Jeremiah 52

1. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

2. And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

3. For it was because of the anger of the LORD that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end He cast them out from His presence and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4. And 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, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it and built forts against it all around.

5. So the city was under attack until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was very grievous in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

7. Then a breach was made into the city, and all the men of war fled and went forth out from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden. (And the Chaldeans completely encircled 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 plains of Jericho. And all his army was scattered from him.

9. And they took the king and carried him up to the king of Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgments against him.

10. And the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the rulers of Judah in Riblah.

11. And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. And the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

12. And in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, Captain of the Guard, who served the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.

13. And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house. And he burned with fire all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men.

14. And all the army of the Chaldeans with the Captain of the Guard broke down all Jerusalem’s walls all around.

15. And Nebuzaradan the Captain of the Guard exiled some of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people who remained in the city, and those who surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

16. But Nebuzaradan the Captain of the Guard left some of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for farmers.

17. Also the Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the bronze sea in the house of the LORD, and carried all the bronze from them to Babylon.

18. They also took away the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which the priests ministered.

19. And the Captain of the Guard took away the basins, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the cups; what was gold, in gold; and what was silver, in silver.

20. The two pillars, one sea, and twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the bronze of all these vessels was without weight.

21 And the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits. And a line of twelve cubits went around it, and the thickness of it was four fingers. It was hollow.

22. And a capital of bronze was on it. And the height of one capital was five cubits, with the network and pomegranates on the capitals all around, all of bronze. The second pillar also, and the pomegranates, were like these.

23. And there were ninety-six pomegranates on a side; all the pomegranates on the network were a hundred all around.

24. And the Captain of the Guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.

25. He also took out of the city an officer who was in charge of the men of war; and seven men from those who were near the king’s person, who were found in the city; and the chief scribe of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the middle of the city.

26. And Nebuzaradan the Captain of the Guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

27. And the king of Babylon struck them and slaughtered them in Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was exiled out of their own land.

28. This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar exiled: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;

29. In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he exiled from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons;

30. In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the Captain of the Guard exiled seven hundred and forty-five persons of the Jews. All the persons were four thousand and six hundred.

31. And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth of the month, Evil- Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him out from prison,

32. And spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

33. And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread before him all the days of his life.

34. And his allowance, a continual allowance, was given him from the king of Babylon, a daily portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.