Jerusalem Burned, Zedekiah Blinded, Jehoiachin Released

The Babylonian army came in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day. Nebuchadnezzar himself led the force. They encamped against Jerusalem and built siege works around it. The city was hemmed in until the eleventh year of Zedekiah.

By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine had become severe. There was no bread for the people of the land. The siege had done its work. Then a breach was made in the wall. Under cover of night, all the men of war fled through the gate between the two walls, near the king's garden. The king went with them by the way of the Arabah, but the Chaldean army pursued and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. His entire army scattered and left him.

They seized Zedekiah and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where judgment was passed on him. The sons of Zedekiah were slaughtered before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him to Babylon. The last thing he saw was the death of his own children.

In the fifth month, on the seventh day, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king's house, and every great house in Jerusalem. He set fire to all of them. The Chaldean army broke down the walls around the city. Then Nebuzaradan carried away into captivity the remnant of the people left in the city, along with those who had deserted to the king of Babylon. Only the poorest of the land were left behind to be vinedressers and farmers.

The bronze pillars of the house of the Lord, the bases, and the bronze sea were broken into pieces. The Chaldeans carried all the bronze to Babylon. They took away the pots, shovels, snuffers, spoons, and all the bronze vessels used in the ministry. The firepans and basins—whatever was gold or silver—the captain of the guard took. The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord were beyond weighing for the abundance of bronze. The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, with a bronze capital of three cubits, decorated with network and pomegranates all around, all of bronze. The second pillar had the same.

Nebuzaradan also took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold. From the city he took an officer who had been set over the men of war, five men who had seen the king's face and were found in the city, the scribe who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city. He brought them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah. The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of its land.

For the people left in the land of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor. When the captains of the forces and their men heard that Gedaliah had been made governor, they came to him at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, along with their men. Gedaliah swore to them and said, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.”

But in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal seed, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah, so that he died. They also killed the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose and went to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin out of prison. He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. He changed his prison garments, and Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life. A continual allowance was given him by the king, a portion every day, all the days of his life.