the Fourth Week of Advent
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Bishop's Bible
Jeremiah 52
1 Zedekiah was one and twentie yeres olde whe he was made king, and raigned eleuen yeres in Hierusale: his mothers name was Hamutal, Ieremies daughter of Libna.2 He liued wickedly before the Lorde, euen as Iehoakim did:3 For the Lorde was angry at Hierusalem and Iuda, so long tyll he had cast them out of his presence: and Zedekiah fell from the kyng of Babylon.4 But in the ninth yere of his raigne, in the tenth moneth, the tenth day of the moneth, it happened that Nabuchodonozor the king of Babylon, with all his hoast, came before Hierusalem, and besieged it, and made bulwarkes rounde about it.5 And this besiegyng of the citie endured vnto the eleuenth yere of kyng Zedekiah.6 And in the fourth moneth, the ninth day of the moneth, there was a great hunger in the citie, that there were no more victuals for the people of the lande.7 So all the souldiers brake away, and fled out of the citie by night through the way of the port, betweene the two walles by the kynges garden: (Nowe the Chaldees had compassed the citie rounde about) yet went these men their way through the wildernesse.8 And so the Chaldees folowed vpon them, and toke Zedekiah the kyng in the fielde of Iericho, when his hoast was runne from hym.9 So they caryed the kyng away prisoner to Reblath, vnto the kyng of Babylon in the lande of Hemath, where he gaue iudgement vpon hym.10 The kyng of Babylon also caused Zedekias sonnes to be slayne before his face, yea and put all the princes of Iuda to death at Reblath.11 Moreouer, he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, & caused hym to be bounde with two chaynes, to be caryed vnto Babylon, and let him lye in prison tyl he dyed.
12 Nowe the tenth day of the fifth moneth, in the nineteenth yere of Nabuchodonozor kyng of Babylon, Nabuzaradau the chiefe captayne, and the kyng of Babylons seruauntes came vnto Hierusalem,13 And burnt vp the house of the Lorde: he burnt vp also the kynges palace, all the houses, and all the gorgeous buildinges in Hierusalem.14 And the whole hoast of the Chaldees that were with the chiefe captayne, brake downe all the walles of Hierusalem rounde about.15 As for the poore people, and such folke as was yet left in the citie, which also were fallen to the kyng of Babylon, yea and what people as yet remayned, Nabuzaradan the chiefe captayne caryed them away prisoners.16 But the poore people of the countrey did Nabuzaradan the chiefe captayne leaue in the lande, to occupie the vineyardes and fieldes.17 The Chaldees also brake the brasen pyllers that were in the house of the Lord, yea the seate and the brasen lauer that was in the house of the Lorde, and caryed all the mettall of them vnto Babylon.18 They toke away also the chalderns, shouels, fleshhokes, sprinklers, spoones, and all the brasen vessels that was occupied in the seruice.19 With the basons, cole pannes, sprinklers, pottes, candlestickes, spoones, and cuppes, wherof some were of golde, and some of siluer.20 The chiefe captayne toke also the two pillers, the lauer, the twelue brasen bullockes that stoode vnder the seat which king Solomon made in the house of the Lorde: and all the vessels conteyned so much mettal that it might not be waied.21 For euery piller was eyghteene cubites hye, and the rope that went about it was twelue cubites and foure fingers thicke, and rounde.22 Nowe vpon the rope were brasen knoppes, and euery knoppe was fiue cubites hye, and vpon the knoppes were hoopes, and pomgranates round about of cleane brasse.23 After this maner were both the pillers fashioned with ye pomgranates, wherof there were an hundred ninetie and sixe, which hanged vpon the hoopes rounde about.
24 The chiefe captayne also toke Saraiah the hye priest, and Sophoniah that was chiefe next hym, & the three kepers of the doore:25 He toke out of the citie a chaumberlaine which was captaine of the souldiers, and seuen men that were the kinges seruauntes, which were founde in the citie: and Sopher a captaine that vsed to muster the men of warre, with threescore men of the countrey that were taken in the citie:26 These Nabuzaradan the chiefe captaine toke, and caryed them to the king of Babylon vnto Reblath:27 And the kyng of Babylon caused them to be put to death at Reblath in the lande of Hemath: And thus Iuda was ledde away captiue out of his owne lande.28 This is the summe of the people whom Nabuchodonozor led away captiue: in the seuenth yere of his raigne he caryed away of the Iewes three thousande twentie and three,29 In the eyghteenth yere Nabuchodonozor caryed away from Hierusalem eyght hundred thirtie and two persons,30 In the three and twentie yere of Nabuchodonozor, Nabuzaradan the chiefe captayne toke away seuen hundred fourtie and fiue Iewes, prisoners. The whole summe of the prisoners is foure thousande and sixe hundred.
31 In the thirtie and seuenth yere after that Iehoakim the kyng of Iuda was caryed away, in the fiue and twentith day of the twelft moneth, Euilmerodach kyng of Babylon (the same yere that he raigned) gaue Iehoakim the kyng of Iuda his pardon, and let hym out of prison,32 And spake louyngly to hym, and set his throne aboue the thrones of the other kynges that were with hym in Babylon.33 He chaunged also the clothes of his prison, yea and did eate with hym all his life long.34 And he had a continuall lyuyng geuen hym of the kyng of Babylon, euery day a certayne thyng alowed hym, all the dayes of his life, vntyll he dyed.