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12 Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard,[a] who stood before[b] the king of Babylon, entered into Jerusalem. 13 And he burned the temple[c] of Yahweh, and the palace[d] of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house he burned with fire. 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard[e] broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 15 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard[f] deported some of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the deserters who deserted to the king of Babylon, along with the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard[g] left some of the poor of the land to serve as vinedressers and farmers.

17 And the Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in the temple[h] of Yahweh, and the kettle stands and the sea of bronze that were in the temple[i] of Yahweh, and they carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18 And they took with them the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the sprinkling bowls, and the pans, and all the vessels of bronze which were used in temple service. 19 And the captain of the guard[j] took the bowls, and the firepans, and the sprinkling bowls, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the pans, and the libation bowls, those made of solid gold[k] and those made of solid silver.[l] 20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen that were under the kettle stands which King Solomon had made for the temple[m] of Yahweh—there was not a weight for the bronze of all these vessels! 21 Now the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits,[n] and a thread of twelve cubits[o] surrounded it, and its thickness was four fingers, hollowed out. 22 And a capital upon it was bronze and the height of the one capital was five cubits, and latticework and pomegranates were on the capital on all sides, all of bronze. And like these was the second pillar with pomegranates. 23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides;[p] all the pomegranates on the latticework on all sides were a hundred.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 52:12 Hebrew “guards”
  2. Jeremiah 52:12 Literally “to the face of”
  3. Jeremiah 52:13 Literally “house”
  4. Jeremiah 52:13 Or “house”
  5. Jeremiah 52:14 Hebrew “guards”
  6. Jeremiah 52:15 Hebrew “guards”
  7. Jeremiah 52:16 Hebrew “guards”
  8. Jeremiah 52:17 Literally “house”
  9. Jeremiah 52:17 Literally “house”
  10. Jeremiah 52:19 Hebrew “guards”
  11. Jeremiah 52:19 Literally “which gold gold”
  12. Jeremiah 52:19 Literally “which silver silver”
  13. Jeremiah 52:20 Literally “house”
  14. Jeremiah 52:21 Hebrew “cubit”
  15. Jeremiah 52:21 Hebrew “cubit”
  16. Jeremiah 52:23 Literally “breath”

The Temple Destroyed

12 On August 17 of that year,[a] which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem. 13 He burned down the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings[b] in the city. 14 Then he supervised the entire Babylonian[c] army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. 15 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind to care for the vineyards and fields.

17 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the Lord’s Temple, the bronze water carts, and the great bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon. 18 They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, basins, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple. 19 The captain of the guard also took the small bowls, incense burners, basins, pots, lampstands, ladles, bowls used for liquid offerings, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.

20 The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea with the twelve bronze oxen beneath it, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the Lord’s Temple in the days of King Solomon. 21 Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference.[d] They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.[e] 22 The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7 1⁄2 feet[f] high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around. 23 There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 pomegranates on the network around the top.

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Footnotes

  1. 52:12 Hebrew On the tenth day of the fifth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was August 17, 586 B.c.; also see note on 52:4a.
  2. 52:13 Or destroyed the houses of all the important people.
  3. 52:14 Or Chaldean.
  4. 52:21a Hebrew 18 cubits [8.3 meters] tall and 12 cubits [5.5 meters] in circumference.
  5. 52:21b Hebrew 4 fingers thick [8 centimeters].
  6. 52:22 Hebrew 5 cubits [2.3 meters].