1In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land. Jehoiakim served him for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.
2The LORD sent bands of the Chaldeans against him, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon. He sent them against Judah to destroy it. This was what the LORD had said through his servants the prophets.
3Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of his sight. It came because of the sins of Manasseh, and all that he did,
4and also because of the innocent blood that he shed. He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon it.
5The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
6So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.
7The king of Egypt did not come out of his land again. The king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
8Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
9He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his father had done.
10At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was under siege.
11Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city while his servants were besieging it.
12Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, with his mother, his servants, his princes and his officers. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his own reign.
13He carried away from there all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house. He cut in pieces all the gold vessels that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
14He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of war, ten thousand captives in all, and all the craftsmen and metalworkers. No one was left except the poorest people of the land.
15He carried Jehoiachin away to Babylon. He also took the king's mother, the king's wives, his officers, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
16All the men of might, seven thousand of them, and a thousand craftsmen and metalworkers, all of them strong and fit for war, the king of Babylon brought as captives to Babylon.
17The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's father's brother, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18Zedekiah 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.
19He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.