)Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon ^(B)and bound him in chains ^(C)to take him to Babylon. ^7 (D)Nebuchadnezzar also carried part of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon. ^8 (E)Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations that he did, and what was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

^9 (F)Jehoiachin was eighteen^[a] years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹⁰ In ^(G)the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, ^(H)with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother ^(I)Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

^11 (J)Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹² He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before ^(K)Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. ^13 (L)He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. ^(M)He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁴ All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their fathers, ^(N)sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. ^16 (O)But they kept mocking the messengers of God, ^(P)despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, ^(Q)until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

Jerusalem Captured and Burned

^17 (R)Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. ^18 (S)And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. ^19 (T)And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. ²⁰ He ^(U)took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, ^(V)and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, ²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had ^(W)enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate ^(X)it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

⁵ Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.