The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 52 The Siege, Capture, and Destruction of Jerusalem

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 52

The Siege, Capture, and Destruction of Jerusalem

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

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

3 Therefore it happened that, because of the anger of the Lord against Jerusalem and Judah, he drove them out of his presence; and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. They encamped against it and built siege works all around it.

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

6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, when the famine was severe in the city and the people of the land had no bread,

7 A breach was made in the city, and all the fighting men fled and went out by night by the way of the gate between the two walls that were by the king’s garden (for the Chaldeans were attacking the city all around), 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 scattered, abandoning him.

9 And they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, who pronounced sentence on him there.

10 And the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and also slaughtered all the princes of Judah at Riblah.

11 Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon carried him away to Babylon and kept him in prison until the day of his death.

12 In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (this was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served in the presence of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

13 He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he also burned all the houses of the nobles.

14 The whole army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

15 And the poorest of the people, and the part of the people who had remained in the city, and the rebels who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive.

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

17 The Chaldeans also broke in pieces the bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.

18 They also took the pots, and the shovels, and the forks, and the basins, and the incense burners, and all the bronze vessels with which one ministered.

19 Then the captain of the guard took the cups, the censers, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the incense burners, and the pitchers, both of pure gold and of solid silver.

20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen that were in place of the bases, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the bronze of all the vessels was weightless.

21 As for the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; its thickness was four fingers, and it was hollow.

22 And there was a capital of bronze on it, and the height of the capital was five cubits, and the network and the pomegranates around the capital were all of bronze; and the other pillar was like it, with pomegranates.

23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on each side; all the pomegranates were a hundred around the net.

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

25 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the fighting men, and seven men who saw the king’s face and were found in the city, as well as the chief scribe of the army, who registered the people of the land for war, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.

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

27 The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath; so Judah was carried away captive out of its land.

28 This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive in the seventh year: three thousand and twenty-three Jews.

29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two souls.

30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, carried away captive from among the Jews seven hundred and forty-five souls; all the souls are four thousand and six hundred.

31 Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that 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 of the prison house;

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

33 And he changed his prison garments; and he ate bread continually in his presence all the days of his life.

34 And as for his treatment, he was always given the ordinary treatment of the king of Babylon, his daily portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.