1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.2He did what was bad in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.3It was because the anger of the LORD had come upon Jerusalem and Judah until he cast them out of his presence, and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.4In 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 army against Jerusalem, and they encamped against it and built a siegework around it.5The city remained under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.6By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine in the city had become severe, and there was no food left for the people of the land.7The city was breached, and all the men of battle fled and went out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls that was upon the king's garden, while the Chaldeans were around the city, and they went by way of the Arabah.8The army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army scattered from him.9They seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him.10The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes and also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.11He blinded Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to the king of Babylon at Babylon, and he put him in the house of punishment until the day of his death.12On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard arrived in Jerusalem and stood before the king of Babylon.13He burned the house of the LORD, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned every great house with fire.14All the walls of Jerusalem around were torn down by all the army of the Chaldeans that was with the chief of the guard.15From the poor of the people and the rest of the people who remained in the city, and those who had fallen to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard carried into exile.16Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work as vinedressers and farmers.17The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars, the stands, and the bronze sea that belonged to the house of the LORD and carried all the bronze to Babylon.18They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, bowls, ladles, and all the other bronze articles used in the temple service.19The basins, the censers, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the palms, and the bowls, which were of gold and which were of silver, the chief of the guard took.20The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the stands that King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD—the weight of the bronze of all these articles could not be determined.21The pillars: eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a thread of twelve cubits went around it, and its thickness was four fingers, hollow.22A bronze capital five cubits high, decorated with latticework and pomegranates, was on top of each pillar; the second pillar was like the first.23The pomegranates were ninety-six around; all the pomegranates were one hundred upon the latticework around.24The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers.25From the city he took one court official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven royal advisers who were still in the city, the secretary of the army commander who mustered the people of the land, and sixty citizens found inside the city.26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.27The king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he carried Judah away from its land.28This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Jews.29In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, 832 people were taken from Jerusalem.30In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard carried into exile seven hundred forty-five Jewish persons; all the persons were four thousand six hundred.