Chronological

24 Early in Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king, came into the land; and Jehoiakim was in his service three years. Then Jehoiakim rebelled. ² The Eternal One dispatched Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites to demolish Judah, in accordance with the message the Eternal spoke through His servants the prophets.

³ Because of Manasseh’s abhorrent wickedness and all he did, Judah was removed from the presence of the Eternal One, just as He had commanded. ⁴ His wrath came because of the innocent blood Manasseh had flooded Jerusalem with. He would not forgive them.

⁵ Is not the rest of Jehoiakim’s story—his actions and lasting legacy—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings? ⁶ Jehoiakim left this world to sleep with his fathers. His son, Jehoiachin, then inherited the throne.

⁷ Egypt’s king never departed from his own country again because Babylon’s king, Nebuchadnezzar, ruled everything that had formerly been in the possession of Egypt’s king, all the way from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

⁸ Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he inherited the throne. His reign in Jerusalem lasted 3 months. His mother was Nehushta (Elnathan’s daughter from Jerusalem). ⁹ He committed evil in the Eternal’s eyes. He was just like his father.

^10-11 During that time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon) put Jerusalem under siege, and Nebuchadnezzar entered the city during the siege. ¹² Jehoiachin, Judah’s king, met with Nebuchadnezzar face-to-face in a peaceful surrender, along with Jehoiachin’s mother, servants, commanders, and administrators. The king of Babylon took Jehoiachin captive during the eighth year of his reign. ¹³ He cleaned out all the treasuries in the Eternal’s temple and in the king’s palace, and he also took and cut into pieces all the gold vessels Solomon (king of Israel) had crafted in the Eternal’s temple, just as the Eternal One had said.^[a] He left nothing. ¹⁴ Nebuchadnezzar then gathered up all of Jerusalem—the commanders, warriors, craftsmen, and artisans (10,000 in all)—and forced them into exile. Only the poorest people remained.

¹⁵ Nebuchadnezzar forced Jehoiachin, his mother, his wives, his administrators, and the elders of Judah into exile in Babylon. ¹⁶ He also forced 7,000 warriors and 1,000 craftsmen and artisans into exile in Babylon. ¹⁷ Nebuchadnezzar then appointed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Mattaniah, to take his place as king, and Nebuchadnezzar gave Mattaniah a new name—Zedekiah.

¹⁸ Zedekiah was 21 years old when he was given the throne by Nebuchadnezzar. His reign in Jerusalem lasted 11 years. His mother was Hamutal (Jeremiah’s daughter) from Libnah. ¹⁹ Zedekiah committed evil in the Eternal’s eyes. He was wicked like Jehoiakim.

²⁰ This all took place in Jerusalem and Judah because of the Eternal’s boiling anger. The Eternal One moved them out of the land and away from His presence.

Then, Zedekiah turned his back on Nebuchadnezzar.

25 On the 10th day of the 10th month, during the 9th year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon’s king) and his entire army surrounded Jerusalem. They camped outside the city and built siege ramps around it. ² The city remained under siege until the 11th year of Zedekiah’s reign.

³ On the 9th day of the 4th month, there was a food shortage in the city, and no one had anything to eat. Everyone became afraid of starvation. ⁴ The city wall was breached, and all the warriors ran out during the night through the gateway between the two walls near the king’s garden, in spite of the Chaldeans surrounding the city. The warriors went on the Arabah road. ⁵ The Chaldean army chased after the fleeing king and caught up to him in the fields of Jericho. His army dispersed in all directions. ⁶ They took the king captive and escorted him to Babylon’s king at Riblah. Nebuchadnezzar decided on a punishment for the king: ⁷ they killed Zedekiah’s sons right in front of Zedekiah; then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes so that the slaughter of his sons was the last thing he ever saw, and they put him in bronze shackles and transported him to Babylon.

⁸ On the 7th day, during the 5th month of Nebuchadnezzar’s 19th year as king over Babylon, Nebuzaradan, a servant of the king and captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s guards, arrived in Jerusalem. ⁹ Nebuzaradan set fire to the Eternal’s temple, the palace, and every house in Jerusalem. He burned down every large house and structure in Jerusalem. ¹⁰ The entire Chaldean army, who was with Nebuzaradan, tore down Jerusalem’s walls. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan captured everyone who was still in the city, even the renegades who had fled to Nebuchadnezzar, and he forced them into exile. ¹² But Nebuzaradan spared the poorest people and left them to take care of the land as farmers and gardeners.

¹³ The Chaldeans took everything of value. They took the bronze pillars, stands, and the bronze sea in the Eternal’s temple; and they broke them up into pieces and took the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴ They also took the pans, the shovels, the snuffers, the bronze objects, and every bronze cup that was used during the rituals of the temple. ¹⁵ Nebuzaradan took the coal pans and bowls and all the gold and purified silver. ¹⁶ The amount of bronze (including the two bronze pillars, the bronze sea, and the bronze stands Solomon crafted for the Eternal’s temple) was so great that it could not be weighed. ¹⁷ Each pillar was 27 feet high with a bronze capital. The capital was 54 inches high, and it was covered with bronze network and bronze pomegranates. Both pillars were exactly alike.

¹⁸ Nebuzaradan gathered Seraiah, the head priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, along with the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ In the city, he gathered up one officer of the army, five of the king’s counselors, the army captain’s aide for mustering the troops, and 60 other Judahite men. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan (captain of the guard) escorted them to Babylon’s king at Riblah. ²¹ Nebuchadnezzar killed them all at Riblah in Hamath. Thus Judah was separated from the land and forced into exile.

²² Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had allowed some people to remain in Judah, so he appointed Gedaliah (son of Ahikam, Shaphan’s son) to govern the land. ²³ When all the army commanders received word that Nebuchadnezzar had appointed Gedeliah to govern the land, they went to visit Gedeliah in Mizpah. Those who visited him were Ishmael (Nethaniah’s son), Johanan (Kareah’s son), Seraiah (Tanhumeth the Netophathite’s son), and Jaazaniah (the Maacathite’s son), including their men. ²⁴ Gedaliah attempted to assuage them and swore an oath before them.

²⁵ But during the 7th month, Ishmael, (son of Nethaniah, Elishama’s son) of the royal family, attacked Gedaliah with 10 male accomplices. Gedaliah and all the Jews and Chaldeans at Mizpah were killed. ²⁶ Everyone in the community, both rich and poor, even the commanders of the army, traveled to Egypt because they greatly feared the Chaldeans.

²⁷ On the 27th day of the 12th month during the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin (Judah’s king), Evil-merodach (Babylon’s king) released Jehoiachin from prison. Evil-merodach did this the same year he inherited the throne. ²⁸ Evil-merodach was good to Jehoiachin, and he gave Jehoiachin an honorary throne that was higher than all the thrones of the other kings held captive in Babylon. ²⁹ Jehoiachin removed his prison garments and put on new clothes. He ate his meals with the king every day for the rest of his life. ³⁰ The king also gave him a stipend on a daily basis for the rest of his life.

36 The Israelites chose Josiah’s son Joahaz, also named Jehoahaz,^[a] as his father’s successor in Jerusalem. ² He was 23 years old when he ascended to the throne, but his reign in Jerusalem only lasted 3 months. ^3-5 Neco conquered Israel, deposed Joahaz as the king, exiled him to Egypt, and made Israel a vassal state required to pay 3,750 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold annually to Egypt.

The Egyptian king appointed 25-year-old Eliakim, Joahaz’s brother, as acting king of Judah and Jerusalem, changing his name to Jehoiakim. He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and he was evil before the Eternal God. ⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Israel, carried Jehoiakim bound in bronze chains into exile in Babylon, ⁷ plundered the Eternal’s temple, and put the temple possessions in his own Babylonian temple. ^8-9 The rest of Jehoiakim’s rebellions are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Jehoiachin was only 8 years old when he succeeded his father as king in Jerusalem. He, too, did what the Eternal considered as evil and reigned only 3 months and 10 days. ¹⁰ Just after the new year, King Nebuchadnezzar had Jehoiachin exiled to Babylon as well. He also took more valuables from the Eternal’s temple.

Nebuchadnezzar then appointed Zedekiah the Babylonian as acting king of Judah and Jerusalem ¹¹ when he was only 21 years old. He reigned 11 years from Jerusalem ¹² and he also did what the Eternal One saw as evil. He refused to listen to the guidance of Jeremiah, who advised the king to humble himself before the Eternal. ¹³ Furthermore, he rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, to whom he had sworn allegiance in the name of God, ¹⁴ then led the rest of the nation to abandon the Eternal One, God of Israel. All the leaders and priests mimicked the other nations, following pagan gods and desecrating the Eternal’s house, which He had sanctified in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Again and again, the Eternal God of their ancestors, because of His compassion for His people and His temple, sent messengers to His people, convicting them of the wrong doings and telling them to return to His ways, ¹⁶ but the people mocked the True God’s messengers, hated His messages, and laughed at His prophets. Their actions further infuriated the Eternal, until there was no way to contain His anger.

¹⁷ The Eternal empowered the king of the Chaldeans (who were part of the Babylonian Empire) to attack Israel. This army was merciless, sacrificing Israel’s children in their temples and slaughtering everyone else without regard to gender, age, or health. ^18-19 They plundered every treasure in the Eternal God’s temple and burned God’s temple to the ground. They stole the king’s and the officers’ possessions, tore down the wall of Jerusalem, burned the fortified buildings, and destroyed anything of value in Jerusalem. ²⁰ Anyone who managed to survive the invasion was exiled to Babylon, where they remained servants of the Babylonian court until it was conquered by the Persian Empire. ²¹ This exile fulfilled the Eternal’s message through Jeremiah that Israel would lie quietly at rest and be desolate for 70 years to make up for the generations where they did not observe Sabbath.

²² As soon as Cyrus, the king of Persia, took over the former Babylonian Empire, the Eternal fulfilled His own words (which were relayed by Jeremiah) by compelling Cyrus to send a written proclamation throughout his empire.