⁷ For ^(A)so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had ^(B)feared other gods, ⁸ and ^(C)had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. ⁹ Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves ^[a]high places in all their cities, ^(D)from watchtower to fortified city. ^10 (E)They set up for themselves sacred pillars and ^(F)wooden images^{[b] (G)}on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, ¹² for they served idols, ^(H)of which the Lord had said to them, ^(I)“You shall not do this thing.”

¹³ Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His ^(J)prophets, ^(K)every seer, saying, ^(L)“Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” ¹⁴ Nevertheless they would not hear, but ^(M)stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who ^(N)did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ And they ^(O)rejected His statutes ^(P)and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed ^(Q)idols, ^(R)became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should ^(S)not do like them. ¹⁶ So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, ^(T)made for themselves a molded image and two calves, ^(U)made a wooden image and worshiped all the ^(V)host of heaven, ^(W)and served Baal. ^17 (X)And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, ^(Y)practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and ^(Z)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left ^(AA)but the tribe of Judah alone.

¹⁹ Also ^(AB)Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. ²⁰ And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and ^(AC)delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His ^(AD)sight. ²¹ For ^(AE)He tore Israel from the house of David, and ^(AF)they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin.

Judah Overrun by Enemies

24 In ^(A)his days Nebuchadnezzar king of ^(B)Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. ^2 (C)And the Lord sent against him raiding ^[a]bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon; He sent them against Judah to destroy it, ^(D)according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servants the prophets. ³ Surely at the commandment of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight ^(E)because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, ^4 (F)and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon.

⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ^6 (G)So Jehoiakim rested with his fathers. Then Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

⁷ And ^(H)the king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, for ^(I)the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates.

The Reign and Captivity of Jehoiachin^(J)

^8 (K)Jehoiachin^[b] was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. ⁹ And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.

^10 (L)At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city ^[c]was besieged. ¹¹ And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, as his servants were besieging it. ^12 (M)Then Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers went out to the king of Babylon; and the king of Babylon, ^(N)in the eighth year of his reign, took him prisoner.

The Captivity of Jerusalem

^13 (O)And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and he ^(P)cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, ^(Q)as the Lord had said. ¹⁴ Also ^(R)he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ^(S)ten thousand captives, and ^(T)all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except ^(U)the poorest people of the land. ¹⁵ And ^(V)he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the mighty of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. ^16 (W)All the valiant men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for war, these the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

Zedekiah Reigns in Judah^(X)

¹⁷ Then ^(Y)the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, ^(Z)Jehoiachin’s^[d] uncle, king in his place, and ^(AA)changed his name to Zedekiah.

^18 (AB)Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was ^(AC)Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ^19 (AD)He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, that He finally cast them out from His presence. ^(AE)Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

The Fall and Captivity of Judah^(AF)

25 Now it came to pass ^(AG)in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. ² So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ By the ninth day of the ^(AH)fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

⁴ Then ^(AI)the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And ^(AJ)the king^[e] went by way of the ^[f]plain. ⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ⁶ So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon ^(AK)at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. ⁷ Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, ^(AL)put^[g] out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon.

⁸ And in the fifth month, ^(AM)on the seventh day of the month (which was ^(AN)the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ^(AO)Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ^9 (AP)He burned the house of the Lord ^(AQ)and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, ^(AR)he burned with fire. ¹⁰ And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard ^(AS)broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around.

¹¹ Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive ^(AT)the rest of the people who remained in the city and the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, with the rest of the multitude. ¹² But the captain of the guard ^(AU)left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers. ^13 (AV)The bronze ^(AW)pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and ^(AX)the carts and ^(AY)the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and ^(AZ)carried their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴ They also took away ^(BA)the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. ¹⁵ The firepans and the basins, the things of solid gold and solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. ¹⁶ The two pillars, one Sea, and the carts, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, ^(BB)the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. ^17 (BC)The height of one pillar was ^[h]eighteen cubits, and the capital on it was of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits, and the network and pomegranates all around the capital were all of bronze. The second pillar was the same, with a network.

^18 (BD)And the captain of the guard took ^(BE)Seraiah the chief priest, ^(BF)Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, ^(BG)five men of ^[i]the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the chief recruiting officer of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city. ²⁰ So Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. ^(BH)Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah^(BI)

²² Then he made Gedaliah the son of ^(BJ)Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor over ^(BK)the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left. ²³ Now when all the ^(BL)captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Careah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and ^[j]Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. ²⁴ And Gedaliah took an oath before them and their men, and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.”

²⁵ But ^(BM)it happened in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck and killed Gedaliah, the Jews, as well as the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. ²⁶ And all the people, small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose ^(BN)and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison^(BO)

^27 (BP)Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that ^[k]Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, ^(BQ)released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. ²⁸ He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ So Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ^(BR)ate ^[l]bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. ³⁰ And as for his ^[m]provisions, there was a ^[n]regular ration given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.