Jerusalem Burned, Zedekiah Blinded, Jehoiachin Released

The ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, the tenth month, the tenth day: Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon arrived with his whole army and encamped against Jerusalem. They built siege works around it, and the city was blockaded until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine had become so severe that there was no bread for the people of the land. The siege had done its work.

Then a breach was made in the city wall. That night, all the men of war fled through the gate between the two walls, near the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans surrounded the city. The king himself took the road to the Arabah. But the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. His entire army scattered and left him.

They seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where judgment was pronounced against him. The sons of Zedekiah were slaughtered before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and carried him off to Babylon. The last king of Judah went into exile blind, his final sight the death of his own sons.

In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—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. All the houses of the city were consumed by fire. The Chaldean army broke down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.

Nebuzaradan carried away captive the rest of the people left in the city, along with those who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the remaining multitude. Only the poorest of the land were left behind to be vinedressers and farmers. The temple treasures—the bronze pillars, the bases, and the bronze sea that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—were broken into pieces and the bronze carried to Babylon. The pots, shovels, snuffers, spoons, and all the bronze vessels used in the ministry were taken away. The firepans and basins, whether gold or silver, the captain of the guard also took. The bronze of the two pillars, the one sea, and the bases was beyond weighing. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high, with a capital of bronze three cubits high, decorated with network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The second pillar was the same.

The captain of the guard 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 army, and sixty men of the land who were found in the city. Nebuzaradan brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and the king struck them down and put them to death in 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 their men, saying, “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, along with the Jews and the 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 of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison. He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. Jehoiachin changed his prison garments and ate bread before the king continually all the days of his life. A regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion every day, all the days of his life.