The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the Lord, vengeance for his temple.^(J)

Israel the Creator’s Instrument

The Doom of Babylon

²⁴ I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the wrong that they have done in Zion, says the Lord.^(U)

Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah

⁵⁹ The word that the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.^{(BB) 60} Jeremiah wrote in a^[d] scroll all the disasters that would come on Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.^{(BC) 61} And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words, ⁶² and say, ‘O Lord, you yourself threatened to destroy this place so that neither humans nor animals shall live in it, and it shall be desolate forever.’^{(BD) 63} When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it, and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,^{(BE) 64} and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disasters that I am bringing on her.’ ”^[e]

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.^(BF)

The Destruction of Jerusalem Reviewed

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.^{(BG) 2} He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done.^{(BH) 3} Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah so angered the Lord that he expelled them from his presence.

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.^{(BI) 4} And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and they laid siege to it; they built siegeworks against it all around.^{(BJ) 5} So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.^{(BK) 7} Then a breach was made in the city wall,^[f] and all the soldiers fled and went out from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the King’s Garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah.^{(BL) 8} But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered, deserting him.^{(BM) 9} Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.^{(BN) 10} The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the officers of Judah at Riblah.^{(BO) 11} He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in fetters, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.^(BP)

¹² In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.^{(BQ) 13} He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.^{(BR) 14} All the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.^{(BS) 15} Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans.^{(BT) 16} But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.^(BU)

¹⁷ The pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried all the bronze to Babylon.^{(BV) 18} They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the ladles, and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service.^{(BW) 19} The captain of the guard took away the small bowls also, the firepans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the ladles, and the bowls for libation, both those of gold and those of silver.^{(BX) 20} As for the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze bulls that were under the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weighing.^{(BY) 21} As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; its circumference was twelve cubits; it was hollow, and its thickness was four fingers.^{(BZ) 22} Upon it was a capital of bronze; the height of the capital was five cubits; latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, encircled the top of the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with pomegranates.^{(CA) 23} There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates encircling the latticework numbered one hundred.

²⁴ The captain of the guard took the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, and the three guardians of the threshold.^{(CB) 25} From the city he took an officer who had been in command of the soldiers, seven men of the king’s council who were found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land who were found inside the city. ²⁶ Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.^{(CC) 27} And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile out of its land.^(CD)

²⁸ This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadrezzar took into exile: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Judeans;^{(CE) 29} in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he took into exile from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons; ³⁰ in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took into exile of the Judeans seven hundred forty-five persons; all the persons were four thousand six hundred.^(CF)

Jehoiachin Favored in Captivity

³¹ In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year he began to reign, showed favor to King Jehoiachin of Judah and brought him out of prison;^{(CG) 32} he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³ So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes, and every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table.^{(CH) 34} For his allowance, a regular daily allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, as long as he lived, up to the day of his death.^(CI)

The Earthly and the Heavenly Sanctuaries

9 Now^[a] the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. ² For a tent^[b] was constructed, the first one, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of the Presence;^[c] this is called the holy place.^{(A) 3} Behind the second curtain was a tent^[d] called the holy of holies.^{(B) 4} In it stood the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which there were a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;^{(C) 5} above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.^[e] Of these things we cannot speak now in detail.^(D)

⁶ These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the first tent^[f] to carry out their ritual duties, ⁷ but only the high priest goes into the second, and he but once a year and not without taking the blood that he offers for himself and for the sins committed unintentionally by the people.^{(E) 8} By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary has not yet been disclosed as long as the first tent^[g] is still standing.^{(F) 9} This is a symbol^[h] of the present time, indicating that gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper^{(G) 10} but deal only with food and drink and various baptisms, regulations for the body imposed until the time comes to set things right.^(H)

¹¹ But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come,^[i] then through the greater and more perfect tent^[j] (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation),^{(I) 12} he entered once for all into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.^{(J) 13} For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified,^{(K) 14} how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit^[k] offered himself without blemish to God, purify our^[l] conscience from dead works to worship the living God!^(L)

¹⁵ For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.^{[m](M) 16} Where a will^[n] is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. ¹⁷ For a will^[o] takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. ¹⁸ Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.^{(N) 19} For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats,^[p] with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people,^{(O) 20} saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.” ²¹ And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent^[q] and all the vessels used in worship.^{(P) 22} Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.^(Q)

Christ’s Sacrifice Takes Away Sin

²³ Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.^{(R) 25} Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the holy place year after year with blood that is not his own, ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.^{(S) 27} And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once and after that the judgment,^{(T) 28} so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.^(U)