Jeremiah 52

1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

2He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, just as Jehoiakim had done.

3It was because of Yahweh’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally thrust them out of his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army. They camped against the city and built siege works all around it.

5The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people of the land.

7Then the city wall was broken through, and all the soldiers fled. They left the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city, and they headed toward the Arabah.

8But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered away from him.

9They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced sentence on him.

10At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes; he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah.

11Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze shackles, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.

12On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

13He burned the house of Yahweh, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every important building he burned down.

14The whole Chaldean army that was with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls around Jerusalem.

15Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried off into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.

16But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

17The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars of the house of Yahweh, the stands, and the bronze Sea that were in the house of Yahweh, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.

18They also took away the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the sprinkling bowls, the dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.

19The captain of the guard took away the basins, the firepans, the sprinkling bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the dishes, and the bowls, everything made of pure gold or pure silver.

20As for the two pillars, the one Sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh, the bronze of all these articles was beyond weighing.

21Each pillar was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference; it was four fingers thick and hollow.

22On top of it was a bronze capital five cubits high, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with its pomegranates, was the same.

23There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates on the network around the capital numbered one hundred.

24The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.

25From the city he took an officer who had been in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s personal advisers who were found in the city, the secretary of the army commander who mustered the people of the land for war, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.

26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

27There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them struck down and put to death. So Judah went into exile, away from its own land.

28This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, 832 people from Jerusalem;

30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jews. In all, there were 4,600 people.

31In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, showed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.

32He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

33So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes, and for the rest of his life he ate regularly at the king’s table.

34As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day, until the day of his death, for as long as he lived.