Chapter 25
1In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his forces against Jerusalem; they encamped against it and built siegeworks all around it.
2The city remained under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
3By the ninth day of the month the famine in the city had become severe, and there was no food for the people of the land.
4Then the city was breached, and all the soldiers fled by night through the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, while the Chaldeans surrounded the city; they went out by way of the Arabah.
5The Chaldean forces pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; all his troops deserted him.
6They seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment upon him.
7They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, blinded Zedekiah himself, bound him in bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon.
8In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
9He burned the house of the LORD, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned with fire.
10The entire Chaldean army under the captain of the guard broke down the wall of Jerusalem on every side.
11Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.
12But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.
13The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars, the stands, and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD and carried the bronze to Babylon.
14They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.
15The captain of the guard took the gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls.
16The two pillars, the sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the LORD had no recorded weight because of the amount of bronze in them.
17Each pillar was eighteen cubits high; the bronze capital on top of one was three cubits high and was decorated with a network of latticework and pomegranates all around; the second pillar had the same design.
18The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers.
19From the city he took an officer who had been in command of the soldiers, five royal advisers who were still in the city, the secretary who was chief officer over the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty of the people of the land who were found in the city.
20Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
21There at Riblah in the land of Hamath the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death; thus Judah was carried away from its land.
22Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan over the people who remained in the land of Judah.
23When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to him at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, and their men.
24Gedaliah swore an oath to them and their men: Do not be afraid of the Chaldean officials; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.
25In the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and killed him, along with the Judeans and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
26Then all the people, from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
24
2 Kings
Siege and Fall of Jerusalem; Destruction and Exile
2 Kings 24:20-25:26
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