Zedekiah Warned by God

34 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, ^(A)when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, ^(B)all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem and all its cities, saying,

^37 (A)You, O king, are a king of kings. ^(B)For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; ^38 (C)and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—^(D)you are this head of gold.

² For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up ^(A)in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.

The Fall and Captivity of Judah^(A)

25 Now it came to pass ^(B)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 ^(C)fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

⁴ Then ^(D)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 ^(E)the king^[a] went by way of the ^[b]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 ^(F)at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. ⁷ Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, ^(G)put^[c] out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon.

⁸ And in the fifth month, ^(H)on the seventh day of the month (which was ^(I)the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ^(J)Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ^9 (K)He burned the house of the Lord ^(L)and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, ^(M)he burned with fire.

¹⁹ And because of the majesty that He gave him, ^(A)all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he ^(B)executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he set up; and whomever he wished, he put down.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Second Dream

⁴ Now it came to pass in the ^(A)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. ⁵ So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶ By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷ Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the ^[a]plain.

⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ^9 (B)So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. ^10 (C)Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ He also ^(D)put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in ^[b]bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.