II Kings 25

1. Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came. He and all his army came against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built a siege mound all around it.

2. And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah,

3. On the ninth day of the fourth month, when famine was severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land,

4. Then the city was breached, and by night all the men of war fled by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden. And the Chaldeans were against the city all round. And the king went the way toward the plain.

5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. And all his army was scattered from him.

6. And they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah. And they gave judgment upon him.

7. And they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with bronze chains and carried him to Babylon.

8. And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (it was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) Nebuzaradan, the chief of the executioners, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9. And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. And every great one’s house he burned with fire.

10. And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the chief of the executioners broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around.

11. And the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the fugitives who fell away to the king of Babylon with the rest of the multitude, the chief of the executioners carried away.

12. But the chief of the executioners left a few of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

13. And the bronze pillars in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the bronze sea in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke into pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon.

14. And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered, they also took away.

15. And the chief of the executioners took away the censers and the bowls that were all of solid gold, and all of solid silver;

16. Also the two pillars, the one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD. The bronze of all these vessels was without weight.

17. The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the capital upon it was bronze. And the height of the capital was three cubits. And the grating and the pomegranates upon the capital all around were all of bronze. And the second pillar had grating like these.

18. And the chief of the executioners took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.

19. And he took out of the city a certain officer who was appointed over the men of war, and five men of those who were in the king’s presence, who were found in the city, and the chief scribe of the army (who called up the people of the land together), and sixty men of the people of the land found in the city.

20. And Nebuzaradan the chief of the executioners took these and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

21. And the king of Babylon struck them and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he exiled Judah from its land.

22. And he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left.

23. And all the commanders of the army, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor. And they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the 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 fear to be the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.”

25. And it came to pass 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 struck Gedaliah, and he died, and also the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

26. And all the people, both small and great, and the commanders of the armies, arose and came to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

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, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison.

28. And he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

29. And he changed his prison clothes. And he always ate bread before him all the days of his life.

30. And his allowance was a regular allowance given him from the king, a daily ration for every day, all the days of his life.