Warning to Zedekiah

34 While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples^(A) in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem^(B) and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

¹⁵ I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,” declares the Lord.

³⁷ Your Majesty, you are the king of kings.^(A) The God of heaven has given you dominion^(B) and power and might and glory; ³⁸ in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all.^(C) You are that head of gold.

² The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging^(A) Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined^(B) in the courtyard of the guard^(C) in the royal palace of Judah.

25 So in the ninth^(A) year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar^(B) king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works^(C) all around it. ² The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

³ By the ninth day of the fourth^[a] month the famine^(D) in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. ⁴ Then the city wall was broken through,^(E) and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[b] were surrounding^(F) the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^{[c] 5} but the Babylonian^[d] army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,^{(G) 6} and he was captured.^(H)

He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah,^(I) where sentence was pronounced on him. ⁷ They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.^(J)

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He set fire^(K) to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.^(L)

¹⁹ Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death;^(A) those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled.^(B)

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream of a Tree

⁴ So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth^(A) day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem^(B) with his whole army. They encamped outside the city and built siege works^(C) all around it.^{(D) 5} The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶ By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.^{(E) 7} Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled.^(F) They left the city at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[a] were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^{[b] 8} but the Babylonian^[c] army pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, ⁹ and he was captured.^(G)

He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah^(H) in the land of Hamath,^(I) where he pronounced sentence on him. ¹⁰ There at Riblah the king of Babylon killed the sons^(J) of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah. ¹¹ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.^(K)