Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar’s Court

1 During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah,^[a] King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

24 During Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land of Judah. Jehoiakim surrendered and paid him tribute for three years but then rebelled. ² Then the Lord sent bands of Babylonian,^[a] Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Judah to destroy it, just as the Lord had promised through his prophets.

⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God.

⁶ Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and captured it, and he bound Jehoiakim in bronze chains and led him away to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the treasures from the Temple of the Lord, and he placed them in his palace^[a] in Babylon.

¹³ As the Lord had said beforehand, Nebuchadnezzar carried away all the treasures from the Lord’s Temple and the royal palace. He stripped away^[a] all the gold objects that King Solomon of Israel had placed in the Temple.