Jeremias 52
1 It was the twenty-first year of Sedekias, when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Amitaal, the daughter of Jeremias, of Lobena.
Zedekiah was twenty-one when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah She came from Libnah.
He did evil in the Lord's sight, just as Jehoiakim had done.
All this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, because of the Lord's anger, until he eventually banished them from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the ninth month, on the tenth day of the month, [that] Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and they made a rampart round it, and built a wall round about it with large stones.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem with his entire army. He set up camp around the city and built siege ramps against the walls.
5 So the city was besieged, until the eleventh year of king Sedekias,
The city remained under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6 on the ninth day of the month, and [then] the famine was severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so bad that the people had nothing left to eat.
7 And the city was broken up, and all the men of war went out by night by the way of the gate, between the wall and the outworks, which were by the king's garden; and the Chaldeans were by the city round about; and they went by the way [leading] to the wilderness.
Then the city wall was broken through, and all the soldiers ran away, escaping at night through the gate between the two walls by the king's garden, even though the Babylonians had the city surrounded. They went in the direction of the Arabah,
8 But the host of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in the [country] beyond Jericho; and all his servants were dispersed from [about] him.
but the Babylonian army chased after the king and caught up with him on the plains of Jericho. His whole army had scattered and left him.
9 And they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon to Deblatha, and he judged him.
They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where he sentenced him.
10 And the king of Babylon killed the sons of Sedekias before his eyes; and he killed all the princes of Juda in Deblatha.
The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's sons while he watched, and also killed the officials of Judah there at Riblah.
11 And he put out the eyes of Sedekias, and bound him in fetters; and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon, and put him into the grinding-house, until the day when he died.
Then he gouged out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him in bronze shackles. The king of Babylon took him to Babylon and imprisoned him there until the day he died.
12 And in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nabuzardan the captain of the guard, who waited on the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem;
On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, an officer of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.
13 and he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house; and all the houses of the city, and every great house he burnt with fire.
He burned down the Lord's Temple, the royal palace, and all the large buildings of Jerusalem.
14 And the host of the Chaldeans that was with the captain of the guard pulled down all the wall of Jerusalem round about.
The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the guard knocked down all the walls around Jerusalem.
Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, deported some of the poor people and those who were left in the city, even those who had gone over to the side of the king of Babylon, as well as the rest of the craftsmen.
16 But the captain of the guard left the remnant of the people to be vinedressers and husbandmen.
But Nebuzaradan allowed others of the poor people who were left in the country to stay and take care of the vineyards and the fields.
17 And the Chaldeans broke in pieces the brazen pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, and they took the brass thereof, and carried it away to Babylon.
The Babylonians broke into pieces the bronze pillars, the movable carts, and the bronze Sea that belonged to the Lord's Temple, and they took all the bronze to Babylon.
18 Also the rim, and the bowls, and the flesh hooks, and all the brazen vessels, wherewith they ministered;
They also took all the pots, shovels, lamp snuffers, sprinkling bowls, and all the other bronze items used in the Temple service.
19 and the basins, and the snuffers, and the oil-funnels, and the candlesticks, and the censers, and the cups, the golden, of gold, and the silver, of silver, the captain of the guard took away.
The commander of the guard removed the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes and bowls, anything that was made of pure gold or silver.
20 And the two pillars, and the one sea, and the twelve brazen oxen under the sea, which [things] king Solomon made for the house of the Lord; the brass of which [articles] was without weight.
The amount of bronze that came from the two columns, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable carts, which Solomon had made for the Lord's Temple, all of this weighed more than could be measured.
21 And as for the pillars, the height of one pillar was thirty-five cubits; and a line of twelve cubits compassed it round; and the thickness of it [all] round was four fingers.
Each column was eighteen cubits tall and twelve cubits around. They were hollow with walls four fingers thick.
22 And [there was] a brazen chapiter upon them, and the length was five cubits, [even] the height of one chapiter; and [there were] on the chapiter round about network and pomegranates, all of brass: and correspondingly the second pillar [had] eight pomegranates to a cubit for the twelve cubits.
The bronze capital on top of one column was five cubits high, with a network of bronze pomegranates around it. The second column was the same, and also had a decorative network.
23 And the pomegranates were ninety-six on a side; and all the pomegranates on the network round about were a hundred.
There were ninety-six bronze pomegranates around each column. Above the network were a total of one hundred pomegranates.
24 And the captain of the guard took the chief priest, and the second priest, and those that kept the way;
The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest, second in rank, and the three Temple doorkeepers.
25 and one eunuch, who was over the men of war, and seven men of renown, who were in the king's presence that were found in the city; and the scribe of the forces, who did the part of a scribe to the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.
From those left in the city he took the officer in charge of the soldiers, and seven of the king's advisors. He also took the secretary to the army commander who was in charge of calling up the people for military service, and sixty other men who were present in the city.
26 And Nabuzardan the captain of the king's guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Deblatha.
Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, took them and brought them before the king of Babylon at Riblah.
27 And the king of Babylon struck them in Deblatha, in the land of Aemath.
The king of Babylon had them executed at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So the people of Judah had to leave their land.
This is a record of the number of people Nebuchadnezzar took into exile. In the seventh year of his reign he took 3,023 Judeans.
In his eighteenth year Nebuchadnezzar took another 832 from Jerusalem.
In his twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, took another 745 Judeans, making a total of 4,600.
31 And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year after that Joakim king of Juda had been carried away captive, in the twelfth month, on the four and twentieth [day] of the month, [that] Ulaemadachar king of Babylon, in the year in which he began to reign, raised the head of Joakim king of Juda, and shaved him, and brought him out of the house where he was kept,
In the year Evil-merodach became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from prison. This happened on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, king of Judah.
32 and spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the kings that were with him in Babylon,
The king of Babylon treated him well him and gave him a position of honor higher than the other kings there with him in Babylon.
33 and changed his prison garments: and he ate bread continually before him all the days that he lived.
So Jehoiachin was able to remove his prison clothes, and he ate frequently at the king's table for the rest of his life.
34 And his appointed portion was given him continually by the king of Babylon from day to day, until the day when he died.
The king provided Jehoiachin with a daily allowance for the rest of his life until he died.
