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¹ And it happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and camped against it, and built a siege mound all around it.² And the city entered into siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah,³ on the ninth of the month, when the famine was severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land,⁴ then the city was broken up, and by night all the men of war went by way of the gate, between the two walls by the king's garden; and the Chaldeans were against the city all around; and the king went the way toward the Arabah.⁵ And the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the Arabah of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.⁶ And they seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon, to Riblah; and they gave judgment on him.⁷ And they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and blinded Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with bronze fetters and caused him to go to Babylon.

⁸ And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month (it was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon) Nebuzaradan the chief of the executioners, the servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.⁹ And he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; yea, he burned every great house with fire.¹⁰ And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the chief of the executioners broke down the wall of Jerusalem all around.¹¹ And the rest of the people, those left in the city, and those that had fallen away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the chief of the executioners exiled.¹² But the chief of the executioners left of the poorest of the land for vinedressers and farmers.¹³ And the bronze pillars in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the bronze sea in the house of Jehovah, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and lifted up their bronze to Babylon.¹⁴ And they took the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered.¹⁵ And the chief of the executioners took the firepans, and the sprinkling basins, all of gold and silver.¹⁶ There was no weighing of the bronze of all these vessels, the two pillars, the one sea, and the bases that Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah.¹⁷ Eighteen cubits was the height of the one pillar, and the capital on it was of bronze, and the height of the capital was three cubits, and the grating and the pomegranates¹⁸ And the chief of the executioners took Seraiah the head priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the gate;¹⁹ and he took out of the city a certain eunuch who was appointed over the men of war, and five men of those who saw the king's face, found in the city, and the chief scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of thepeople of the land found in the city.²⁰ And Nebuzaradan chief of the executioners took them and made them go to the king of Babylon, to Riblah.²¹ And the king of Babylon struck them, and killed them in Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he exiled Judah from its land.

²² And the people that were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had left, he appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.²³ And all the commanders of the army, they and the men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah. And they came to Gedaliah, to Mizpeh, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeththe Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.²⁴ And Gedaliah swore to them, and to their men, and said to them, Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.²⁵ And it happened in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama of the seed of the kingdom, and ten men with him came, and they struck Gedaliah, and he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him in Mizpah.²⁶ And all the people rose up, from the small even to the great, and the commanders of the armies, and came into Egypt, for they were afraid of the face of the Chaldeans.²⁷ And it happened in the thirty seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty seventh of the month, Evil-merodach the king of Babylon, in the year he began to reign, lifted up the head ofJehoiachin the king of Judah out of the prison,²⁸ and spoke good things with him, and put his throne above the throne of the kings with him in Babylon.²⁹ And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread continually before him all the days of his life.³⁰ And his allowance, a continual allowance, was given to him from the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.