II Chronicles 36 Zedekiah Reigns

 II Chronicles 36

Zedekiah Reigns

11 Zedekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.

12 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God; he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for the Lord.

13 Moreover, he rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had sworn an oath to him by God. But he hardened his neck and became very stubborn in his heart, and did not return to the Lord, the God of Israel.

14 And all the chief priests and the people transgressed more and more, following all the abominations of the heathen, and they defiled the house of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

15 And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent his word to them by his messengers, rising early and sending them; because he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.

16 But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people so that there was no remedy.

17 For he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of his sanctuary; he had no pity on young men, or on young women, or on old men, or on the feeble-minded; he gave them all into his hand.

18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, he carried them all to Babylon.

19 And they burned the house of the Lord, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; and they burned all its palaces with fire, destroying also all its precious vessels. 

20 And those who escaped the sword he carried away to Babylon, and they became his servants and his sons' servants until the reign of the kingdom of Persia. 

21 That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, until the land enjoyed its Sabbaths; all the days of its desolation it rested until seventy years were completed.

 22 But in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it in writing, saying, 

23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ​​Whoever is among you of all his people, the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.