2 Chronicles 36:15-21

The Voice

¹⁵ Again and again, the Eternal God of their ancestors, because of His compassion for His people and His temple, sent messengers to His people, convicting them of the wrong doings and telling them to return to His ways, ¹⁶ but the people mocked the True God’s messengers, hated His messages, and laughed at His prophets. Their actions further infuriated the Eternal, until there was no way to contain His anger.

¹⁷ The Eternal empowered the king of the Chaldeans (who were part of the Babylonian Empire) to attack Israel. This army was merciless, sacrificing Israel’s children in their temples and slaughtering everyone else without regard to gender, age, or health. ^18-19 They plundered every treasure in the Eternal God’s temple and burned God’s temple to the ground. They stole the king’s and the officers’ possessions, tore down the wall of Jerusalem, burned the fortified buildings, and destroyed anything of value in Jerusalem. ²⁰ Anyone who managed to survive the invasion was exiled to Babylon, where they remained servants of the Babylonian court until it was conquered by the Persian Empire. ²¹ This exile fulfilled the Eternal’s message through Jeremiah that Israel would lie quietly at rest and be desolate for 70 years to make up for the generations where they did not observe Sabbath.