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¹ ZEDEKIAH was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mothers name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.² And he did that which was evil before the LORD. according to all that Jehoiakim had done.³ Because of these evils the anger of the LORD came against Jerusalem and against Judah till he had cast them out from his presence, and King Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.⁴ And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem and encamped against it and built forts against it round about.⁵ So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.⁶ And in the fifth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.⁷ Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the kings garden (now the Chaldeans were round about the city), and they went by the way of the plain.⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plain of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.⁹ Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Diblath in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.¹⁰ And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he slew also all the princes of Judah in Diblath.¹¹ Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains, and the king of Babylon carried him to Babylon and put him in prison till the day of his death.

¹² Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the general of the guard, came and stood before the king of Babylon to serve him in Jerusalem;¹³ And he burned the house of the LORD and the house of the king of Judah and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the princes he burned with fire;¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the general of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.¹⁵ Then Nebuzaradan, the general of the guard, carried away captive some of the poor of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and those who had fled to the king of Babylon and the rest of the people of the land.¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan, the general of the guard, left some of the poor of the land for vine-dressers and for other work.¹⁷ And the pillars of brass and the wine vessels and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and they took all the brass of them and carried it to Babylon.¹⁸ The pots, also, and the caldrons and the hanging pots and the sprinklers and the spoons and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered they took away.¹⁹ And the braziers and the censers and the bowls and the pots and the candlesticks, and the spoons and the cups which were made of gold and of silver the general of the guard took away.²⁰ The two bronze pillars, one sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under the sea, which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels was without weight.²¹ And as for the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a fillet of twelve cubits encircled it, and its thickness was four fingers, and it was hollow.²² And a capital of brass was upon it; and the height of one chapiter was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capitals round about, all of brass. The second pillar and the pomegranates were the same.²³ And there were ninety-six pomegranates on the side; all the pomegranates upon the network were one hundred round about.

²⁴ And the general of the guard took Sheraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the doors;²⁵ He took also from the city a eunuch who had been in charge of the men of war, and seven prominent men who had attended the kings person, who were found in the city, and the scribe the commander in chief of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.²⁶ So Nebuzaradan, the general of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon to Diblath.²⁷ And the king of Babylon smote them and put them to death in Diblath in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.²⁸ This is the number of people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive in the seventh year of his reign: three thousand and twenty-three Jews;²⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons;³⁰ In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon Nebuzaradan, the general of the guard, carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.

³¹ And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiakim king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth day of the month, Aol-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, honored Jehoiakim king of Judah and brought him out of prison.³² And he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon,³³ And changed his prison garments; and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life.³⁴ And for his portion, there was a continual allowance given him of the king of Babylon, every day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.