2 Kings 25
1 And it came to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came—he and all his force, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, —and they built against it a siege wall, round about.
On January 15 of the ninth year that Zedekiah had been ruling, King Nebuchadnezzar arrived with his whole army, and they surrounded Jerusalem. They built ramps [made of dirt against the walls of the city], so that they could climb up the ramps and attack the city.
2 And the city came into the siege, —until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
They did that for two years.
3 On the ninth of the month, when the famine had become severe in the city, —and there had come to be no bread for the people of the land,
After Zedekiah had been ruling for eleven years, the (famine/shortage of food) had become very bad. All their food was gone.
4 then was the city broken up, and all the men of war [fled] by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which is by the garden of the king, the Chaldeans being near the city round about, —and he went the way of the Waste Plain;
On July 18 of that year, the Babylonian soldiers broke through part of the city wall, [and that enabled them to enter the city]. All the soldiers of Judah [wanted to escape]. But the Babylonian soldiers surrounded the city, so the [king and] the soldiers of Judah waited until it was nighttime. Then they fled through the gate that was between the two walls near the king’s park. They ran across the fields and started to go down to the Jordan [River] Valley.
5 and the force of the Chaldeans, pursued, the king, and overtook him in the Waste Plains of Jericho, —and, all his force, was scattered from him.
But the Babylonian soldiers chased/ran after them. They caught the king when he was by himself in the valley near the Jordan River. He was by himself because all his soldiers had abandoned him.
6 So they seized the king, and brought him up unto the king of Babylon, at Riblah, —and they pronounced upon him sentence of judgment.
The Babylonian soldiers took King Zedekiah to Riblah [city] in Babylon. There the king of Babylon decided what they would do to punish him.
7 And, the sons of Zedekiah, they slew before his eyes, —and, the eyes of Zedekiah, put they out, and then bound him with fetters of bronze, and brought him into Babylon.
There the king of Babylon forced Zedekiah to watch as the Babylonian soldiers killed all of Zedekiah’s sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes. They put bronze chains on [his hands and feet] and then they took him to Babylon.
8 And, in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, the same, was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, chief of the royal executioners, servant of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem;
On August 14 of that year, after Nebuchadnezzar had been ruling for 19 years, Nebuzaradan arrived in Jerusalem. He was one of king Nebuchadnezzar’s officials and captain of the men that guarded the king.
9 and burned the house of Yahweh, and the house of the king, —yea, all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great man’s house, burned he with fire.
He [commanded his soldiers to] burn down the temple of Yahweh, the king’s palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem. So they burned down all the important buildings in the city.
10 And, the walls of Jerusalem round about, did all the force of the Chaldeans who were with the chief of the royal executioners, break down.
Then Nebuzaradan supervised all the soldiers of the Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem.
11 And, the residue of the people who were left in the city, and the disheartened who fell away unto the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan, chief of the royal executioners, carry away captive.
Then he and his soldiers took to Babylon the people who were still living in the city, the other people [who lived in that area], and the soldiers who had previously surrendered to the Babylonian army.
12 But, of the poorest of the land, did the chief of the royal executioners, leave, for vine-dressers and for husbandmen.
But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the very poor people to stay in Judah to take care of the vineyards and [to plant crops in] the fields.
13 And, the pillars of bronze that were in the house of Yahweh, and the stands, and the sea of bronze which was in the house of Yahweh, the Chaldeans brake in pieces, and they carried away the bronze of them to Babylon;
The Babylonian soldiers broke into pieces the bronze pillars, the bronze carts with wheels, and the huge bronze basin, all of which were in the temple courtyard, and they took all the bronze to Babylon.
14 and, the caldrons, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, even all the utensils of bronze wherewith ministration used to be made, did they take away;
They also took the pots, the shovels, the instruments for (snuffing out/extinguishing) [the wicks of] the lamps, the dishes, and all the other bronze items that the Israeli priests had used for offering sacrifices at the temple.
15 and, the sprinkling pans and the dashing bowls which were of gold, in gold, and which were of silver, in silver, did, the chief of the royal executions, take away.
The soldiers also took away the (firepans/trays for carrying burning coals), the basins, and [all the other] items made of pure gold or pure silver.
16 As for the two pillars the one sea and the stands which Solomon made for the house of Yahweh, without weight, was the bronze of all these things.
The bronze from the two pillars, the carts with wheels, and the huge basin were very heavy; they could not be weighed. (Those things had been made/A man named Hiram had made these things) for the temple when Solomon [was the king of Israel].
17 Eighteen cubits, was the height of each pillar, and, the capital thereupon was of bronze, and, the height of the capital, was three cubits, and, the lattice-work and pomegranates upon the capital round about, the whole, was of bronze; and, like these, had the second pillar, upon the lattice-work.
Each of the pillars was (27 feet/8 meters) tall. The bronze capital/top of each pillar was (7-1/2 feet/2.3 meters) high. They were each decorated all around with something that looked like a net made of bronze chains connecting bronze pomegranates.
18 And the chief of the royal executioners took Seraiah the head priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, —and the three keepers of the entrance hall;
Nebuzaradan took with him to Babylon Seraiah the Supreme Priest, Zephaniah his assistant, and the three men who guarded the entrance [to the temple].
19 and, out of the city, took he one courtier who himself was set over the men of war, and five men of them who were wont to see the face of the king, who were found in the city, and the scribe—general of the army, who used to muster the people of the land, —and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city;
And they found people who were still hiding in Jerusalem. From those people he took one officer from the Judean army, five of the king’s advisors, the chief secretary of the army commander who was in charge of recruiting men to join the army, and 60 other important Judean men.
20 and Nebuzaradan, chief of the royal executioners, took them, —and brought them unto the king of Babylon, at Riblah;
Nebuzaradan took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah [city].
21 and the king of Babylon smote them and slew them in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, —and thus Judah disappeared from off their own soil.
There at Riblah, in Hamath province, the king of Babylon commanded that they all be executed. That is what happened when the people of Judah were (taken forcefully/exiled) from their land [to Babylon].
22 But, as for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon left remaining, he set over them Gedaliah, son of Ahikam son of Shaphan.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah, who was the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, to be the governor of the people who were still living in Judah.
23 And, when all the generals of the forces, they and the men, heard that the king of Babylon had given oversight unto Gedaliah, then came they in unto Gedaliah, at Mizpah, —even Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of a Maacathite, they and their men.
When all the army captains of Judah and their soldiers who had not surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar found out that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to be the governor, they met with him at Mizpah [town]. These army captains were Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Kareah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth from Netophah [town], and Jaazaniah from the Maacah region.
24 And Gedaliah sware unto them, and to their men, and said to them, Do not fear because of the servants of the Chaldeans, —dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
Gedaliah solemnly promised them [that the officials from Babylon were not planning to harm them]. He said, “You may live in this land [without being afraid] and serve the king of Babylon, and [if you do], everything will go well for you.”
25 And it came to pass, in the seventh month, that Ishmael son of Nethaniah a son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, —and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
But in October of that year, Ishmael, whose grandfather Elishama was one of the relatives of the descendants of King David, went to Mizpah along with ten other men and assassinated/killed Gedaliah and all the men who were with him. There were also men from Judah and men from Babylon whom they assassinated.
26 Then arose all the people, both small and great, and the generals of the forces, and came into Egypt, —for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
Then many [HYP] of the people from Judah, important people and unimportant ones, and the army captains, were very afraid of [what] the Babylonians [would do to them], so they fled to Egypt.
27 And it came to pass, 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, —that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, out of prison;
Thirty-seven years after King Jehoiachin of Judah was taken to Babylon, [Nebuchadnezzar’s son] Evil-Merodach became the king of Babylon. He was kind to Jehoiachin, and on April 2 of that year, he released/freed Jehoiachin from prison.
28 and he spake with him kind words, —and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon;
He always spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and honored him more than the other kings who had been taken/exiled to Babylon.
29 and changed his prison garments, —and he did eat bread continually before him, all the days of his life.
He gave Jehoiachin new clothes to replace the clothes that he had been wearing in prison, and he allowed Jehoiachin to eat at the king’s table every day for the rest of his life.
30 And, as his allowance, a continual portion, was given him, from the king, the provision of a day upon its own day, —all the days of his life.
The king of Babylon also gave him money every day, so that he could buy the things that he needed. The king continued to do that until Jehoiachin died.
