Chronological

24 During the reign of King Jehoiakim, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem. Jehoiakim surrendered and paid him tribute for three years, but then rebelled. ² And the Lord sent bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against Judah in order to destroy the nation, just as the Lord had warned through his prophets that he would. ^3-4 It is clear that these disasters befell Judah at the direct command of the Lord. He had decided to wipe Judah out of his sight because of the many sins of Manasseh, for he had filled Jerusalem with blood, and the Lord would not pardon it.

⁵ The rest of the history of the life of Jehoiakim is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. ⁶ When he died, his son Jehoiachin became the new king. ⁷ (The Egyptian Pharaoh never returned after that, for the king of Babylon occupied the entire area claimed by Egypt—all of Judah from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.)

¹⁰ During his reign the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged the city of Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar himself arrived during the siege, ¹² and King Jehoiachin, all of his officials, and the queen mother surrendered to him. The surrender was accepted, and Jehoiachin was imprisoned in Babylon during the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.

¹³ The Babylonians carried home all the treasures from the Temple and the royal palace; and they cut apart all the gold bowls which King Solomon of Israel had placed in the Temple at the Lord’s directions. ¹⁴ King Nebuchadnezzar took ten thousand captives from Jerusalem, including all the princes and the best of the soldiers, craftsmen, and smiths. So only the poorest and least skilled people were left in the land. ¹⁵ Nebuchadnezzar took King Jehoiachin, his wives and officials, and the queen mother, to Babylon. ¹⁶ He also took seven thousand of the best troops and one thousand craftsmen and smiths, all of whom were strong and fit for war. ¹⁷ Then the king of Babylon appointed King Jehoiachin’s great-uncle,^[a] Mattaniah, to be the next king; and he changed his name to Zedekiah.

²⁰ So the Lord finally, in his anger, destroyed the people of Jerusalem and Judah. But now King Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

25 Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon mobilized his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem, arriving on March 25 of the ninth year of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah. ² The siege continued into the eleventh year of his reign.

³ The last food in the city was eaten on July 24, ^4-5 and that night the king and his troops made a hole in the inner wall and fled out toward the Arabah through a gate that lay between the double walls near the king’s garden. The Babylonian troops surrounding the city took out after him and captured him in the plains of Jericho, and all his men scattered. ⁶ He was taken to Riblah, where he was tried and sentenced before the king of Babylon. ⁷ He was forced to watch as his sons were killed before his eyes; then his eyes were put out, and he was bound with chains and taken away to Babylon.

⁸ General Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal bodyguard, arrived at Jerusalem from Babylon on July 22 of the nineteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. ⁹ He burned down the Temple, the palace, and all the other houses of any worth. ¹⁰ He then supervised the Babylonian army in tearing down the walls of Jerusalem. ¹¹ The remainder of the people in the city and the Jewish deserters who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon were all taken as exiles to Babylon. ¹² But the poorest of the people were left to farm the land.

¹³ The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars of the Temple and the bronze tank and its bases and carried all the bronze to Babylon. ^14-15 They also took all the pots, shovels, firepans, snuffers, spoons, and other bronze instruments used for the sacrifices. The gold and silver bowls, with all the rest of the gold and silver, were melted down to bullion. ¹⁶ It was impossible to estimate the weight of the two pillars and the great tank and its bases—all made for the Temple by King Solomon—because they were so heavy. ¹⁷ Each pillar was 27 feet high, with an intricate bronze network of pomegranates decorating the 4-1/2-foot capitals at the tops of the pillars.

¹⁸ The general took Seraiah, the chief priest, his assistant Zephaniah, and the three Temple guards to Babylon as captives. ¹⁹ A commander of the army of Judah, the chief recruiting officer, five of the king’s counselors, and sixty farmers, all of whom were discovered hiding in the city, ²⁰ were taken by General Nebuzaradan to the king of Babylon at Riblah, ²¹ where they were put to the sword and died.

So Judah was exiled from its land.

²² Then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah (the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan) as governor over the people left in Judah. ²³ When the Israeli guerrilla forces learned that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, some of these underground leaders and their men joined him at Mizpah. These included Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah; Johanan, the son of Kareah; Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite; and Jaazaniah, son of Maachathite, and their men.

²⁴ Gedaliah vowed that if they would give themselves up and submit to the Babylonians, they would be allowed to live in the land and would not be exiled. ²⁵ But seven months later, Ishmael, who was a member of the royal line, went to Mizpah with ten men and killed Gedaliah and his court—both the Jews and the Babylonians.

²⁶ Then all the men of Judah and the guerrilla leaders fled in panic to Egypt, for they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them.

²⁷ King Jehoiachin was released from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the last month of the thirty-seventh year of his captivity.

This occurred during the first year of the reign of King Evil-merodach of Babylon. ²⁸ He treated Jehoiachin kindly and gave him preferential treatment over all the other kings who were being held as prisoners in Babylon. ²⁹ Jehoiachin was given civilian clothing to replace his prison garb, and for as long as he lived, he ate regularly at the king’s table. ³⁰ The king also gave him a daily cash allowance for the rest of his life.

36 Josiah’s son Jehoahaz was selected as the new king. ² He was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, but lasted only three months. ³ Then he was deposed by the king of Egypt, who demanded an annual tribute from Judah of $230,000.

⁴ The king of Egypt now appointed Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, as the new king of Judah. (Eliakim’s name was changed to Jehoiakim.) Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt as a prisoner. ⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; but his reign was an evil one. ⁶ Finally Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and took away the king in chains to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the gold bowls and other items from the Temple, placing them in his own temple in Babylon. ⁸ The rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all the evil he did are written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah; and his son Jehoiachin became the new king.

⁹ Jehoiachin was eighteen^[a] years old when he ascended the throne. But he lasted only three months and ten days, and it was an evil reign as far as the Lord was concerned. ¹⁰ The following spring he was summoned to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. Many treasures from the Temple were taken away to Babylon at that time, and King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin’s brother Zedekiah as the new king of Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹² His reign, too, was evil so far as the Lord was concerned, for he refused to take the counsel of Jeremiah the prophet, who gave him messages from the Lord. ¹³ He rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, even though he had taken an oath of loyalty. Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man so far as obeying the Lord God of Israel was concerned, for he refused to follow him.

¹⁴ All the important people of the nation, including the High Priests, worshiped the heathen idols of the surrounding nations, thus polluting the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Jehovah the God of their fathers sent his prophets again and again to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and on his Temple. ¹⁶ But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words, scoffing at the prophets until the anger of the Lord could no longer be restrained, and there was no longer any remedy.

¹⁷ Then the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them and killed their young men, even going after them right into the Temple, and had no pity upon them, killing even young girls and old men. The Lord used the king of Babylon to destroy them completely. ¹⁸ He also took home with him all the items, great and small, used in the Temple, and treasures from both the Temple and the palace, and took with him all the royal princes. ¹⁹ Then his army burned the Temple and broke down the walls of Jerusalem and burned all the palaces and destroyed all the valuable Temple utensils. ²⁰ Those who survived were taken away to Babylon as slaves to the king and his sons until the kingdom of Persia conquered Babylon.

²¹ Thus the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah came true, that the land must rest for seventy years to make up for the years when the people refused to observe the Sabbath.

^22-23 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to make this proclamation throughout his kingdom, putting it into writing:

“All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord God of heaven, and he has instructed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in the land of Judah. All among you who are the Lord’s people return to Israel for this task, and the Lord be with you.”

This also fulfilled the prediction of Jeremiah the prophet.